General John ("Black Jack") Pershing, the commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, was known to be upset about the Marines getting all the publicity—mostly from Gibbons' dispatches—during the battle of Belleau Wood. (Pershing's counterpart was the German General Erich Ludendorff.) Pershing had a strict policy that no specific units were to be mentioned in reporting on the war. But Gibbons' dispatches glorifying the Marines had been released without any of the usual Army censorship. This may have happened because of sympathy for the reporter who was thought to be fatally wounded at the time his reports were to be sent off. Gibbons "had handed his earlier dispatches to a friend prior to his jumping off in the attack." ("Floyd Gibbons in the Belleau Woods" by Dick Culver)
Another account at FirstWorldWar.com adds this: "Fiercely defended by the Germans, the wood was first taken by the Marines (and Third Infantry Brigade), then ceded back to the Germans—and again taken by the U.S. forces a total of six times before the Germans were finally expelled." Another source mentions this key fact: "After Belleau Wood... there were even more vicious battles between the Army and the Marine Corps over the sometime outlandish media coverage the Marines received concerning the great victories in Europe." (from a review of At Belleau Wood by Robert B. Asprey, University of North Texas Press, 1996) The Marines certainly did play a vital role in this battle—part of the offensive known as the Kaiserschlacht or "Kaiser's Battle" in German—but not the only one. The fighting in the Bois Belleau lasted from 6-26 June 1918. The Marines' role was essential enough that the woods were later renamed Bois de la Brigade de Marine, in honour of the Marine Corps' tenacity in its re-taking. The campaign at Château-Thierry and Belleau Wood is considered a key turning point that ended the German effort to take Paris, but the war would drag on until November 1918.
To prove that Gibbons did not just invent a good story, we need to find some record of the German term actually being used in Europe, either in a German newspaper (unlikely for homefront morale reasons) or in official documents, the "written reports" in which some accounts claim the German commanders referred to the "Devil Dogs." (It would also be important to see Gibbons' Chicago Tribune reports.) Or did any of the German soldiers use the term in the pages of a diary? It would also be helpful to find a copy of Karl Bergmann's Wie der Feldgraue spricht. Scherz und Ernst in der neuesten Soldatensprache (How the Soldier Talks. The Light and the Serious in the Most Current Soldiers' Language), which covers the topic of German soldier slang in the Great War. (I have ordered a copy; it is not an easy book to find.) However, there is a good article on WWI soldier slang at FirstWorldWar.com that refers to the Bergmann book and another by Otto Mauser (Deutsche Soldatensprache: Ihre Aufbau und ihre Probleme, 1917, Strassburg.)
Let me stress that there can be no doubt about how valiantly the Marines fought at Belleau Wood or anywhere else during WWI. That isn't in question. The question is only about the authenticity of how the Devil Dog legend arose. It may be that the Germans actually did label the Marines Teufelshunde. But if they did, we need to find some German reference to it in some primary sources. Otherwise this almost 100-year-old legend will continue to fall into the category of tales that people keep repeating without any research to back them up. So the "Teufelshunde" legend remains in limbo for now, neither proved to be true nor untrue. If any reader can add any helpful information, please contact me.
“Personnel must be called excellent. Spirit of troops is high. Moral effect of our fire does not materially check the advance of the infantry. Nerves of the Americans are still unshaken.” - German General Erich Ludendorff, about the American Expeditionary Forces in 1918 (quoted in World War I by S.L.A. Marshall)
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