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Belleau Wood film to anchor WWI exhibit

Amid a veil of artillery smoke, the Marines crept slowly through a wheat field, their green uniforms drab against the red poppies. Near the edge of a forest, dug-in German machine-gunners opened fire, decimating members of the 4th Marine Brigade at Belleau Wood.

It’s one of the Corps’ defining moments.

That day, June 6, 1918, was memorialized in France during World War I, and re-enacted recently by 33 Marines and seven actors on a farm in Bealeton, Va. A film crew with Batwin & Robin Productions spent a week in June shooting footage for a World War I gallery opening next spring at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Va.

Arriving before dawn, the busload of Marines from Marine Corps Base Quantico first changed into reproduction uniforms, emerging as “Doughboys” carrying 1903 Springfield rifles, .45-caliber pistols and packs with shovels, bayonets, canteens, ammunition and gas masks.

The museum uses active-duty Marines for many of its lifelike exhibits. Retired Col. Joseph Alexander, a museum consultant on the film, said that while Marines had fought previously in the tropics and in China, Belleau Wood was their first fight against a truly battle-hardened adversary. And through subsequent battles in Soissons, Blanc Mont, St. Mihiel and the Argonne Forest, leathernecks established themselves as worthy foes with an aptitude for combat.

To help make the film more realistic, the film crew placed fake poppies among the wheat. A gunnery sergeant was wired with squibs — small explosives — under his coat to simulate bullet hits. Larger, but still benign, charges were used to mimic artillery shells.

When the director finally yelled “Roll cameras!” the Marines began to advance, only to be stopped after one tripped on a wire. The second shot went flawlessly, though, with those in front yelling, “Stay low! Stay low!” as they dashed toward the cameras.

All the film shot during the week will be boiled down to two segments, each about 90 seconds, the film’s producer said.

Gunnery Sgt. Eric Jackson, who works with the museum and helped assemble the Marines for the film, called the experience “a great opportunity to be part of history.”

“You’ll be able to look back at it when you’re retired,” he told the men in green, adding “Who knows, it may even turn into a career later down the road.”

Belleau Wood in the Hall of Valor

Medal of Honor recipients:

Weedon Edward Osborne

Distinguished Service Cross recipients:

Leo Gladstone

Murl Corbett

Benjamin Berry

Navy Cross recipients from this battle:

Algernon Brumbeloe

Robert Sieg

Explore more heroes from Belleau Wood