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On June 2, 1918, Belleau Wood was a pernicious fester on the Allied front line. Snugly nestled in every available cranny were deadly German machine gun nests. On that day into Belleau Wood went the U. S. Marines of the 2nd Division Regular Army, with bared bayonets. They yelled in defiance, yelled in death. When, after ten days, the 26th Division relieved them, 4,500 U. S. Marines were killed, gassed or wounded. But there were no more Germans in the Wood. The 26th Division, advancing, bombarded the town of Belleau, demolished the ancient chapel, drove out the Germans.

Philanthropically, the 26th Division made amends. Collecting $50,000, they rebuilt the church, will rededicate it this autumn. On its walls they have graven the names of their casualties.

The 26th is the "Yankee Division." National Guardsmen from Maine. They have placed their church not upon the ancient stones of the old site, but on the tourist-ridden highway from Paris to Chateau-Thierry and Metz; not over the tombs of long-dead Frenchmen, but beside the 2nd Division cemetery.

Last week there were reverberations. Major General James Guthrie Harbord, retired (Radio Corp. of America) as 2nd Division Commander, rumbled judicially: "The placing of a memorial by another division almost at the gateway of Belleau Wood will distort history for posterity." Back came Lieut. Carroll J. Swan, president of the "Yankee Division Club": "It is absurd for the Marines to say we are taking any of the glory from them. . . . We were just as regular as they, and more so. . . . It is rather late in the game now to criticise. . . . They are the greatest bunch of advertisers in the world."

Pained, both divisions hastened to entreat General Pershing to apportion the respective glories of the two Divisions, to decide whether or not the 26th's church was just a bit too close to the 2nd's Wood. General Pershing flatly declined to become embroiled.