USS Belleau Wood (LHA-3), nicknamed "Devil Dog", was the second ship named after the Battle of Belleau Wood in World War I. Her keel was laid down on 5 March 1973 at Pascagoula, Mississippi, by Ingalls Shipbuilding. She was launched on 11 April 1977, and commissioned on 23 September 1978, with Captain T.C. Steele in command.
Belleau Wood was the third of five ships in a new class (Tarawa class) of general-purpose amphibious assault ships and combined into one ship type the functions previously performed by four different types: the amphibious assault ship (LPH/Landing Platform Helicopter), the amphibious transport dock (LPD), the amphibious cargo ship (LKA), and the dock landing ship (LSD). She was capable of landing elements of a United States Marine Corps battalion landing team and their supporting equipment by landing craft, helicopters, or a combination of both.
LHA-3: displacement 39,300; length 820'; beam 106'; draft 26'; speed 20 + knots; complement 904; armament: three 5-inch/54 guns, two Basic Point Defense Missile Systems and six 20-mm machine guns; sensors: SPS-52 3D search radar, SPS-10 and SPS-40 search radars, SPN-35 Air/navigation radar, Integrated Tactical Amphibious Warfare Data System, and OE-82 satellite communications antenna, SSR-1 receiver and WSC-3 transceiver.
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Belleau Wood, near Chateau Thierry, France, was the scene of a battle between the 4th Marine Brigade and elements of three German divisions in June 1918. This was part of the larger Battle of the Aisne, launched on 27 May by Germany in the hopes of defeating French forces near Paris before significant American forces could arrive at the front. The German Southern Army Group broke through the British and French divisions defending Chemin des Dames ridge on the first day of the attack, forcing the defenders across the Aisne and Vesle Rivers. German forces continued their advance, reaching the Marne River on 1 June before the offensive slowed.
Meanwhile, the American Army's 2d Division, with the 4th Marine Brigade attached, was ordered from its training areas north of Paris to a position northwest of Chateau Thierry. Attached to the French XXI Corps, the American troops took up positions astride the Paris-Metz highway on 1 June. The following day, a limited German attack rolled back the French outposts and occupied the towns of Tourcy and Bouresches, including the woods called Bois de Belleau between them, in front of the marine positions. As the French fell back through the marines, an officer advised Marine Corps Capt. Lloyd Williams to withdraw his men. Williams replied: "Retreat, hell! We just got here."
On 3 June, the German infantry advanced toward the 4th Brigade but were driven back by heavy artillery and long-range rifle fire. By the 5th, when it became clear that the Germans had shifted to the tactical defensive, the French corps commander ordered the 4th Brigade to attack Bois de Belleau. The month-long action remembered as the Battle of Belleau Wood began on 6 June with a battalion-level attack on a hill near Torcy. Although the assault companies suffered devastating enfilade fire, Hill 142 was taken after bloody hand-to-hand combat.
The following day, three battalions attacked the woods and Boureches from the southwest. Short on artillery support and hobbled by poor maneuver tactics, the marines again suffered heavy losses as they tried to clear the woods of machinegun nests. By evening, they held the edge of Belleau Wood and had cleared Boureches after desperate street fighting. Reinforced and resupplied, they held the town all night against repeated counterattacks. The day's fighting had cost the marines over 1,000 casualties, more than the Corps had lost in its entire history.
The 4th Brigade continued assaults into Belleau Wood for the next twelve days, fighting an attrition-style battle of platoons and squads in the confined wooded terrain. The advance slowed to a crawl as units were decimated in close combat and the entire brigade was forced to pull out of the fighting to regroup on 18 June. Returning to Belleau Wood on 25 June, the marines launched the final two-battalion assault that drove the last German battalion from its trenches. Early in the morning on the 26th, the tired marines reported "Belleau Wood now U.S. Marine Corps entirely."
Although the operation had cost the 4th Marine Brigade 4,719 casualties, and over 1,000 killed, the marines had proved their courage to both the French and the AEF. Heartened by the American performance, the French awarded the division's infantry brigades, including 4th Marine Brigade, unit citations for "gallant action" and officially renamed the wood Bois de la Brigade Marine.