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Quote of the Day: “We Just Got Here!”
Retreat, hell! We just got here.
One hundred years ago this week, American ground forces, under American leadership, entered the fighting in France. At Belleau Wood, the United States Marines moved forward through retreating French forces. It should have been a relief in place, with Americans entering the lines and relieving the French soldiers in the trenches. Instead, it seemed to be turning into a forward passage of lines, transitioning into a meeting engagement, where two advancing forces run head-on into each other.
The French forces were exhausted after four years of trench warfare. They had been pushed back for weeks under the Germans’ desperate last attempt to seize Paris before the Americans could get into the lines with a massive infusion of fresh troops. A Marine division was ordered to reinforce the French.
A French colonel, attempting to acquaint the Americans with the realities of the situation and not trusting his spoken English, scribbled a note to the officer in charge of the Americans ordering them to retreat. The Marine officer looked at the Frenchman coldly and said, “Retreat, Hell! We just got here.” That officer was Capt. Lloyd W. Williams, commanding the 51st Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment. Williams would die in Belleau Wood nine days later, blinded by gas and gutted by German shrapnel.
They may have just got there, but the Marines, like their Army brethren also entering the line, were in no mood for trench defense. They attacked, stopped the German offensive, and started rolling back the Germans, until the German generals came to the armistice table in November 1918. Thirty-six years later, this week, U.S. Army troops stormed ashore or jumped out of airplanes into France, signaling the beginning of the end for another German Empire.
Published in Group Writing
The Soviets in World War II used the counterattack to stop the Germans multiple times. In this World War I battle, since the Germans were not dug in, the American forces were crudely trying to accomplish the same thing.
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It it took a long time but I was able to track down an original lithograph of La Brigade Marine Americane au Bois de Belleau. One of my prized possessions
I thought about posting something on Maj. Williams yesterday in @she‘s thread, and forgot all about it when I got home, then did it today when I remembered.
Awesome.
I clicked on your History Channel link and read with interest, but I would also be interested to hear the other side of those numbers—
A great cost, to be sure, but it sounds as though the Germans also paid dearly for their general’s “determination” (and unlike us, in the long run they had nothing to show for it). I wonder how their casualty numbers compared.
When I was around three years old, my dad remarked: “If anyone ever tells you there is a need to fight a Great War to prevent all future wars, don’t believe them.” He was six when WWI ended.
It’s a small thing, in the Great War, the 4th Marine Brigade was assigned as one of the two brigades of the 2d Infantry Division, US Army.
Historical aside: The 3D Infantry Division, US Army, played a critical role in halting the final German offensive at the Marne River. Earning the division nickname “Rock of the Marne”. It’s been said Marne Men are just a bunch of dog face soldiers who wouldn’t give a hill of beans to be a fancy pants Marine.
Many units proudly trace their lineage to this War. The 79th Infantry Division, now the 79th Theater Support Command, has as its unit crest a falcon on a hill, from the division’s fight to take Montfaucon as part of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive.
Most combat divisions of the Army were established between 1917 and 1918. All the infantry divisions numbered below 102.
Okay, that’s needlessly opaque. I will explain. No there is too much, let me sum up.
Before 1917, the largest permanent unit in the US Army was the regiment. Armies, corps, divisions and brigades were temporary groupings.
All the infantry divisions numbered lower than 102, were organized during WW1. Not all were sent overseas. Of the divisions sent to France, not all were employed in combat.
The 1st Cav was established in 1921 and all the armored divisions were established after 1940.