Opposite page: Fortunately for the young, inexperienced 2dLt Cliff Cates, GySgt Fred Stockham (pictured) had been assigned as platoon sergeant while his 4th
Plt, 96th Co was still forming and training at Quantico.
Below: The center of the village of Lucy-le-Bocage in 1918 evidenced the devastating battles fought in and around it.
While in this location, the battalion suffered a number of casualties due to artillery attacks that included poison gas—a foretaste
of what was to come.
Beginning late on the evening of 13 June, Holcomb’s battalion
left the shelter of the Bois St. Martin and began crossing the infamous wheat field north of Lucy-le-Bocage. It was still littered
with bodies of dead Marines from earlier assaults. Unsure of the
exact location of LtCol Wise’s 2/5, the battalion headed due east
and reached the shelter of the woods after moving more than a
kilometer in open terrain.
Any feelings of sanctuary were short-lived as German artillery
opened up and delivered a terrifying barrage of mixed high-explosive and poison-gas shells. The gas was diphenylarsine, a
vomiting and sneezing gas. A horrifying scene unfolded as Marines stumbled in the dark through the dense undergrowth in
panic. Apparently, they were not prepared for the gas attack and
were not using their masks when it began. This subsequently
caused many to remove their masks as they retched from the initial effects of the gas.
Breathing supplemental doses of the
lethal vapors, casualties mounted. The
veterans tried to restore order and unit
integrity and also take care of the
wounded. With a battalion aid station
in Lucy-le-Bocage only a few kilometers to the rear, attempts were made to
direct the casualties in that direction.
The leadership of the battalion was
decimated. The remainder of the battalion, including the 96th Company
under the command of then-Second LtCol Frederic Wise
Lieutenant Clifton Cates, also a future Commandant, straggled
into 2/5’s positions.
At 0605 on 14 June, LtCol Wise sent a message to the brigade
headquarters through the regimental commander, Colonel Wendell Neville, another future Commandant. Wise reported that
Maj Holcomb “arrived with 1¾ companies at 3 a.m. and other
two companies badly broken up, from shells and gas. About 150
men showed up.”
He advised BG Harbord also that he needed to withdraw
slightly to make the position somewhat safer and requested Holcomb be sent more men. In his memoirs, Wise adds that he declined to accept Holcomb’s relief, as there obviously were not
enough men remaining in 2/6 to adequately hold the position.
Wise’s 2/5 and the remnants of 2/6 remained in Belleau Wood
until relieved by the U.S. Army’s 7th Infantry on 15 June.
Those who lived through it would not forget what transpired
during the night of 13-14 June 1918. One of the veterans who took
charge during the attack was Gunnery Sergeant Fred W. Stockham
of the 96th Co. Evacuated as a gas casualty, he did not survive, succumbing
to the effects of the gas on 22 June
1918. Unfortunately, more than 20
years lapsed before his heroism was
properly recognized.
Who was GySgt Stockham, and how
did this happen? Fred W. Stockham was
born in Detroit on 16 March 1881, and
enlisted in the Marine Corps in July
1903. During his first enlistment, he
spent the majority of the time overseas
2dLt Clifton Cates reporting first to the Second Regiment
