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

by Alan Axelrod

Copyright 2007 Alan Axelrod All Rights Reserved.

Categories:  Contemporary  Military  War

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Description

This book covers a little-known but crucial chapter of WWI history. Although created by the Continental Congress in 1775, the Marine Corps was regarded as a marginal force, their nickname of "bellhops" bestowed upon them by Gen. Pershing in reference to their fancy uniforms. But in June of 1918, as the Germans advanced upon Paris, the exhausted French were flagging. The British were stretched just as thin. The Americans were on their way, but roads were impassible due to months of bombing and thousands of desperately fleeing civilians. Only one group of fighters was within striking distance to hold the line, so the Allies reluctantly sent in the Marines.

The battle, stunning in its concentration and intensity, was the furnace from which the modern US Marine Corps emerged as America's fiercest and most effective fighting elite. Collectively, under command of the Marine officers, and singly, as fighters separated in the dense Belleau Wood, the tiny band of 200 proved their mettle. Axelrod's account shows both the large, strategic picture, and the telling details that make this an intensely suspenseful work of military history that reads like a novel.

Quotes

"Readers depressed after four years of ambiguity in Iraq may cheer up at this chronicle of a battle in a ware in which our allies appreciated us, and the enemy fought according to the rules."
— Kirkus

"Alan Axelrod has perfectly captured the embodiment of U.S. Marines and their unparalleled Esprit de Corps in his new book, 'Miracle at Belleau Wood.' As a former Marine, I find Axelrod's descriptions of the combat in that bloody battle for which the Corps became legendary -- and which is the foundation of its mythic lore -- compelling and gut-wrenching. Axelrod's re-telling of the tales -- some from the letters, diaries and personal accounting of those who fought there -- more than does justice to Marines at Bois de la Brigade de Marine, as Belleau Wood became known to honor the Devil Dogs who fought and died there. More heroes and legends grew from Belleau Wood than from any other battle in the Corps's history. The names ring out in Axelrod's book -- Daly, Blanchfield, Lee. Legends one and all. Axelrod brings it all to life for the reader. Though a historical accounting of the battle, 'Miracle at Belleau Wood' puts the reader in the front row -- 'inches of real estate were purchased with gallons of blood' -- as you witness the heroism and ups and downs endured by the Marines as they defeated the Germans at overwhelming odds. As Axelrod writes, '...created...in 1775, the United States Marine Corps was born in that French forest...in 1918.' A must read!"
— Jay Kopelman, author From Baghdad with Love, and a former Lt. Colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps

Extended Copyright Information

Copyright 2007 Alan Axelrod

Originally published by The Lyons Press.
The Lyons Press is an imprint of The Globe Pequot Press.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Opening Lines (Experimental)

wheat-field as the steady lines of our Marines went in.
By spring 1918 the world was nearly used to being a world at war. After four years, it had grown accustomed to the killing machine, almost as if it were a fixture of nature, like a thunderstorm that rarely let up or an earthquake that ...

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