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"The Americans are savages. They kill everything that moves."


Subdeacon Joe

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Securing the Flanks at Belleau Wood

 

"As June 6th dawned, tendrils of mist drifted here and there along the ground; it promised to be a clear, hot day. As the Allied artillery barrage began to concentrate solely on the hill, the German commanders passed the word to their foremost gunners to be on the alert. The Allied artillery barrage of the previous night had already alerted them to the possibility of an attack.

Crowther's and Hamilton's Marines deployed in front of the wood, the platoons of each company ready to move out in four attacking waves, as they had been taught to do. The men had stripped to their 20-pound combat packs and were festooned with hand grenades, bandoliers of extra rifle ammunition and gas masks. Still chilly from the damp night air, they stood ankle-deep in ground mist, rifles loaded, bayonets fixed, their eyes on the exploding terrain through which they soon must pass. After a brief preparatory pre-assault artillery barrage by light field artillery and machine guns, which did little more than alert the enemy, Major Turrill, although unready to do so, gave the order to attack. Nothing more could be done-time had run out.

 

At 3:45 a.m., just as the red-ball of the sun was rising, the whistles of the company commanders cut through the din of exploding shells to start the first waves forward across the wheat field. Nervous young platoon commanders, their swagger sticks pointing forward to into the unknown, shouted, "Follow me!" The whole line of the gallant but green 1st Battalion of the 5th Marines, on the extreme left of the 2nd Division, leaped to the attack.

The forces opposing the Marines included two of the most highly trained units in the Imperial German Army-the 28th Brandenburger Regiment, better known as the Kaiser's Own, and the 362nd Regiment. "By the white piping on their uniforms, they were Prussians," wrote Captain John W. Thomason, Jr., a machine-gun officer in the 5th Marines, "and by the ugly, confident look of them, with a touch of Berlin swank, they were Prussians of a very good division; and there were no better soldiers in the world."
"

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Semper Fi!

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A coworker of mine is a retired Marine and was telling me about going to visit the battlefields at Belleau Wood with some other Marines when he was TDY there. Apparently there is some tradition where you go out in the trenches or something at night and toast to the Marines who were killed. He said they were out in the dark and all got scared ****less because they could hear what sounded like troops moving towards them in the dark. He said he never believed in ghosts but did after that night.....

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There are ghosts at the Bellau, and at Gettysburg, and to this day in the Thermopolae pass, vehicle engines quit and won't restart for a time; they finally do start, eventually ... a personal friend, a fighter pilot, reported, flying over Thermopolae, engine failure and no restart until he'd glided a little distance away. He said this experience was not uncommon in that location.

I too disbelieved ghosts until I saw one, the shade of a man I had the honor to bear to his grave two days before.

I heard a Brit say once that if you're in the trench, you want a Yank beside you.

The more I learn about these wars where my family fought and bled, the more I respect the very young men who fought in them!

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And if we still killed everything that moved on a battlefield today, we would NOT be in the BS jam we face today in every corner of the globe.

+1 Sir

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Well, Fritz. I suggest you don't move. ;)

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Got me to thinking of an old Garrison White Tune

It was early in July

As the twilight touched the gloom.

I was camped outside of Vicksburg

Too broke to buy a room

 

Maybe I was dozin’

Perhaps he never made a sound

But a man appeared before me

And quietly sat down

 

His hair was dark and wild

His face had never seen a shave

And his coat of blue was torn

And stank of powder and the grave

 

As he watched the dying embers

He sadly shook his head

And I never saw his lips move

But I recall the words he said.

 

You should have seen these woods, son

When I was here before

There were stately groves of elm trees

Of Oak and Sycamore

 

But the army needed timbers

So we fell them one by one

To build stockades for prisoners

and caissons for our guns.

 

We sneered and call them traitors

We swore that they would fail

They cursed us as invaders

They fought us tooth and nail

And I was told we fought for freedom

And I heard we won the day

But I don’t know why I came here

And I never meant to stay.

 

I see you got no money

Since your’e camping by the road

The army loves a poor man

We’re the cannon’s favorite load

And the boys we fought as enemies

That filled these Rebel graves

Were landless tenant farmers

Men who never purchased slaves

 

I hate the Germans did here

How the battle here was won

By the tactics of starvation

As the shameful siege went on

They were bombed into submission

They were forced to flee to caves

By wheelwright and machinist

Men who never purchased slaves

 

We sneered and call them traitors

We swore that they would fail

They cursed us as invaders

They fought us tooth and nail

And I was told we fought for freedom

And I heard we won the day

But I don’t know why I came here

And I never meant to stay

 

He dusted off his hands

And he rose as if to go

He smiled upon me kindly

His voice was sad and low

How I long for Pennsylvania

With its somber rolling hills

I just can’t seem to leave here

And I guess I never will

 

He turned once to salute me

He faded from my sight

I packed up my belongings

For I’d sleep no more that night

And as I went on the Vicksburg

A silent prayer I gave

To help a troubled conscience

In a lonely union grave.

 

We sneered and call them traitors

We swore that they would fail

They cursed us as invaders

They fought us tooth and nail

And I was told we fought for freedom

And I heard we won the day

But I don’t know why I came here

And I never meant to stay.

 

 

Garrison White

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inspiring anD overwhelming

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In the First War, when the Marines started fighting shoulder to shoulder with the French, they would say
"There are some Germans about 800 yards out, I'm gonna get one," and the French would make rude lip noises, roll their Gallic eyes and make comments ... until the Springfield's crack was followed with a soldier going down.

Our Marines, especially, were good enough that they would shoot the spikes off the German helmets.

Didn't take long for the pickelhaub to fall out of favor.

Much of the US at that time was rural and many of the recruits, farm boys who grew up with rifle in hand.

 

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Yup. They killed everything that moved because if they saw it, they could hit it.

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Got me to thinking of an old Garrison White Tune

It was early in July

As the twilight touched the gloom.

I was camped outside of Vicksburg

Too broke to buy a room

 

Maybe I was dozin’

Perhaps he never made a sound

But a man appeared before me

And quietly sat down

 

His hair was dark and wild

His face had never seen a shave

And his coat of blue was torn

And stank of powder and the grave

 

As he watched the dying embers

He sadly shook his head

And I never saw his lips move

But I recall the words he said.

 

You should have seen these woods, son

When I was here before

There were stately groves of elm trees

Of Oak and Sycamore

 

But the army needed timbers

So we fell them one by one

To build stockades for prisoners

and caissons for our guns.

 

We sneered and call them traitors

We swore that they would fail

They cursed us as invaders

They fought us tooth and nail

And I was told we fought for freedom

And I heard we won the day

But I don’t know why I came here

And I never meant to stay.

 

I see you got no money

Since your’e camping by the road

The army loves a poor man

We’re the cannon’s favorite load

And the boys we fought as enemies

That filled these Rebel graves

Were landless tenant farmers

Men who never purchased slaves

 

I hate the Germans did here

How the battle here was won

By the tactics of starvation

As the shameful siege went on

They were bombed into submission

They were forced to flee to caves

By wheelwright and machinist

Men who never purchased slaves

 

We sneered and call them traitors

We swore that they would fail

They cursed us as invaders

They fought us tooth and nail

And I was told we fought for freedom

And I heard we won the day

But I don’t know why I came here

And I never meant to stay

 

He dusted off his hands

And he rose as if to go

He smiled upon me kindly

His voice was sad and low

How I long for Pennsylvania

With its somber rolling hills

I just can’t seem to leave here

And I guess I never will

 

He turned once to salute me

He faded from my sight

I packed up my belongings

For I’d sleep no more that night

And as I went on the Vicksburg

A silent prayer I gave

To help a troubled conscience

In a lonely union grave.

 

We sneered and call them traitors

We swore that they would fail

They cursed us as invaders

They fought us tooth and nail

And I was told we fought for freedom

And I heard we won the day

But I don’t know why I came here

And I never meant to stay.

 

 

Garrison White

 

Never heard these powerful lyrics/prose. I tried googling to find a link but to no avail.....help please!!!

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Never heard these powerful lyrics/prose. I tried googling to find a link but to no avail.....help please!!!

I think it's on this album. http://www.amazon.com/Garrison-White/dp/B0001G78F8

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There are ghosts at the Bellau, and at Gettysburg, and to this day in the Thermopolae pass, vehicle engines quit and won't restart for a time; they finally do start, eventually ... a personal friend, a fighter pilot, reported, flying over Thermopolae, engine failure and no restart until he'd glided a little distance away. He said this experience was not uncommon in that location.

I too disbelieved ghosts until I saw one, the shade of a man I had the honor to bear to his grave two days before.

I heard a Brit say once that if you're in the trench, you want a Yank beside you.

The more I learn about these wars where my family fought and bled, the more I respect the very young men who fought in them!

 

I used to relic hunt and deer hunt on a non-park section of the Wilderness Battlefield here in Va. that was owned by a big lumber company back in the '70's and early '80's. Every time I went out there, I always had the eerie and uncomfortable feeling of being watched, and had to look over my shoulder occasionally. The feeling got so strong one day when I was in there relic hunting, that I had to leave. A friend and Masonic brother also deer hunted that property and had built a tree stand there. He said he got that same feeling so strong early one morning that he came down out of the stand and never went back. We can't go back now anyway, because the property changed ownership and they won't let anyone hunt it for relics or anything else. Not that I'd even want to anymore, dontcha know.

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Utah Bob, has it right.

 

I met Garrison White, a number of years ago, at a little bar in Tarzana, CA

 

Another artist that left with world too early.

 

But $95.00 for a CD is a little much

 

I've been trying to get Fredrick Jackson Turner to cover it - so far - no luck

 

Coffee

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"Kill everything that moves."

I thought that was the Marines' Mission Statement.

 

And a good one.

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"Kill everything that moves."

 

I thought that was the Marines' Mission Statement.

 

And a good one.

+1

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