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Joseph P Carey
07-18-05, 10:58 AM
I was interested when I saw the "This Day in the US Marines History" of the 1918 attack on Soissons, France. Perhaps it was the number of casualties that cought my eye, so I used a search engine and I found this site: http://www.1stmarinedivisionassociation.org/world-war-one/WWI.htm (By Major Edwin N. McClellan, USMC)
It was very easy to read, and on about pages 40 to 45 it detailed the US 2nd Division, which included the US Marine Forth Marine Brigade, and it tells the story of the most impressive Division I have ever heard of.

The Division was, for the most part, commanded by General Lejeune, USMC, and it so impressed the French that they called it the Grand Division, and the French renamed many of their locations around France to honor the efforts of the US Marines in these battles.

This is to be explained by the French Army's frustration with the Germans in a war that had gone on for years without much movement at all, except for the Germans, who were usually on the offensive. The Ally's victories were measured in meters, and the stopping of the German offensive, until the 2nd Division took the lines, and there afterwards, victories were measured in Kilometers, as the Marines of the 2nd Division pushed the Germans from their positions, and back towards Germany, with what appeared to the French to be a relative ease.

Again, I recommend the reading of the writer's rendition of events to all that are interested in the pride and the history of the Corps.