The Devil Dogs at Belleau Wood: U.S. Marines in World War I

by R.D. Camp

Facing massed German machine guns, the Marines made sweep after bloody sweep through Belleau Wood. Repeatedly accosted by the retreating French and urged to turn back, Captain Lloyd Williams of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, uttered the now-famous retort, "Retreat, hell. We just got here." And indeed, by the end of that terrible June of 1918, the Marines had broken the back of the Germans powerful spring offensive. Their ferocity had earned them the nickname Teufelshunde--Devil Dogs--from their enemies; it also won such admiration from their allies that the French government changed the name of Belleau Wood to Bois de la Brigade de Marine.

The Devil Dogs at Belleau Wood recreates the drama of the battle for Belleau Wood as it was experienced by those who were there. Drawing on numerous firsthand accounts of the month-long engagement, the book captures the spirit of the Leathernecks in desperate battle. It offers a harrowing look at a critical campaign in which, as one soldier says, "men were being mowed down like wheat." And, amidst the carnage and cruelty, it tells the very human story of camaraderie and courage that carried the day.

Rich with the personal insights and observations that bring history to life, the book is illustrated with a great number of photographs, many of which are rare and never before published.

Genres: Military Fiction, History, World War I, Nonfiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Colonel Richard D. "Dick" Camp Jr., a Purple Heart recipient, served 26 years in the U.S. Marine Corps before retiring in 1988. Upon retirement he served as the Deputy Director, U.S. Marine Corps History Division (he was Acting Director for most of 2006) and as the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, Vice President for Museum Operations at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, Quantico, Virginia. Currently residing in Fredericksburg, Virginia, he is the author of ten books and over 100 magazine articles on various military related subjects.

Reviews

[John Nellis]

A Marine history of the battle of Belleau Wood. The book has a lot of first person accounts. I found the pictures and drawings of the battle very good. One drawback to the book was a lack of good maps. This book is mostly an oral type history, and doesn't go into a lot of details. I found it a good read .

[Ron Wroblewski]

A Great review of the famous battle in USMC history. Plenty of pictures to show how gruesome the battle was & how high the casualties were.

[archive ☄]

dull-eyed, resigned, lacking the courage to go forward or back, yet we clung desperately to that rocky edge of the woods. it seemed to be all we had left in the world... we would not give it up.

105 years tomorrow...! d-day seems to get the lion's share of attention for june 6 (and with good reason) but let's not forget the tremendous sacrifice asked of so many young american men at belleau wood, most of them just kids, "terribly reckless fellows" as the germans called them, with nowhere to go but forward, through the wheat...

[Evan]

After reading Robert Coram's Brute: The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine, I wanted to learn more about the history of the Marines. The brief history Coram provided made the Marines sound nearly unbelievable. Coram pointed to 5 battles that signified the valor and tenacity of U.S. Marines:
1) the Battle of Belleau Wood (WWI)
2) the Battle at Gaudacanal (WWII)
3) the Retreat from the Chosin Reservoir (Korean War)
4) the Siege of Khe Sanh (Vietnam War)
5) the Second Battle of Fallujah (Iraqi War)

In my pursuit to read more about each of these engagements, I started with This Kind of War: The Classic Military History of the Korean War, which emphasized the superior training and will of the Marines compared to other US military branches.

I next read Last Stand at Khe Sanh: The U.S. Marines' Finest Hour in Vietnam which demonstrated the mental toughness of the Marines to withstand 4 months of artillery bombardment on isolated hills.

Next, I read a couple of Pat O'Donnell books about Marines at Fallujah (We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder with the Marines Who Took Fallujah) and another account of Marines in the Korean War (Give Me Tomorrow: The Korean War's Greatest Untold Story) which emphasized the loyalty Marines have to each other.

This book by Dick Camp blew me away. One commander started the day with 100o men and ended it with over 700 casualties. There were companies that were reduced to less than 10 men. The losses were staggering, but US Marines continued to assault and capture machine gun nests that were covered by other machine guns. And so, the Marines stopped the German Offensive that was 20 miles from Paris.

[Marco Subias]

Excellent account of the training and combat experience of the US Marines at Belleau Woods. The photos add depth to this historical narrative.

[Tyson]

Excellent book that gives a great account of the events that lead to the awe that surrounds the US Marine Corps and their Devil Dog namesake.

I really enjoyed learning about the events that formed the Battalions and the methods they trained on before joining the action in France. Lots of first person accounts and meticulously detailed on many minor points. The perfect place to start when researching about The Great War.

[Fredrick Danysh]

A history of the Battle of Belleau Woods during World War I featuring the involvement of the United States Marines. This was the battle that brought the Marine Corps to the world's attention as a determined elite fighting force and earned them the tile of Devil Dogs.