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MARKSMANSHIP HISTORY: DEVIL DOGS

Started by Cav1, May 07, 2008, 10:28:20 AM

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Cav1

Although justly famous for their skill with the rifle since WWI, believe it or not, the United States Marine Corps did not always have such a tradition. In 1891, Civil War veteran Colonel (later Major General) Charles Heywood was Commandant of the Marine Corps and found rifle skills with the new .30-40 Krag-Jorgenson rifle to by abysmal. Rather than just throwing money and technology at the problem, as the modern Army seems to do, Heywood decided to just fix the problem.

He appointed one Major C.H. Lauchheimer to oversee the shooting programs used by the Corps, and instituted a regular regime of target practice and annual qualifications. Junior officers such as 2nd Lieutenant Thomas Holcomb also jumped into the effort. By 1914, he was a Captain and Inspector of Target Practice for the USMC. He later went on to become Commandant of the Marine Corps during WWII. Major Calvin Lloyd designed the USMC rifle range at Quantico, Virginia. A veteran of the Banana Wars in Nicaragua, Captain Douglas C. McDougal won the first Marine Corps Cup in a 1909 shooting match which allowed two sighting shots and 20 record fire shots with the service rifle at 600 and 1000 yards. Of course, Lewis "Chesty" Puller was a devoted and stringent fan of individual marksmanship throughout his career.

The Marines, far-flung around the globe in expeditionary forces and fleet units, all began striving to master the art of the rifle. It was this mastery by the rank-and-file riflemen that gave birth to the Marine Corps' legendary shooting abilities. To encourage fine shooting, Marines who qualified as Expert received an extra $3 per month pay. This may not seem like anything in this day and age, but at the time it represented a 15% raise for a private's basic pay.

All this attention to marksmanship paid off, first during the Spanish-American War and the Banana Wars in central America, and then during the First World War. It was then that the commander of the American Expeditionary Force, or AEF, Army General John J. "Blackjack" Pershing uttered those famous words, "The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle."

Two regiments of the 1st Marine Brigade and the Army's 3rd Infantry Brigade made up the U.S. 2nd Division in their bloody baptism at Belleau Wood in June of 1917. The battle began on June 1st, but supporting artillery and machine gun units did not arrive until June 4th. The issue had to be decided with rifles. Using new stormtrooper assault tactics, the Germans' stunning breakthroughs in the spring offensive of 1918 made it look as if the whole balance of the war might shift in their favor, and France be defeated before American forces could arrive in strength. Even Paris seemed to be threatened. The Marines and Doughboys were thrown into the breech to stop the advance.

The Marines made more than a few legends here, famous lines such as "Retreat, hell. We just got here!" and "Come on, you SOBs! Do you want to live forever?" On June 6th, American commanders, following the "advice" of French "leaders", sent the Marines charging mindlessly over 800 yards of open fields into the teeth of emplaced machine guns and riflemen. This became the bloodiest day in the history of the Marine Corps until the invasion of Tarawa in WWII, and is still remembered. Whether fact or embellishment, the Germans supposedly began to refer to the Marines as "Teufelhunden", Devil Dogs, and the name stuck. For many, though, it was their rifle skills with the vaunted Model 1903 Springfield that became legend.

The 2nd Bn, 5th Marines met the Germans first, and the effects of their marksmanship was felt for the first time by the enemy. Veteran of the fight Captain John Thomason noted in his book Fix Bayonets!, "...there had been a brush with advancing Germans, and the Germans were given a new experience: rifle fire that begins to kill at 800 yards; they found it very interesting."  Marine historian George B. Clark, in his excellent and exhaustive study of the Marines in WWI, Devil Dogs, repeated, "The '03 in the hands of trained marksmen also helped a great deal. The story has been told, many times, of the surprise inflicted upon the German attackers at finding their comrades falling in the wheat and not hearing sounds of any enemy fire, the distance being that great. So was the accuracy."

At Le Mares Farm, George Clark also noted of the Marines' defense of the place, "...the Marines exhibited their marksmanship. From their positions they aimed and fired as coolly as though they were at practice, and so accurately that not one live German made it to within a hundred yards of the buildings."

My favorite description of the action comes from Thomason in Fix Bayonets! "The Bosche wanted Hill 142; he came and the rifles broke him and he came again. All his artillery was in action and his machine guns scoured the place, but he could not make headway against the rifles. Guns he could understand; he knew all about bombs and auto-rifles and machine-guns and trench mortars, but aimed sustained rifle fire that comes from nowhere in particular and picks men off--it brought the war home to the individual and demoralized him."
"One hundred misses per minute is not firepower. One hit per minute is." The Guru, Jeff Cooper

Nickle

Being semi-fluent in German, I can tell you that not everything translates literally.

Dvil Dogs is the literal translation, and the proper translation would be "Hounds from Hell", which fits even better.
They have men amongst them who know very well what they are about, having been employed as Rangers against the Indians and Canadians and this country being much covered with wood, and hilly, is very advantageous for their method of fighting. . . . ".  Lord Percy

Sounds like New Englanders to me.

Buckshot

Quote from: Nickle on May 07, 2008, 10:49:29 AM
Being semi-fluent in German, I can tell you that not everything translates literally.

Dvil Dogs is the literal translation, and the proper translation would be "Hounds from Hell", which fits even better.

Nickle,

But the "Devil Dogs" fits in so well with the picture of a pug Bulldog in a WW I flat helmet!

:D

Buckshot

Cav1

My wife being Swiss, I get corrected on German translations all the time. I was just passing along the most commonly quoted (mis-quoted?) terms from the time period.
"One hundred misses per minute is not firepower. One hit per minute is." The Guru, Jeff Cooper

wcmartin1

#4
Keep 'em comin', Cav1.

I enjoy reading these stories that I somehow haven't come across before during my ejumucashun;D

Good stuff.  Thanks.
"Unhappy it is, though, to reflect that a brother's sword has been sheathed in a brother's breast and that the once-happy and peaceful plains of America are either to be drenched with blood or inhabited by a race of slaves.  Sad alternative!  But can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?" - George Washington - from a letter to a close friend after the events of April 19, 1775

"There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our (the United States) overthrow.  Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter.  From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger.  I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing." - Daniel Webster, June 1, 1837