ELMER JESPERSON - A MARINE IN WWI 

KILLED AT THE BATTLE OF BELLEAU WOOD

Ninety-nine years ago this month [September 4, 1921], the body of my great uncle Elmer V. Jesperson, was re-interred at the Binghampton Cemetery in Tucson, Arizona.  He had been killed in battle three years earlier in France.  Flags were ordered at half-mast for three days by the mayor of Tucson to pay respect for this young man.

The Marine Corps Muster Roll for the 43rd Company 5th Regiment, June 1918, for “Jesperson, 271933, Elmer V.” asserts, “11-12 Participated in 2 attacks against enemy.  13 killed in action in Bois de Belleau. G.O. 100 does not apply. Character excellent.  Buried on Field of action exact location or date unknown.”  I translated this to mean that on June 11th and 12th Elmer participated in two attacks against the Germans in the battle of Belleau Wood. On June 13th he was killed in action and at some point was buried on the battle ground in the woods.  I have been unable to decipher the meaning of “G.O. 100 does not apply”. [If you know, please contact me.]

Elmer, my grandmother’s brother, was killed in France in WWI and we had been told he was killed at Chateau-Thierry on the banks of the River Marne.  Close, but not quite correct.  We have access to a lot of information regarding most of the earlier wars and, thankfully for me, this includes WWI.  In researching the battle in which he was killed, I discovered a lot about my great uncle, even though his name was never mentioned.

I learned that the 5th Marines is the most highly decorated regiment in the Marine Corps—and it is due to this particular 3-week battle. The fighting these Marines did in the Battle of Belleau Wood has become a key component of their lore and brought about the nickname Devil Dog.

The  French Army retreated that latter part of May before the Germans who were marching steadily forward. After capturing Chateau-Thierry and Vaux on their march to conquer Paris, the German Army moved into Belleau Wood, which stood on high, rocky terrain that hid innumerable gullies.  Urged to turn back by retreating French forces, Marine Capt. Lloyd Williams uttered the now-famous retort, “Retreat? Hell, we just got here.”

At four in the afternoon of June 5th, the troops were given the order to attack Belleau Wood at 5 p.m. The Germans must be driven out.  Only the officers realized it was almost impossible.  General Albertus W. Catlin wrote, “I had perfect confidence in the men; that never faltered.  That they might break never once entered my head.  They might be wiped out, I knew, but they would never break.”

Once they reached the woods, the Marines charged the German machine gun nests, screaming their blood-curdling yell. There were machine gun nests everywhere—on every small hill and plateau, in every ravine and pocket, behind piles of cut timber, and even in the trees. The guns were well placed to cover all zones.  No spot was safe from their spray of bullets. But the Marines never faltered.  They attacked those nests with rifles, automatics, grenades, and bayonets.  The most effective method was to run to the rear of each gun in turn and over-power the crew.  But each flanking position was covered by another gun which had to be taken immediately.  It was a furious dash from nest to nest, with no time to stop for breath. In the thick of the melee the wild yells of the Marines were mingled with the constant crackle of rifle fire like bunches of firecrackers exploding.

“It has been a living hell,” Lt. Clifton Cates wrote to his mother. “We were shelled all night with shrapnel and gas shells… It was mustard gas and a lot of the men were burned.”

Lt. Col. Frederick May Wise wrote, “… I came upon one of those German machine-guns camouflaged behind a brush pile. Dead Marines lay in front of it. Dead Germans lay about it. A strange silence held in the woods. The youngster in command told me of the terrific fighting they’d had.  Foot by foot they had pushed their way through the underbrush in the face of a continuous machine-gun and rifle fire.  Snipers had shot them from brush piles on the ground; from perches high in the trees.  Germans they had left sprawled on the ground for dead as they went on, had risen and shot them in the back…. ‘Whenever we took a machine-gun nest, another one opened up on their flank. That happened many times. The second one would never fire a shot until we had taken the first. Then they opened up on us.’ ”

Casualties were terrible.  Lt. Col. Wise continued, “At the battle’s end I lined the men up and looked them over. It was enough to break your heart.  I had left Courcelles May 31st with 965 men and 26 officers—the best battalion I ever saw any where. … Ten months I had trained them. I had seen them grow into Marines. Now before me stood 350 men and 6 officers; 615 men and 19 officers were gone.”

After the battle, the French general renamed the wood “Bois de la Brigade de Marine” in honor of the Marines’ tenacity. The French government awarded the 5th and 6th U.S. Brigades the Croix de Guerre.

U.S. Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels wrote, “In all the history of the Marine Corps there is no such battle as that one in Belleau Wood. Fighting day and night without relief, without sleep, often without water, and for days without hot rations, the Marines met and defeated the best divisions that Germany could throw into the line.

“The heroism and doggedness of that battle are unparalleled. Time after time officers seeing their lines cut to pieces, seeing their men so dog-tired that they even fell asleep under shellfire, hearing their wounded calling for the water they were unable to supply, seeing men fight on after they had been wounded and until they dropped unconscious; time after time officers seeing these things, believing that the very limit of human endurance had been reached, would send back messages to their post command that their men were exhausted.

“But in answer to this would come the word that the line must hold, and, if possible, those lines must attack. And the lines obeyed. Without water, without food, without rest, they went forward—and forward every time to Victory.”

Sources used:

Ancestry.com. U.S. Marine Corps Muster Rolls, 1798-1958 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2007.

Brigadier General Albertus W. Catlin, USMC. With the Help of God and a Few Marines: The Battles of Chateau-Thierry and Belleau Wood. 1919.

Collin Hoeferlin (Communications Specialist), “The Battle of Belleau Wood,”  MarineParents.com, Inc.

Michael E. Ruane, “The Battle of Belleau Wood was bloody, deadly and forgotten. But it forged a new Marine Corps.” Washington Post. May 31, 2018.

Wikipedia articles “5th Marine Regiment”,  “The Battle of Belleau Wood”