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What it means to be a True Devil Dog
DD What Being a Devil Dog Means
It was June, 1918 in Belleau Wood, near Paris, France. The Second Division was tasked with taking the woods, and the US 4th Marine Brigade with its 5th and 6th Marine Regiments were sent forward. In order to enter and take the woods, it was necessary to advance across an open field of wheat that was continuously swept with German machine gun and artillery fire.
After Marines were repeatedly urged to turn back by retreating French forces, Marine Captain Lloyd Williams of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines uttered the now-famous retort "Retreat? Hell, we just got here."
In order to rally his platoon of pinned-down Marines, Gunnery Sergeant Dan Daly encouraged them with what would become another famous phrase "Come on, you sons of b!tches, do you want to live forever?"
On 26 June, a report was sent out simply stating, "Woods now U.S. Marine Corps entirely," ending the bloodiest and most ferocious battle U.S. forces would fight in the war.
Belleau Wood is where the Marines got their German nickname of "Teufelshunde" or "Devil Dogs" for the ferocity with which they attacked the German lines. An official German report classified the Marines as "vigorous, self-confident, and remarkable marksmen..."
Dogs of War
In a deadly green valley on Guam, a Marine in mottled battle dress worked slowly forward, Garand at the ready. Ahead of him crept another mottled figure: a brown and black Doberman pinscher with ears acock. Now and again the dog stopped; the Marine hand-signaled to it and the dog moved on. Then suddenly the Doberman stiffened. The Marine raised his rifle and the valley echoed with shots. From a tree ahead a Jap sniper tumbled and lay still.
In the Pacific, as they had in Italy, U.S. dogs of war were proving themselves. On Bougainville, where the dogs got their first combat test, many a Marine took a dim view of them. Said one: "The damned things would get loose and they would go around biting hell out of everybody." But by the time the Marines got to Guam, dogs as well as handlers were veterans; the Marines were more used to them.
The Meaner the Better. Guam''s fighting kennel has about 60 dogs, mostly Dobermans, some German shepherds, a few other breeds. Their skill at ferreting out snipers terrified the Japs there from the beginning. One dog chased four Japs into a cave, where they committed suicide with grenades rather than fight it out. All the animals are trained to attack and kill on signal. Said a sergeant handler: "They are mean dogs and we make them meaner."
Some are trained as messengers, taught to trust only two handlers. They will carry messages from one of these men to the other over all kinds of terrain, against all kinds of odds, avoiding anyone else, attacking anyone, Jap or American, who tries to stop them. On a test through heavy jungle one dog covered 1,600 yds. in four-and-a-half minutes. It took a Marine runner eleven minutes to cover the same ground. If necessary a dog can carry 150 rounds of ammunition in a saddle pack.
At night, while star shells, flares, bomb flashes flicker across the Guam sky, faint barks can be heard from distant outposts. The dogs are standing watch with sentries, ready to give warning if the Japs try to work into the Marines'' lines.
Three dogs have been killed on Guam, one wounded; one is missing. Luckiest dog was Tippy, who was guarding a foxhole when a mortar shell hit. One Marine was killed. Tippy was blown six feet into the air but suffered only a stiffened rear end.
-Time Magazine article entitled "Devil Dogs", June 1944
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