WWI E86 To the Trenches: The Marines Arrive in France


This episode marks the beginning of the Marine Corps’ legendary role in World War I. After months of training and frustration, the 4th Marine Brigade was finally called into action. We follow them through the trenches near Verdun, into the chaos of the German Spring Offensive, and up to the doorstep of Paris.

Outnumbered and outgunned, Marines held the line against Germany’s elite forces. As the Germans pushed hard toward Paris, the Marines dug in and counterpunched. What followed was Hill 142 and the opening of Belleau Wood, a brutal fight that would forever define the Marine Corps.

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References:

  • Antrim, R. P. (2016). Where the Marines Fought in France. Wentworth Press.

  • Clark, G. B. (2015). The Fourth Marine Brigade in World War I: Battalion Histories Based on Official Documents. United States: McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers.

  • Cowing, K. F. (2021). Dear Folks at Home: The Glorious Story of the United States Marine in France as Told By Their Letters from the Battlefield (First Edition). Houghton Mifflin.

  • Cunningham, A. A. USMC. "Value of Aviation to the Corps." 4rine Corps Gazette, y. 5, no. 3 (Sep 1920), pp. 221-233.

  • Curtis, L. C. T. J. (1993). History of the Sixth Machine Gun Battalion, Fourth Brigade, U.S. Marines Second Division and its participation in the Great War. (Second Edition). Brass Hat, 1993.

  • Dyer, W. A., Catlin, A. W. (1919). "With the Help of God and a Few Marines,". United States: Doubleday, Page.

  • Flagg, J. M. (2021). Roses and buckshot (3rd ed.). G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

  • Gibbons, F. P. (2021). And They Thought We Wouldn’t Fight: Wounded - How it Feels to Be Shot (in First World War Centenary Prose Collection Vol. I ). IDB Productions.

  • Marines., U. S. (2021). With the United States Marines at Paris Island Training Station: A Pictorial Souvenir. N.P., c. 2000.

  • Roger M. Emmons. "The First Marine Aviation Force." Cross and Cockade Journal, y. 6, no. 2 (summer 1965)

  • Simmons, E. H. (2014). Through the Wheat: The U.S. Marines in World War I. United States: Naval Institute Press.

  • Tuchman, B. W. (2021). The Guns of August: The Pulitzer Prize-Winning Classic About the Outbreak of World War I by Barbara W. Tuchman (2004–08-03). Presidio Press.

  • Wilson, H. B. (2016). An Account of the Operations of the American Navy in France During the War with Germany. United States: Bibliolife DBA of Bibilio Bazaar II LLC.

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WWI E87 Belleau Wood: Where the Legend was Forged

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WWI E85 Forging the Fighting Fifth