Goons Up

Goons Up Machinegunologist, lover of beltfeds, everything machine guns!

06/07/2026

“Myself and a couple Squad leaders in 2/7 got to work with Rangers from 3/75 today and test the KAC LAMG. It was just a simple shoot put on by the 7th Reg Gunner to test the concept of bringing belt feds back to the rifle squad.”
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If you’ve been here for any amount of time, you know how I feel about belt feds being taken out of the rifle squad, so I’m happy to see some folks working on this and I hope it comes to fruition.
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Besides how cool it is that these are being looked, I love seeing Marines and Rangers gunning together!
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I received blessing to share and I will post more today. Thanks for your hard work, Gunner!

Battle of Belleau Wood continued:-Following the initial assaults on June 6, for the next three weeks, the 23rd Infantry ...
06/07/2026

Battle of Belleau Wood continued:
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Following the initial assaults on June 6, for the next three weeks, the 23rd Infantry held their sector on the eastern edge of Belleau Wood while the Marines ground their way through the forest to the north. German artillery pounded them daily. On June 14, the regiment took over additional positions, allowing the Marines to concentrate their depleted forces on their assaults.
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On the night of June 23-24, the Germans launched a devastating gas attack against the 3rd Infantry Brigade. Mustard gas shells mixed with high explosives rained down on Army positions.
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Over four hundred Soldiers became casualties in a single night. The commander of the 23rd Infantry’s machine gun company reported that after the gas attacks, he did not have enough men to man each gun.
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The 23rd Infantry managed to hold.
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For their service at Belleau Wood, the French government awarded the regiment the Fourragere, the same given to the 5th and 6th Marines.
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In the photo: John W. Thomason depicts Soldiers from the 2nd Engineers. These Soldiers served with the Marines in Belleau Wood, fighting and digging.
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With this I’m wrapping this coverage of Belleau Wood up. This is just skimming the wave tops of the 23rd Infantry Regiment’s actions there. My intent was not to take anything away from our beloved Corps, but to highlight some of the Army’s contributions to the battle, which are often overlooked and should be a point of pride for Soldiers, especially of these storied units that still exist today.

German Maxim machine guns opened fire from multiple directions. The right-flank platoon of the Marines had orders to hol...
06/06/2026

German Maxim machine guns opened fire from multiple directions. The right-flank platoon of the Marines had orders to hold fast, creating confusion about who was supposed to move and when. But the men of the 23rd could not restrain themselves when their comrades on the left were fighting for their lives. The soldiers climbed from their positions and charged the enemy.
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The regiment advanced roughly a kilometer through a withering fire toward the road connecting Bouresches to Vaux. Machine gun rounds tore through the wheat from positions the Americans could not see. When the leading companies began to lose cohesion, Major Edmund C. Waddill (3rd slide) moved into the open to reorganize them. Artillery and machine gun fire raked his position but he pulled scattered groups back into fighting shape and urged the attack forward. He earned a Distinguished Service Cross for his actions that day.
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Behind the lines, casualties overwhelmed the aid stations. Chaplain Julius J. Babst (4th slide) refused to stay behind cover. He went out repeatedly into the artillery fire to reach the wounded men, administering last rites to the dying where they fell. He earned the first of his two Distinguished Service Crosses that evening in the wheat fields of Belleau Wood.
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I forgot to mention in the last post but I’m referencing an article found on military.com.

Belleau Wood-On the afternoon of June 6, the Marines launched their assault on Belleau Wood. History remembers this day ...
06/06/2026

Belleau Wood
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On the afternoon of June 6, the Marines launched their assault on Belleau Wood. History remembers this day for the waves of Leathernecks advancing through waist-high wheat under murderous machine gun fire. What history forgets is that the 23rd Infantry Regiment attacked with them.
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The 23rd Infantry Regiment received its attack orders just fifty minutes before the Marines jumped off at 5 p.m. Colonel Malone (Regimental Commander) drove his automobile directly into the front line to ensure his battalion commanders understood their mission, sketching positions on their maps before being recalled to brigade headquarters. The 1st and 3rd Battalions of the 23rd Infantry were to support the Marine right flank, advancing toward the road connecting Bouresches to Vaux.
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German Maxim machine guns opened fire from multiple directions. The right-flank platoon of the Marines had orders to hold fast, creating confusion about who was supposed to move and when. But the men of the 23rd could not restrain themselves when their comrades, the Marines, on the left were fighting for their lives. That evening, the soldiers climbed out of their positions and charged the enemy.
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More to follow.
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What’s important to remember is that Belleau Wood didn’t occur in a vacuum. This was part of a German offensive that threatened Paris. The 1st and 3rd Infantry Divisions were fighting, as well, and the 2nd Infantry Division was rushed in to plug the gap. Within the 2nd Infantry Division was the 4th Marine Brigade made up of the 5th Marines, 6th Marines and the 6th Machine Gun Battalion. The 3rd Infantry Brigade was a sister brigade of the 4th and was made up the 23rd and the 9th Infantry Regiment along with the 2nd Machine Gun Battalion.

The First Wave (Continued)-Already the sea runs red. Even among some of the lightly wounded who jumped into shallow wate...
06/06/2026

The First Wave (Continued)
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Already the sea runs red. Even among some of the lightly wounded who jumped into shallow water the hits prove fatal. Knocked down by a bullet in the arm or weakened by fear and shock, they are unable to rise again and are drowned by the onrushing tide.
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Other wounded men drag themselves ashore and, on finding the sands, lie quiet from total exhaustion, only to be overtaken and killed by the water.
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A few move safely through the bullet swarm to the beach, then find that they cannot hold there. They return to the water to use it for body cover. Faces turned upward, so that their nostrils are out of water, they creep toward the land at the same rate as the tide.
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That is how most of the survivors make it. The less rugged or less clever seek the cover of enemy obstacles moored along the upper half of the beach and are knocked off by machine-gun fire.
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Within seven minutes after the ramps drop, Able Company is inert and leaderless. At Boat No. 2, Lieutenant Tidrick takes a bullet through the throat as he jumps from the ramp into the water. He staggers onto the sand and flops down ten feet from Private First Class Leo J. Nash. Nash sees the blood spurting and hears the strangled words gasped by Tidrick:
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“Advance with the wire cutters!” It’s futile; Nash has no cutters. To give the order, Tidrick has raised himself up on his hands and made himself a target for an instant. Nash, burrowing into the sand, sees machine gun bullets rip Tidrick from crown to pelvis. From the cliff above, the German gunners are shooting into the survivors as from a roof top.
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From an account of Able Company, 116th Infantry, 29th Division
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More to follow. I haven’t been able to do a deep dive on D-Day, maybe next year. Soon I’ll be getting into Belleau Wood and hopefully doing justice to the Army’s contributions there.

The First Wave-Lieutenant Edward Tidrick in Boat No. 2 cries out: “My God, we’re coming in at the right spot, but look a...
06/06/2026

The First Wave
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Lieutenant Edward Tidrick in Boat No. 2 cries out: “My God, we’re coming in at the right spot, but look at it! No shingle, no wall, no shell holes, no cover. Nothing!”
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His men are at the sides of the boat, straining for a view of the target. They stare but say nothing. At exactly 6:36 A.M. ramps are dropped along the boat line and the men jump off in water anywhere from waist deep to higher than a man’s head. This is the signal awaited by the Germans atop the bluff. Already pounded by mortars, the floundering line is instantly swept by crossing machine-gun fires from both ends of the beach.
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Able Company has planned to wade ashore in three files from each boat, center file going first, then flank files peeling off to right and left. The first men out try to do it but are ripped apart before they can make five yards. Even the lightly wounded die by drowning, doomed by the waterlogging of their overloaded packs. From Boat No. 1, all hands jump off in water over their heads. Most of them are carried down. Ten or so survivors get around the boat and clutch at its sides in an attempt to stay afloat. The same thing happens to the section in Boat No. 4. Half of its people are lost to the fire or tide before anyone gets ashore. All order has vanished from Able Company before it has fired a shot.
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From an account of Able Company, 116th Infantry, 29th Division.
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An annual post on 6 June.

On 5 June, 1918 planning began for an attack on the the next day by the left of the 2nd Division.-The 5th Marines were o...
06/05/2026

On 5 June, 1918 planning began for an attack on the the next day by the left of the 2nd Division.
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The 5th Marines were ordered to attack into Belleau Wood in conjunction with the French attacking on their left at 1500 followed by the rest of the Division. I believe it was an attack en echelon.
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Little intelligence on the dispositions of the enemy or terrain had been obtained. Maps were either nonexistent or scarce. To make matters worse, adjustments of the defensive line were made during the night of the 5th that put many of the units on unfamiliar ground which added to the confusion the following day. Finally, inadequate artillery preparation was planned.
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The next morning, the objective of the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines was Hill 142.
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Belleau Wood coverage will begin tomorrow, but it might look a little different this year as I try my best to highlight the US Army’s contribution to the battle. Army units should take pride in the fact that they fought side by side with their Marine brethren through the wheat fields and into the woods of France in June of 1918.

2/4 Joker Gunz -
06/04/2026

2/4 Joker Gunz
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06/03/2026

…nothing like being on the gun line, boys. Don’t take it for granted.
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1/5 Blackfoot Guns

06/03/2026

“She aint a 240. But mag 58 with a woodstock” that’ll do.

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