By: Dick Camp
Paperback Edition
April 2008


The Devil Dogs at Belleau Wood recreates the drama of the battle for Belleau Wood as it was experienced by those who were there. Drawing on numerous firsthand accounts of the month-long engagement in June 1918, the richly illustrated book captures the spirit of the Leathernecks in desperate battle. It offers a harrowing look at a critical campaign in which, as one soldier says, "men were being mowed down like wheat." And, amidst the carnage and cruelty, it tells the very human story of camaraderie and courage that carried the day.


From Back Cover:
“Retreat, hell. We just got here!”

So said Captain Lloyd Williams, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, to a French officer urging retreat from the Germans as they pushed toward Paris during their massive Spring Offensive of 1918. Instead, the U.S. Marines—fresh to the fight in a war nearly four years old—drew a line just south of Belleau Wood and held it, saving Paris and beginning the end of the war. But there was still deadly work ahead.

In a battle that lasted most of June 1918, the Marines made six bloody sweeps into the meadows within Belleau Wood. Facing massed German machine guns, the carnage was terrible. The 4th Marine Brigade persevered, however, and the Spring Offensive—which had threatened to overwhelm French and British forces before the Americans even joined the battle—would never regain its momentum.

The Devil Dogs at Belleau Wood brings the battle to life with numerous personal accounts, illustrating the tenacity and ferocity that earned the Marines the “devil dog” nickname. The exciting text is complemented by over one hundred photographs, many that are rare and never before published, mined from the resources of the Marine Corps archives by author Dick Camp.