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Corps returns to Belleau Wood Marines re-enact iconic World War I Belleau Wood engagement that will become film in the Marine Corps Museum next year Date published: 6/10/2009
By RUSTY DENNEN Through a veil of smoke from artillery, Marines crept slowly through a field of wheat, their uniforms drab against blood-red river poppies growing wild in the rows. Near the edge of a wood, dug-in German machine-gunners opened fire, decimating the 4th Marine Brigade at Belleau Wood in one of the Corps' defining moments. That day, June 6, 1918, was memorialized on the rolling hills of France during World War I, and re-enacted yesterday by 33 Marines and seven actors on Bill Ritchie's Inglewood Farm in Bealeton. This week a film crew with Batwin & Robin Productions is shooting footage that will become part of an exhibit at the new World War I gallery of the National Museum of the Marine Corps opening next spring. Arriving before dawn, One of them, Lance Cpl. Alex Maze of Toledo, Ohio, got a shot at immortality in a film that will be shown to millions through the ages. His gunnery sergeant suggested he try out. He was among those chosen to spend several days bundled up in a heavy wool uniform in Fauquier County. "I really didn't know much about it [Belleau Wood], but they told us what happened and what the guys went through," he said. Eric Frein, an armorer's assistant for the production company, said the Marines add realism. Unlike actors, they instinctively move like soldiers, "and they're not afraid of getting dirty," he said. The museum uses active-duty Marines for lifelike casts used in the exhibits. GETTING IT RIGHT Joseph Alexander, a retired Marine colonel, co-author of the World War I novel "Through the Wheat," and museum consultant on the film, watched as the men donned their gear, stopping occasionally to chat with them and the film crew. "They look great," he said. "They are extremely attentive to detail." Nearby, the Marines laughed and joked as two young women applied makeup to their faces and dust to their uniforms.
Date published: 6/10/2009
If you haven't visited, you don't know what you're missing AND
it's getting even better with the three new galleries next
spring. Want to learn more about it, visit the website: usmcmuseum.org Want to learn more about the Battle of
Belleau: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Belleau_Wood
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