Quentin.
With only 8,000 men engaged in the fiercest battles, the Marine Corps
casualties numbered 69 officers and 1,531 enlisted men dead and 78
officers and 2,435 enlisted men wounded seriously enough to be
officially reported by cablegram, to which number should be added not a
few whose wounds did not incapacitate them for further fighting.
However, with a casualty list that numbers nearly half the original
8,000 men who entered battle, the official reports account for only 57
United States marines who have been captured by the enemy. This includes
those who were wounded far in advance of their lines and who fell into
the hands of Germans while unable to resist.
Memorial Day shall henceforth have a greater, deeper significance for
America, for it was on that day, May 30, 1918, that our country really
received its first call to battle--the battle in which American troops
had the honor of stopping the German drive on Paris, throwing back the
Prussian hordes in attack after attack, and beginning the retreat which
lasted until imperial Germany was beaten to its knees and its emissaries
appealing for an armistice under the flag of truce. And to the United
States marines, fighting side by side with equally brave and equally
courageous men in the American Army, to that faithful sea and land force
of the navy, fell the honor of taking over the lines where the blow of
the Prussian would strike the hardest, the line that was nearest Paris
and where, should a breach occur, all would be lost.
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