Skip to main content

April 23, 1918 - Don Martin learns of misunderstanding on his accreditation, and reports a heroic war story

Don Martin diary entry for Tuesday, April 23, 1918: 
Went to Epinal, Baccarat and Nancy. Got nothing much. At Baccarat saw the 69th New York regiment (now the 165th) starting for the trenches. Gregg and Adams and a lieutenant were in my car. Got back at 7. Met [Henri] Bazin who had just come from Paris. Spent part of the evening at the club with Gregg. Got a letter from the Commodore saying he had cabled Ohl to have me accredited, and to go wherever I thought the news might be. The Commodore’s signature doesn’t indicate that he is nearing death as some reports have had it.

Weather miserable.
        On April 23 Don Martin got some news about the progress in his accreditation in a  short letter from James Gordon Bennett, written on April 20 from his Villa Namouna in Beaulieu, Alpes Maritimes, France.

          Dear Mr. Martin,
          Through a misunderstanding, application for you to be accredited to the American Expeditionary Forces was made to General Pershing, instead of having been made to Washington. Colonel Nolan has written me on the matter, and I have cabled to Mr. Ohl [head of Herald New York office] to take the necessary steps immediately in Washington. I hope everything will be definitively settled very soon so that you may be quite free to direct your movements as may seem best for the Herald’s interests. The essential detail is that you be on hand wherever good news may be obtainable...
          Yours truly,
                   J.G. Bennett          
       Don Martin reports on and cables a heroic, human interest story, dated Tuesday, April 23 and published in the New York Herald  on Wednesday, April 24, 1918.
GERMAN WITH IRISH REGIMENT WINS CROIX DE GUERRE FOR SAVING PAL AND SEVERED LEG
Soldier of Teutonic Extraction Carries Wounded Comrade and Lost Limb Back of Lines—Hun Bullet Aimed at Both Hits Leg Under Rescuer’s Arm
By DON MARTIN
[Special cable to the Herald]
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE, Tuesday
              The Croix de Guerre has been recommended to a private of German extraction who is a member of a regiment composed largely of Irish-Americans. It is one of the best stories of the war. The German and an Irishman, who are pals, were on a small raiding excursion when a shell struck the Irishman, tearing off one leg at the knee. The German private make a tourniquet, threw the wounded pal on his shoulder, put the severed leg under his arm and walked three hundred yards with machine gun bullets spattering everywhere. Depositing his unconscious pal at the dressing station, he said:--
             “Here’s his leg. I thought maybe you could do something with it at the station.”
             Later the German private saw his pal in the hospital and said:--
           “I did everything I could to save your leg for you, Bill. The Boche were after it, for a bullet hit it while I had it under my arm, so maybe your leg saved my life.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

October 14, 1918: Don Martin’s funeral service in Paris

        A funeral service for Don Martin was held in Paris on Sunday, October 13, 1918, at the American Church, rue de Berri. The New York Herald published this report on Monday, October 14, 1918. MANY FRIENDS AT CHURCH SERVICE FOR DON MARTIN Simplicity and Sincerity of Character of “Herald” Writer, Theme of Dr. Goodrich’s Sermon                     Funeral services for Don Martin were held yesterday afternoon in the American Church in the rue de Berri. They were simple and impressive. Before the pulpit rested the coffin, over which was spread the American flag. Floral offerings were arranged around it. Flat against the wall behind the pulpit were two American flags and the tricolor, and on either side were standards of these two emblems. Uniforms of the United States army predominated in the gathering of 200 persons composed of friends Mr. Martin had known for years at home and friends he had made in France. The depth and beauty of character which drew these old and new
2 comments
Read more

Welcome to Don Martin blog on Armistice Centennial Day

Welcome to the World War I Centennial Don Martin daily blog, on Armistice Centennial day, November 11, 2018. Don Martin was a noted war correspondent reporting on the American Expeditionary Forces in France in 1918. Regrettably he died of Spanish influenza in Paris on October 7,1918, while covering the Argonne Forest offensive. He missed the joy of the Armistice by a month. Beginning on December 7, 2017, this blog has chronicled each day what Don Martin wrote one hundred years earlier – in his diary, in his letters home, and in his multitude of dispatches published in the Herald newspaper, both the New York and the European (Paris) editions. The blog, for the several days following his death, recounts the many tributes published, his funeral in Paris and his trip back to his final resting place at his home in Silver Creek, New York. To access the daily blogs, click on the three red lines at top right, then in the fold-down menu, click on Archive. There are 316 blogs from D
1 comment
Read more

October 17, 2018: Final Salute to Don Martin, Soldier of the Pen

          We have reached the end of the Don Martin World War I centennial memorial blog. Starting on December 7, 2017, this daily blog has chronicled, in 315 postings, the remarkable story of my grandfather’s contribution to the Great War.               This blog was possible because of the availability of my grandfather Don Martin’s diaries and his letters to my mother, and his published writings in the New York and Paris Herald.             We have followed him from leading political reporter of the New York Herald at the end of 1917, to head of its London office in January-March 1918, and then to France as accredited war correspondent covering the American Expeditionary Forces, based first in Neufchateau, then in Meaux, Nancy and finally for a few days in Bar le Duc. And then, his final return to his hometown in Silver Creek, New York. Don Martin has given us a full and insightful, if grim, picture of the Great War, as witnessed by the American war correspondents. We have seen
1 comment
Read more