OneManGang
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Tennessee vs The Maxims vs Florida
From last week: “The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
Five major penalties and two turnovers in the first half meant the Vols left at least twenty-one points on the field. Should they do something like that against Florida or (shudders) Alabama, they could see a 35-0 deficit at halftime.”
This week: Great Day, Boys, that was NOT meant that as a “how to” suggestion!!!!
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(A/N: Your Scribe had fully intended to discuss the epic stand by the Army's 3rd Division at Chateau Thierry for this week's edition. However, the loss of my friend Joe caused me to dip into the archives and pull up Belleau Wood. He and I had been working on a book on the battle about twenty years ago when life intervened and sent us in different directions. I offer this excerpt from the manuscript in the Old Devil Dog's memory. Semper Fi.)
Every eyewitness to the afternoon attack of June 6 recalled the wheat fields on the southern and western approaches to Belleau Wood. The wheat was tasseling and red poppies dotted the field. Some of the Marines picked the poppies and put the flowers in button holes. In retrospect, to the men who were there, the incongruity of the gently waving wheat and blooming poppies against the horror and slaughter that was to come in those very same fields seared the picture into their minds.
Capt. John W. Thomason penned this description of the men in that line.
“In the big war companies, 250 strong, you could find every sort of man, from every sort of calling. … And there also were a number of diverse people who ran curiously to type, with drilled shoulders and a bone-deep sunburn, and a tolerant scorn of nearly everything on earth. Their speech was flavored with navy words, and words culled from all the folk who live on the seas and the ports where our war-ships go. … Rifles were high and holy things to them, and they knew five-inch broadside guns. They talked patronizingly of the war, and were concerned about rations. They were the Leathernecks, the Old Timers: collected from ship's guards and shore stations all over the earth to form the 4th Brigade of Marines, the two rifle regiments, detached from the navy by order of the President … They were the old breed of American regular, regarding the service as home and war as an occupation; and they transmitted their temper and character and view-point to the high-hearted mass which filled the ranks of the Marine Brigade.”
There was no artillery support. Just what 2nd Division and French XXI Corps artillery were doing at this time is a point of some dissension. An artillery fire plan had been drawn up but no particular emphasis was placed on the need to really pound the woods. The order merely called for harrassing and interdiction fire. Lee's guns had fallen silent 55 years earlier at Gettysburg as Pickett's division set off on its "charge" into history. Hadn't they learned anything?
The officers blew their whistles at 1700 and the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines under Benjamin Berry and Burton Sibley's 3rd Battalion, 6th Marines moved out.
Dug in amongst the underbrush and piled boulders of Belleau Wood the were the 1,160 German soldaten of the 461st Infantry Regiment, 231st Division, von Conta's IV Reserve Corps. The 461st Regt. under a Major Bischoff waited, the Maxim gunners were ready. They watched the Marine lines rise and move toward them.
Sibley's men had made it about fifty yards or so when the machine guns opened up. The tree line of Belleau Wood was still over 150 yards away. The first line was decimated.
Marines dropped left and right. As some assumed the prone firing position others moved on. It was in these moments that a Marine legend was given form. Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly of the 6th MG battalion led his section forward with a snarl that resonates even today: "C'mon you sonsab*tches! Do you want to live forever?"
Berry's men caught it even worse. Sibley's battalion had only some 200 yards of open ground to cross and that nearly did them in. Berry's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines attacking the western edge of Belleau Wood had to cross twice that distance, the only cover being the tasseling wheat. Bischoff's gunners fired low, hitting men in the legs. The low fire also guaranteed that many who fell wounded were killed as they lay in the wheat. Berry's fine battalion never made the treeline. It was simply shot to pieces.
Col. Catlin offers a vivid description of Berry's attack:
"Into a veritable hell of hissing bullets, into that death-dealing torrent, with heads bent as though facing a March gale, the shattered lines of Marines pushed on. The headed wheat bowed and waved in that metal cloud-burst like meadow grass in a summer breeze. ...
"The ripping fire grew hotter. The machine guns at the edge of the woods were now a bare hundred yards away, and the enemy gunners could scarcely miss their targets. It was more than flesh and blood could stand. Our men were forced to throw themselves flat on the ground or be annihilated, and there they remained in that terrible hail till darkness..."
Despite the slaughter, the Marines made it into the woods. There, when surrounded, the Maxim gunners were quick to throw up their hands and shout, “Kamerad!” The enraged Marines showed them the same pity they had experienced in the fields.
As the day ended replacements came up to the line. The exhausted combat veterans of the 5th and 6th Marines viewed them with a mixture of contempt and ambivalence. It is always difficult for a new man in any outfit, but particularly so in a combat unit. The Marines who had survived the day were now full members in the unofficial club Bill Mauldin defined as "The Benevolent and Protective Order of Them What Has Been Shot At." Their feelings toward the replacements were not personal: too many of their shipmates lay dead in the fields around Belleau Wood or on the tortured slopes of Hill 142 to allow themselves to see the new men as individuals. The veterans saw in the faces of these new men the faces of their friends who had but hours ago been with them.
The struggle went on for another twenty brutal days. The Marines and their German opponents fought savagely for every tree, rock, and bush in that hellish wood. In the end, the fighting there resulted in over 9,000 American casualties with over 1800 killed. In exchange four German divisions were mangled. Finally on 26 June, Major Maurice Shearer's 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines cleared the last bit of the woods.
Shearer's message back to headquarters was simple and direct, “Woods now U.S. Marines entirely.”
At the Aisne-Marne Cemetery, a little piece of America as granted by a grateful French government, they hold it to this day.
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So how did the team do compared to the Maxims?
1. The team that makes the fewest mistakes will win.
Is there a mistake the Vols didn't make? Well, nobody fell down running through the “T.” Beyond that, FIVE turnovers and a safety pretty much blows this Maxim out of the water.
2. Play for and make the breaks. When one comes your way … SCORE!
Florida made mistakes as well but the Vols couldn't seem to find the grit to capitalize on them before it was too late.
3. If at first the game – or the breaks – go against you, don’t let up … PUT ON MORE STEAM!
Once the Gators had a comfortable lead, the Vols managed to score some points but the game was over by then.
4. Protect our kickers, our quarterback, our lead and our ballgame.
Somebody commented on a Sunday sports show that had a Gator sent a Vol QB out of the game with a cheap shot against any of the legendary Orange offensive lines of the past, that guy would have been in the next ambulance.
5. Ball! Oskie! Cover, block, cut and slice, pursue and gang tackle … THIS IS THE WINNING EDGE.
Intensity? Intensity?!?!? One of the hardest jobs a leader can have is trying to light a fire under a dispirited rabble.
6. Press the kicking game. Here is where the breaks are made.
Muffed punts are not a path to success at any level. Thank you very much.
That said, the Vol's place kicker is shaping up to be a dandy.
Carry the fight to Florida and keep it there for sixty minutes.
Last week: “Will Our Beloved Vols respond as the Marines did at les Mares Farm or will they revert to 2017? Stay tuned.” The sour stench of last year was much in evidence Saturday.
Your Scribe has frequently stated that teams have to learn how to win big games. The Vols are still at the back of the classroom on that one.
MAXOMG
© 2018 Keeping Your Stories Alive
Suggested Reading:
Robert B. Asprey, At Belleau Wood
Col. Albertus Catlin, With the Help of God and a Few Marines
John W. Thomason, Fix Bayonets!
Marines at Belleau Wood with a captured German trench mortar. (NARA)
