The book was written as a companion volume for the authors most recent work, Bayonets and Bougainvilleas. In this volume the author presents the verbatim text of two major source documents for that work; his fathers ORAL HISTORY and his mothers TRAVEL JOURNAL, with his own added commentary. The HISTORY is the text of General Blakes official interview with Marine Corps historian Benis Frank covering the Generals Marine Corps career 1917-1949. The JOURNAL is the transcript of journal entries and letters written by the authors mother during travels abroad and in the USA from 1931 to 1941. The authors commentary weaves his mothers words into a continuous narrative covering the Blakes twenty-three year married life. Taken as a whole the book offers and unusual picture of military life in the separate words of the husband and the wife.

Profusely illustrated by contemporary photographs and numerous maps, the narrative supplemented by a number of first hand accounts; the whole is supported by several walking and car tours. BELLEAU WOOD The Battle of Belleau Wood has a prominent place in the history of the United States Marine Corps; it took place between 6 and 27 June 1918 (sometimes considered to be 1-26 June). However, when on 6 June 1918 the marines launched their attack on the wood, the biggest German threat here was nearly over. Its significance to the Corps is underlined by the presence not only of a monument to the 4th (Marine) Brigade of the US 2nd Division but also by a preserved part of the wood, which is situated to the rear of the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery. The fighting here marks the first major battle by the USMC in Europe. The battle came – although the participants were unaware of this – at the end of the the third great German offensive of Spring 1918, the Blucher-York Offensive, also known as the 3rd Battle of the Aisne, which was launched on 27 May and officially ended on 4 June. Like its predecessors that Spring, an offensive which had started with startling territorial gains had almost ground to a halt by the time that the 2nd Division, and thus the marines, were called in to assist the French Sixth Army in holding the line and in retaking, where possible, crucial positions. What started out as preventing the Germans from breaking through the French lines and pushing on to Paris ended in a three-weeks long slogging match in and around Belleau Wood. It was on French General Duchêne’s instigation that the woods were attacked; but in reality the marines could have just held the line and been satisfied with that. As it was, they were flung into action with little time to prepare. The fighting in Belleau Wood was extremely brutal and involved several attacks and counter-attacks; neither side was willing to yield an inch of the terrain of a feature that had local strategic significance, particularly to the Germans. Although the offensive locally here came to an end and the initial German threat in the area was nearly overcome, the focal point of the fighting moved to Villers Cotterêts, twenty-five kilometres north-east of Belleau. The Americans were not quite finished when Belleau Wood was finally captured, as the nearby village of Vaux was taken by an army brigade of the 2nd Division in a text book attack on 1 July. The USMC has always had a good ‘publicity machine’ and Belleau Wood was certainly well known to the wider American public in the war years, particularly as it was an early action by a formation of the AEF. Although largely forgotten since the Second World War – the memory perhaps kept alive by the unusual preserved remnant of the battlefield, Belleau Wood’s reputation has been enhanced by increased interest in the war since the turn of the century. Nowadays, the battle is sometimes called a ‘pivotal event in the First World War and an iconic battle in US Marine Corps history’ by several American authors, which some of their European counterparts might regard as somewhat exaggerated. Although there have been several guide books on Belleau Wood published in recent years (a clear indication of American interest in the battle today), what differs in this book is the number of points to visit as well as the clear narrative that precedes the tours section. Not only are many new points of interest explored in Belleau itself, but the surrounding countryside is not forgotten. Headquarters, temporary burial sites and other features are included. The book is profusely illustrated by contemporary photographs and numerous maps, the narrative supplemented by a number of first hand accounts; the whole is supported by several walking and car tours. This is the latest in a series of Battleground books by Maarten Otte on the American Expeditionary Forces, with several more in preparation. The AEF’s performance in the war is relatively little known, not least in the USA; Belleau Wood is one of the few engagements that still carries some resonance. It is fortunate that so many of the AEF’s actions took place in parts of France that have seen little development and are in agricultural or wooded country, which means that traces of their fighting are relatively plentiful.

The battles of Belleau Wood and Soissons in June and July of 1918 marked a turning point in World War I and in the stature of the US Marine Corps, whose fighting proved so critical in repelling the Germans that the French would later rename Belleau “Bois de la Brigade de Marine.” In this book J. Michael Miller, a historian of the Marine Corps and veteran chronicler of battle, takes us to the battlefields of Belleau Wood and Soissons, immersing us in the experience of a single brigade of marines at the forefront of the fighting. Through a close-up look at the doughboys’ singular impact on Allied victory in 1918, his work illuminates America’s bloody sacrifice during World War I. The 4th Marine Brigade at Belleau Wood and Soissons for the first time treats these two battles as one campaign and demonstrates why it is impossible to fully understand one without the other. Miller outlines the company and platoon levels of combat throughout the campaign, establishing a basic tactical understanding of the fighting; he also draws on letters, diaries, memoirs, and interviews to create a vivid and personal reconstruction of the battles. His use of French and German sources, also a first, adds unprecedented insights to this boots-on-the-ground account. The book includes detailed mapping of both battlefields, with a thirty-six-stop guide linking the text with the actual terrain. For each of these stops Miller gives GPS coordinates to provide a virtual tour of the sites he discusses. With its strategic overview and ground-level perspective, Miller’s work suggests a new interpretation and offers a new experience of an iconic moment in American military history—and in the story of the Marine Corps.

In its list of the "Top 10 Badass Marines," Leatherneck magazine declared that Major George W. Hamilton "never asked anyone to do anything he wasn't prepared to do himself...and do better." Indeed, the author of A History of the United States Marine Corps once called Hamilton "the most outstanding Marine Corps hero in World War I." A leader of the first major American assault on June 6, 1918, and the last ranking officer in the American Expeditionary Forces to learn that the war was over, Hamilton remained in the thick of the fighting from start to finish. Although he earned the Distinguished Service Cross, the Navy Cross, the Croix de Guerre, and two Medal of Honor recommendations for his service, Hamilton's fame stalled when he died prematurely in 1922. With this first complete biography, Hamilton takes his rightful place among the first rank of American military heroes.

Preparation -- The plan -- First days -- The 35th Division -- Ending the enfilade -- The Kriemhilde Stellung -- Reorganization -- Breakout -- Victory.

Pierpont Stackpole was a Boston lawyer who in January 1918 became aide to Lieutenant General Hunter Liggett, soon to be commander of the first American corps in France. Stackpole’s diary, published here for the first time, is a major eyewitness account of the American Expeditionary Forces’ experience on the Western Front, offering an insider’s view into the workings of Liggett’s commands, his day-to-day business, and how he orchestrated his commands in trying and confusing situations. Hunter Liggett did not fit John J. Pershing’s concept of the trim and energetic officer, but Pershing entrusted to him a corps and then an army command. Liggett assumed leadership of the U.S. First Army in mid-October of 1918, and after reorganizing, reinforcing, and resting, the battle-weary troops broke through the German lines in a fourth attack at the Meuse-Argonne—accomplishing what Pershing had failed to do in three previous attempts. The victory paved the way to armistice on November 11. Liggett has long been a shadowy figure in the development of the American high command. He was “Old Army,” a veteran of Indian wars who nevertheless kept abreast of changes in warfare and more than other American officers was ready for the novelties of 1914–1918. Because few of his papers have survived, the diary of his aide—who rode in the general’s staff car as Liggett unburdened himself about fellow generals and their sometimes abysmal tactical notions—provides especially valuable insights into command within the AEF. Stackpole’s diary also sheds light on other figures of the war, presenting a different view of the controversial Major General Clarence Edwards than has recently been recorded and relating the general staff’s attitudes about the flamboyant aviation figure Billy Mitchell. General Liggett built the American army in France, and the best measure of his achievement is this diary of his aide. That record stands here as a fascinating and authentic look at the Great War.