February 16, 1918 - Air raid warning, and waiting for German offensive

Don Martin diary entry for Saturday, February 16, 1918: 
Another air raid 9:30 till 12 p.m.

Got up early and went to Bow St. Court where Col. Repington and Arthur Gwynne were on trial for violation of Defense of Realm Act – furnishing information to the enemy through one of Repington’s articles in Post which Gwynne owns. Adjournment taken. Went to office for couple hours.

Had dinner at the Berkeley with Mrs. Sproul of N.Y. Went to Fleet Street and a few minutes later – at 9:30 – got air raid warning. I grabbed a bus and went to the Savoy. Sat around lobby with some of my Canadian friends till 1 a.m. All clear given at midnight. Heard no bombs so guess raiders were driven off. Came to my room at 1 a.m.

Germans sank 8 trawlers off Dover and fired 30 shells into Dover killing a child.

Weather fine.

  Another short, handwritten letter to Dorothy this Saturday night commented on how the air raids weighed on people’s minds.

Dorothy:

... I had been to a dinner at the Ritz and had gone to the Fleet Street office when I heard the “maroons” – guns fired to warn people to “take cover.” I got on a bus and came to the hotel where I have been ever since. We heard firing for a half hour but heard no bombs. At half past twelve the policemen blew bugles signifying that the danger was over...

The lobby was filled with people till a short time ago. No one goes to bed till ”All clear” signal is given. Down stairs women were sitting around with smelling salts. They take the raids pretty seriously. We have no way of knowing whether bombs were dropped or not. The chances are the English fliers, who always go up, drove the Germans away.

We have a new moon now. It will be full the early part of the week so if the sky is clear the chances are there will be raids every night. It isn’t very pleasant but people make the best of it.

         An article by Don Martin about the coming German offensive was dated February 15 and published in the New York Herald on Saturday, February 16, 1918.

Armies Await the Gong That Will Sound

Start of World’s Greatest Battle

Germany Soon Will Plunge Into an Offensive on the Western Front on More Gigantic Scale Than History Ever Has Seen, It Is Predicted—The Allies Are Ready

[Special to the Herald]

Herald Bureau, No. 130 Fleet Street, London, Friday

     England’s eyes now are on the French front and on the American soldiers.

    The war will be decided on the western front, is the opinion of the experts here. The Americans will aid in forcing this decision if it comes in 1918. They will be largely instrumental in effecting it is it is deferred until the spring or summer of 1919. Such are the deductions to be made from talks with the military authorities.

     No one is bold enough to predict when the war will end. The impression to be gained in Great Britain is that it will end either this year with serious disturbances in Germany and Austria, or in 1919 when Germany finds she has a million American soldiers to face, in addition to the gallant armies of France and England, which are still virile despite desperate assaults made and withstood.

     That there is serious business ahead is quite generally recognized by England. While the English newspapers print almost as much about Mesopotamia, Africa and other remote parts of the warring world as they do about the situation in the crucial sector, the interest of the British public has centered on the French front, and it almost might be said that England is holding her breath in expectation of the most gigantic clash of armies since the world began.

America’s Strength the Question

     When the blow will be struck is, of course, only guessed at. That the Hun is getting his hordes ready for a titanic smash against the enemy is taken for granted. And wherever the prospect is discussed there is invariably the query:--

     “I wonder how many men America has ready to fight>”

     No information is to be gathered on that score. The only thing known in London is that Americans have been seen in considerable numbers in England and, with their sturdy physique and trim appearance, have left a deep impression upon all who have seen them. An officer complimented the other night in the Savoy Hotel lobby by an Englishman, who said:--

     “Fine looking men, these Americans.”

     There was no answer.

     “I dare say they’ll give a good account of themselves.”

     “They always have,” was the laconic reply.

     And that is about as much information as one can get concerning America’s soldiers here or in France. Whether they will be in the line when the crash comes or will be held back until their number is sufficient to crowd back the enemy themselves is a matter only of speculation.

     From the information unofficially given out here the inference might be made that the Allies are prepared for reverses on the western front. However, no secret is made of the fact that the allied line is more adamant than it was at Verdun or the Marne. This, coupled with the fact that at the Marne the French faced an army fresh with vigor and flushed with ambition land again at Verdun confronted the most powerful human batteries the Huns could muster, while the French and English, in the height of their virility, now are facing an army weakened by losses and more or less discouraged, does not seem to justify anything like a pessimistic view of the outlook.

     The Germans are preparing for an attack. On it, it is said, they will stake everything. The opinion of the various military experts here is that the German military clique believes that, with the accessions from the Russian front, its forces can place the allied line and force a peace conference before the full strength of America is felt. If the allied line is broken, according to the authorities in England, Germany at home will be able to still the rising currents of unrest until the militarists have time to shape a new course.

Getting Ready

     For Germany to take the offensive at a time when the world has taken it for granted that she was slowly but nevertheless surely being beaten and driven from occupied territory has caused surprise here. while it is as yet only speculation, no one knowing here what her scheme of campaign is, it is not doubted that she is getting ready to blast her way into the very face of the Allies for a great many miles.

     Last April and as late as November the German newspapers treated America lightly, almost frivolously. Her newspapers spoke continually of “American bluff” and “alleged American ingenuity.” As recently as last December some of the leading German newspapers reaching England said the United States had no intention of putting a big army in the field and that, even if she decided to do so, she could not in two years get enough men into France to occupy the attention of more than a division or two of the Teuton forces.

     But the tune has changed. I have read extracts from more than fifty German newspapers the last month, and there is a note of alarm at America’s preparations running through all of them. Germany knows that, unless she breaks up the allied combination of nations or deals the French and English a terrific blow on the western front before America gets into action, she cannot possibly win the war. Her recognition of that is unmistakable from the newspaper editorials and from statements reaching Great Britain through hidden channels.

     And so she has decided to mass for the greatest blow of all in the hope of reaching Calais or getting to Paris. That it might be possible for her to get to Calais is half conceded, but none of the military authorities is alarmed on that score. It would appear that the more confident Germany is of battering out a victory on the western front, the more satisfied the Allies are.

Can Shift 1,600,000

     The maximum estimates of the new men Germany is able to put in the west as a result of the Russian front withdrawals is 1,600,000. Such a force would nearly equalize the opposing armies as to numbers. I have been told by prominent officials, however, that it is far more likely Germany can increase her force by no more than 900,000, and that these men are not soldiers of the very first class.

     From all that can be learned, however, it is very probable that the greatest battle in the world’s  history will soon start in France and Belgium. It will undoubtedly have a vital bearing on the outcome of the war.

     I have it on highest authority that the Allies do not look for anything like a social or industrial revolution in Germany. The nation is too well disciplined, as explained to me. There is much unrest throughout the country, and wage earners are grumbling land frequently going on strike, but the government maintains the whip hand, and short shrift is given to anyone who is too outspoken. The civil population is suffering for food. The armies get plenty. Stomach disorders and mental diseases have reached alarming proportions. There is plenty of wheat in Ukraine, which ultimately may be at the disposal of Germany, but at present there is no way of transporting it.

     In Austria the economic situation is volcanic. The belief here is that a few reverses might bring chaos in Austria similar to that which reigns in Russia. Hope of peace in 1918, it might almost be said, depends entirely on domestic situations in the dual empires. Great Britain wants peace, but she doesn’t want peace until Germany is conquered.

  An article by Don Martin, dated London, Saturday, was published in the New York Herald on Sunday, March 17, 1918, when Don Martin was in Neufchateau, France. This dispatch was written in February, perhaps on February 16 and mailed to New York.

AMERICAN FRONT BEARS BRUNT OF GERMAN ATTACK

First Advance in Luneville Sector Made by General Pershing’s Men

[Special to the Herald]

Herald Bureau, No. 130 Fleet Street, London, Saturday

            With the coming of fine, dry weather this week the western front has again sprung into activity. Artillery bombardments, patrol raids and attacks of greater moment have been the order of the day and on no part of the line have there been more important actions than that on the American front, of fronts, for the United States forces now hold two sectors of their own besides being mixed with French troops on two other parts of the line.

            That the first advance since last year has been made by General Pershing’s troops is a fact of which all Americans doubtless will be proud. It also constitutes the first retirement of the Germans in this region since the battle of the Marne. When the Huns tore up their solemn treaty and invaded Belgium two other large armies were sent from Metz and Strasburg attacking the fortresses in this region.

On a Critical Front

            They were about to demand the cession of Nancy and Toul as a guarantee of French neutrality in the war when the Russian mobilization brought France into the conflict and German troops were hurled through the gap in the mountains, attacking Lunéville and Nancy. They were thrown back from the Grand Couronne and from Verdun further north, but retained a hold on the west bank of the Meuse opposite St. Mihiel.

            They retired in a wide circle from Verdun and east of Nancy they withdrew to the German border at the same time that they were driven back from the Marne to the Aisne, this movement being really the retreat of the German left wing in the mammoth battle of the Marne. Since then the sides of the St. Mihiel salient have expanded and contracted, but from Pont A Mousson down to Badonviller the line remained practically unchanged until the Americans took up their position a few days ago.

            The American front here is about twenty-one miles southeast of the Rhine-Marne canal, where some Americans were captured by the Germans last year, and it is about forty miles further to the other American sector on the southern edge of the St. Mihiel salient, which is often spoken of as the Toul sector, although Toul is more than fifteen miles distant. The new position is just northwest of Badonviller, between a road leading to Strasburg and one to Saarburg.

            The Badonviller line is much more comfortable than the St. Mihiel front, which lies in the depression of the basin between the Meuse and the Moselle, and is consequently damp and swampy. The troops east of Lunéville are on higher and drier ground. Due east is Mount Donon, 3,307 feet high, the most elevated peak of the Vosges, the northern sentinel of the range. It is here that the Saar River rises and here that the French made their dash across the Prussian frontier in 1870, capturing Saarbruck, which, however, they were able to hold only a few days.

Forced Back By American Guns

            The present war is far different and there is very little chance for rapid movements. The occupation of a mile and a quarter of German trenches in this front therefore was quite a feat, seeing that it was the accurate American gunfire that forced the Huns to abandon them and that the Americans have been able to consolidate the positions in spite of a barrage thrown over them later by the enemy.

            There is good communication back of the lines by a railway that runs from Badonviller to Lunéville and Nancy, also an excellent highway. The trenches here are largely occupied by troops from Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton and other cities in Ohio, while those in the St. Mihiel region mainly come from the Rainbow Division, including the famous old New York Sixty-ninth regiment.

            It seemed at one time as if the Germans were about to begin their long heralded western drive against the American line on the Toul sector. The American trenches have been terrifically bombarded, raids have been frequently attempted and there have been numerous combats of night patrols, in all of which the Germans have come off second best.

            Now it begins to look as if the Americans would take the initiative and s tart a drive of their own, in which, of course, they will need French cooperation to hold any great extent of territory. The Americans are displaying splendid morale and are eager to get at the Huns. They hitherto have been restrained chiefly by the mud and melting snows of the severe winter.

            The Germans, on the other hand, seem to be anxious to avoid direct contact with American troops. This is shown by their abandonment of trenches north of Badonviller and also by their withdrawal before American raiders in the Toul sector who entered German trenches during the week and found that most of the enemy had been hurriedly withdrawn from the first line. A surprise attack was carried out also the next day toward Richecourt which proved very successful.