25/6/1918 US Marines clear the Germans from Belleau Wood #1918Live

US marines played their part in halting the Germans’ third offensive this year when they went into battle in the Belleau Wood near the Marne. The Americans have been attacking since then, determined to clear the enemy from the woods. Lacking combat experience, the Americans took heavy casualties but they proved determined fighters and now at last the forest is entirely in their hands, albeit at the cost of nearly 10,000 casualties.

The Allies derive great comfort from the battle. The Americans have shown that they can fight the Germans and are not cowed by losses of the scale encountered in Western Front fighting. On the other side of the hill the battle shakes German morale. Belleau Woods is of no great strategic significance in and of itself but it is a worrying harbinger of things to come. The Americans, largely on their own (although with some French support) have…