"BELLEAU – HOLY GROUND FOR THE US MARINE CORPS" Belleau by mtncorg

It was here in and around the woods south of Belleau that the US 2nd Division with the 4th Marine Brigade as one of its elements stopped and drove back German attackers who had been pushing south in an attempt at cutting the Verdun-Paris rail line. Here, and at nearby Chateau Thierry, American forces were introduced for the first time on a large scale to the fighting on the Western Front. For the Marine Corps, Belleau Wood is sacred ground. They lost more men here in their 6 June 1918 attacks than they had in their entire previous history. That the memory of the Marines here at Belleau is somewhat prominent in American memory is because the American commander General Pershing forbade US Army personnel with speaking to the members of the press. The Marines had no such prohibition and thus were responsible for winning the war in many American eyes.