Into a veritable hell of hissing bullets, into that death-dealing torrent, with heads bent as though facing a March gale, the shattered lines of Marines pushed on. The headed wheat bowed and waved in that metal cloud-burst like meadow grass in a summer breeze. The advancing lines wavered, and the voice of Sergeant Daniel Daly was heard above the uproar: "Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?"

 

Marines overcame such odds, and won such a victory, that a grateful France renamed Belleau Wood, "Bois de la Brigade de Marine" ("Wood of the Marine Brigade").  General Pershing, commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, was quoted as saying, "The deadliest weapon in the world is a United States Marine and his rifle."  General Pershing also stated "the Battle of Belleau Wood was for the U.S. the biggest battle since Appomattox and the most considerable engagement American troops had ever had with a foreign enemy."