The battle of Belleau Wood : America's indoctrination into 20th century warfare.

Abstract

The battle of Belleau Wood serves as a microcosm of the American experience in the Great War. Several misconceptions surrounding the battle, born largely out of its propaganda value, created a legacy that overshadows the significance of the battle as a baptismal of modern twentieth-century warfare. The experience, unprecedented in the annals of American military history, placed largely inexperienced troops into a situation where poor decisions, inferior tactics and faulty communication methods delayed orders and sent unsuspecting men into a cauldron of chaos and terror. Historians have painted a picture that implies that the battle had epic ramifications in that it halted the German drive on Paris. This myth is born out of the desire of the American Expeditionary Force commanders to obtain a decisive victory on the battlefield. Belleau Wood provided that opportunity and gave birth to a legendary story of American military arms devoid of the dreadfulness and futility that characterizes so much of the fight. These depictions overshadow the horrific nightmares of the fighting that men carried with them through the remainder of their lives. Those terrible sights and sounds baptized participants and an entire nation into the horrors of a new age of warfare. The main focus of this thesis rests largely on first-hand accounts of the fighting at Belleau Wood. Examination of several eye-witness reports and unpublished memoirs and oral histories reveal the true cost which bought in blood the glory that dictates most interpretations of the engagement. This work also assesses human stories behind this epic battle in context to the common myth which depicts the fight simply as the engagement which saved Paris.