July 18, 1918: Lieutenant Quentin Roosevelt is downed in air battle

Don Martin diary entry for Thursday, July 18, 1918:

Went out with [Fred] Ferguson [United Press] and [Edwin] James [New York Times]. Visited 1^st and 2^nd divisions. Saw many towns which have been almost wrecked with bombs. Americans advanced everywhere. Plan of [Field Marshall Ferdinand] Foch is to thwart scheme of Germans to straighten front for an attack on Paris. Is biggest thing of war for three years. Wrote long cable for New York. Lights went out so had to use candle. Air raid at three in the morning (Friday morning).

The New York Herald published on Thursday, July 18, news about the downing of Quentin Roosevelt. Don Martin would later follow this up and visit his grave, where his airplane crashed in German-occupied territory.

Quentin Roosevelt Falls in Air Combat on Marne; Death Is Not Confirmed

Don Martin cabled to New York on July 18 a brief report on the fighting, which was published in the New York Herald on Friday, July 19.

ALL OFFICERS LOST, BUGLER

TAKES COMMAND OF COMPANY

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, Thursday [July 18]

American troops fighting in the ranks of the French southeast of Mezy refused to budge in the face of the onslaught of the Hun hordes. The German attack against our lines was greatest there.

One of our infantry companies lost all its officers in this fighting, and a bugler took command of the unit.

The Germans have been able to advance only one kilometre in two days of the most violent battling. At two o'clock on Wednesday afternoon they were foiled in the attainment of all the objectives they had set out to gain, although in spots they had succeeded in making slight advances.

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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

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

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

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