BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Quantico -- Natl Museum of the Marine Corps -- Gallery: World War I (1914

VA -- Quantico -- Natl Museum of the Marine Corps -- Gallery: World War I (1914–1918):

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Description of Pictures: These galleries had opened to the public just the week before.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. MCMWW1_100612_001.JPG: King Armored Car: First procured by the Marine Corps in 1916, the King Armored Car was built by the Armored Motor Car Company of Detroit on a King luxury sedan chassis. After initial testing of two vehicles, General George Barnett, Commandant of the Marine Corps, ordered the purchase of an additional eight cars and the establishment of the 1st Armored Car Squadron in Philadelphia. Tested at length, the cars suffered from poor design and performance. Although they saw no service in World War I, two King armored cars were loaded aboard the USS Hancock and shipped to Galveston, Texas, where the 8th Marines were poised to move into the Tampico, Mexico, oilfields. Five of the cars were later sent to Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
2. MCMWW1_100612_031.JPG: 1914-1918: Every Marine a Rifleman "Come on, you sons-of-bitches! Do you want to live forever?" -- Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly, Belleau Wood World War I dwarfed in size and horror any previous overseas war fought by the United States. By the time the first American forces -- including a brigade of Marines -- arrived in France, their British and French allies were exhausted from three years of grinding warfare against the Germans. The Marine brigade -- two infantry regimens and a machine gun battalion -- served alongside an Army brigade in the 2d Division, which entered action in June 1918 to stop a major German breakthrough aiming for Paris. The marines fought the Germans at Belleau Wood, a three-week battle that eclipsed in its first bloody day all of the casualties the Marines had sustained in their first 143 years of existence. Hearing rumors after the battle that German soldiers referred to them as "teufelhunden" because of their battlefield prowess, Marines adopted "Devil Dogs" as a proud nickname.
3. MCMWW1_100612_049.JPG: 1917-1918: Belleau Wood
4. MCMWW1_100612_053.JPG: Marines in World War I, 1917-1918: Marines Mobilize for World War: "We were all young and knew the thrill that comes with adventure. We had a war to win and a world to make safe for democracy." -- Private Elton E. Mackin, 5th Marines, 1918 After 140 years of service in small detachments, the Marine Corps underwent dramatic expansion during the World War. From a strength level of 10,397 in 1916, the Corps increased to 75,101 officers and men in 1918. The unprecedented seven-fold growth required new training camps, such as Parris Island in South Carolina and Quantico in Virginia, and prodigious feats of leadership and innovation. The Corps recruited tens of thousands of good men, trained and equipped them, and found officers and non-commissioned officers to lead them. Nearly half of the Marines in service reached France by 1918, where, at a considerable cost, they carved out a timeless legacy. The European War: "The world must be made safe for democracy." -- President Woodrow Wilson's war message to Congress, 2 April, 1917 World War I erupted in August 1914. The initial fighting swept across Europe in a series of dynamic offenses, but soon the war bogged down into a three-year stalemate that produced unimaginable butchery. When the United States declared war on Germany on 6 April 1917, America's young men flocked to the colors. The arrival of the eager troops of the American Expeditionary Forces -- with Marines aboard the first convoy -- invigorated the western alliance and broke the stalemate. The war killed 8 million soldiers (50,000 of them Americans) and 6.6 civilians and wounded another 21 million.
5. MCMWW1_100612_062.JPG: Belleau Wood: "Berry had 4000 yards of open wheat field to cross in the face of a galling fire... I did not believe he could ever reach the woods." -- Colonel Albertus W. Catlin, 6th Marines, 6 June 1918 Marine rifles, firing with deadly accuracy at long range, ushered in a new epoch in the war and in the history of the Corps when they halted Germans pushing toward Paris on 3 June 1918. Three days later, in their initial assault into Belleau Wood, need the Marne River in France, the 4th Marine Brigade suffered 1,087 casualties to German machine gun and artillery fire. After 150 years of service in the colonial-infantry pattern, Marines for the first time faced a full-scale engagement with a well-armed first-class antagonist. Three weeks later, they emerged triumphant. Stalwart Marines, with tough and determined leaders, four of whom would become commandants of the Marine Corps, achieved victory at harrowing cost. Belleau Wood became a touchstone battle in the annals of the Corps, clearly marking the birth of the modern United States Marines.
6. MCMWW1_100612_105.JPG: Combat Correspondents: "I was with the Marines at the opening of the battle, I never saw men charge to their death with finer spirit." -- War Correspondent Floyd Gibbons, Belleau Wood, 6 June 1918 Dramatic news of American troops being committed to stop the German offensive nearing Paris attracted veteran combat correspondents to the vicinity of Belleau Wood. The first to arrive was the heralded 31-year-old Floyd Gibbons of the Chicago Tribune. Ignoring wartime censors forbidding the identification of specific units, he filed his first report: "I am up at the front and entering Belleau Wood with the US Marines." On 6 June, Floyd Gibbons accompanied the assault by the 5th Marines on Belleau Wood. During the assault, he was severely wounded. While recovering in the hospital, Gibbons reconstructed the events of the battle. As the military censors heard of Gibbons' grievous wounds, they feared the famous reporter had been killed and released the correspondent's original reports intact. The explicit accounts led to huge headlines in American papers: "U.S. MARINES SMASH HUNS!" Marine recruiters reaped a bountiful harvest.
7. MCMWW1_100612_112.JPG: Combat Correspondents: "I was with the Marines at the opening of the battle, I never saw men charge to their death with finer spirit." -- War Correspondent Floyd Gibbons, Belleau Wood, 6 June 1918 Dramatic news of American troops being committed to stop the German offensive nearing Paris attracted veteran combat correspondents to the vicinity of Belleau Wood. The first to arrive was the heralded 31-year-old Floyd Gibbons of the Chicago Tribune. Ignoring wartime censors forbidding the identification of specific units, he filed his first report: "I am up at the front and entering Belleau Wood with the US Marines." On 6 June, Floyd Gibbons accompanied the assault by the 5th Marines on Belleau Wood. During the assault, he was severely wounded. While recovering in the hospital, Gibbons reconstructed the events of the battle. As the military censors heard of Gibbons' grievous wounds, they feared the famous reporter had been killed and released the correspondent's original reports intact. The explicit accounts led to huge headlines in American papers: "U.S. MARINES SMASH HUNS!" Marine recruiters reaped a bountiful harvest.
8. MCMWW1_100612_126.JPG: Belleau Wood's Legacy: "Woods now U.S. Marine Corps entirely." -- Major Maurice E. Shearer, 26 June 1918 Marines charging through poppy-speckled wheat fields on 6 June 1918 opened a savage contest for possession of Belleau Wood that raged for three weeks. Among rock outcroppings in the dense thickets, and in the adjacent villages of Bouresches and Torcy, they struggled with seasoned Germans and gradually gained the upper hand. The performance of the Marines and their U.S. Army comrades sounded a klaxon that rang through Europe. Their foundering allies, the thwarted Germans and Americans back at home all saw unmistakable evidence of a study new factor in the war. The triumph came at a cost of 4,600 Marine casualties, including 1,112 fatalities.
9. MCMWW1_100612_130.JPG: "Retreat, hell -- we just got here!" -- Capt. Lloyd Williams, USMC, Belleau Wood, 1918
10. MCMWW1_100612_132.JPG: Model 1897 French 75mm Field Gun: Developed in 1894, the French 75mm field gun was revolutionary. Its dual hydraulic recoil system allowed the gun carriage to remain still when fired, permitting the gun to fire rapidly without having to realign it after each shot. Capable of firing high-explosive, shrapnel, or gas shells, the maximum range for the 75 was approximately 7,500 yards. Artillery was an important feature of the World War I battlefield. The US was caught unprepared as it entered the war and adopted the French 75 for its use. Symington-Anderson and Wisconsin Gun Company built 1,500 French 75s under license, but only 143 of these were shipped to France. At the end of the war, there were 480 American 75mm field gun batteries, but they were largely equipped with French-manufactured guns.
11. MCMWW1_100612_140.JPG: Model T Truck: The American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) were the first truly motorized force ever fielded. It is estimated that of the 60,000 vehicles that saw service with the AEF, more than 15,000 were Model T Fords. The Marines were authorized no vehicles prior to their departure for France, except for a Model T Ford donated to the 6th Marines by Mrs. Elizabeth Pearce, Mrs. Charles Childs, and a Miss Wilcox. It performed beautifully during battle, carrying ammunition and supplies to the front lines and evacuating the wounded. The vehicle displayed here is similar to "Elizabeth Ford" and carries the markings of the original truck.
12. MCMWW1_100612_153.JPG: Combat Leadership: "Retreat, hell -- we just got here." -- Captain Lloyd W. Williams, 5th Marines, Belleau Wood Because the 4th Brigade of Marines was unique -- "a little raft of sea soldiers in an ocean of Army" -- its leaders were compelled to prove themselves. Those who survived left their mark for many years. Veterans John Lejeune, Wendell Neville, Thomas Holcomb, Clifton Cates, and Lemuel Shepherd became post-war commandants. At Iwo Jima, 27 years after the armistice, Cates, Keller Rockey, and Graces Erskine, all former platoon commanders in France, commanded the three Marine divisions. Quick-thinking Sergeant Gerald Thomas assumed command of his platoon at Soissons when his officers fell, and he later attained four-star rank. Legendary old-time noncommissioned officers, like Dan Daly and John Quick, demonstrated in Belleau Wood that their Medals of Honor from earlier wars had been justly awarded.
13. MCMWW1_100612_156.JPG: Model 1897 French 75mm Field Gun: Developed in 1894, the French 75mm field gun was revolutionary. Its dual hydraulic recoil system allowed the gun carriage to remain still when fired, permitting the gun to fire rapidly without having to realign it after each shot. Capable of firing high-explosive, shrapnel, or gas shells, the maximum range for the 75 was approximately 7,500 yards. Artillery was an important feature of the World War I battlefield. The US was caught unprepared as it entered the war and adopted the French 75 for its use. Symington-Anderson and Wisconsin Gun Company built 1,500 French 75s under license, but only 143 of these were shipped to France. At the end of the war, there were 480 American 75mm field gun batteries, but they were largely equipped with French-manufactured guns.
14. MCMWW1_100612_173.JPG: Breaching the Hindenburg Line: "To picture a fight, mix up a lot of hungry, dirty, tired, and bloody men with dust, noise, and smoke." -- Major Robert L. Desig. 6th Marines German defenses in northeastern France radiated from an entrenched corridor called the Hindenburg Line. Allied leaders, benumbed by years of stalemate, viewed the daunting positions with foreboding. The Marine victors of Belleau Wood, buttressed by reinforcements from America, participated in the 1918 summer advance that probed the Hindenburg Line and eventually shattered it. After colliding bloodily with the last great German offensive at Soissons in July, the Marines attacked on a broad front at St. Mihiel in mid-September, the breakthrough starting an enemy withdrawal that dissolved the long stalemate. During the first week of October, Marines seized Blank Mont, long a German stronghold, breaching the Hindenburg Line decisively. General Lejeune's division pursued the Germans through the Argonne Forest and across the Meuse River until the Armistice ended all fighting on 11 November.
15. MCMWW1_100612_177.JPG: Chemical Warfare: " 'Gas! Gas!' the cry came and we put on our masks. . Men without masks lay on the ground coughing up blood and gasping their life away." -- Sergeant Melvin I. Krulewitch, 6th Marines, 1918 Germany unveiled a horrible weapon in 1915: poisonous chlorine gas, fired in artillery shells. By the time Marines went into combat, the enemy had developed an even more deadly variant -- mustard gas. Because it was heavier than air, the pervasive fog settled into trenches, burning or killing anyone exposed to it. German gas shells caused 24% of Marine casualties during Belleau Wood, but chemical warfare losses decreased in later fighting as Marines learned to cope with the danger. By war's end, more than 2,000 Marines and attached US Navy corpsmen had been gassed. Post-war protocols banned poison gas, but Marines carried protective masks in every subsequent war.
16. MCMWW1_100612_181.JPG: Imperial German Gas Masks and Cases, circa 1917-1918: The horrors of gas warfare affected all nations. Combatants rushed to develop new countermeasures. Initially made of rubberized fabric, German gas masks were eventually made of inexpensive nonporous leathers, such as dog skin. These captured gas masks are typical of the two designs used in 1917-18.
17. MCMWW1_100612_202.JPG: Field Training: "We watched [the Germans] come on... I held our fire. Our sights were set for three hundred yards." -- Lieutenant Lemuel C. Shepherd, 5th Marines, Belleau Wood, 3 June 1918 The Marine riflemen who astonished allies and foes alike with their deadly long-range fire on battlefields in 1918 were the products of a relentless training regimen that stressed marksmanship. The 60,000 youngsters who enlisted during World War I underwent thorough instruction on rifle ranges at their new boot camps, followed by advanced field firing. Combat marksmanship was an acquired skill. In 1917, only 48% of Marines qualified with their '03 Springfields as Marksman, Sharpshooter, or Expert Rifleman. Two years later that figure had nearly doubled. Marine Corps Headquarters ordered that no enlisted man would be sent overseas who had not shot at the Marksman level or better.
18. MCMWW1_100612_203.JPG: Soissons: "It was the hottest place in the world. It rained machine-gun bullets, and shells of all sizes fell like hailstones." -- Corporal Martin G. Gulberg, 6th Marines, Soissons, 1918 The touchstone battle for Belleau Wood upstaged the Marines' subsequent fight at Soissons (pronounced "Swa-soN"0 a month later. Yet many Belleau Wood veterans considered Soissons the worst of the two battles. Soissons, a clash of highly mobile field armies, resulted from the final German counterattack of the war. The Marines endured an exhausting forced march -- the last mile at a dead run -- to reach their line of departure in time to assault. Fully supported by Allied tanks, aircraft, and artillery, the Marines advanced under unrelenting fire for two bloody days to help reverse the German offensive.
19. MCMWW1_100612_211.JPG: German Tin Box Trench Periscope: Trench periscopes allowed continuous surveillance of "no-man's land" without risking exposure to enemy fire. Combatants on both sides used a variety of both crudely manufactured and highly refined trench periscopes. An unknown Marine recovered this simple German trench periscope in France in 1918.
20. MCMWW1_100612_217.JPG: St. Mihiel: "The rifle companies lay in fox-like holes along the Jaulny-Xammes ridge and cursed the burning heat of the sun." -- Private Elton E. Mackin, 5th Marines, 1918 From 12 to 16 September 1918, the Marine Brigade took part in the St. Mihiel offensive in northeastern France, a highly successful Allied advance on a broad front about 150 miles east of Paris, near the Luxembourg border. In their sector, Marines pushed through Remenauville, Thiaucourt, Xammes, and Jaulny. The apprehensive French high command squelched eager American notions of pursuing the broken foe, who had lost more than 15,000 prisoners. The attacking Marines lost 903 men, 146 of them killed or mortally wounded, the least harrowing toll of any of their battles in France in 1918.
21. MCMWW1_100612_323.JPG: Blanc Mont: "I saw the most gruesome sights it is possible to imagine -- there had been hand-to-hand fighting of the fiercest kind." -- Lieutenant James M. Sellers, 6th Marines, letter home from Blanc Mont, 1918 In October, the French Fourth Army attacked the enemy stronghold anchored by Blanc Mont (the "White Mountain"). Germans had held the limestone-streaked ridge for four years, and earlier battles had left the adjoining farm fields fouled byt shell craters, bleached bones, and a pervasive smell of death. Major General John Lejeune's 2nd Division spearheaded the assault. His Marines and soldiers attacked the ridge on the heels of a "rolling barrage" of Allied artillery fire. Seizing the summit cost the Marines almost 2,500 casualties in two days of intense fighting, but they helped achieve the final puncture of the Hindenburg Line.
22. MCMWW1_100612_324.JPG: Marine Aviation: "We arrived here and found that no one here knew who we were, where we were to go or what we were to do." -- Major Alfred A. Cunningham, Brest, France, 1 August 1918 Marine aviators were among the first American airmen to see combat. The 1st Aeronautic Company, stationed in the Azores, flew crucial, if unglamorous, anti-submarine patrols in Curtiss seaplanes. Four Marine light bomber squadrons reached France. The eager fliers bombed a variety of German targets and claimed 12 enemy planes. This modest exposure to battle by the infant Marine air arm gave no hint of the powerful air-ground team that would accomplish legendary feats in future wars, but Marine aviators showed that they could fly and fight. In time, they would even prove themselves to the skeptical riflemen of the "Old Corps."
23. MCMWW1_100612_328.JPG: "Over There" "The whole nation had reason to be proud of them." -- President Woodrow Wilson in Commandant George Burnett, 1919 While the 4th Marine Brigade made an immoral name for the Corps in France, 60% of the Corps never went to Europe. Instead, they served around the world "in every clime and place." Detachments patrolled Haiti, Cuba, the Virgin Islands, Santo Domingo, and the US-Mexican border, while 2,100 Marines served abroad warships at sea. The marine guard from USS Brooklyn landed in Vladivostok, Russia, in June 1918 to maintain fragile order there. Other Marines stood watch at such far-flung legations and naval stations as Guam, Cavite, Copenhagen, Yokohama, and Petrograd. Among Marines in Europe, fewer than half reached the headline-making battlefields. Despite the fulminations of its commander, Brigadier General Smedley Butler, the 5th Marine Brigade never traveled far from its muddy cantonments near the Atlantic docks. Preliminary plans for a Marine amphibious landing in the Adriatic did not materialize.
24. MCMWW1_100612_349.JPG: Motor Transportation: "Did those trucks look good to us! Tired out beyond description, we didn't care where we... were going, just so we could ride." -- Private E.A. Wahl, 6th Marines, Belleau Wood, June 1918 Fleets of French trucks (camions) shuttled Marines and their suppliers and equipment across France and later into Germany, often driven by Annamese tribesmen -- French colonial troops from Vietnam. A Ford automobile donated to the 6th Marines by a patriotic American woman, Mrs. Elizabeth Pearce, gave good service in Europe. The battered "Elizabeth Ford," fondly shortened to "Tin Lizzie," carried rations to the front lines at Belleau Wood and ferried wounded men back to field hospitals on return trips.
25. MCMWW1_100612_352.JPG: Marine Logistics: "Do what you will with it, monkey meat is monkey meat... This needs an onion!" -- 5th Marines lieutenant, commenting on canned Argentine beef The supply sections supporting the 4th Marine Brigade's advanced through eastern France, replenishing ammo, repairing weapons, evacuating casualties, and, most importantly, providing food and water to the troops. These tireless foragers proved fearless in their ability to deliver hot coffee and chow to front line troops in exposed positions like Belleau Wood. In the tradition of all infantrymen, the Marines complained of bland bread and canned beef, while envying the French army's daily wine ration. By war's end, the USMC Supply Depot in Philadelphia had shipped 31 million pounds of material to France.
26. MCMWW1_100612_363.JPG: Rail Transportation: "We bounced and rattled in the boxcars... and we could hear the guns." -- Sergeant Melvin L. Krulewitch, 6th Marines French railroad cars with an announced capacity of 40 men or 8 mules often carried Marines to the vicinity of their next battle. Tall and stocky Americans discovered that they did not fit comfortably into what 40 Frenchmen might occupy. They dreaded trips in primitive boxcars without amenities and befouled by the 8 mules most recently in occupancy. Weary battle survivors sometimes welcomed the ride, but most Marines preferred to travel by truck or even afoot.
27. MCMWW1_100612_380.JPG: Thomas-Morse S-4B (Replica): The Thomas-Morse S-4B gave fledgling Marine pilots a taste of the challenges of flying high-performance fighter aircraft. The US Marine Corps' 1st Aviation Force, located at the Marine Flying Field near Miami, FL, operated the S-4B during World War I. Flying the S-4B was challenging for new Marine pilots accustomed to flying stable and under-powered trainers. The S-4B was fast, nimble, and very responsive. However, the whirling rotary engine could cause the aircraft to spin out of control. Pilots unfamiliar with the engine could cause it to catch fire in flight.
28. MCMWW1_100612_382.JPG: Second Series Standard "B" Truck: Prior to 1917, the military services procured an assortment of vehicles from different manufacturers, including the Standard B. The Quartermaster Department of the Army designed a completely new vehicle that became the standardized truck for all American military forces. Stars and Stripes reported the arrival of the first "Liberty Trucks" in France on 4 October 1918. Although none of the new trucks was issued to Marine Corps units, they were used by the Army Quartermaster and the Motor Transport Corps to supply units of the Second Division. The Second Series model seen here was distinguished by its acetylene spotlight, front oil lamps, steel spoked wheels, and front fenders.
29. MCMWW1_100612_396.JPG: 1914-1918: We The Marines Global Deployment More than 40,000 Marines served their country during 1917-1919 without going to France. After their 1914 landing at Vera Cruz, Marines remained on duty protecting the US border with Mexico against violent incursions by revolutionist Pancho Villa. Marines also served in Central America and aboard 62 warships worldwide. Insignia: General Pershing's uniforms regulations required the Marines to appear identical to the Army. Some Leathernecks rebelled by wearing USMC insignia on their helmets. When Assistant Navy Secretary Franklin Roosevelt visited the Marine Brigade after Belleau Wood and Soissons, he said Marines had earned the right to wear blackened USMC emblems on their collars. Total Strength: - Total Marines on 6 April 1917: 13,725 - Total Marines on 11 November 1918: 72,963 - Peak Active Duty Strength: 75,101 on 11 December 1918 - Marines on Duty in 1920: 17,047
30. MCMWW1_100612_398.JPG: Casualties of War: The Marines sustained nearly 12,000 combat casualties in France, the highest losses to date in Corps history. But that figure would soon be surpassed in World War II. Killed in action -- 1,448 Died of wounds -- 1,006 Total fatalities - 2,454 Wounded in action -- 6,873 Gassed -- 2,020 Total combat casualties -- 11,347
31. MCMWW1_100612_403.JPG: Homecoming: "The Wilhelmina weighed anchor at 1:55pm, and pushed out into the North Atlantic HOMEWOOD BOUND!!!" -- Herbert H. Akers, Sixth Marines, 27 July 1919 The Armistice on 11 November 1918 ended bloodshed in France, but most Marines remained in Europe for many more months, marching through Belgium and Luxembourg then on 1 December into Germany with the occupation force. An influenza epidemic swept through the war-torn lands (269 Marines died of disease in Europe). The Marines' belated homecoming and ceremonial parade through New York City proved anti-climatic. "The bloom was off the peach by that time," quipped one captain.
32. MCMWW1_100612_405.JPG: The First Women Marines: "I hear some people are giving us nicknames... Anybody that calls me anything but "Marine' is going to hear from me." -- Private Martha L. Witchinski, letter home, 1918 With so many Marines deployed overseas, the Corps initiated its first official enlistment of women, to fill clerical billets at permanent posts in the United States. The first women Marines signed on as reservists in August 1918. By war's end, 305 were on duty, primarily at Headquarters in the Washington DC area. The pioneering women wore austere Marine-green uniforms and received training in drill and military discipline. All bad been mustered out by 1922, leaving a significant precedent.
33. MCMWW1_100612_408.JPG: Birth of the Modern Marines: "A French doctor asked a wounded man 'you are an American Soldier?' 'Hell no' he answered. 'I am a Marine.' " -- French newspaper Le Figaro, 27 August 1918 Their widely publicized achievements on World War I battlefields catapulted the US Marines to renown on both sides of the Atlantic. Out of the horror and sacrifice in the European crucible there arose an heroic ethic became a touchstone for every future Marine -- a challenge to match the courage, endurance, and "unbreakable will in combat" of their 1918 forebears. Leaders like John Lejeune appreciated the public approval but also recognized that the Corps' future could not unfold as a second land army. The search for a unique Marine Corps mission would continue through the next two decades.
34. MCMWW1_100612_410.JPG: The First Marine Training Bases: "This island is nothing but sand, sand, sand... It's in your chow, on your sheets, and in your eyes." -- Private Sheldon R. Gearhart, letter home from Parris Island, South Carolina, 1918 Navy facilities like San Diego or Mare Island in California traditionally hosted Marine Corps training ventures until Parris Island and Quantico became Marine bases during World War I. Parris Island, South Carolina, where the Corps first established a post in 1891, possessed 46,202 recruits between President Wilson's declaration of war in April 1918 and the armistice in November 1918. Thousands of marines underwent advanced training at Quantico, Virginia, during the war, including most of those en route to the fighting in France.
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Description of Subject Matter: World War I: 1914–1918
America entered World War I in 1917. This was dwarfed in size and horror any previous overseas war�fought by the United States. As visitors stroll down a typical American street, they are greeted by a�newsboy hawking his papers and extolling the big news: U.S. Marines are now in the fight in a place�called Belleau Wood. The gallery immerses the visitor in the French countryside and the Battle of�Belleau Wood. Visitors witness battle tactics—including the smell of cordite and the whistle of bullets�through the leaves—used by the Marines, move through a stand of trees and into the field of wheat,�and find themselves behind an overtaken German machine gunners’ position. Hunkered down in a�nearby crater, surrounded by a ghostly woods, correspondent Floyd Gibbons can be found typing his�report: “U.S. Marines smash Huns!” Visitors experience the full fury of the Marine Corps. The Battle of�Belleau Wood lasted three weeks and, in its first bloody day on 6 June 1918, eclipsed all the casualties�sustained by the Marine Corps in its first 143 years. Because of the Marines’ widely publicized�achievements in France, the Marine Corps was renowned on both sides of the Atlantic for its�determination, courage, and self-sacrifice. This iconic battle’s history is taught to every Marine recruit in�the early weeks at boot camp.
The gallery provides additional World War I experiences through the eyes of the Marines who served.
* Model T truck, although askew on the damaged road, brings in supplies and carries out the�wounded.�
* An 1897 French 75mm field gun sits alone in the decimated forest.�
* At an oral history station guarded by an armed Marine who has just donned his gas mask,�Marines and corpsmen describe the hell they had just lived through.�
* Peering through periscopes to see beyond the trenches while overhead a nimble and very�responsive Thomas Morse S-4B aircraft scouts the area.�
* A Liberty truck is the logistic vehicle used to get the “beans, bullets, and Band-Aids” to Marines in�the field.�
* Personal weapons (including John A. Lejeune’s M1911 pistol), uniforms, accruements, and the�honors received by some of those who fought on all sides.
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