Don
Martin diary entry for Wednesday, July 17, 1918:
Franco-American offensive started. Lieut.
Delany called me at seven a.m., said all correspondents wanted for important
announcement. Said Americans had attacked. Got an auto. Started with [Edwin] James [New York Times] for La Ferte from where we went to the 26th
division headquarters. Got story. French with Americans attacked from south
Soissons to west Chateau Thierry. Won everywhere. Sent 400 words full rate. In
the afternoon went to the 1st. division headquarters also 2nd.
Returned to Meaux early evening. Wrote a long cable for New York.
Don Martin was hitting his stride; with lots of war news becoming available, his dispatches expanded in length and number. For New York he wrote a dispatch about the deeds of the American soldiers dated July 17, which the New York Herald published on Thursday, July 18.
“AMERICANS
FIGHT LIKE WILDCATS, SOLDIERS WHOM FRANCE RESPECTS,” FRENCH GENERAL TO DON
MARTIN
Calls Crowding Huns Back
to Marne One of the Finest Things of War
KILL ENEMY FIGHTING,
TREAT CAPTIVES WELL
Epernay and Chalons Were
the Huns’ Objectives
and
Disappointment Is Great
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,
Wednesday [July 17]
A study of the strategy of the
German offensive now raging shows that Americans have been a serious barrier to
the Germans' determination to batter their way through two points where the
Americans are. One is north of Chalons, one at (deleted).
At both points the Germans
launched ponderous thrusts with the intention of encompassing Rheims and also
extending their line to Dormans, on the southeast, forming a circle around a
vast territory, including Rheims and Epernay. The Americans, fighting with the
French. form a stone wall at both points where it was necessary for the Germans
to force the Allies back.
The Germans are now driving
toward Epernay from a point east of Dormans, using four shock divisions. No
Americans are here. The Germans are advancing slowly as I write, leaving a
ghastly record of their own dead. There is the highest praise for the conduct
of the Americans, who are in the line north of Chalons. They seem not to know
what it means to retreat. They fought like heroes, killing three for one.
The same is true of the Americans
west of Dormans, also of those whose magnificent valor is forcing the Germans
back to the Marne in the region of Mezy. Inspiring and enthusiastic was the
tribute of a French general, who said: "More magnificent fighting is
impossible."
When the full story of the
fighting in this offensive is told it will be found that the American, colored
too, played an important part.
“Fought Like Wildcats”
The magnitude of
the operation, coupled with the fact that the Americans are fighting as members
of the French command and are responsible to the French, make it difficult to
obtain details of the whole line. To-day 1 called at the headquarters of the
French army and saw a high officer, who was surrounded with detailed maps,
marked minutely. He explained the operations of the day and pointed to the line
to which the Huns were shoved north to the Marne after the Germans had
established their line between Fossoy and Crezancy. His eyes glowed with
admiration as he said: —
"The Americans did it.
These fine soldiers, whom all France respects, fought like wildcats. They never
stop. The Germans settle down. You Americans jump out, despite losses, and
crowd the Germans back to the Marne. One of the finest things of the war! More
than five hundred prisoners! I am proud of fighting with such men."
Twice again the officer pointed to the line which is
jammed back to the historic river, shook his head and expressed pride and
confidence in the outcome when the Americans are able to fight so well.
A statement issued by the French
direction says the fighting of the Americans has made a great impression in
France. The newspapers feature the exploit of yesterday. Some call attention to
the fact that in the midst of one of the greatest battles of the world a young
Goliath of unknown ability steps in and proves to be among the world's best.
Shoot Straight, Never Surrender.
I talked with several French
officers who have seen the Americans burnt with the smoke and steel of battle.
They say that the Americans are wonderful. In handling the rifle they are swift
and shoot twice to the others’ once. They shoot straight, are quick and agile,
giants in strength and also indomitable in spirit. They are humorists as well
as idealists and are in evidence everywhere.
The achievements of the Americans
have braced the French to such a degree that they are willing to submit again
without grumbling to the ordeal of moving and living out in the cold the life
of a refugee.
I saw the heroes of the fighting
west of Château-Thierry to-day and learned some details. A company under
command of a captain, caught in the onrush of the Germans, should have
retreated, but did not. They fought inch-by-inch, slaughtering scores of
Germans. They were surrounded by Germans, but fought still with no surrender
and arrived at their own line sadly depleted in numbers. But they had convinced
the Boche that an American is not a quitter.
One lieutenant returned from
fighting in a wood with five times the number of Germans. Eighteen men were
left in his company. They had plenty of chances to surrender, but scoffed at
them and fought. That is the way of all.
I passed Americans on a road
marching prisoners back. All had stopped by the side of the road to lunch on
bread and sausages. Two Germans, weak from lack of food, collapsed. The
Americans treated them the same as themselves.
One of the custodians said: --
“We kill the Boche when fighting, but afterward use them decently. It comes
hard, but it’s the only way.”
Surprised at Americans
Many of the prisoners are only
eighteen or nineteen years old. They tell the usual story. They are weary of
the war, think it will be over by September, ended by negotiations and not by a
battle decision. They do not know the extent of the present offensive, except
that all say they expect to take Epernay and Chalons. They were surprised to
find Americans opposite to them. They thought they were British.
A French interpreter, who has
been interrogating prisoners for three years, says the morale of the Germans is
no doubt less. He can discover no indication that artillery efficiency or
supply of ammunition is decreasing.
The German offensive is known to
be the greatest since that of March 21. There was the same preparation as then.
There are ninety divisions in the attack now. Between sixty and eighty of these
are assault troops, who have been rested. Many of the very best reserves are
ready to take their place in the offensive, which is likely to last ten days in
view of the immensity of the preparation and the expenditure of ammunition.
The defeat of the attack will be
a blow to Germany. She has been tripped at many points. There has been no
advance except in some spots, and there has been a retirement in others from
points gained on the first day. This failure to advance according to schedule
is a shock to the German leaders and discouraging to the men. This was
indicated by a statement from German officers captured.
Epernay and Chalons
There were two objectives on
which the Germans had determined, Epernay and Chalons. A study of the map shows
how by gaining these and taking the woods and mountain south of Rheims they
could confidently have expected to force a withdrawal of the Allies or capture
a large force if at the same time they forged ahead past Epernay, which they
confidently expected to do.
Four of the strongest German
division are now assailing the French northwest of Epernay, showing their
eagerness to get the city.
They are on a short front, using
the heaviest artillery. The Germans are keen to force a French withdrawal from
Rheims for the moral effect they think it will have on the French when the
announcement is made, also for its effect when the Germans at home are told
they have captured Rheims. But it means nothing to the French now that the
ferocity of the German attack is understood.
They are known to be using what
amounts to a division for every kilometre. At one place there were twenty
divisions in thirteen kilometres. Ordinarily the Germans hold five or seven
kilometres to one division. However, the German divisions now are smaller than
usual.
At One American Headquarters.
I called at the headquarters of
an American unit north of Chalons and found they had moved the place a week ago
owing to the intense shell fire of the Germans, penetrating everything. I found
the commanding officer and his staff deep in a dugout. Shells were whizzing constantly
overhead, bursting sometimes close to the dugout. Telephones were busy and
clerks at work the same as in an office in Wall Street. There was the same
precision, though there was danger of constant interruption.
It was singular to see Americans,
who a short time ago were lawyers, merchants, clerks and salesmen, busy
underground in the grim work of war, death whirling past in a battle likely to
have an effect on the world’s history raging only three miles away.
“Some changes from a year ago,
but I like it. Hear that one strike,” a big youth said.
Speaking of the bravery of the
Americans there are a thousand instances, but it would be unfair not to mention
the daring and coolness of the Signal Corps. During the fiercest shelling of
our lines in vicinity of Fossoy on Monday, six youthful Americans repaired
eighteen breaks in the wires. Shell fragments were flying everywhere, high
explosives crashing and banging on all sides. Two men were injured and one
killed, but the others continued till they finished the job. It would seem
immodest for an American to praise his compatriots ordinarily, but apologies
are unnecessary. The youth are adding a bright lustre to the flag, causing the
exuberant French to exhaust their vocabularies of admiration.
Checked Huns Above Suippes
I learn from details of the
American stand north of Chalons and west of Suippes that it was one of their
accomplishments equaling the best. It prevented the advance of the Germans in
their sector, who were killed in vast numbers, demoralizing the plans of the
Germans and compelling the abandonment of the Huns’ programme to storm the
Americans’ position by our artillery which threw one of the fiercest and most
skillful barrages possible.
There is a full division of
American artillery here. Many of the officers and men are from Plattsburg and
similar places, making war their temporary business. The Huns were massed in
strong force, determined by a bold push to take Chalons, which is an important
link in the new chain the Huns seek before advancing on Paris. They threw a
barrage on the Americans which did no damage. Then the American artillery
turned loose the furies of big and small explosives and shrapnel.
The Germans started back in
masses. There seemed tens of thousands of them, though this is exaggerated.
They left the woods and entered a hay field newly cut. Our shells sprayed them
with a drench of death. They faltered and some turned back. New masses sprang
out of the wood. They faltered too at our artillery. Its unceasing aim was
wonderful.
The Huns at dawn quit, leaving
hundreds of dead in the field and carrying a hundred dead back. It was a
frightful experience of American artillery, which is only the gateway of
resistance for the infantry, which was waiting, hungry to fight. This is significant, for on the north Chalons
is one of the points essential to carrying out the Germans programme of the
present offensive.
Don Martin wrote another version of that story for Paris on July 17, which the Paris Herald published on July
18.
AMERICANS IN THE THICK OF FRAY
AROUND RHEIMS AND
IN DORMANS VICINITY
Attacks and Defensive Operations Are Praised by the
French Commander—One Sergeant and Squad of Ten Men Capture 159 Germans in
Trench
(SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO
THE HERALD.)
By
DON MARTIN.
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Wednesday [July
17]
Americans may feel proud of the
fact that American soldiers, fighting under French direction and side by side
with poilus who, in their four years of carnage, have learned all there is to
know about modern warfare, are occupying important positions in the line which
the Hun, in his desperate attempt to reach Epernay and Châlons, is striving to
force back or break.
The French are enthusiastic in
their praise of the Americans. They use superlatives in describing their
fighting qualities.
Americans have been at two vital
points in the line, and with the French prevented the advance of the Germans. One
was east of Rheims, where the Germans made a violent attack with the idea of
going straight through to Châlons. The other was in the vicinity of Dormans. In
both places the Americans stood with the valor of veterans, and their artillery
played deadly havoc with the enemy.
In the region east of Rheims the
Germans attempted an advance with massed troops. The Americans waited till they
started from a wood which led into an oat field. Then the American artillery
turned loose a cyclonic blast of shells, gas and high explosive. The Germans faltered.
Their lines thinned. Some moved on. Others came out of the woods in droves. The
artillery continued to play its fatal spray of steel upon the enemy, who, for
an hour, made a desperate effort to get through.
Wiping
Out Stragglers.
Some of the infantry got past the
curtain of death and were despatched by the Americans, who used their rifles and
grenades with customary quickness and accuracy.
The infantry had stood coolly
under the savage barrage thrown by the Germans and were ready to engage the
foe, but the task which finally confronted them was small. The number of German
dead must have been very great.
Near Dormans the Americans were
engaged in co-operation with the French. Everywhere they fought with the
quickness and bravery of their French comrades, and in several instances when
retreat might have meant the saving of men, stood their ground and fought for
every inch they yielded.
I saw many of these Americans who
had been slightly wounded. They were a revelation to me as they are to
everyone— even those who presumably understand thoroughly the American character.
Not a complaint from anyone, not a whimper or a sigh of relief that they are
temporarily out of the hellholes of modern battle. On the contrary, all with whom
I talked—and they were from all States and mostly under 24 years of age—said
they aren't exactly in love with shrapnel, high explosives and gas, but that
they came over here to fight and want to continue fighting till the work has
been completed. Their hatred of the German has been intensified by the knowledge
that while feigning a sweetness of nature and a love for the Americans, he is
conducting a bombing crusade against American hospitals. The bombing of Jouy is
known to all the soldiers. That is only one of many instances where the Germans
have deliberately and wantonly dropped bombs with the intention of wrecking
hospitals which they knew were exclusively for Americans.
They have not only bombed
American hospitals, but have shelled them as well.
Mentality
of Prisoners.
Yesterday American soldiers were
guarding 500 prisoners who were captured east of Château-Thierry. Two of the
Germans were exhausted by their long walk, following an ordeal in the front
line. Americans gave them water from American canteens, gave them chocolate and
treated them as if they were brothers in fact. I remarked to one of the
Americans that their kindness was a marked contrast to the insults which the Germans
heap upon American prisoners.
"Sure," said an
American, "either one of these animals would throw a grenade at us this
minute if he thought he could get away with it; but there's no use being a
rattlesnake just because someone else is. The Germans will furnish rattlesnakes
for all the world for many years to come. We give them gentlemanly treatment
when they're prisoners, but other times have to fight, and they are finding it
out pretty fast, too. I have seen a lot of German prisoners. They pretend they
are tired of the war and are fighting only because they have to. Then they say,
when they surrender, that they are doing it because they don't believe the war
should continue. That is their way of trying to deceive us."
Most of the German prisoners
taken recently say the understanding among the soldiers is that Paris will soon
be reached. A few of them apparently believe it.
Some
Personal Exploits. - Later
There is no doubt that the
American soldier has set a very swift fighting pace. The French lay double
emphasis on their tributes to the Americans since hearing of what some of the Americans
did in the fighting immediately south of Mezy, near the Marne.
It is stated on good authority
that on the battlefield just south of the Marne, near Mezy, German dead lay
thick: it is known that the Sixth German Grenadiers suffered losses which
practically render them unfit for further service, one battalion being wiped
out by machine-gun fire; that several Americans who as captives were
transported across the Marne, killed their captors and swam back across the
river; that several soldiers captured machine-guns, and that the Americans lay
in holes in the ground and in sequestered spots in the woods until the Germans
advancing after their pontoon trip across the river, started ahead, when they,
the Americans, rose in their places and either killed the Germans or compelled
them to surrender, the Huns being fired on from front and rear.
For the first time, so far as the
Americans are aware, the Germans used smoke engines. They belched forth
voluminous clouds of thick smoke, which were shot now and then with the beams of
searchlights which the Germans were using apparently to see how their operation
was progressing. It was in the thick of these clouds that the Germans crossed
the river at nine points, which, according to prisoners, had been previously
and carefully designated. A regiment which started to advance northeast of
Chartèves was flanked by machine-gun fire and assailed with artillery at the
same time. There was little left of it to retreat.
Sergeant
Brown's Story.
The story of Sergeant J. F.
Brown is one of the classics of the war. I read his own report of a night
passed in the region where shell fire first tore up the earth and leveled
trees, and where for hours afterwards there was individual fighting and
skirmishing very much after the style of old Indian fighting.
Sergeant Brown was one of the
men who hid in a shallow dugout and let the Germans go by. After a reasonable
time he began to prowl around. He met a captain who was venturesome like
himself and who said, according to Brown's report: —
"There are four machine-guns
up on the hill there; let us get them."
The two started out. They
captured one, after killing the one man who was trying to manipulate it. They
destroyed it. Then they captured a second, but in so doing the captain was
killed. Brown's story says : —
"I saw he was going to die
so I decided to get after the other two guns myself. I got one and then met a
corporal who went with me to get the other. We had to kill a couple of Germans,
but we got the gun and put it out of business."
Then Brown and eleven men whom
he rounded up—all prowlers of this midnight region of death and shell wounds—
started out to see what they could find.
Each travelled separately. Brown
had two personal encounters which came out highly successful. He then spotted a
short trench in which were a considerable number of Germans. One, started to
shoot, but Brown suppressed all trouble by turning an automatic rifle on the
trench. Instantly there were cries of "Kamerad" from such as were
able to make a noise of any kind. Brown ordered the whole number to march out
and surrender their arms. They obeyed. As the line continued to pour out, he
saw that he had a considerable job on his hands, and he called to some of his
platoon members who were scouting nearby.
Ten Americans, led by the
sergeant, then marched 159 prisoners out through a barrage which the Germans
were throwing. The sergeant had alone captured slightly more than 100 in his trench
raid, and his comrades had, in their prowling expeditions, rounded up in the
neighborhood of 50. They were all marched fourteen miles to a temporary detention
camp.
Four of the captives were
injured by shellfire on their way out, the sergeant said. Their wounds were so
serious that they died on the fourteen-mile march. Sergeant Brown is
twenty-three years old and a boy in appearance. He is mild-mannered and has
been a soldier but a year. There isn't such a thing as fear in his make-up.
Don Martin also reported on the air war on July 17, this being a sad story. It was published in the New York Herald on Thursday, July 18.
HUN AIRMEN’S WANTON WAR ON AMERICAN HOSPITALS IN FRANCE
TOLD BY DON MARTIN
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,
Wednesday [July 17]
The Huns continue to bomb
American hospitals. There can be no doubt of their wantonness, for five
instances of their ruthlessness have come under my observation.
In each instance Boche aviators
dropped bombs on hospitals which they knew were occupied by Americans, some of
whom, at least, personally doubted that the enemy was heartless enough to
attack helpless men and women nurses. They have done these things in the very
face of the insidious propaganda they have carried on and in which they
professed to love us and to encourage that belief among our troops.
There can now be no doubt that
they are determined to carry on the same barbarous war against us that they
have carried on against our allies.
The latest instance of barbarous
methods of the Huns' warfare was the attack by Boche airmen on a large hospital
which was occupied exclusively by Americans. It was remote from factories and
railroad lines and was marked by a huge red cross and gigantic white strips.
The Boche airman dropped
powerful bombs upon it, injuring nurses there and killing some of the
orderlies. Fortunately the bombs missed the crowded wards. The damage to the
building was great,
One of them came over last
night. The barbarian descended until he was about three hundred metres over one
of our hospitals. He was close enough for patients and nurses to hear his
motor. Then he dropped his heaviest bomb. It is a wonder that anything remains
of the hospital to-day.
Earlier last night a squadron of
German aerial bombers attacked an enormous American hospital far inside the
allied lines and in a small city where there is absolutely nothing of military
value. They dropped bombs all around it, but fortunately missed the mark. They
did succeed, however, in causing consternation among the patients, who numbered
into the hundreds.
Many other instances of the same
inhuman actions of the Germans in the last two weeks might be told. I
tentatively overlooked them at the time they occurred, partly, perhaps, with
the mistaken idea, which is the disposition of all Americans, of discounting
the reports of inhuman conduct of the enemy toward the wounded and ill. Now,
however, this incredulity has been wiped out. In Its place is the firm
conviction in our minds that the Germans are the black and merciless barbarians
that they are painted.
Don Martin wrote a more upbeat story about the feats of American airmen on July 17, which was published in the Paris Herald on July 18.
American Aviator Is
Attacked
by Six German Fliers
(Special Telegram to the Paris Herald)
By Don Martin,
With The American Army, Wednesday.
“I regret to report that in landing my
machine was damaged, due to the fact that I struck a shell hole, the location
of which was unknown to me.”
That is the concluding paragraph
in a report of an exciting aerial encounter which Lieutenant Thomas Abernathy, [DSC, 147th Aero Squadron] of West Pembroke, Maine, had on Monday with six German fliers. He landed
between a German and a French barrage and waited for an hour with the shells
singing an interesting, but somewhat disquieting, song in their passage both
ways. His machine was punctured from end to end with German bullets and his
engine was severely damaged. Otherwise he had no cause for complaint.
 |
| Lt. Thomas Abernathy |
On Tuesday Lieutenant Charles
Porter, of New Rochelle, N.Y.,[2x DSC] brought down one enemy machine; Lieutenant
Francis M. Simonds, of New York, [Commanding Officer of 147th Aero Squadron] downed two, and Lieutenant Arthur Jones, of
Alameda, Cal., added two to his record. On Monday Lieutenant George Robertson,
of Mount Leonard, N.J., sent down one plane, and Lieutenant Miller attacked and
destroyed an enemy observation balloon. [All airmen of 147th Aero Squadron]
Lieutenant J. H. Stevens set out on a
“strafing’” expedition. He attacked a line of German horse-drawn trucks and
caused consternation both among the drivers and the teams. One truck was swung
into a ditch by its frantic horses, and a dozen drivers scooted to cover.
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