This week I researched what life was like in the trenches. For the research, I used the book Eye Deep in Hell: Trench Warfare in World War I by John Ellis. The book focuses on the tactics and daily life of both the Germans and Allies during the war. I wanted to study trench warfare fighting in hopes to understand: What were the tactics used by the doughboys in the war? And what was it like to serve as a doughboy on the front lines during World War I? I did not want to just know the terror of daily life but also, the boredom of everyday life.

Trench warfare is not new to ground warfare. The trenches became even more deadly because of the innovations in artillery, rifles, and machine guns. After the 1^st Battle of the Marne in September 1914 trenches became popular because the Germans wanted to hold at all costs the parts of France and Belgium they had conquered. By the time both sides were done the lines started from the North Sea and ending 475 miles later at the Swiss Border. The Germans held the high ground allowing for a tactical advantage but, they forced the British to live in worse conditions.[1] A common misgiving is that the armies spent all of their time in the trenches. In actuality, all armies followed time in the line, some time in reserve, and a short time resting out of the trenches. A British officer wrote in his diary of his time in the trenches:

I spent 65 days in the front line trenches, 36 more in supporting positions close at hand… In 120 additional days were spent in reserve positions near enough the lines to march up for a day when work or fighting demanded, and 73 days were spent in rest…10 days in Hospital… 17 days… on leave … and days traveling…101 days under twelve ‘tours’ in the trenches varying in length from one to thirteen days.[2]

And the offensives that caused so many casualties only happened very rarely and most never saw the enemy. The British and Germans soldiers differed in the amount of time the units spent in one sector. British troops usually spent more time in a variety of different sectors around a few months. The German troops spent much longer times in one sector and usually spent around four to seven days in trenches.[3] The men moved into the trenches at night to avoid enemy artillery fire after marching fifteen to twenty miles with few breaks. The men on average carried around 70 pounds of gear up to the front.[4] Once the men reached the trenches companies were assigned sectors to watch for enemy patrols and raiding parties. A normal day in the trenches would consist of a ‘stand-to’ in the morning and evening because these were the most likely times for the other side to attack. After the stand-to the rest of the day was divided into guard duty lasting between two to four hours.[5] The evening stand-to would bring more work for the men because one third of them would become sentries, another third would gather up rations and stores, and the last third would either sleep or go on patrol.[6] The trenches became a never ending cycle of activity.

The men on the front-lines not only had to battle the enemy but, natural misery as well. The author of Eye-Deep in Hell sums up the soldiers lives as this “ men lived a life of primitive instincts – fear, hunger, thirst – and with physical extremes, deafening noises, sudden flashes, extreme cold, agonizing pain. Intellect and reason had almost no place”.[7] One of the most common natural enemies was the mud. Mud drowned wounded soldiers trying to get back to their lines for aid. To combat the mud and water in the trenches, men laid down planks called duckboards; this made walking in the trenches extremely hazardous at night causing men would be hit on the face because they stepped on the end of the board. To combat the excess water, men dug sumps which are deep holes for the water to drain into. Soldiers were issued great-coats and these were supposed to protect the men from some of the elements but the coats after a few days in the rain could collect around twenty pounds of water.[8] The wet conditions led to another concern for the soldiers called “trench foot”. This condition was caused by standing in water for long periods of time or not allowing the foot to dry after being immersed in water. Trench foot during the entire war caused 74,711 British troops and this was the second largest admission for any type of condition.[9] To combat trench foot, soldiers soon learned to change their socks and try and keep their feet as dry as possible. One can see from the statistic above that combating trench foot was nearly impossible because of the constant immersion in water in the trenches. Water and mud were not the only problems faced by soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

Another problem in the trenches was the animals and insects. The two most common were rats and lice. One of the most enduring images is the large numbers of dead corpses and the decomposition led to the numerous fat black rats from feasting on the bodies everywhere.  One soldier from Canada remembers about the rats “Huge rats. So big they would eat a wounded man if they couldn’t defend himself.”[10] The rats lived like kings off the bodies in the trenches led to the spread of Well’s disease among the men. Lice also plagued the men caused about 15% of the casualties because they spread trench fever.[11] The fever could cause a man to be off duty from as little as six weeks to three months. The soldiers fought boredom by fighting back the massive hordes of lice in their clothes by picking them off with their fingers or other utensils at hand. The natural misery of combat in the trenches was almost as deadly as the guns of the enemy.

The most common cause of casualties was enemy shells. The shells hit the trenches daily “killing maiming or burying a few unfortunates.”[12] Depending on the day soldiers could expect to either face a short bombardment or an intense one. A short one on average lasted a couple of minutes and could expect on average six shells to land in the trenches. While an intensive shelling could expect to be on the receiving end of about twenty to thirty shells in a minute in a part of a trench.[13] Normally, intensive bombardments came before an assault and a light shelling could take place during an afternoon. A captain described being under shellfire as “Modern warfare…reduces men to shivering beasts. There isn’t a man who can stand shell-fire of a modern kind without getting the blues.”[14] Shelling was a common occurrence but major offensives were quite rare instead, both sides would go out at nightly on patrols and trench raids.

Raids became more popular as the war went on because both high commands saw it as a way to raise morale among the men and gather information on the enemy. The high command thought that it was important to maintain an offensive stance. When an offensive took place the soldiers plunged straight into a massive cauldron of hell because the soldiers charged straight at the machine guns in a frontal assault. The slaughter was caused to outdated thinking by the high command that came to power when the weapons of war were not as deadly and they saw the trenches as a temporary phase of the war. An offensive for the men in the trenches would start with a massive artillery bombardment and then the officers would blow whistles to signal it was time to “go over the top”. A private describes going over the top “It was life rather than death that faded away into the distances, as I grew into a state of not-thinking, not-feeling, not-seeing…They were all shadows, and I was no greater than they. Living or dead, all were unreal.”[15] The casualties from the attacks only chance at surviving a wound would be to get back to the aid station. Casualties could also for the first time suffer from shell shock due to the heavy mental toll fighting in the trenches. Men learned to cope with the horrors as soon as their first experiences in the trenches. Letters from home could instantly raise a soldier’s morale. But the men made great effort to hide the realities of the war to their families. This can be seen in a quote by a French soldier “In these pathetic post-cards, bloodied and dirty, the [soldier] had the supreme nobility of spirit to keep on lying and say: resting for a long time, nothing is happening, looking forward to seeing you.”[16]Another favorite pastime in the trenches was gambling. The Americans were more prone to gamble because of the large amounts of money they to blow. Mostly, the US troops played craps or dice. There were many other rest and relaxation things for the troops out of the trenches.

Out of the horrific circumstances led to the men under fire grew to love each other and become closer than brothers. This meant that men from the same platoons or companies were willing to lay down their lives in order to protect their mates. This bond was something that civilians had no understanding of. This still persists in modern militaries today when they go off to war. And still today, staff officers are disliked due to disconnect with the soldiers in the line. This will continue into the future and for as long as wars will go on.

Next week. I plan on starting and finishing the 2^nd Marne. This is because he was only in the battle for two days before he was killed. Also, the interview needs to be conducted with my uncle and I plan on doing that. The interview will be about any information known about his family and what the man was like. This is going to be used to gain insight into his life before he joined the Marine Corp.

[2] John Ellis, page 29.

[3] John Ellis, page 30.

[4] John Ellis, page 33.

[5] John Ellis, page 38.

[6] John Ellis, page 38-39.

[7] John Ellis, page 44.

[8] John Ellis, page 48.

[9] John Ellis, page 49.

[10] John Ellis, page 54.

[11] John Ellis, page 57.

[12] John Ellis, page 61.

[13] John Ellis, page 63.

[14] John Ellis, page 63.

[15] John Ellis, page 102.

[16] John Ellis, page 139.

This week for research, I wanted to find out about the ending of the battle of Belleau Wood as well finding personal stories from both Belleau Wood and the 2^nd Marne.  Also, I wanted to start researching the battle of the 2^nd Marne. For the ending of the battle of Belleau Wood I used the book Miracle at Belleau Wood by Alan Axelrod and for the personal recollections I used American Voices of World War I: Primary Source Document 1917-1920 edited by Martin Marix Evans. And for the research on the battle of the 2^nd Marne, I used Over There: The United States in the Great War 1917-1918 by Byron Farwell. The research questions I wanted to answer are: How did the Battles of Belleau Wood and the Second Battle of the Marne participate in ending the war? And, what was it like to serve as a doughboy on the front lines during World War I?

This week I learned about the ending of the battle of Belleau Wood. The men on the line had been in battle for over a week and had grown quite used to the whine of the shells and could tell if the shells were incoming or outgoing. On June 13^th, General Harbourd decided to give the marines a break from combat and be relieved by Major Holcomb’s regiment. The relief was going to take place at 5 o’clock later that night. Both regiment commanders set off to take a tour of the lines and the lines were shelled. Holcomb asked Wise “is this celebration due to my arrival?” and Wise replied “No…This is only routine.” [1] The shells continued through most of the night until the Germans started using gas shells. An eyewitness to the battle, who also had a good ear for incoming artillery recalled about the gas shells:

They hit with a thud and no detonation my fears were confirmed. Soon I smelled the gas, and I gave the alarm to the men, and they all put on their masks. There was by this time a steady stream of incoming shells-gas, air bursts, and high explosives. I reached for my gas mask, but it wasn’t there. Naturally, I was petrified. [2]

One can only imagine trying to pull on a gas mask while other shells burst around causing even more fear because the gas settles in low areas, such as trenches and foxholes, forcing the men to leave the shelter of the trenches. If a marine was unfortunate to not get their mask on in time, they were subject to blistering on human tissue membrane especially the nose, throat and lungs. The chemicals reacted to the moisture in the lungs and the chemicals turned the lungs into brown crud. The brown crud would cause the marine to drown in the liquid in their lungs or coughed up their lungs. [3] Because many of the marines were green replacements and had received little training in using the gas masks led to a large amount of casualties. Even if, the men put the gas masks on in time the gas clung to the marine’s clothes causing slow, blistering burns over many parts of the body.[4] The total marine casualties because of gas were about 800 men in and around Belleau Wood.[5] The marines faced gas attacks the next two days on the 14^th and 15^th. The marines were so pressed for men that they could not effectively clear the rest of the woods. Harbourd became upset with Wise because Wise believed he no longer had the man power because over half the battalion had become casualties. Wise was relieved of command of the 6^th Marine Regiment because of his supposed loss of will to fight. “Honest” Clifton Cates wrote home on June 18^th “when I look out at the few men left I really cry – I am the only officer out of two companies – one good platoon. I didn’t realize how I loved the old bunch till it had been broken up.”[6] The Germans were still in the fight because they were able to reinforce the men in the woods by the northeast where they still had a large force. The Marines thought that they were only fighting “forty to sixty Germans with several machine guns positioned on a small of the north end of the woods.”[7] The Germans were thinned because of death, wounds, and malnutrition and exhaustion. Malnutrition and exhaustion made the soldiers susceptible to the Spanish influenza. This caused problems for army regiment because they had not seen combat in the war. On June 20^th, the 7^th Infantry made an attack but it had to be aborted because of the mass confusion caused by disorientation. Also, English speaking Germans infiltrated American lines by donned uniforms.[8] Harbourd blamed the infantry for failing because of their officer’s inexperience.  This led to the 3^rd Battalion of the 5^th Marines under command by Major Maurice Shearer. Another eyewitness to the attack describes the fighting after the marines got to the top of the hill and the Germans opened up on them

just then we all seemed to go crazy for we gave a yell like a bunch of wild Indians and started down the hill running and cursing in the face of the machine-gun fire. Men were falling on every side, but we kept going, yelling, and firing as we went. How any of us got through the murderous machine gun fire were putting up I will never be able to figure out…The wheat was high enough to make good shooting and when we would hit one he would jump in the air like a rabbit and fall.[9]

Shearer’s battalion had been completely destroyed in the previous battles but still the marines attacked like banshees. Finally, after heavy fighting all through the night of June 25-26 ended the next morning and Shearer sent a message to Harbourd “Belleau Woods now U.S Marine Corps entirely.”[10] Now only mopping up operations continued in the woods but the land had been won. On June 30^th, General Degoutte of the French 6^th Army sent General Harbourd a message stating “in all official papers the Bois de Belleau shall be named Bois de la Brigade de Marine.”[11] This once again caused General Pershing became unhappy because the marines garnered all the attention. Army high command tried to change the name of the wood back to Belleau Wood but was unsuccessful. But, the high command would get the “last laugh” and after the war “entered into the combat history of the AEF as nothing more than a local engagement, not a battle in itself, but only a phase of the defense of the Aisne-Marne sector.”[12] The battle has had a mixture of reactions after the war. General Bullard believed that the marines did not win the war but saved the Allies from defeat.[13] Another prominent commander in American military history, General Matthew Ridgeway thought “Belleau wood should be added to the tragic gallery of prize examples of men’s lives being thrown away for against objectives not worth the cost.”[14] The entire 2^nd division lost 217 officers and 9,560 men between June 1^st and July 10^th. The 4^th Marine Brigade lost 126 officers and 5,057 men, killed or wounded and German losses are even harder to calculate but, they are thought to be much higher.[15] The battle may not have played a major part in the war but it was in this battle the modern Marine Corp’s reputation was born as the nation’s elite fighting force. The legend of the Marine Corp is something that neither the army nor the navy can claim. The woods claimed so many lives that when Lieutenant Colonel Wise was asked by his wife “How are the Marines?”

He replied “There aren’t any more Marines”[16]

Next time I plan on writing about the battle of the 2^nd Marne. And over break, I will conduct the interview with my uncle to find out about John Kochis. Also, I want to write about what it was like to live in the trenches and the fight everyday it took to survive.  I am having trouble finding information about marine involvement in the 2^nd Marne because most document the armies part in it.

[2] Axelrod, page 216.

[3] Axelrod, page 217.

[4] Axelrod, page 218.

[5] Axelrod, page 218.

[6] Axelrod, page 222.

[7] Axelrod, page 222.

[8] Axelrod, page 223.

[9] Martin Marix Evans, American Voices of World War I: Primary Source
Documents 1917-1918 (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2001), page 83.

[10] Alan Axelrod, Miracle at Belleau Wood (Guilford: Lyons Press, 2007),
page 226.

[11] Alan Axelrod, page 226.

[12] Alan Axelrod, page 226.

[13] Alan Axelrod, page 227.

[14] Alan Axelrod, page 227.

[15] Alan Axelrod, page 228.

[16] Alan Axelrod, page 228.

This week for research, I continued researching the battle of Belleau Wood to understand the events after June 6, 1918. I continued to use the book Miracle at Belleau Wood by Alan Axelrod.  And I looked at the stories from Why Marines Fight by James Brady. Last week I talked about the beginning days of the battle. This week I decided to use the book Why Marines Fight because I thought it would help me understand why young men charged the trenches in France and give me a firsthand account of the battle. I really wanted to answer the research question: Why John Kochis decided to enlist in the Marines? And I wanted to research some personal stories during the battle of Belleau Wood

This week I learned more about the furious fighting after June 6^th till the end of the battle. Also, I learned about the world’s reaction to the battle. After the opening stage of the battle on June 6^th, General Harbord began receiving information about the previous days fighting. Though he did not see the personal struggle of the battle, he did see the big picture. Harbord believed “it was a struggle for psychological mastery. He conceded the stage was small- no more than a patch of French forestland- but the audience was the world of 1918.”[1] The whole world saw the same big picture of the events in the woods because of couple of reporters writing from the front lines. The reporters were facing the same horrors of the battle as the marines. The marines definitely felt the eyes of the world on them because it was the first major action for the AEF. But the marines had “the knowledge that they fought upon a world stage but had to deal death just yards or feet or inches away.”[2] That was the situation going into the 7^th of June for the marines. After the first day of battle, many of the newspapers claimed a great victory against the German army. In reality there was still nineteen more days before complete victory could be claimed.   Even on June 6^th, the first day of battle, headlines from Chicago Daily Tribune read:

U.S. MARINES SMASH HUNS

GAIN GLORY IN BRISK FIGHT ON THE MARNE

CAPTURE MACHINE GUN, KILL BOCHES, TAKE PRISONERS[3]

These sensationalized led people to believe the fight was not the mass confusion that it actually was. The reason for the headlines was twofold. First, the reporters for the AEF had very little good news on the contribution of the US soldiers because of their limited contribution so far. The second was that General Pershing had in place strict censorship. This meant that reporters could not use the unit names, sizes, and other important things that would give a unit identity.[4] A story could not read US 2^nd “Rainbow” Division from New York held back the Huns at… The reporters argued that because the marines were not under the army, they should be able to use the title of marine. This gave the world an eschewed view of the units in the battle; giving all the accolades to the marines, when small amounts of the personal in the entire AEF were marines.[5] The extravagant headlines helped the marines in recruiting. The New York Times reported three days after the start of the battle “application of service for the Marine Corp increased more than 100 percent.”[6] In a few days after the end of Belleau Wood, Congress authorized the expansion of the Marine Corp from around 15,000 men to 3,017 officers and 75,7500 men. Also, the battle wiped away any thought by Congress to get rid of the Corp.

After a few days of intense fighting, the marines in the woods drew activity from the slightest movement. This made it very hard to evacuate the wounded. Most had to be evacuated at night and the dead, both German and American, were left where they fell. On June 7^th, there were no attacks made by the marines. Instead they straightened their lines to ensure there were no breaks or gaps to allow the Germans to slip through. Harbord thought the fighting of the previous day cleared had cleared the Germans out of the woods. The thought that the Germans had been cleared out of the woods had been shattered on June 8^th, another day of hectic fighting. The whole day, the marines moved through horrendous machine gun fire. Colonel Catlin of the 6^th Marines wrote “The most effective of capturing an enemy machine gun was to run to the rear of each gun in turn. But in Belleau Wood, each flanking position was covered by another machine gun.”[7] The machine gun fire was so intense because the marines thought that the battle was practically over and that they had pushed the Germans out of the woods. After a couple of days the marines became killers. An eyewitness to the battle remembered “It was hell. Young folks like we were, weren’t automatic killers. But Belleau Wood was the first time; that’s when we knew we were going to have to kill people-and we did. It went on and on and on.”[8] On June 10^th, Allies started the day with a massive artillery bombardment in order to soften the German trenches for the marines advance. The bombardment had only limited effect because the fuses on the shells were for direct contact with the ground. The shells were hitting the trees in the forest causing the shells to explode up in the tree tops. The German positions were hit with shrapnel and tree parts but the troops were down deep in well prepared positions deep within the earth. Thus, the most of the German troops escaped being killed or even wounded. The barrage gave the American commanders great hope that the German resistance in the woods had been destroyed. The woods provided other difficulties with the contact of units. In companies, platoons were often out of contact and this led to the chances of friendly fire. The marines were “acting on their own and in whatever isolated groups could be assembled, the marines kept moving forward. It was a fragmented attack, even a shattered attack. Yet it was an attack.”[9] On June 11^th the marines faced numerous setbacks as well as fierce resistance, but the fighting quality of the individual marines turned the battle and took a terrible toll on the Germans.

Unfortunately the book Why Marines Fight was not particularly useful this week, it gave me hope that I could use this book in the future to describe the effects on the battle on individual marines.  Next week, I plan on finally finishing the battle of Belleau Wood and learn about the aftermath of the battle. Also, I want to start researching the beginning of battle of the Second Marne.  Also, I need to draft interview questions in order to conduct my interview with my uncle to learn more about the man, John Kochis.

[2] Axelrod, page 172.

[3] Axelrod, page 179.

[4] Axelrod, page 180.

[5] Axelrod, page 180.

[6] Axelrod, page 181.

[7] Axelrod, page 187.

[8] James Brady, Why Marines Fight (New York: St. Martin’s Press, n.d.),
page 234.

[9] Alan Axelrod, Miracle at Belleau Wood (Guilford: Lyons Press, 2007),
page 198.

Research Update 5

This week for research I began researching the events of the battle of Belleau Wood to understand the events that unfolded beginning on June 6, 1918 and lasting till June 28, 1918. I continued to use the book from last week to learn about the battle.  The book Do you want to live forever by Richard Suskind.  And I started reading the book Miracle at Belleau Wood by Alan Axelrod. Last week I detailed the events leading up to the battle. I really wanted to answer my research questions:  What were the tactics used by the “doughboys” in the war? And I wanted to answer how did the Battle of Belleau Wood contribute to the end of the war?

Some things I learned this week were quite remarkable in the terms of the marine’s bravery under fire. Also, I found out that this battle is really hard to follow the flow of it because of how ferocious the fighting was and this lead to no one marine having the big picture of the events. On June 3^rd was the closest the German army was to Paris since August of 1914. Also, the Germans were frustrated with being pushed back. At the end of May of 1918, the entire French front was in jeopardy of being overrun and the Germans taking Paris. But slowly the German advance was slowly being pushed back and the center of the German drive was where they were pushed back the most and this was done by the marines. This led to the battle of Belleau Wood because the marines were sent to hold the line against ferocious German attacks. On June 2, the German army had “by eleven that night Corps Conta had stabbed deeply through Belleau Wood – that small tangle of hunting preserve that would serve whoever possessed it as a natural fortress”[i].  Also, with the gains of the day the German army took control of Hill 126 giving them a good commanding view of the entire battlefield. The hills get their name by the elevation of the hill in meters. So Hill 126, the 126 is the elevation in meters. The next day the French launched a counterattack which failed to regain the ground lost but it did buy the marines’ time in order to take over the lines from the French forces. The lack of communication caused great problems and forced the marines to move “left and right in order to plug the gaps – and also straight ahead, to back up the crumbling French”[ii].  With the French falling back, the commander ordered the marines under his command to retreat and the Marine Captain Williams uttered: “Retreat, hell! We just got here”[iii]. Allied commanders agreed that the woods must be taken in order to get rid of the German threat to the lines, and if the lines were in trouble, Paris could fall, and with the fall of Paris the war might not end but it would not end with how the Allies wanted it to end.[iv] This would be the first time that the Americans were under serious artillery bombardment as well as seeing the German army the first time. The Germans and Americans militaries fought in completely different ways. The Germans had a blind obedience for following orders while the Americans gave their commanders an in depth orientation of the objectives which was passed down to the men. [v] The men got a taste of the German discipline because on June 3, they attacked the marines three times and were turned back due to the marines’ accurate fire. This was because during basic training the instructors taught the recruits to “to fire slower, looking for his man, and making sure they hit their target”.[vi]

After a couple days under fire, on June 6^th, the marines attacked the German positions. The woods were only lightly shelled before the marines went over the top due to the belief that the woods were only lightly held and this led to only a light barrage before the marines went over the top.[vii] The marines attacked the German lines in four waves. This was the doctrine of the Allies earlier in the war that the Americans were taught. The thinking was that the first three waves would be taken out by the Germans and the fourth would take the trench.[viii] It was this tactic that lead to 30 million causalities on both sides of the war. The plan by the Allies for the battle of Belleau Wood was that the French 167^th Division would take the heights of the south of the Clingon River while the marines would take Hill 142, thus denying the Germans the chance to bring suppressive fire onto the advancing French. The 2^nd phase of the battle would have the American 2^nd Division take the ridge over Belleau with elements advancing through the woods. And then they would capture the German held town of Bourches, which is east of Belleau Wood.[ix] The marines attacked early on the morning of the 6^th with everything going to plan until the Germans met them with withering fire. The fire inflicted many casualties by the German machine guns “firing at their full five hundred rounds per minute, literally filled the air with flying metal, and they aimed so low that some of the marines hugging the ground- the lucky ones- had their combat packs torn to shreds”[x] One can only imagine the fear the marines felt as they begun their attack on the German lines but still the marines advanced through a wheat field until they were close enough to begin fighting hand to hand with the bayonets. Around Hill 142, the marines faced little resistance due to the fact the Germans were unprepared for a fight for the hill. The marines captured the hill with relative ease but had to hold the position against unrelenting counterattacks by one of the best units in the German army. All the companies of the 5^th Marines were mixed on the hill but they held until the Germans had no unit left to attack against the weakened marine position. The casualty figures of the fight show the ruthlessness of it.

Between June 4^th and that moment the 197^th German Division had lost two thousand men killed or wounded. The 273^rd Regiment of this division had alone suffered more than four hundred casualties, all before noon on June 6^th on Hill 142. All the reserves of the 197^th had been committed at dawn of this day, and, having failed to defeat the marines from the German 5^th Guard and from the 273^rd Regiment. All had beaten themselves senseless against a wall that was the U.S. Marines. To be sure, the marines, themselves reeling, were vulnerable now, but the Germans had nothing left to attack with.[xi]

The marines had made very small gains on the first days of the intense fighting. This battle would bring the world to understand the tenacity and the ferociousness of the Unites States Marine Corp.

Next week I plan on researching the rest of the battle and continue reading Axelrod’s book as well as begin to look at what makes a person join the Marine Corp by looking at a few stories from the book Why Marines Fight by James Brady.

[ii] Axelrod, pg 85.

[iii] Richard Suskind, Do You Want to Live Forever! (New York: Bantam Books,
1964), page 39.

[iv] Alan Axelrod, Miracle at Belleau Wood (Guilford: Lyons Press, 2007), pg 38.

[v] Axelrod, pg 99.

[vi] Axelrod, pg 99

[vii] Richard Suskind, Do You Want to Live Forever! (New York: Bantam Books,
1964), page 49.

[viii] Suskind, 53.

[ix] Alan Axelrod, Miracle at Belleau Wood (Guilford: Lyons Press, 2007), pg 107.

[x] Richard Suskind, Do You Want to Live Forever! (New York: Bantam Books,
1964), page 54.

[xi] Alan Axelrod, Miracle at Belleau Wood (Guilford: Lyons Press, 2007), pg 128.

Research Week 4

This week for research, I began reading the book “Do You Want to Live Forever!” by Richard Suskind. The book in great detail focuses on the Battle of Belleau Wood as well as the events leading up to the Marine involvement in the horrific fighting. I read this book because I hoped it would answer some basic research questions about the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) before it went into battle on June 6, 1918. As well I hoped that the fighting would be described in detail so I could try and understand the hell that the young men called doughboys faced.

Some things I learned about the about the situation between the Allies during the war was that the French and the British did not want the AEF to be formed. What they had hoped was that the Americans to feed replacements to the Allied armies in order to replace the horrific losses the British and French took during the four years of fighting.  “They looked upon the United States as a sort of gigantic supply depot from which they could draw endless amounts of cannon fodder to replenish their own depleted armies. David Lloyd George, the British Prime Minister, wanted the Americans fed singly into his divisions; Georges Clemenceau, the French Prime Minister, was willing to accept them by companies and battalions. Neither wanted an American Army, for its presence on the battlefield would automatically give the United States a seat at the conference table when the war was over and spoils divided, and they sharply distrusted President Wilson’s idealistic approach to world affairs.” Also, the troops coming from the United States having the very basic of basic training with manuals dating back from the Civil War. The Allied ambassadors “argued why build up an American Army? The French and British had been engaged in the greatest war in history for nearly four years; they had the organization, the staff, and above all the experience. Why not let them run the show? Besides the United States had not had an army worthy of the name since Appomattox, had fought nothing since then but the comic-opera campaigns in Central America, China, and the Philippines, and would waste crucial months building a force capable of meeting the Kaiser’s gray-clad veterans on equal terms.” Wilson laid down the terms that the US would fight as a separate force of the Allies but the final decision on how the AEF would be used in battle and when would be left up to General John Pershing.

The German army had other ideas and would not let the Americans tip the balance on the Western Front. During the winter of 1917-1918, General Erich Lunderoff started preparing one major effort that would take place before the AEF could mass sufficient numbers to tip the numbers in the Allied favor. The chance of success for the German Army was quite high because of success earlier in the war along the Italian and Eastern Front. With Russia out of the war and dealing with internal conflict, the German army began transferring thousands of battle hardened veterans from the Eastern Front to Western Front. Also German staff predicted “that the United States would be unable to deliver more than 15 untrained divisions to Europe before the spring of 1918-too little, Lunderoff calculated, and too late to save the Allies.” This transfer would be the only time during the entire war that the German Army outnumbered the Allies. The German plan was to use their advantage in numbers to split the Allied armies, to push the British back to the English Channel and then focus on destroying the French. The German used speed and massed assaults on the trenches. This tactic was developed by General Huiter on the Eastern Front. The tactics worked so well that by March 21st, the German Army had advanced 35 miles along a 60 mile front.

The AEF was becoming a massive army with around a ½ a million men in France, but out of all those men, there were only four ready divisions. The training the men of the AEF received consisted of hours of intensive bayonet training and lectures by British and French experts on grenades, machine guns, mortars, and other weapons needed to wage modern war. Also they participated in division wide maneuvers in the countryside outside Paris.  The AEF was anything but preparing for combat. While waiting for the chance to prove themselves in combat the men were building warehouses, storage plants, barracks, piers, unloaded ships, dredged harbors, repaired railroad tracks, and strung telegraph and telephone lines, as well as participating in a few minor trench raids. But generally the men had no idea what the ugly face of ground combat. But after 13 months of doing construction work overseas, the men of the 5^th and 6^th Marines as well as the 9^th and 23^rd Infantry were going to war. On May 30^th the front was in danger in so many places that the generals had no idea where to send the “doughboys”. “By the time these orders were transmitted to the brigade, regiment, and battalion level, entire units were either lost, separated, or both. The Marines were different from the other soldiers in the AEF with 60% of the Marines were college men. The officers and high ranking non-commissioned officers knew each other because of serving together in the campaigns in Mexico and Central America. Also, some of the older veterans had fought in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War and during the insurrection after. Some veterans had seen service in China during the Boxer Rebellion during the earlier part of the 20^th century.

The stage was set for the AEFs “baptism of fire” on the Western Front during the last months of the First World War.

Research Update 3

This week for my semester long project on John Kochis, I focused on researching the Marines.  I wanted to research the Marines in order to gain a perspective on this legendary fighting force that has fought in every one of our nation’s conflict dating back to the Revolution. Also, I wanted to research the Marines to maybe understand why John Kochis chose to enlist in the Marines during World War I. I got some basic information on the Marines from the official Marines website. The Marines have been since before the birth of our country. In on November 10, 1775 the Continental Congress passed a resolution stating the raising of two battalions to serve as an amphibious force for the Continental Navy. In Tun’s Tavern, the Marines started recruiting volunteers and were ready for combat in 1776. During the Revolution the Marines fought in many battles including the first amphibious landing in the Bahamas in March.  After the passing of the Treaty of Paris in April of 1783, the Navy and the Marines were disbanded. It was not until 1805, the Marines saw their next serious action participating in fighting with the Barbary Pirates. The pirates were raiding American merchant ships and the US refused to continue pay them to stop.  President Jefferson ordered the Marines to assemble an expeditionary force. The force marched 600 miles across the Libyan Desert and successfully stormed a heavily defended fort.  The assault on the fort helped rescue American sailors taken captive by the pirates as well as helped the rightful heir to the throne of Tripoli. Also in the so called Battle of Derna was the first battle on foreign soil for the Marines. Still the Marines were forging their legacy in the War of 1812 in the defense of Washington as well as participating in the Battle of New Orleans under General Andrew Jackson. The next major action the Marines served in was the Mexican American War in the Battle of Chapultepec with the storming of castle. This battle severely disarmed the Mexican allowing the US military to march to victory in the Mexican American War. Still they were not done, next fighting in the Civil War. Most saw action as part of the Union blockading force at Cape Hatteras, New Orleans, Fort Fisher, and Charleston.  They also took part in some of the land action fighting mainly at Bull Run early in the war. During the later part of the 1800s, the Marines saw action in the Philippines and shortly after defeating the insurrection, they joined an international force to quell the Boxer Rebellion.

While the Marines participated in all of the nation’s early conflicts, it was not until the early 20^th century they earned international fame. During the First World War, their most famous battle was in a forest named Belleau Wood, which would earn them their famous nick-name “Teufelhunden” or Devil Dog.  It was after 20 days of intense combat that the German survivors, battered and exhausted, would bestow the Marines, one of their more famous names for their skill in combat as their relentlessness.  One the official Marine website there is a video of Marines in World War I that I would like to incorporate into my website if at all possible.

Next week, I plan on researching more on the rest of the history of the Marines after World War I. Also, I plan on forming a basic list of interview questions to ask my uncle. And I plan on beginning my research on the specific battles that John Kochis participated in.

Research Update 2

This week for research on the life of John Kochis, I have checked out some books from the local and Stevenson libraries. This week I found out that he served in the 95^th company of the 6^th Marines. Also, I did some preliminary research on Wikipedia and found out that the 6^th Marines were deployed to France from September to October 1917 and fought in Aisne, Aisne-Marne, St. Mihiel, and Meuse-Arogonne. As well as participating in a series of defensive campaigns at Touln-Troyon, Chateau-Thierry, Marabache, and Limey. Through Wikipedia, I also found out that the Marines were assigned to 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division of the United States Army. During all the fighting they participated in some of the most famous American battles in the battle of Belleau Wood and Meuse-Argonne Offensive.  It was during the Aisne-Marne, the Battle of Belleau Wood took place, and it has been considered one of the most ferocious battles in US history. But in 1917, the United States military consisted of a mere 100,000 men and the Marines were considered the best-trained but the Corp only had 15,000 men in entirety. The military was woefully unprepared to enter the killing fields of the trenches on the Western Front.

Some information I received from my Uncle about John Kochis. He was born on the 6^th of November, 1893 in Murray City, Ohio. Murray City is located in Hocking County. Then he enlisted in 10 June, 1917 in Akron, Ohio.  Then on June 15, 1917, he was assigned to the 95^th company in Quantico, Virginia and was shipped off to France and arrived in France on October 7, 1917 and served with the Marines until his death on June 19, 1918.

I also did some researching on how America got involved in the war. In the 1910’s America strictly was an isolationist country preferring to stay neutral than side on either the Allies or the Central Powers. The Allies consisted of Great Britain, France, Russia, Japan and after 1915, Italy. The Central Powers consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungry and the Ottoman Empire. World War I started on June 28, 1914 with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and Princess Sophie of Austria-Hungry by Gavrilo Princip, a member of assassins called the Black Hand. Other factors of that started the war was during the late 19^th and early 20^th century, the countries of Europe participated in extreme militarism and industrialization. As well as an alliances system that sparked a conflict that the world was not prepared for in terms of destruction and death.  America chose to sit behind the oceans and allow European affairs to stay in Europe. After three years of watching from over the ocean in 1917, America chose to declare war on Germany. President Woodrow Wilson chose to ask Congress for a declaration of war because of continued submarine attacks on civilian and merchant ships as well as the Zimmerman telegram. The telegram was between the Germany and Mexico stating if Mexico entered the war on the side of the Central Powers, Germany would help Mexico gain back territory that it had lost in the Mexican American War. On April 2, 1917 Wilson went before a joint-session of Congress to ask for a declaration of war. Thus, America was finally involved.

Next week I plan on researching more of the American involvement to begin to understand why John Kochis decided to serve his country. Also, I plan on beginning to research the battles that he fought in. I plan on focusing most of my time on the Battles of Belleau Wood and the 2^nd Marne, the battle he was killed in. I will also do some basic research on some of the other battles the 6^th Marines fought in order to begin to trace their movement from Quantico to the trenches of the Western Front in order to full understand what John Kochis went through.

Project Prospective

For my semester long research project, I plan on researching my second great uncle John Kochis, who was killed in World War I serving with the Marines. I found about him through my uncle, who is in the process of compiling our genealogy. He asked me to do some research for him on the battles he was involved in due to my interest in military history. Even though my family has many interesting figures, who fought in the many different wars our country has been involved in, John Kochis stands out. Since my family was involved in the First World War, it has immensely sparked my interest on the topic since most people know very little about the war because America was only involved for such a short time period. World War I has always interested me ever since my family walked some of the more famous battle sites of the Somme and Ypres. Even though these battles were fought before America was involved in the war, seeing them made me even more interested in the struggle that all service men during the war suffered. In killing two birds with one stone, I want to help my uncle in his quest to further his research and to fulfill my personal interest in the Great War.

What I already know about my topic is only the basics on the conflict and of the battles in which John Kochis was involved. Thanks to my uncle, I know the unit he fought with. He served in the 95^th company of the 6^th Marines Regiment. He fought in some of the more notable battles of World War I, most notably the Battle of the Belleau Wood and the Second Battle of the Marne in which he was killed. Through personal reading, I also know how the conflict started.

The most logical step would be to contact my uncle to find out any stories he might have heard from my great grandfather to try and find out more about John Kochis. Also, I might try to talk to my mom to see if she knows anything about him as well. I should also begin my research on American involvement particularly the Marine’s part in the conflict. I plan on starting with the books in my possession to give me a basic understanding and find out more about the key players in the fighting. This part of the project should not be hard because of the many secondary sources written about the battles in which he fought. The secondary sources will give me a picture of the difficulties faced by the average dough boy on the front lines. The harder part will be finding primary sources, but maybe several of the databases that the school is involved in  might help me out in that area. Another hard part might be finding out about John Kochis because of the little information that we know of him. Maybe my uncle has some letters or a journal passed down but that might be difficult because a lot of the old letters I saw, when I visited him in Arizona over Christmas break, were written in Slovenian. This will be the most time consuming and will be the most rewarding if anything is found about John and maybe I will learn the motives for why he decided to fight for this country.

Research Questions:

1. What was it like to serve as a doughboy on the front lines during World War I?
2. How did the Battles of Belleau Wood and the Second Battle of the Marne participate in ending the war?
3. What were the tactics used by the doughboys in the war?
4. Why did John Kochis enlist in the war?
5. What events led to American involvement in the war?
6. What kind of training did the Marines have during basic training and when they got to France?