, Private Dunlavy, who was later killed in the defence of the
town, captured one of the enemy's own machine guns and turned it against
them.

In the dense woods the Germans showed their mastery of machine gun
manipulation and the method of infiltration by which they would place
strong units in our rear and pour in a deadly fire. Many of these guns
were located on rocky ridges, from which they could fire to all points.
These Marines worked with reckless courage against heavy odds, and the
Germans exacted a heavy toll for every machine gun that was captured or
disabled, but in spite of losses the Marine advance continued.

Lieutenant Overton, commanding the 76th Company, made a brilliant charge
against a strong German position at the top of a rocky hill. He and his
men captured all of the guns and all of their crews. Overton was hit
later when the Germans retaliated by a concentration of fire against the
captured position for forty-eight hours.

Lieutenant Robertson, according to the report brought back by a
regimental runner, was last seen flat on a rock not twenty yards away
from one enemy gun, at which he kept shooting with an automatic in each
hand. He was hit three times before he consented to let his men carry
him to the rear.

"There was not an officer left in the 82nd Company," according to a
letter by Major Frank E. Evans, Adjutant of the Sixth. "Major Sibley and
his Adjutant reorganised them under close fire and led them in a charge
that put one particular machine gun nest out of business at the most
critical time in all the fighting. I heard later that at that stage some
one said: 'Major Sibley ordered that--' and another man said: 'Where in
hell is Sibley?' Sibley was twenty yards away at that time and a hush
went down the line when they saw him step out to lead the charge.

"And when the word got around through that dead-tired, crippled outfit
that 'the Old Man' was on the line, all hell could not have stopped that
rush."

In such fashion did the Marines go through the Bois de Belleau. Their
losses were heavy, but they did the work. The sacrifice was necessary.
Paris was in danger. The Marines constituted the thin line between the
enemy and Paris. The Marines not only held that line--they pushed it
forward.

The fighting was terrific. In one battalion alone the casualties
numbered sixty-four per cent. officers and sixty-four per cent. men.
Several companies came out of the fighting under command of th