The word "Marines" was used in the early dispatches and so much was made of it at home as to give the impression that the United States Marine Corps was fighting this entire series of battles alone.
The Marines who formed a part of the U. The big mistake occurred when the Yanks first joined the battle. Censors carefully deleted the designation of any unit that fought in this sector at the time. Early in the fighting, though, the censors permitted the word "Marine" to be used in connection with the engagement in Belleau Wood. On June 6th they attacked the Germans who were entrenched in Belleau Wood west of the town.
This was a brigade-level affair in which the Marines fought gallantly, clearing the wood of Germans in 20 days of continuous fighting. Our minds were not on Americans at all. Advance German elements had already filtered through the town from the north and held the houses on that side of the stream. When Mowrer and I had gathered sufficient material for a color story, we started back to headquarters itching to get our fingers on the typewriter.
Our Renault had carried us only a short distance when we met the wholly unexpected. It was a dusty flivver containing four men who had either much reason or none at all to be in that locality. They wore the brimmed felt hat of the United States Army. Eventually we picked up the Seventh Battalion, a motorized unit which had been on the road more than eighteen hours, dusty and tired but fired with the desire to "mix it" with the enemy.
Shortly after we left the battalion that night, it had planted its guns in the houses along the south bank of the river to command the two big bridges. Here it fought with great bravery for many days. Naturally, my companion and I lost little time in returning to French headquarters.
