Devil Dog

Devil Dog is a motivational nickname for a U.S. Marine. It is said by US Marines to be based on the apocryphal use of "Teufel Hunden" [sic][idiomatic German: "Höllenhunde"] by German soldiers to describe Marines fighting in World War I.

According to United States Marine Corps legend, the moniker was used by German soldiers to describe U.S. Marines who fought in the Battle of Belleau Wood in 1918. The Marines fought with such ferocity that they were likened to "Dogs from Hell." The "Devil Dogs" nickname for Marines first appeared in newspapers in the United States in April 1918 - about two months before the Battle of Belleau Wood. The LaCrosse Tribune ran a story about the nickname on April 27, 1918, and other newspapers used the story as early as April 14, 1918. The Battle of Belleau Wood began on June 1, 1918.

The April 27th article from the LaCrosse Tribune was probably referring to the action on April 20, 1918, the first action between the Marines and the Germans. The Germans made several attacks against the Marines on that date and were unable to dislodge them. The article states that it was the first scrap between the Marines and the Germans, showing that it was prior to the major fighting in June.

In German grammar, a compound noun is always a single word, so using two words "Teufel Hunden" is grammatically incorrect. The correct German would be Teufelshunde in nominative, genitive, and accusative cases, and Teufelshunden only in the dative. In either form, the linking element "s" steps between the words. Examples:

Furthermore, the word "Teufelshund", though not unknown in the German language, is rare, and this use may possibly be an example of Denglisch. The more common equivalent is "Höllenhund" ("dog of hell" or "hellhound"), the German translation of the mythical Kerberos.

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