Remembering a Veteran: Beyond the Famous Quote — The Great War Service of First Sgt. Dan Daly, USMC

By Editor Mike Hanlon

Sgt. Major Dan Daly, MoH (2), DSC

Before the Great War

By some cosmic quirk of fate, Dan Daly was born on 11 November 1873, in Brooklyn, New York, to parents John and Ellen Daly. After surviving the most recent of his three wounds in the World War, he would have had multiple causes to celebrate on his 45th birthday in 1918. 

He had a sister named Mary and a brother named David, and the family eventually moved to Glen Cove on Long Island. As a young man, Daly spent his time working as a struggling newsboy in Manhattan before enlisting in the Marines in 1899 at the age of 26. Soon after he finished training, he was shipped to China to serve in Peking during the Boxer Rebellion where he distinguished himself and received  his first Medal of Honor.  In 1915, while deployed to Haiti, now Gunnery Sgt Daly was awarded a second Medal of Honor.  He  is still the only enlisted Marine to be awarded Medals of Honor for two separate actions and a World War was awaiting him and he was already the most decorated Marine in history.

During the Great War

When the big war came, Dan Daly went to France as First Sergeant of the 73rd Machine Gun Company of the 6th Marines. He saw intense action at Belleau Wood, the St. Mihiel Salient, and Blanc Mont Ridge. 

Click on Image to Enlarge

At the National Museum of the Marine Corps

About That Quote at Belleau Wood

All students of the war are  familiar with that quote shown here, attributed to Daly, which has become part of  Marine and American legend.  There's some indication that Dan, himself, later thought that he might have voiced the encouragement in a slightly more moderate tone.  However, as a movie character once put it, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." As you can see from the photo above, his legendary quote at Belleau Wood has not only been printed widely, it's been engraved in stone.

Fighting the War

Putting the quote to the side,  Dan Daly fought a World War filled with heroic deeds and personal sacrifice almost beyond belief.  Why this is not better known is something of a mystery. One clue from biographer, Charley Roberts, gives a clue from one of his sources,  “Trying to get biographical data from Daly about Daly is like quizzing the Sphinx. Both are non-committal.” Dan, it seems, was the antithesis of a self-promoter.  If you look online you will find many references to a third Medal of Honor nomination for him, based on his overall performance (not the quote) at Belleau Wood.    The various accounts claim the recommendation was downgraded.  The reasons given for this decision by someone in authority are  that either Daly already had two of the awards (and who needs a third?) or that the Army, which had overall command of the 2nd Division's, or General Pershing himself, just weren't in the mood for handing out Medals of Honor to Marines. As a result, so the various accounts conclude, the recommendation was down-graded to the Distinguished Service Cross and the Navy equivalent, the Navy Cross.

One problem with these contentions is that no one I can find provides a paper trail showing an original recommendation for a Medal of Honor for Daly. I can't find it. With the second Army vs Marines point, there were three individuals with the Marine Brigade who received the award for actions at Belleau Wood, one Marine and two Navy medical men who saw action alongside the Marine. So I don't buy it.

To be clear, though, I'm only skeptical about the explanations why a third Medal of Honor was not issued to Daly. Putting this long-simmering dispute aside for now, let me give you my view after reading and comparing the Medal of Honor citations for all 121 recipients in the First World War (available HERE) and studying Daly's full service in the war.

Dan Daly Should Receive the Medal of Honor for His WWI Service, Posthumously.

"How Twenty Marines Took Bouresches" by Schoonover
Dan Daly Was There

Here is the case for this award as I see it after reviewing his citations and  the unit and operational histories of the battles where Daly was involved. Where appropriate, I'm quoting from his Distinguished Service Cross citation.

At Belleau Wood

• During this operation, on 5 June and at the risk of his life, he extinguished a fire in the ammunition dump at Lucy le Bocage. 
• Two days later, while the Belleau Wood sector was under one of its heaviest bombardments, he visited all machine gun crews of his company, then posted over a wide section of the front, encouraging his men. 
• On 10 June, he single-handedly attacked an enemy machine gun emplacement, capturing it by the use of hand grenades and an automatic pistol. 
• On the same date, during an enemy attack on the village of Bouresches, he brought in wounded under heavy fire.  
• Finally on 10 June,  he was wounded in the leg and knocked out of action for two months.

At St. Mihiel

• He returned to his post with the 73rd Machine Gun Company in time for September's St. Mihiel Offensive.  
• No specifics are available for Daly at St. Mihiel, but his of the 73rd Company distinguished itself throughout the action by protecting the left flank of the 2nd Division, which had been left open by the neighboring division. (I imagine the top sergeant would be pretty busy at such a time.)

At Blanc Mont

• On 8 October, 1918 in the critical assault on the German strongpoint of St. Etienne, Daly was wounded in the shoulder, and kept directing the fire of his machine gunners. 
• Wounded a second time in the knee, knocking him out of action.  
• After two months recuperation, Dan Daly again reported back to his unit for service and completed  a tour of occupation duty, before returning home.

Dan Daly — Young Marine, Old Marine

Afterwards

Back home, Daly remained on active duty until September 1919, when he transferred to the Fleet Marine Corps Reserve. He eventually took a job on Wall Street as a bank guard, a position he held for 17 years. Daly officially retired from the Marine Corps on Feb. 6, 1929, and was advanced to the rank of sergeant major.

Having never married, Daly led a quiet retirement. He worked as a night bank guard and enjoyed New York Giants ball games from the bleachers during baseball season. On April 27, 1937, he died of heart disease at his sister's home in the Glendale area of Queens. He is buried at the Cypress Hills National Cemetery, Brooklyn.

PS:  My Unsolicited Advice

Dear Marines,

Send this article to the Commandant, Secretary of the Navy, elected reps,  and folks like that.  Maybe you'll stir things up.  Remember, that's how Sgts. Bill Shemin and Henry Johnson got the justice they deserved a few years ago.  MH

PS:  #2

I am not a Marine myself, I'm an Air Force veteran. However, 3 of my sisters married Marines if that counts for anything.

The Belleau Wood Marine Monument and the Iron Mikes

In a clearing in the heart of Belleau Wood, which is adjacent to America's Aisne-Marne Cemetery, stands this granite and bronze relief  originally titled, according to the Library of Congress, the Belleau Wood Marine Monument. Dedicated on 18 November 1955, this is the only memorial in Europe dedicated solely to the United States Marines. 

The Library of Congress report on the monument gives these specifics:

It is a black granite stele located at the center of a small terrace with a flagpole and plantings. The stele holds a bronze bas relief executed by New York-based sculptor Felix de Weldon [who had earlier designed the giant Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, VA]. The bronze depicts a life-sized Marine facing partially away from the viewer and striding up a rock outcropping with rifle and bayonet. He is shirtless and slightly hunched over, emphasizing the prominent musculature of this back.

This Marine figure is commonly called "Iron Mike," but there is some dispute over how "official" that title is.  To confuse matters, there are other Marine "Iron Mikes" and at least one at Normandy honoring America's D-Day paratroopers, where my uncle Tommy Stack fought in battle with the 82nd Airborne.

This Up-Close View Shows the Scale of the Piece
(That's Your Editor Just to the Left)

Below the statue is a commemorative plaque with a large version of the Marine Corps Eagle, Globe, and Anchor insignia. The plaque includes a brief history of the battle with text in both English and French. The base of bon accord granite, the same as used in the base of the Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, VA, came from Karlshamn, Sweden. The seven-foot tall Marine with bayonet with the plaque—admired by the senior French present at its dedication as "very powerful and forceful...fully embodying the spirit of the Marines."  

Every Memorial Day the Marine Commandant or his designee lays a wreath at the Monument with a senior French officer.

A Memorial Day Ceremony I Attended
French and U.S. Marines in Formation

Following the war, as noted on the plaque, the French government renamed the forest "Bois de la Brigade de Marine." Officiating at the monument's 1955 dedication ceremony was then Commandant of the Marine Corps, General Lemuel C. Shepherd Jr., who had fought and was wounded at Belleau Wood 37 years earlier. Also in attendance were three other Marine General Officers who had also fought at Belleau Wood, William A. Worton, Gerald C. Thomas, and Alfred H. Noble, as well as the artist Felix de Weldon.

In his speech, General Shepherd stated:

The bravery and courageous action of the officers and men of the Marine Corps who participated in this battle forms one of the brightest pages of our history. It is these Marines and especially those whose life’s blood rests on this hallowed soil that we honor today. Two years ago, when I visited Belleau Wood, I was distressed to note that no marker existed to tell future generations of French and American visitors the story of this battle. The plaque we are about to unveil was designed and cast by that distinguished sculptor Mr. Felix de Weldon, whose famous portrait in bronze of the Marine Flag Raising at Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima, in World War II, is recognized as one of the world’s greatest statues.

Other Iron Mikes

Iron Mike is something of a mythic figure for the Corps.  For instance, the service's annual fitness competition is named in his honor. Other statues now called "Iron Mike" came into existence long before the Belleau Wood monument was created.  

The best-known is now represented by two versions of the sculpture, both located in Virginia. Iron Mike is officially titled "Crusading for Right." The statues depict a World War I Marine holding a 1903 Springfield rifle, wearing a pack with a bayonet. They have an interesting origin.  At the end of the war, U.S. Army General John J. Pershing commissioned the French sculptor Charles Raphaël Peyre  to commemorate the service of the U.S. Army’s Doughboys. The sculptor, unaware of the differences between the branches of service, used a Marine private as a model and included the Eagle, Globe and Anchor insignia on the helmet. To make a long story short, the Army and the American Battle Monuments Commission turned down the statue and the Marine Corps grabbed it up (possibly with the help of an American Legion Post). It was installed at Quantico in 1921.

 

Today, the original statue stands at the Marine Corps Base Quantico in front of Butler Hall, home of the Marine Corps Training and Education Command. The reproduction shown above with the name "Iron Mike" on its pedestal stands in front of the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia.

A lesser-known Iron Mike was created with the encouragement of Commandant John Lejeune, the local commander, and the support of Marine veterans and installed at Parris Island in 1924. Robert Ingersoll Aitken was an internationally known sculptor located in the city of New York. Aitken, who had been a captain of a machine gun unit in the U.S. Army’s 306th Infantry Regiment, wrote Cole offering a proposed design for a statue depicting a Marine carrying a heavy machine gun. Intrigued, Cole asked for clarification on how Aitken would like the statue exhibited and when it would be completed. Cole forwarded the correspondence to Commandant John A. Lejeune, who immediately asked for advice from the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, an independent agency of the federal government that reviews and advises on the design and aesthetics of all construction within the nation’s capital.  

After all the approvals, the work was installed in 1924. Somewhere along the line, someone apparently named it Iron Mike, and it stuck. The sculpture bears the inscription:

IN MEMORY OF THE MEN OF PARRIS ISLAND

WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE WORLD WAR.

ERECTED BY THEIR COMRADES.

The Army's Iron Mike

I hope it doesn't offend any of our Marine Corps readers or contributors, but I feel compelled to include the Army's Iron Mike in this article. This statue is located south of Utah Beach, Normandy, where the 82nd Airborne fought off an attack by German troops driving captured French tanks. It has a twin at Fort Bragg.

La Fière Bridge, Normandy
In Memory of Corporal Thomas Stack,
505th Parachute Infantry

Sources:  ABMC, Smithsonian, Library of Congress, Normandy Tourism, and USMC sources (sometimes contradictory) too numerous to list (or remember).

What Did the Marine Corps Study After the War? — Gallipoli!

British Landing at Gallipoli, August 1915
(How Not to Do It)

The United States Marine Corps provided ground troops for the AEF in the Great War who were essentially used like conventional army infantry. However, in the interwar period, the Corps, now led by the successful 2nd Division commander John Lejeune, realized that with the Pacific Theater in play, the next war would feature more amphibious operations.  For them this meant operating in conjunction—primarily—with the Navy rather than the Army. Lejeune identified the new wartime mission of the Marines as seizing advance bases for the fleet as early as 1920,

Where to look for lessons on what can go wrong and what needs careful attention in amphibious operations? Well, the Great War had two interesting amphibious assaults, Germany's Operation Albion capture of some Baltic Islands in 1917 and the Allied assault on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915.  Since seeing what could go wrong is especially fruitful, the failed campaign at Gallipoli—which featured two failed landings—became the choice.

The agency that would form a link in the 1930s between the events and lessons learned at Gallipoli and Marine Corps amphibious doctrine, which as of yet was undeveloped, was the Marine Corps Schools (now Marine Corps University), Quantico, Virginia. The impetus to develop, teach, and give form to Marine Corps amphibious doctrine was twofold: the newly formalized role of the Marine Corps and an awareness of the type of warfare that would arise in the Pacific if the U. S. went to war with Japan. 

It is ironic that the Gallipoli Campaign, considered by so many to have been a costly political, strategic, and operational debacle, should serve as a case study for Marine officers at Quantico, yet the 20th century had little else to offer. In World War I, American troops, including Marines, had debarked at friendly ports and traveled to the front by rail and road with relative ease. Marines serving on expeditionary duty had landed in Nicaragua, Mexico, and Haiti, but large-scale, opposed landings were, by American experience, in the realm of the unknown. 

Colonel E. B. Miller, Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Schools wrote in September of 1932 regarding the Marine Corps' need to get on with the process of preparing for amphibious operations, "WE MUST KNOW; THE NAVY MUST KNOW; and THE NAVY MUST KNOW THAT THE MARINE CORPS KNOWS."  

By 1933 the Marine Corps had in hand the Joint Overseas Expedition Manual, 1933, a 43-page publication from the Joint Army-Navy Board. The manual's purpose was "to present a set of  general principles for the planning and conduct of joint overseas expeditions in order to ensure the most effective cooperation and coordination between Army and Navy forces..." Although the pamphlet dealt with  joint operations and was not oriented toward the offensive phase of amphibious operations, it did  provide general guidelines for the division of  responsibility between the Navy and landing forces, it  identified areas which required close coordination and  the preparation of service and joint plans, and it provided a base of common terminology. 

Interwar Training on the New Methods

The pamphlet also illustrated the novelty of amphibious operations, and the inexperience of U.S. naval and ground forces in their conduct. The portion devoted to training would hardly have inspired confidence in the readiness of America's armed forces to face the threat of the Japanese, as it read: 

Joint Training: The difficulties of landing on a hostile shore from small boats, heavily encumbered troops, most of whom have had little or no experience with the sea, and the unfamiliarity of the Navy with attack of land objectives, and with firing over friendly troops, make it necessary that as much preliminary joint training be carried out as time  permits.

What followed was a wholehearted study effort by the Marine Corps schools. Work was divided among multiple committees covering such topics as, Naval Gun Fire, Intelligence, Supply, Navigation, Signals, and Support Bases for maintaining and loading ships and dealing with the wounded. Of course, central to all the research were the details of what actually happened at Cape Helles and Anzac on 25 April 1915 and Suvla Bay the following August. 

Briefing for the Invasion of Tarawa, 1943
First Big Test of the New Doctrine

Lieutenant Colonel E. W. Sturdevant, who had been tasked to prepare and conduct the Gallipoli Course, delivered lectures on the events leading up to the campaign, General Hamilton's plans of attack in April and August of 1915, the Turkish plan of defense, and a final lecture on command and leadership at Gallipoli. At the request of officers who had attended the previous year's Gallipoli Course, an additional presentation on air operations was added in 1933. Navy officers gave classes on naval activities and medical care.

Sturdevant was indeed strong in his criticism of the command and leadership problems found at Gallipoli, and he presented this somewhat dramatic expression of his views: 

Did we still believe in magic and witchcraft, it would be easy to think that some evil genius had thrown a spell over Hamilton's force, so that whenever the enemy made a misstep, a British officer counter balanced it with a worse one; whenever the door to victory was open, a strange paralysis seized upon the wills of the British leaders and prevented them from marching through. 

Marine Generals of the Pacific Theater 
Roy Geiger, Holland Smith,  Julian Smith
They Would Apply the Lessons from Quantico 

 

A Personal Postscript

Try as I might, I've not been able to discover which of the study committees addressed the matter of post-landing tactics once the Marines needed to secure their objective. I can, however, infer what might have been the results of such study from conversations with my late brother-in-law, Master Gunnery Sergeant Voyon Kachadorian of the 14th Marines (an artillery unit). Looking back at what he had observed at Saipan, Tinian, and Iwo Jima, Voyon described the strategy as "getting across the f@#$!& island as fast as possible and then going back and cleaning up the f@#$!& mess."

Just a guess here, but I think the Marines might have paid special attention to the August 1915 landings at Suvla Bay, when the British commanders let their troops sit on the beaches, while Mustfa Kemal had his troops seized the previously unoccupied high ground.   

An army officer who was also studying Gallipoli in the interwar period, named George Patton, described that operation, echoing Colonel Sturdevant:

Compared to Suvla Bay, the first battle of Bull Run was a masterpiece of effective leadership. The chapter of accidents, or better, of inexcusable failures, which marked the British landing and subsequent attack at Suvla Bay, is one of the most depressing and yet  instructive in military history. 

Sources: Our Over the Top issues of June 2009 and September 2011; particularly helpful was the article "Marine Corps Amphibious Doctrine—The Gallipoli Connection," by Major Karen L. Corbett, USMC, from which I've quoted extensively.

 

 

The Leatherneck Who Brought the War Back Home to Broadway and Hollywood

Capt. Laurence Stallings, USMC

Laurence Tucker Stallings, Jr., was born 25 November 1894, in Macon, Georgia. In 1916 he graduated from Wake Forest College where he had edited the campus literary magazine. His first job as a reporter on the Atlanta Constitution began in 1915 before he received his diploma.

In 1917, he joined the United States Marine Reserve. On 24 April 1918, he left Philadelphia aboard the USS Henderson for overseas duty in France. Stallings served in France as a platoon commander with the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, during the fighting around Chateau-Thierry. On 26 June 1918 at the Battle of Belleau Wood, Stallings was shot in the right leg and its knee cap blown off while leading a successful assault on an enemy machine gun post. He was promoted to captain, awarded the Silver Star and the Croix de Guerre by the French government. He  talked the military doctors out of amputating his leg

Once home, he married his college sweetheart. Helen Poteat was the daughter of the Wake Forest president, William Louis Poteat. The wedding was on 6 March 1919, at the campus in Winston-Salem. After the wedding, the couple moved to Washington, DC, where Stallings joined the Washington Times as a reporter while earning his M.A. from Georgetown's School of Foreign Service.  

Stallings had never fully recovered from his combat injuries, and in 1922 a fall on ice led to the amputation of his right leg. About this time he began writing a semi-autobiographical novel about his war experiences.

On Broadway

Original Playbill

By 1924, Stallings was writing book reviews three days a week for the New York World. He was tapped by executive editor Herbert Bayard Swope to be on the “Op. Ed” page with notable journalists Franklin P. Adams, Heywood Broun, Frank Sullivan, and Alexander Woollcott. He shared an office with Maxwell Anderson, at the time a fellow editorial writer. They collaborated on their first play, What Price Glory? for the powerful Broadway producer Arthur Hopkins. With What Price Glory? Stallings was able to share his real-life experiences about the trauma, humor and heartbreak of Marines in combat. It was a hit at the Plymouth Theater, 236 West 45th Street, and ran for more than a year. Two movie versions of the play were eventually produced.

But he was not finished with the Great War. His novel, Plumes, was a contender for the 1925 Pulitzer Prize. As our reviewer Bryan Alexander described it:  "The plot follows the life of Richard Plume, a college student who signs up to fight Germans. We're actually first introduced to his ancestors, a long line of Plumes who fought and suffered for every American war back to the revolution. In that tradition Richard finds some success in France but is then badly wounded and invalided home. This shatters his life, altering his hopes and career, while traumatizing his wife. Plumes concerns his struggles to survive and rebuild."

His novel was adapted for the silent movie epic The Big Parade that same year. Directed by maverick filmmaker King Vidor, The Big Parade played to sell-out crowds across the nation and became the biggest grossing silent film of all time.

Film Versions of Stallings's Early Works

Stallings and Anderson went on to co-write two more plays—The First Flight and The Buccaneer, both of which premiered in 1925—before going their separate ways. Stallings continued to work in theater. He wrote the book and lyrics for the musical Deep River, which ran briefly in October of 1926. He co-wrote the book for the 1928 musical Rainbow with Oscar Hammerstein, adapted Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms for the stage in 1930, co-wrote the book for the 1937 musical Virginia, and he wrote a WWII play, The Streets Are Guarded, which premiered in 1944. Meanwhile in 1933 he produced the first of his two very popular World War One historical works, The First World War: A Photographic History. Stallings—through his selection of photos—was quite candid about the brutality of war and was identified as "anti-war" by reviewers.

Hollywood Calls

Some of the Best Known-Films with Screenplays
by Laurence Stallings

In the late 1930s,  Stallings gave up his extensive library and home in North Carolina and moved to Santa Barbara, California, and never returned to the South. In Hollywood he most notably served as a key influence for several of John Ford’s greatest films, having wrote or co-wrote 3 Godfathers, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, and The Sun Shines Bright. He is also credited for contributing to the screenwriting of Vidor’s Northwest Passage, as well as Leslie Fenton’s The Man from Dakota and On Our Merry Way.

When the U.S. entered World War II, Stallings went back on active duty with the Marines in 1942. He eventually served as an intelligence officer at the Pentagon and attained the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Lest We Forget: The WWI Titles
(All are hard to find, but worth the trouble)

He later lived in Pacific Palisades and continued working in the film industry as his health deteriorated. Doctors had to remove his left leg in 1963, the same year he published a stirring account of World War I, Doughboys: The Story of the AEF 1917-1918. Stallings died of a heart attack on 28 February 1968, at his home. He received a military burial with a Marine Corps honor guard. Stallings is interred outside San Diego in Ft. Rosecrans National Cemetery.

Sources:  The Algonquinrountable.org; Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service; Review of Plumes by Bryan Alexander HERE; Wake Forest University Library; Rootsweb 

The 4th Marine Brigade at St. Mihiel

Marine Brigade Moving up for the St. Mihiel Attack

By Claggett Wilson

By Editor/Publisher Mike Hanlon

Background

By summer 1918, the Allies had repelled the last of the German offensives on the Western Front and had gone on the counterattack. General Pershing had also achieved his goal of building up a substantial American army of more than 500,000 under his direct command and at the ready to conduct a major offensive against the Germans. On 12 September, a quarter of a million American soldiers and Marines, with the assistance of a French corps, attacked the Germans where the front lines bulged into Allied held territory around the French town of St. Mihiel. The five-day battle succeeded in pushing the enemy out of the St. Mihiel pocket.

Note 2nd Division's Opening Position and Advance

Lasting a brief five days, St. Mihiel does not get a lot of space in most World War I histories. However, it is notable for a number of reasons:

• Turning around the strategic threat of the St. Mihiel Salient to the Allied transportation network in eastern France to a threat to the German homeland through the Lorraine

• First U.S. operation and victory by an independent American army in the Great War

• First U.S. tank attack (personally led by Lt Col George S. Patton)

• First exposure to large-scale offensive operations for numerous future World War II commanders, including: future Army generals George Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, George Patton, Mark Clark, Joseph Stillwell, and Marine generals Holland Smith and Thomas Holcomb. 

• St. Mihiel would be an area of detailed study assigned to Dwight D. Eisenhower when he served on the American Battle Monuments Commission. His World War II forces attacked right through the ground of the old salient.

• 12 September 1918 was history's first "D-Day."

The 4th Marine Brigade, Second Division 

Marine Commanders
Col. Logan Feyland, 5th Rgt, BG Wendell Neville, Bgd,
Col. Harry Lee, 6th Rgt

Of the five major operations of the Marine Brigade in the Great War, St. Mihiel is by far the least remembered. You can find quotes to the effect that the St. Mihiel Offense overall  was a "walk-over." I don't think this was the case, however,  for the Marines.  As throughout the war, they were a major component of the AEF's Second Division.

The attack began on 12 September (D-Day) at 0100 hrs. with a massive aerial and artillery bombardments of German positions. The main ground attack on the southern  face began at 0500 hrs (H-Hour) (jump off position the Second Division) with a secondary assault on the face western (that proved quite successful) starting at 0800 hrs. When the Second Division's 3rd Brigade made the opening divisional attack, they had encountered units that were either of a "sacrificial" category or already preparing to withdraw. With the additional benefit of tactical surprise, initial casualties for most attacking units were light. The Second Division's Third Brigade advanced the 4.3 miles to major objective Thiaucourt and succeeded in capturing the town by noon.  

By the evening of the 13th, however when the 5th and 6th Marines had passed through the Doughboys to take the lead in the advance, enemy tactics had changed. The Marines would face the same rearguard tactics that had halted them at Soissons—concentrated machine gun and better-organized artillery fire. They would also be forced to deal with German counterattacks mounted from stronger outposts where the enemy had prepared entrenchments. This style of fighting took a serious toll  on the Leathernecks.  Over about four days they suffered 146 dead and 758 wounded. Far fewer than the bloodbaths at Belleau Wood and Soissons but not at all insignificant.

Moving to the Front

The Marines' Operations 

The Marine Corps History Division created an excellent monograph titled Reducing the Saint-Mihiel Salient  by Col. Walter Ford during the war's centennial, which I've drawn on here to explain the operational level of the battle. [A download link for the full work is provided below.] His cartographer created highly detailed maps that I'm going to take advantage of. The first image is a sectional graphic of the Marine area of deployment; the second, is the key to help you read the map, which is somewhat  dense. [I would suggest reading the key in sequence while checking the map.] Note that 6th Marine Regiment is deployed on the left and the 5th Marines on the right and the division's area of operation is bounded by heavy black lines with the Eighty-Ninth Division on the left and the Fifth Division on the right.

Some Notable Aspects of the Fighting

A.  That Troublesome Left Flank, Map #3

As the Marines moved north,  their left flank started to open since the Eighty-Ninth Division had not kept pace on that side. At the opening phase, a  combat group of the 6th Marines 1st Battalion, commanded by Major Frederick A. Barker, reinforced with 73rd Machine Gun Company, the regimental machine gun company, was attached to 23rd Infantry, 3rd Brigade, to ensure cross-boundary liaison with IV Corps’ Eighty-Ninth Division.  

When the Marines took the lead for the division, the commander of the 2nd battalion, Major Ernest Williams was directed to assign one of his companies as a covering force on the left flank of the regiment.  Still positioned on the left side he machine gunners of the 73rd Company would distinguish themselves throughout the action. Their recently returned fiery and highly decorated First Sergeant Dan Daly surely had something to do with this, but any specifics are not apparent in the accounts of the fighting.  Two members of the company would receive the Navy Cross for the Marines' most heated fight of the offensive (described below)—Corporals Casey Loomis and Lyle Houchins (posthumously).  

The Navy medical personnel in this sector performed notable service as well. Corpsmen of the 6th Regiment set up an aid station in the abandoned town of Xammes hours before it was captured by soldiers of the Eighty-Ninth Division.

Jaulny, Probably Prewar

B.  Jaulny Village, no map #

Successes on 12 September had pushed the division line near Xammes on the left, across to include Jaulny. It not originally included in the American First Army objective line, was added due to heavy machine-gun and rifle fire originating from the city. Heavy bombardment by German artillery devastated the town after its capture. Jaulny was captured by elements of the 5th Marines, who then extended the advance well beyond the town.

A Wounded Marine and His Mates in What Appears to Be
Bois de la Montagne

C.  Bois de la Montagne, Map #5

The culminating and most confusing fighting of the Marines took place in this wood on 15 September.  Rather than give a detailed account, here's old Marine's description of what went on that—I think—captures the feel of what transpired that day.

We were in the vicinity of Thiaucourt for three days, where we were subjected to heavy shell fire. In the early morning of September 15 we moved into the Bois-de-la-Montagne to establish a front line, as it was not well defined in these woods. At daybreak we unexpectedly ran into the enemy, who had taken up an advanced position during the night. We immediately attacked, without artillery support, driving the enemy from the woods and forming a new front line .  .  .

 

The Seventy-eighth Company had become greatly scattered during the morning attack, and had suffered a number of casualties, so it was a very thin line that repulsed the enemy and held the woods when the Germans came over on us that afternoon in wave formation, preceded by a rolling barrage.

PFC George H. Donaldson, 78th Company, 6th Marines

2nd Division Marker at the Point of
the 4th Brigade's Farthest Advance

Relief

The relief of the 5th and 6th Marines by the Seventy-Eighth Division  was begun during the night of 15–16 September. Command of the sector passed at 1000 hrs. The Second Division was moved to the vicinity of Toul about 15 miles to the south. In a few weeks, in the Champagne the United States Marines would be facing one the greatest challenges in their history, Blanc Mont Ridge.

Sources:  Reducing the Saint-Mihiel Salient – September 1918 (Download HERE); The Doughboy Center; Fortitude; The 2nd Division A.E.F. Library of Congress; Summary of Operations in the World War: 2nd Division; The Doughboy Foundation; Smithsonian Art Museum; Where the Marines Fought in France by Ray Antrim.

 

When the U.S. Marines Crossed the Pond

A Selection from 

Muleskinner with the Marine Brigade, 

1917–1919, Vol. 1

The Story of Corporal Alpheus Appenheimer, USMC

By His Grandson B.J. Omanson

Pvt. Appenheimer in
Heavy Marching Order

Editor's Introduction:

World War I historian B.J. Omanson has been a valuable contributor to Roads to the Great War over the years.  A list of his earlier articles can be found HERE. Today, I'm honored to present, as the opening article in our week-long series on the U.S. Marines in the Great War, a selection from the first of B.J.'s two volumes honoring his grandfather's service in France. 

Alpheus Appenheimer served with Headquarters Detachment, 6th Machine Gun Battalion, 4th Brigade of Marines, 2nd Division, AEF in France during 1918–1919. He was decorated for valor under fire at Belleau Wood and Blanc Mont.

By supplementing Alpheus Appenheimer's story with numerous official and news accounts and the recollections of his fellow battalion members, B.J. has created not only a biography of his ancestor but a vivid chnoicle of what every Marine, experienced "Over There." This piece describes what it was like for Alpheus and his buddies to depart home and cross an ocean patrolled by enemy U-boats. MH

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Getting the Word

On 6 December 1917, orders were received by the 1st Machine Gun Battalion (later re-designated 6th Machine Gun Battalion) at Quantico to “hold itself in readiness” for a departure in two days. The Marines were not caught flat-footed. Credible rumors of an imminent departure had been circulating for about three days: the drawing of uniforms and equipment up to full strength was already underway, and the actual packing had commenced the day before. Even the postcards announcing their safe arrival in France had been issued for each man to prepare ahead of time. The crating of the battalion’s Lewis machine guns was completed on the 6th, and the loading of all equipment onto railroad freight cars on the 7th.

BJ Omanson, Introduction

Marines of 81st Company Crating Machine Gun Carts in Preparation for Shipping Out

Alpheus Lets His Mother Know He's on the Way

Quantico, Va.

Dec 6

Dear Mother

I expect when you get this that I will be on my way. We have every thing packed and have had our last inspection. I think we leave some time tomorrow night.

It’s now after chow, and the order was read for us to turn in our sheets and pillow cases, the first thing in the morning, and to pack our sea bags.

America is going to come and stay with you, as soon as she finishes with her visit. She is now at Buchanan’s, the people who kept her till Doc was married. 

We each wrote a postal card and they will be kept at the HeadQuarters in Washington and as soon as we land in France, or where ever we go, they will cablegram back, and then our postal cards will be mailed. That way you get news that I am safe across 3 or 4 weeks quicker than if I wrote from the other side. . .

Good bye, your loving Son, Al

Pvt. Alpheus Appenheimer, Headquarters Detachment

“Going for sure now . . .”

Dec 5: For the past two days we have been fully equipped and fitted out in good uniforms. 77th Co. started to pack today. Everything shows indications of us leaving for France. Was allowed to make out card stating that we had landed in France safely and could not even state our rank.

Dec 6: Packed our machine guns today.  Everybody turned to.

Dec 7: Still packing and getting ready. Going for sure now. Packed all our equipment and things on freight cars today.

Dec 8: Reveille at 3:45 this morning. Rolled our packs with O.D. shirt, 3 pr sox, 1 suit underwear. Train started at 6:30 from Quantico Va. for Newport News . . . 

Sgt Peter P. Wood, 77th Company

USS DeKalb

Getting Underway

Dec 9th – Coaled ship, the U.S. DeKalb, at the mouth of James River.

H.F. Davidson, 81st Company

At 4 p.m. on December 11th, the USS DeKalb sailed from Newport News, Virginia, for New York, NY, arriving there at 6:00 a.m. December 12th, and anchored off Staten Island. 

Sixth MG Battl. History

Dec 14: Woke up surrounded by transports. At 8:30 p.m. when walking the decks we started to move and every ship in the same vicinity also with all lights out. We were on our way to France.

Sgt Peter P. Wood, 77th Company

 

A Funny Thing about the USS DeKalb

Strange as it seems, on the strength of a pounding crankshaft sawed four-fifths through by German saboteurs, hung the fate of thousands of American soldiers who crossed the Atlantic on the USS DeKalb during the world war.

Formerly the North German Lloyd line, Prince Eitel Frederich, built in 1904, 15,000 gross tons, the DeKalb was one of 120 German ships interned to the United States at the outbreak of the war with Germany.

Strange as it seems, a complete going over of the DeKalb refused to disclose anything wrong with her, so she was placed into transport service and made eleven successful crossings to France, carrying thousands of ‘doughboys’ to the Big War.

Confident that all was well, men and officers alike were blissfully unaware that the pounding, vibrating crankshaft that drove them through the ocean waters was ready to shear off at any moment.

1938 Newspaper Article

U.S. Navy Officer and Crew on the USS DeKalb

Life Aboard Ship

“ We were wedded to our life preservers . . .  ”

Then finally we pulled out with the other ships and a cruiser, the North Carolina. We had a mighty good trip in all. This is a good ship, has a fine captain, Captain Geraghty, formerly Naval Attache at Berlin. We were wedded to our life preservers after a day out, sleeping and eating in them. Everything went fine, Marines pretty nervous after we passed 20 degrees West, the limit of the U.S. war zone. Then one day seven U.S. destroyers showed up and everyone felt brave. 

Pvt. Walter Tigan, 81st Company

Our duties aboard ship were minimal—a short attempt at platoon formations—we land lubbers had not acquired our sea legs and the platoon lines which were supposed to stand at attention and steady in place would break and surge forward and back with every roll of the ship. So formations etc did not last long. 

We chowed late morning and late afternoon. The ship was blacked out from dark to daylight so we sacked in from later afternoon to morning. During the day we watched the ocean and the horizon. Occasionally we would see a whale spout but not much else but waves and sea roll. 

Pvt. W.B. Jackson, 77th Company

“ . . . there was not a spare inch anywhere on the ship . . .  ”

There was much excitement on the first day out at sea. Long into the end of the day the boys gathered for entertainment, singing the songs that were popular at that time. Most of the boys singing those songs were later blown to pieces in France. On the side of the ship where I was placed there was a canteen where one could buy crackers and candies but there were so many men on board that it was difficult to get served. However, there were men lining up at the canteen and getting the tidbits, and reselling them to us at high prices. We were glad to get them, no matter what we had to pay. At a given time the ‘pipe down’ signal was given, which meant that every one must retire for the evening. When I came to retire I discovered that there was not a spare inch anywhere on the ship where I could rest my weary bones.  I spent my first night sitting on a ladder, and was glad to get that space. Thereafter I teamed up with another lad, and when the time came for piping down, he would contrive to fill up the space for the two of us until I could get to him. We slept on the hard deck, using as matresses the life preservers which we were all obliged to wear. 

       I remember one night as I made my rounds as a corporal of the guard, I found one of the boys in distress. I suggested a remedy. He said if his mother was there she could fix him up all right. All I could say to him was,  ‘My boy, you are a soldier: you cannot depend on Mother now.’ “

Cpl Daniel Morgan, 77th Company

 

An American Troop Convoy Crossing the Pond

Alpheus Gets Sick

I had a headache and fever and went to the Sick Bay for some CC pills, and the Dr. said I had the measles. There were several cases on board and they put me in Quarenteen with the rest of the measles cases. I was all right in a day or two and I don’t believe I had the measles, but I got a good state room out of it and my meals brot to me the rest of the trip. So it wasn’t so bad after all.

Pvt. Alpheus Appenheimer, Headquarters Detachment

Land Ho!

About that time word went around that land was sighted dead ahead. We were almost to France. In a little while we sailed past Belle Island and dropped anchor in the outer harbor of St. Nazaire. . . 

Pvt W.B. Jackson, 77th Company

A U-boat Arrives with Christmas Dinner

While lined up for Xmas dinner [2 days late]  of roast turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, mince pie, vanilla cake, coffee, nuts, celery, bread and cigars, the cyrene blew. A submarine periscope being sighted off our port bow. We fired 3 shots with the for’d 6 in. & 3 & 5 starboard & port stern. It still remained on the surface. The minute the cyrene blew the torpedo boat destroyer #42 steamed up and when we stopped firing it went around us and dropped 2 depth bombs and fired several shots. On its return it sent signals which seemed to have said that she sunk it. We returned and enjoyed a hearty meal. At the same time the sub was sighted we also sighted land. Dropped anchor at 3:30. Weighed anchor and moved into the harbor as it was very dangerous where we were. 

Sgt Peter P. Wood, 77th Company

We never did learn if there was actually a U-boat there. 

Pvt W.B. Jackson, 77th Company

St. Nazaire Docks

Dec 28:  Land[ed] at St. Nazaire. Carried into France on a stretcher.

Pvt Herschel Lane 77th Company

Dear Mother — we are lying at anchor in the mouth of the Loire River, a large and peaceful moon shining across the bay, the lights of other ships and some of our destroyers here and there about the basin. A half mile to the shore are the lights of St. Nazaire, a mighty pretty little French seaside resort, converted into a landing port of overseas expeditionary forces. We are in Western Central France, south, about half way between Brest and Bordeaux. ~~~ We came into the harbor to-day and from what I can hear we will disembark to-morrow. I am writing this so I can give it to a man who will carry it back to the States and mail it there. It will not be censored so I will trust you to censor all information I give you . . . 

Pvt Walter Tigan 81st Company

Marines Disembarking USS DeKalb on an Earlier Trip

Dec 29:  Weighed anchor at 2:45 and went thru the locks—many interesting things happened. In the evening the first one I saw was Sgt. Neate (O.N.M.) (N.Y.)

Dec 30:  Unloading all our cargo all night. Issued blanket, sox, and A.F.G. Blouse. French people selling chocolate for 1 fr. Stepped on French soil for the first time at 2:15

Sgt Peter P. Wood, 77th Company

A Little Later, Back Home

A  postcard, postmarked Jan. 4, 1918, arrived in Toulon, Illinois

Mrs. A.R. Appenheimer

I have arrived safe in France.

Alphus R. Appenheimer

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