Sgt Earl Belfry led another eight men
to secure the eastern side, while Cates advanced up the road north toward the railroad station. “We went in,” Cates recalled,
“and after getting into the town, we took
heavy fire going down the streets. In fact,
one Boche sniper put a bullet through the
brim of my helmet; another bullet hit my
right shoulder bar a glancing lick, entered
my coat and came out three inches back,
slicing my O.D. [olive drab] shirt and undershirt, cutting my skin just a little.” A
German machine gun in the church tower
took them under fire, but was soon silenced by Marine riflemen.
Cates and his men fought house to
house. “Three to four hundred Germans
held the town,” Col Albertus W. Catlin
wrote proudly. “The place bristled with
machine guns. There were guns at the
street corners, behind barricades and even
on the rooftops, but the Marines kept on.
They attacked with rifle, bayonet, and grenade. They were outnumbered when they started, and one by one they were put out
of the fighting. But they kept going, taking gun after gun, until
the Germans, for all their numbers and advantage of position,
began to fall back.”
Cates’ orderly, Private Herbert D. Dunlavy, single-handedly
captured a German machine gun and forced the surviving gunner to carry it back to friendly lines. “It was a beautiful fight,”
Cates wrote in a letter home. “They ran like rabbits; dropping
their equipment as they ran. We only took one prisoner and one
machine gun, but lots of ammunition.”
Cates’ small band was finally blocked by a machine-gun nest
at the edge of town and lost six men, including Sgt Belfry, who
died of wounds two days later. “[B]y this time I had, I think, only
twenty-one men left,” the young officer wrote. “So I just posed
them in four different posts around the town and set up a kind of
Cossack post (outpost): one to the left in an apple orchard, one
behind a stone wall facing the railroad station, one on the right
and one on the extreme right.”
Fortunately, the Germans “were ordered to withdraw to the
main defense line, to avoid being cut off.” Within 20 minutes,
survivors of the 2d and 3d platoons entered the town via the
ravine. “A few minutes later what was left of the 79th Company
came in under the command of Captain Randolph T. Zane, and
he assumed command of the town,” Cates related with great relief. “From then on, there wasn’t any question about holding the
town. I mean in two to three hours we had enough men in there
to hold a half dozen towns.”
Years later, historian Benis Frank interviewed then-General
Cates about the significance of Bouresches. “I’ve often contended, and I’m firmly convinced,” Cates said emphatically, “if
we hadn’t gotten Bouresches, we wouldn’t have had any chance
in Belleau Woods.”
“Marines at Belleau Wood: U.S. Marines cleaning out machine-gun nests in
Belleau Wood.” (Frank E. Schoonover painting courtesy of the National Museum
of the Marine Corps)
Editor’s note: Retired Col Dick Camp, a frequent Leatherneck
contributor, is the Vice President, Foundation Museum Operations
at the National Museum of the Marine Corps. He also is the author of several books, including “Leatherneck Legends,” “
Battleship Arizona’s Marines at War” and “Iwo Jima Recon.” His latest
book, “The Devil Dogs at Belleau Wood,” was reviewed in the
May 2008 Leatherneck. His books are available from the MCA
bookstores or online at www.mca-marines.org.
Personal Valor at Bouresches
1. Captain Donald Duncan was awarded the Army
Distinguished Service Cross for “supreme proof of extraordinary heroism … served as an example to untrained
troops.”
2. Navy Dental Surgeon Weedon Osborne was
awarded the Medal of Honor and the Army Distinguished Service Cross for “extraordinary heroism while
rescuing wounded.”
3. First Lieutenant James Robertson was awarded the
Navy Cross and the Army Distinguished Service Cross
for “displaying remarkable courage ... in the face of
heavy machine-gun barrage.”
4. Sergeant Earl Belfry received both the Navy Cross
and the Army Distinguished Service Cross for “entering
the town after being wounded and taking a leading part
in forcing the machine guns of the enemy to evacuate.”
5. Private Herbert Dunlavy was awarded the Army
Distinguished Service Cross, but was killed. “He was
standing beside me,” according to Second Lieutenant
Clifton B. Cates, “when he was killed by a shell exploding right over him … it stunned me for a few minutes.”
6. Second Lt Clifton B. Cates was recommended for
the Medal of Honor; however, it was not approved. Instead, he received the Army Distinguished Service Cross
for “extraordinary heroism while advancing his company … taking command … and exposing himself while
reorganizing the position with but a handful of men.”
—Dick Camp
