Don
Martin diary entry for Tuesday, July 16, 1918:
German offensive in full swing. Germans shelling everything 30 miles
back, dropping bombs all over. Destroyed railway station in La Ferte last
night. I went to 3rd division headquarters also 28th. Saw
hundreds airplanes; saw almost continuous firing from anti-aircraft guns at
German fliers. Travelled about 150 miles by auto. Returned, wrote story for
Paris and about 1,500 word cable on whole front and strategic situation for New
York. Filed at 8:30 for Thursday’s paper.
Bombers over Meaux last night, sent us all
to the cellar. They were driven off. Expected them tonight but they didn’t
come. Floyd Gibbons [Chicago Tribune] with one eye gone arrived tonight for a
short stay. [John T.] Parkerson [Associated Press] and [Mel] Draper [New York
Tribune] are being replaced. It is about time Draper was called back. Am seeing
considerable of the war from very close range in
anticipation of the supreme attack of all.
Don Martin sent a telegram to Paris which was published in the Paris Herald on
July 17.
Bois de Belleau Now Named After American Marines
(SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO
THE HERALD.)
By
DON MARTIN.
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Tuesday. [July
16]
The name of the Bois de Belleau
has been changed on all the French maps. It is now the Bois de la Brigade de
Marines. This is in honor of the brilliant work done by the Marine Corps of the
American Army in capturing and holding the woods from the Germans.
Don Martin wrote a whimsical tale dated July 16, which was mailed to New York and published in the New York Herald on Sunday, August 4, under a banner headline “WITH DON MARTIN AT THE AMERICAN ARMIES FRONT IN FRANCE“
Don Martin wrote a whimsical tale dated July 16, which was mailed to New York and published in the New York Herald on Sunday, August 4, under a banner headline “WITH DON MARTIN AT THE AMERICAN ARMIES FRONT IN FRANCE“
LUCY, PRIDE OF AMERICANS IN FRANCE, ESCAPES DEATH AND FRYING PAN
BY TIMELY ‘CLUCK
Half Starved, She is Found in Peasant Village After Hun Flight, and Blossoms Out in Course of Events as a Gay Coquette, Proving Her Loyalty at Eleventh Hour
[Special to the Herald]
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES IN FRANCE, July 16
The only living thing in the pleasant village of Lucy-le-Bocage when the Americans took it from the Germans was a tiny gray chicken. There was nothing to indicate that it had any intelligence. Apparently it was just a gray chicken. But appearances are often deceptive, even in feathered beings, as Lucy has proved.
To see her now you would think that she is not only the queen of the whole chicken family but that she has intelligence, tact and pride. The Americans have no doubts whatever on the subject. It is quite probably that in the stories told about Lucy there has been injected a slight touch of exaggeration, but why question them? We all know that the average chicken has less intelligence than any other living thing—and yet there is Lucy.
If you could see her strutting around, jumping on the knees of the soldiers, coquettishly making love to all, at times when their empty stomachs conjure glorious pictures of Lucy broiled, Lucy fried, or Lucy roasted, you would feel sure that the Creator endowed at least one chicken with human intelligence.
Hunger stalks frequently in the front line. Enemy shells make it impossible at times to get food to the men. In Lucy-le-Bocage the soldiers are hungry for days at a time. Lucy matured rapidly. She was scrawny and small when she first became the personal property of the Americans. In her new environment she blossomed quickly into a full grown hen and—I don’t vouch for the truth of this, I am merely repeating what was told to me up there in the region of shrapnel and dugouts--when the hunger of her friends was reaching a desperate stage and her life was hanging by the slenderest thread, she laid an egg!
It wasn’t the biggest egg ever laid, but it was an egg. It was the effort, the thoughtfulness of the bird which touched the hearts of the hungry soldiers and warmed their affection so that Lucy’s future was assured.
“Lucy has laid an egg!” was the word passed from dugout to cellar.
So wondrous was the news that the constant dropping of shells in the village was of secondary consideration.
“She’s done her bit,” was the comment of one of her fondest admirers.
And then, with the triumphal dignity of a peacock, Lucy strutted to the most conspicuous spot in the village and clucked and clucked and clucked.
“You’re all right, Lucy?”
“You were close to the frying pan many times, old girl, but you’re the star boarder now.”
“You’re a game kid!”
“If you never lay another egg, you’re all set for the Croix de Guerre.”
Those are some of the felicitations paid to Lucy after she announced her first real achievement—her entry into full henhood. The last time I saw her she was taking a dust bath. She had changed considerably in appearance.
She is growing fat, but it isn’t her fault. The soldiers think so much of her that they will not let her scratch and dig, as all good hens should. They feed her almost to death. She loves all the soldiers and retains all the characteristics of a coquette, coming sometimes and running away at others, when she is called. I asked a sergeant what will become of Lucy when the soldiers move.
“She goes where we go. She’s part of the company—aren’t you, Lucy, old girl?”
Whereat Lucy clucked and jumped upon the sergeant’s knees.
On July 16 Don Martin also wrote an extended dispatch about the battle on the Marne, which was published in the New York Herald on Wednesday, July 17.
On July 16 Don Martin also wrote an extended dispatch about the battle on the Marne, which was published in the New York Herald on Wednesday, July 17.
CHALONS
AND EPERNAY HUNS’ FIRST OBJECTIVES, THEN PARIS,
PRISONERS TELL DON MARTIN
German Drive Was in Form
of Elbow Movement and Despite the Severe Reverses Suffered First Day Another
Determined Attack Toward the East is Expected—Americans Under Fire for First
Time Show Valor
By Don
Martin
Special Correspondent of
the Herald with the American Armies in France
[Special Cable to the Herald]
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES IN FRANCE,
Tuesday [July 16]
The enemy has failed to attain
any of the objectives he set out to gain.
Despite the repulses he has met
the general belief here is that his fiercest and most determined attack is yet
to be launched. When it comes, it is believed, it will fall on the eastern part
of this line.
Prisoners which our forces have
taken said that the first objectives of the German high command in this thrust
were Chalons and Epernay. They added that the enemy forces expected to occupy
these places and other points along the railroad line and in Champagne.
Dominating these strategic points, their second and main objective was to have
been launched on Paris. This drive was to have been in the form of what might
be described as an elbow movement, which would force the French back as the
German hordes advanced. The Hun forces expected to cross the Marne River east
of Château-Thierry.
Americans Show Great
Valor
As I write this despatch our
forces are engaged in a second counter attack on the Germans, which bids fair
to be successful. It is aimed at driving the enemy out of Fossoy and Crezancy,
which were occupied by him yesterday when he crossed the river.
[Later reports stated that this counter thrust by the American forces
was successful and that they had recaptured both Fossoy and Crezancy.]
In the fighting which has
occurred on this front since last Sunday night the American troops have
displayed a daring brilliance in action which equals the most glorious
traditions of the United States Army and their own previous record in France.
At many points at the front in the great battle of the Marne they are taking
their part, and are holding their own with a persistence and valor which is
likely to be vitally important in the continuation of the battle.
Holding the line at the edge of
the Marne region at Mezy, when they were forced to retire under the most savage
barrage ever known in this section, they later rallied and made a heroic
advance. They captured many hundreds of prisoners and killed hundreds of the
enemy. They pushed the Germans, who were demoralized by the very vigor of the
assault by our men, back across the Marne in this sector. As I write this
forces are holding the line where it was before the enemy launched his attack.
Meanwhile the Americans a few
kilometres east of here, in the region opposite Jaulgonne, are making a counter
attack which is having an identical effect.
Our forces, many of whom were
never under fire before, made their advance in a line between Fossoy and
Crezancy.
The German attack in the extreme
east fell on the Americans, who also were stationed at other points of attack
in the vicinity of Rheims and elsewhere in the line.
Reports coming in here from
French sources say that the conduct of our men was a revelation to their
allies, who now fully realize that the Americans are surely inspired with a
spirit which never surrenders and never retreats. To-day we are fighting in the
region between Château-Thierry and Jaulgonne. Many of our men have been in the
front line but a short time.
At nine o'clock last night they
found themselves in a furnace of death and destruction. It was known that the
Germans would attack soon, but there was no expectation that the preliminary
bombardment would be so vicious. For ten hours there was an incessant hurricane
of gas, shrapnel and high explosives of all kinds, and they rained on the
positions occupied by us on both sides of the Marne. Our artillery replied
while our men dug out holes and shallow trenches and took their medicine.
The barrage was scientifically
murderous. A hundred thousand shells—or perhaps twice a hundred thousand—began
to pound the front line, and they moved steadily and mercilessly back until an
area fully five miles deep was churned up and hammered until it seemed that every
square rod had been turned up. A small wood embracing about ten acres virtually
was levelled while the Americans were there. Indeed, the barrage was enough to
drive men insane.
But our troops stood it,
nevertheless.
While the barrage was on German
canvas boats and pontoons which were used in the enemy crossings in the
vicinity of Mezy landed their troops on our side of the Marne under the
protection of their barrage.
The Americans were ready for them
despite the inferno of shells, and our men used their machine guns, grenades and
rifles with deadly effect.
Meanwhile we had retired a
kilometre in order to give our artillery a chance to play its stream of death
upon the Boches. Our fire caught them as they were crossing the Marne, and it
decimated their ranks and at times almost completely annihilated their line of
bridges. Despite this, however, the enemy continued to pour men to the river
edge on the north side and across the stream as fast as they could gain
footholds on our side of the Marne.
Huns Suffer Severe Losses
The Americans, with the French on
their right and left, were greatly outnumbered on account of the heavy German reserves
and were forced to retire.
As the enemy advanced over the
area which had been churned up by shells from the big guns our artillery again
caught them, and the Germans were tossed in every direction by our shells.
When, finally, we were settled in
a new line three and a half kilometres south of the Marne the Americans at once
started to consolidate their position. This done they began their assault on
the Germans, whose artillery on both sides of the river was sending a shower of
steel into the battle zone.
The Americans stood this ordeal
well and drove the enemy back. Some of the Germans were able to cross the river
again, but row after row of them were slaughtered and many of them were driven
into the gibbering stage and stood speechless and with their hands up in sign
of surrender.
Capture Many Prisoners
In this neighborhood the Americans
equalled the record of the French at their right in the number of prisoners
they took.
The region opposite Jaulgonne
also was the scene of bitter fighting, in which numerous American troops played
an important part. Here the Germans used the same barrage methods as they did
in the vicinity of Mezy and forced all the American and French troops to fall
back a short distance. In this shelling the Americans suffered heavily, but
recovered quickly and counter-attacked, regaining most of the ground that they
had lost.
Our forces now are engaged in a
second counter thrust here. Their attack has every promise of success. This is
a notable sector, where our men stood like a wall of steel before the mightiest
kind of an onslaught.
Terrible Roar of Guns
I was fortunate enough to see a
part of the artillery preparation for the battle last Sunday night. The roar of
the guns, which was heard as far off as Paris, was said to have been the most
deafening of the war. Indeed, it echoed like giant thunder from hill to hill.
The entire front, for a distance of thirty miles, was reddened, and there were
occasional flashes of flame.
Back of me was the roar of our
own guns, with flame flashing from them at a hundred spots at once.
The scene supplied a splendid,
yet nerve wracking, evidence that we are in the midst of a real war. Too, it
showed me that we were on the threshold of the greatest of all battles.
Now as I write within five miles
of the scene of the fiercest fighting on the east end of the line, this battle
is raging in spots where American troops are stationed.
Constant Stream to Front.
In the middle of the night, in
inky darkness, it was necessary for me to ride miles to and from the edge of
the battle scene. I saw armament and war’s full strength and glory lumbering
and clattering and clanking along the way to the front. In many places there
was a solid line, two deep, of trucks and guns. Soldiers issued from covers
unexpectedly; they streamed out into the road, formed into line, packs on their
backs. The line was miles long, and all of them—men and guns and vehicles—were
chugging away to the front, where they will serve as supports.
The picture I saw was one of all
France rallying to the colors to protect Paris, which, as I said before,
prisoners declared was the secondary object of the assault.
Every officer and man in the allied
ranks is confident of a victorious outcome of this battle. They are not in the
least alarmed. Germany has paid a stupendous toll for the sight advance her
armies have made thus far. The enemy losses will be much heavier as he attempts
to proceed.
New Troops Ready For
Action
American troops are certain to
take their places in the first line at points which the enemy probably will
attack. We have, however, many men in reserve. They are trained and ready for
action. If they conduct themselves in battle as have their comrades who have
had their baptism of fire, it is certain that they will help mightily in
winning victory for our cause.
Indeed, they will build a
stumbling block over which the Huns will fall—the Hun, who is employing every
fiendish method he can devise against the civil population and the soldiers to
carry out his programme.
The sagacity of General Foch,
coupled with the cooperation and skill of the French soldiers and the splendid
qualities and spirit of the Americans, will thwart these schemes.
As I write the enemy is making a
hell hole of the region back of the allied lines. The sky is alight the same as
it was last night. Also the Hun is using his heavies with a view to terrorizing
the inhabitants of the towns as far away as thirty miles back of the lines.
To-day I was in a village five miles from the front and saw more than a hundred
children playing in the streets. Their mothers looked worried, but the children
were indifferent to the sound of the Huns’ guns. They smiled while the constant
roar of these guns was in their ears, and the roar was punctuated by the sharp
staccato of smaller guns.
Hand
of War Far in Rear
I am told that the enemy is now
turning his artillery on this village and on other villages in the region. Also
I am informed that last night he threw shells from his longest range guns as
far as the Meaux region (about twenty-five miles from Paris). His whole scheme
is designed to frighten and terrorize the French, but in it he is not
succeeding.
To-night it is possible to see
many refugee carts loaded down with furniture and household goods wending their
way laboriously through lines of army trucks, artillery and soldiers as these
carts move back out of range of the great guns. Aged men and women and little
children accompany them. It is such a line of refugees as is common in France
since the Hun stretched his iron hand to attempt to seize this fair land.
But the look on the faces of these
refugees is not one of worry. It is not the look of defeat. They are preparing
for the advance of the Germans, which may come a short distance.
To one who is not hardened to the
sight of suffering such as is found here these refugees present a picture that
tears at the heart strings. But they are staunch souls and the things which
they have faced could never break their spirit. It is the spirit of France in
them—the spirit of the poilus who are trudging through a hundred sections of
this country to-day on their way to the front and totally indifferent to the
fact that many of them never will return to their loved ones and their homes.
The heavy use of gas by the
Allies in this battle is likely. The mustard gas now being used by the
Americans has proved a bitter and fatal dose to the Germans, who, prisoners
say, were demoralized at our first use of it. These prisoners added that
formerly they smoked cigarettes during gas attacks by the Allies, as they said,
the tobacco smoke was sufficient to overcome the effects of our gas.
German military leaders now
threaten their troops with drastic punishment if they fail to neglect the
proper precautions against our gas. It is known that the Germans suffered more
than five hundred casualties in the last American mustard gas attack.
Germans
Have Huge Force
Among the many glimpses of modern
warfare that I have gotten was one that it was my fortune to get at dawn
to–day. I stood in the saucer of a valley and looked two miles across it. All
night the artillery had been active from the hills back of our lines. American
soldiers swarmed from cover in the woods and crossed fields and wooded places
firing. The Germans advanced to the attack, and I could plainly see several
thousand men on both sides grappling and firing amid a bluish cloud of smoke
and dust, which was stained with an angry red.
The Germans opposite massed
sixteen divisions in waves of four divisions each. Their force totaled about
two hundred thousand men in waves three kilometres apart. The fact that only the first wave was used in
the preliminary attack shows the magnitude of the force we have against us.
One of the largest airplane
operations of the war occurred on this front last night and early to-day. As
many as one hundred airplanes were in the air at once. Bombing aircraft paraded
up and down the Marne last night and dropped powerful bombs, which were
intended to destroy German pontoons and to make the enemy side untenable.
Don Martin also sent to Paris a report dated July 16 on the Marne battle, which was published in the
Paris Herald on July 17.
AMERICANS WIN MARNE VICTORY
AMID INFERNO
'Steel
Curtain' Covers 20,000 Germans Crossing River—
Two Counter-Attacks Repulse Them.
(SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO
THE HERALD)
By
DON MARTIN.
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Tuesday. [July
16]
I am able now to give some
details of the fighting along the Marne in sections where Americans were and
are in the line.
One unit, which was having its
first baptism of fire, was stationed south of the Marne in the region south of
Jaulgonne. It was here that the Germans, following their savage barrage of ten hours,
crossed the Marne on pontoons and attacked. Estimates vary as to the number who
crossed, but the opinion of those best qualified to judge is that there were in
the neighborhood of 20,000. They landed in a woody field and, still covered by
a barrage, advanced about three kilometres. Americans were directly in front of
them. The boys, who had never been in shell-fire before, stood the inferno
bravely and when the curtain of steel was lifted rallied quickly and met the
Germans in a fierce fight with rifles and grenades. The Germans were halted.
Then both sides were quiet, so far as infantry action went.
A few hours later—all this first
activity took place just after dawn— the Americans organized a counterattack and
drove the Germans half way back to the river, leaving them entrenched along the
railway which runs parallel with the Marne. In the afternoon the Americans made
a second counter-attack and drove the Germans back across the river.
French artillery sent a hail upon
the retreating Germans and it is known that the losses of the Huns were very
heavy. The French in this vicinity captured 500 prisoners and the Americans
took an equal number.
The American first counter-attack
was made on a line which roughly runs from Fressoy to Cresancy.
Just to the east of this point
where another American unit was there was considerable American activity. With their
French brothers they withdrew under the ferocious artillery preparation of the
Germans, but in due time started with the French a counter-attack and forced
the Germans back more than a kilometre.
Much farther east an American
unit stood for hours in the zone of enemy artillery preparation and in the
early afternoon of Monday engaged in a conflict with the enemy. It came out
with a splendid record.
The fighting of the Americans in
all points where they help form the line of resistance to the German onslaught
is of the same character as that of the divisions which earned a brilliant
record at Bouresches, Vaux, Belleau, Cantigny and Torcy.
French officers who are in
command of the units, of which the Americans are a part, spoke in enthusiastic
terms of the most recent fighting of the Americans. They are inspired by a
spirit of "never surrender," or as the back home folks used to say
"get there or die" spirit. I saw a great many of them in the
hospitals just back of the line and did not once hear a complaint. The boys take
their injuries as part of the game, and they are even in the midst of pain willing
to continue playing.
Judged by the savagery of the
attack along the Marne where Americans have a place in the line, the present
offensive is the mightiest Germany has made. Prisoners say she intends to blast
her way to victory with the most terrific artillery preparations ever known and
that she expects to perfect a solid front before Paris.
And another July 16 dispatch about the Marne battle was published in the
Paris Herald on July 17.
Franco-American Rush
Regains Lost Ground
(SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO
THE HERALD.)
By
DON MARTIN.
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Tuesday. [July
16]
There was lack of activity on the
American sectors in the vicinity of Château-Thierry last night and to-day. The
lines over which the Americans hold guard remain about as they were at the
close of the fighting yesterday.
The French made an attack of a
brilliant character which advanced their line two kilometres on an
eight-kilometre front. The Germans fought vigorously, but were unable to check
the shock assaults of the French, which were preceded by terrific artillery
preparations.
Combined French and American
detachments attacked and retook Hill 223, to the northwest; the towns of Saint-Aignan,
La Chapelle and La Chapelle-Monthodon. Early this afternoon the French were
still progressing north. The French on the right progressed also. The extreme
right was held up temporarily south of the Bois de Crochet. The entire
counter-attack, directed by the French, was in mid-afternoon going very well.
The Germans, on the other hand,
had launched a very powerful attack from the northwest of Epernay, the object
being the capture of Epernay. The advance was very slow, and only at the cost of
numberless German dead. The number of prisoners captured on Monday by the
Americans totals 500. The French to-day could hardly express their admiration of
the Americans as fighters. The Americans are in the line at many points along
the 80-kilomètre front, and are very likely to be heard from a great deal
before the present German offensive ends. Many of the German prisoners
expressed surprise at learning that Americans were opposite them. They said they
understood they were opposed by British.
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