Miracle at Belleau Wood : The Birth of the Modern U. S. Marine Corps

by Alan Axelrod

• ISBN13: 9781599210254
• ISBN10: 1599210258
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2007-06-01
• Publisher: Lyons Press

Summary

By the time the Battle of Belleau Wood was over, Americans hailed it as "the Gettysburg of the Great War." Although it did not win World War I, it did rescue America and its allies from almost certain defeat, much as the Civil War's Gettysburg denied the Confederates victory. In June 1918, all that stood between the German army and Allied defeat was 200 United States Marines. But Belleau Wood was more than the salvation of the four-year Allied crusade to "make the world safe for democracy." The battle, stunning in its concentration and intensity, was the fiery furnace from which the modern United States Marine Corps emerged as America's fiercest and most effective warriors, the world's pre-eminent fighting elite.

Author Biography

Alan Axelrod is the best-selling author of Patton on Leadership, Encyclopedia of Wars, and Encyclopedia of the U.S. Marine Corps. He lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

 

 

 

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Patch of Woods	p. vii
Bellhops and Stevedores	p. 1
"A Quiet Sector"	p. 21
Orders	p. 41
In This Line	p. 57
First Blood	p. 67
Retreat, Hell!	p. 81
Teufelhunden	p. 97
Hill 142	p. 111
A Dark, Sullen Mystery	p. 129
"Do You Want to Live Forever?"	p. 143
Taking Bouresches	p. 159
Armies of the Night	p. 171
"Cheap Successes"	p. 183
A Mad Lust	p. 201
Bois de la Brigade de Marine	p. 215
Notes	p. 231
Index	p. 247
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