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4 Belleau Wood Major Holcomb assembled his weary companies on the morning of June 12 in a wooded area five miles west of Lucy, where the marines enjoyed regular hot chow and bathed in a local stream. Some helped themselves to fresh clothing and boots that the newly arrived replacements had abandoned. YMCA vendors set up shop to sell sundries such as razor blades, soap, and tobacco. Resenting the YMCA enterprise, the men brazenly helped themselves to the goods in the vendor’s truck, with their officers looking on with quiet approval. Here also another 162 marine replacements joined the battalion.1 First Sergeant Fritz returned to the 79th Company, having recuperated from a noncombat injury he had suffered in May. This created an awkward dilemma, for the 79th Company now had two first sergeants, Fritz and Simon Barber. Astonishingly young and inexperienced for a company first sergeant, twenty-five-year-old Barber had enlisted in Houston barely two years before. He had evidently impressed Captain Zane during the capture and defense of Bouresches . Fritz’s absence from this vicious fight probably weighed heavily in the captain’s decision to retain Barber as his right-hand man. Perhaps Zane’s cup had runneth over with Fritz’s generous counsel. In Erskine’s words, “If [Fritz] thought something was wrong he’d tell the captain in no uncertain terms, and he knew his business.” Erskine asked for Fritz as his platoon sergeant, a request Zane quickly granted.2 While Holcomb’s marines recuperated, the 4th Brigade had begun to chew its way through Belleau Wood. When 3/6 and the 80th Company had withdrawn from the forest the night of June 8–9, the 2nd Division had temporarily conceded the area to Gen. Max von Conta’s IV Reserve Corps. On June 10 the 2nd Field Artillery Brigade blasted the wood for hours before 1/6 attacked due north through 3/6’s old positions along the southern edge. With the benefit of a rolling barrage, 1/6 made modest gains, wrestling the outpost zone from Conta’s defenders in the southern third of the wood. Harbord Belleau Wood 93 followed up this success with a poorly coordinated attack from the west by 2/5 on June 12. This costly attack fortuitously struck the boundary between the 28th and 237th Divisions, and the aggressive leathernecks succeeded in ejecting the 28th Division from the southern half of the forest.3 While 2/5 and 1/6 slugged it out with the 237th Division in the northern half of Belleau Wood, 2/6 continued to enjoy its respite. Newspapers found their way into the marines’ holes, their headlines exaggerating the American success at Belleau Wood. In the words of Private Hemrick, “The marines hit the publicity jackpot at just the right time.”4 The unexpected fame of their brigade’s exploits restored the swagger of many exhausted leathernecks. Although the marines of 2/6 were well to the rear of the fighting, German long-range artillery occasionally dropped shells among the battalion’s holes. When a high-explosive round made a direct hit on the 79th Company, Lieutenant West helped dig out a man buried up to his waist. “We dug hard at first with shovels, then, as we got closer to his legs, we dug with our hands. Finally we came to blood and shredded flesh. He had no legs. A stretcher took him away to die.”5 The 78th and 96th Companies Destroyed, June 13–14, 1918 The respite, punctuated by such occasional tragedy, was pitifully short for Holcomb’s men. At 12:40 a.m. on June 13, the major received an order to move at once to the woods northwest of Lucy as the brigade reserve. Holcomb promptly had his companies on the road and arrived before 4:00 a.m.6 Just before dawn General Harbord received a false report that a German counterattack had wrested Bouresches from 3/5. He ordered Holcomb to move two companies to the woods southeast of Lucy to be in position to retake the town.7 As daylight broke across the wheat fields, Holcomb led his 78th and 96th Companies across the two miles of open ground at the double, directly under the watching eyes of three German balloons. Midway through this dash, a runner from regimental headquarters caught up with Holcomb and informed him that the earlier report was false. No doubt frustrated, the major immediately veered for the...

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