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The Fabled "Devil Dog" Fountain at Belleau
This moss-banked fountain in the heart of the ancient village of Belleau, France, has become ~ by a quirk of history ~ a central symbol in the lore of the U.S. Marine Corps. The iconography of the fountain, of course, greatly predates the arrival of the Marines in 1918. The "bulldog" of the fountain is, in fact, a bull mastiff, doubtless one of the hunting mastiffs for which the Chateau of Belleau was famous. It was to this same Chateau of Belleau which Belleau Wood, Bois de Belleau, belonged by tradition. The cold & pristine water which gushes from the mastiff's mouth is the "beautiful water", belle eau, for which the village itself was named. When the Marines took Belleau Wood from the Germans in June, 1918, they had just been dubbed Teufelhunden, "devil dogs", by their opponents, a soubriquet which the Leathernecks quite cheerfully adopted. Almost at once, depictions of fierce helmeted hounds began appearing on recruiting posters and even in the letters of the Marines themselves. And so it was that when the first Marines entered the shattered, abandoned village of Belleau, begrimed by battle & the unrelenting heat, they must have greeted the sight of this venerable canine with particular delight. For not only, in the wake of their fiercest battle to that time, could they luxuriate in the clear & cooling stream, slaking thirst & swabbing their steaming necks, but, in the very act of replenishment, in a ritualistic partaking of restorative water bestowed by the beast, they affirmed, as though with a warriors' toast of raised aluminum cups & canteens, the newest & hardest-won symbol of the Corps: Teufelhunden ~ Devil Dogs ~ Bulldogs of the Marne.
The Fabled "Devil Dog" Fountain at Belleau
This moss-banked fountain in the heart of the ancient village of Belleau, France, has become ~ by a quirk of history ~ a central symbol in the lore of the U.S. Marine Corps. The iconography of the fountain, of course, greatly predates the arrival of the Marines in 1918. The "bulldog" of the fountain is, in fact, a bull mastiff, doubtless one of the hunting mastiffs for which the Chateau of Belleau was famous. It was to this same Chateau of Belleau which Belleau Wood, Bois de Belleau, belonged by tradition. The cold & pristine water which gushes from the mastiff's mouth is the "beautiful water", belle eau, for which the village itself was named. When the Marines took Belleau Wood from the Germans in June, 1918, they had just been dubbed Teufelhunden, "devil dogs", by their opponents, a soubriquet which the Leathernecks quite cheerfully adopted. Almost at once, depictions of fierce helmeted hounds began appearing on recruiting posters and even in the letters of the Marines themselves. And so it was that when the first Marines entered the shattered, abandoned village of Belleau, begrimed by battle & the unrelenting heat, they must have greeted the sight of this venerable canine with particular delight. For not only, in the wake of their fiercest battle to that time, could they luxuriate in the clear & cooling stream, slaking thirst & swabbing their steaming necks, but, in the very act of replenishment, in a ritualistic partaking of restorative water bestowed by the beast, they affirmed, as though with a warriors' toast of raised aluminum cups & canteens, the newest & hardest-won symbol of the Corps: Teufelhunden ~ Devil Dogs ~ Bulldogs of the Marne.
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