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100 years ago today

Exclusive--Patrick K. O'Donnell: The Unknown D-Day; The Marines' Bloody Charge at Belleau Wood, June 6, 1918 | Breitbart

Many Americans know that June 6 is the anniversary of World War II’s D-Day, the date when the United States invaded the beaches of Normandy in hopes of saving Europe from Hitler.
But far fewer know that June 6 is also the anniversary of another epic American battle that took place on French soil. One hundred years ago, during World War I, U.S. Marines attacked the German forces at Belleau Wood in order to save Paris and halt the Kaiser’s offensive. June 6, 1918, became the bloodiest day in the Corps’ history to that point, and Belleau Wood became an integral part of Marine lore.

Today, most Americans are blissfully unaware of what happened at Belleau Wood. However, the French citizens who live near the battleground don’t have that luxury. There, the Great War remains forever trapped in time. Cratered shell holes so large they could hold a small house dot the landscape. Ghostly depressions, remnants of trenches where men fought hand to hand to the death with knives, clubs, pistols, and bayonets crisscross the land. Artillery shells, still bearing deadly mustard gas, lie entombed in dense hardwood that swallowed them a century ago.