1775What was the first major battle fought by Americans in World War I?
The first major battle fought by American troops in World War I erupted in June 1918 at Belleau Wood, a dense forest near Château-Thierry, France, just 53 miles from Paris. This fierce, twenty-six-day clash marked the Americans’ debut on the Western Front and proved pivotal in halting the final German advance toward Paris, setting the stage for the Allied counter-offensive that would end the war. During the battle, U.S. Marines fought so tenaciously that the Germans nicknamed them "Teufel Hunden," or "Devil Dogs," a legacy still honored at Belleau Wood each Memorial Day. The Aisne-Marne American Cemetery, at the base of the hill where the battle raged, now marks the graves of 2,289 Americans lost in the fighting, with the names of 1,060 missing inscribed inside its memorial chapel.
