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THROUGH THE WHEAT: The U.S. Marines in World
War I. By BGen Edwin Howard Simmons, USMC
(Ret) and Col Joseph H. Alexander, USMC (Ret).
Published by Naval Institute Press. 256 pages.
Stock #1591147913. $31.46 MCA Members.
$34.95 Regular Price.
By the end of “The Great War,” the
U.S. Marine Corps transitioned from a
seagoing light infantry military force into
a modern field-fighting force. It was a
battle to get into the fight, but once there,
the Corps came of age. This tremendously well-researched and well-written work,
“Through the Wheat,” tells how the Corps
entered the war and adds new, in-depth
insights into the actions that set the Marine Corps apart as a fighting force on the
world’s warfighting stage.
“Through the Wheat” is a labor of love
bequeathed to us from the late Marine historian, Brigadier General Edwin H. Simmons, USMC (Ret). A combat leader in
three major wars of the 20th century whose
combined years of service to the Corps
totaled almost 54 years, BGen Simmons
was the director of Marine Corps History
and Museums and then director emeritus
of Marine Corps History.
His love for Marine history, and particularly the Marines of The Great War, led
him to personally reconnoiter numerous
battlefields of the campaigns in France.
His interest in the “touchstone” battle
fought in the wheat fields and forestland
of Belleau Wood stimulated his desire to
pen this important addition to Marine
Corps historical literature.
As the general’s health waned, his book
still unfinished, he enlisted another superb Marine historian, Colonel Joseph H.
Alexander, USMC (Ret), to complete the
endeavor. As Col Alexander unassumingly noted in the book’s preface: “Edwin
Howard Simmons was the architect and
master builder of this project; I was an
apprentice carpenter pecking away with
a light hammer and finishing nails.” Together, they skillfully combined to present
us with an unparalleled historical gift: a
single volume history of the U.S. Marines
in World War I.
At the beginning of the war, the Corps
was small, but it quickly fielded a regiment
for Europe. By the fall of 1917, the Sixth
Purchase “The Way It Was: A Seabag Full of Marine Humor”
by Maj Allan Bevilacqua online at www.mca-marines.org,
or call toll-free (866) 622-1775.
You Think You Have Sea Stories?
Try These on for Size.
Marine Regiment and 6th Machine Gun
Battalion joined the Fifth Regiment already in France. Together they later formed
the 4th Marine Brigade. The eager leathernecks learned the ugly realities of static
trench warfare, trench raids, “cooties,”
rats and gas attacks and experienced the
exasperating “no-man’s-land” realities.
In May 1918, the Germans launched
what would turn out to be their last great
general offensive of the war. Gambling
everything on one Herculean breakthrough
along the front lines, the Germans pressed
the French and the British to the breaking point. The 4th Marine Brigade, now a
part of the 2d U.S. Division, was thrown
into the faltering front near Chateau-Thierry on the main road to Paris. There,
displaying a passion for skilled marksmanship and tenacity not previously seen
by the Germans, the Marines held their
ground, but soon had their chance to go
on the attack.
Marines advanced relentlessly through
the wheat fields south of a forest now enshrined in Marine lore as Belleau Wood
and into the fore as a fighting force. Hard-won success at Belleau Wood was followed
by Soissons, Nancy and Marbache, Saint
Mihiel, Blanc Mont, the Meuse-Argonne
and war’s end—all covered in great detail
by these two noted Marine historians.
Moreover, their careful and clear depiction of the emergence of the air component of the Marine Corps will provide
new perspectives for Marines. The tales
of the colorful characters in early aviation
and their wheeling and dealing, just to get
into combat, will make every Marine even
more proud of “flying leathernecks.”
“Through the Wheat” gains and holds
your attention from the first paragraph to
the last sentence. We see new leaders
march onto the world stage such as Major
General John A. Lejeune, who took command of the 2d Division, Thomas Holcomb, Lemuel Shepherd, Clifton Cates,
A. A. Cunningham, Roy Geiger and more.
When it was “over, over there,” Marines returned to a grateful nation and
