Pilgrimage on behalf of one long dead

March 3, 2010, 12:37 pm

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My lifelong fascination with the history and culture of the First World War began as a small boy with stories heard from my grandfather, who had served with the Marine Brigade, 2nd Division AEF, in France. He had been a muleskinner, driving rations and ammunition into the front lines, at times under heavy shellfire, and had [...]

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In Chateau Thierry after the war, a house of perpetual memory and service

March 27, 2010, 5:26 pm

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This pamphlet from 1925, onto which are pressed poppies from the surrounding wheatfields, tells the story of what might be described as “a house of perpetual memory and service” built and maintained by American Methodists in Chateau Thierry in the first years after the war. It is difficult in a phrase or two to describe what such [...]

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The earliest war museum at Belleau Wood

November 3, 2010, 6:00 am

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This early war museum at Belleau Wood, with its collection of gathered and excavated artifacts, was brought together sometime after the war by a farmer from the nearby village of Bussiares, located to the north of Hill 142. Very little is known about him, or his museum. He filled it with artifacts which he collected [...]

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Burial detail, Belleau Wood: an old-timer is laid to rest

April 3, 2011, 8:31 am

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Among the wartime effects of Cpl. Frank W. Dunham of 15th Company, 6th Machine Gun Battalion, are several photographs which he took during the fighting at Belleau Wood in June, 1918. One of the photos shows four Marines carrying a body toward a stand of trees. On the back of the photograph, the scrawled caption in [...]

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Some unusual documents awarded to a Marine officer of the Second Division, AEF

June 7, 2011, 9:47 pm

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Quartermaster Sergeant Wilbur T. Love joined Headquarters Detachment, 6th Machine Gun Battalion at its formation at Quantico in September, 1917, and served with the battalion throughout the war. For his actions at Belleau Wood on June 7-8, 1918, Quartermaster Sgt Love was awarded the Silver Star Citation. His commendation read: “He carried supplies and ammunition into [...]

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An artist’s memoir of Belleau Wood, Soissons and St Mihiel

January 16, 2012, 9:55 pm

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I received a parcel from McFarland Publishers today, containing a memoir of an enlisted US Marine, Louis C. Linn, who served at Belleau Wood, Soissons and St Mihiel. At Belleau Wood with Rifle and Sketchpad. I wrote the chapter introductions and footnotes for the book. I also wrote the following summary and assessment of Linn’s [...]

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A Small Circle of Chums~~ some Marines of 15th Company, 6th Machine Gun Battalion at Belleau Wood: how each of them came to be there, and what followed after . . .

January 29, 2013, 6:15 pm

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A modest cache of letters, photos and medals originally belonging to Cpl. Frank Dunham, USMC (1917-19) offers an evocative glimpse into the wartime experiences of several members of 15th Company, 6th Machine Gun Battalion, during the summer of 1918 at Belleau Wood near the River Marne. There is not enough here for a cohesive narrative, but only isolated clues, [...]