bout in its position, turn it against the
remaining German positions in the forest. Such was the character of
the fighting in Belleau Wood, fighting which continued until July 6,
when after a short relief the invincible Americans finally were taken
back to the rest billet for recuperation.

In all the history of the Marine Corps there is no such battle as that
one in Belleau Wood. Fighting day and night without relief, without
sleep, often without water, and for days without hot rations, the
marines met and defeated the best divisions that Germany could throw
into the line.

The heroism and doggedness of that battle are unparalleled. Time after
time officers seeing their lines cut to pieces, seeing their men so dog
tired that they even fell asleep under shell fire, hearing their
wounded calling for the water that they were unable to supply, seeing
men fight on after they had been wounded and until they dropped
unconscious; time after time officers seeing these things, believing
that the very limit of human endurance had been reached, would send
back messages to their post command that their men were exhausted. But
in answer to this would come the word that the lines must hold, and, if
possible, those lines must attack. And the lines obeyed. Without
water, without food, without rest, they went forward--and forward every
time to victory. Companies had been so torn and lacerated by losses
that they were hardly platoons, but they held their lines and advanced
them. In more than one case companies lost every officer, leaving a
sergeant and sometimes a corporal to command, and the advance continued.

After thirteen days in this inferno of fire a captured German officer
told with his dying breath of a fresh division of Germans that was
about to be thrown into the battle to attempt to wrest from the marines
that part of the wood they had gained. The marines, who for days had
been fighting only on their sheer nerve, who had been worn out from
nights of sleeplessness, from lack of rations, from terrific shell and
machine-gun fire, straightened their lines and prepared for the attack.
It came--as the dying German officer had predicted.

At 2 o'clock on the morning of June 13 it was launched by the Germans
along the whole front. Without regard for men, the enemy hurled his
forces against Bouresches and the Bois de Belleau, and sought to win
back what had been taken from Germany by the Americans. The orders
were that