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 Globe, Eagle, 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, US Army General John J. Pershing commissioned the French sculptor Charles Raphaël Peyre  to commemorate the service of the US 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 US 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).