Don Martin diary entry for Monday, July 22, 1918:
Another interesting day. Went practically up
to the front line northwest of Chateau Thierry. Passed through dozen villages
which were shelled by the French and Americans before they drove the Germans
out. Saw scenes of desolation which brought home very strongly the horrors of
war. Went through Belleau woods, where I saw a great many German dead. Saw
thousand relics of the terrific fighting at various places - dugouts, trenches,
many of them not yet rid of the dead. Bombs dropped in many places while I was
there. Germans now making a stand on hills. They were dropping shells here and
there, some of them near me, to register the hits, the idea being to get the
proper range of villages and roads. Wrote 1,500 word cable and about the same
for Paris. Got through early for a change. Brought back from my trip a German
helmet which I took from a dead German and an automatic rifle which lay beside
him. I might have got scores of ghastly relics but a few I thought would be
sufficient.
Two dispatches by Don Martin dated Sunday, July 21, were published in the
Paris Herald, July 22.
CHATEAU-THIERRY ABANDONED DESPITE STRONGEST DEFENCES
“Herald”
Correspondent Visits Town After German Evacuation—Defensive Organization Shows
Enemy Hoped to Retain Hold on Important Pivot in His Line
(SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO
THE HERALD)
By DON MARTIN
With the American
Armies, Sunday
I was in Château-Thierry this
morning a very few hours after the last German left it. French patrols and
infantry and Americans also had passed through it, and were then taking up
positions well north of the city.
It is very evident, from the
condition of the place, that the Germans had expected to put up a defence
before retreating. In one street—the rue Carnot—there are seven barricades
between the railway bridge and the City Hall. They are formidable barricades,
too hard to get by even when one has nothing else to do and when there is no
excitement whatsoever. They are constructed of bricks, stone, boxes, wire mesh
and all kinds of rubbish and debris. Other streets are barricaded also.
The city has been considerably shot
about, but it is by no means a ruin. There is one deep scar on the City Hall,
where a shell struck. There is one hole, but not a great one, in the cathedral.
In a factory building on a hill, which, the day after the enemy occupied the
city, was filled with Germans, there are upward of a hundred holes made by
shells. I stood on a hill overlooking the city the day the shelling was done by
the French with the intention of routing the Germans out, and saw shell after
shell strike the factory building.
The greater part of the damage
elsewhere was done by the German shelling from the north before entering the
city. The French were systematic in their bombardment. I watched this shelling
for four hours when it took place, and observed that the guns were aimed only
at places where Germans were known to be hiding.
The main street—or the rue Carnot,
if that is the main thoroughfare—is difficult of passage now, apart from the
barricades. Most of the buildings were struck once or more, and the streets are
littered with all kinds of debris. Shattered glass, in some places is six
inches deep. Practically all the shop windows are broken, and in many instances
the entire fronts of shops have been blown in.
I saw one liquor store which
apparently was once a pretentious place. There are hundreds of bottles in it
now, but the only one containing liquid is one filled with ammonia. The wares
of the merchants have been thrown about a great deal, and it is quite likely
that the German occupants helped themselves to whatever they desired, but there
is nevertheless much left.
The residences are not much
damaged. A few have been hit. The railway station has been hit a few times, but
smashed windows are all the harm done, and the tracks are undamaged. Some
streets show no effects whatever of the shell-fire.
I am told that 150 Germans were in
the city and that at no time was the number greater. An equal number of
civilians stopped in the city during the whole period of occupation, remaining
in cellars whenever there was shelling. I saw none of them. There was no sign
of animal life in any part of the place visited, but there were indications
that cats and dogs had died of starvation.
German’s Day for Big Offensives Over
Nothing Approaching
Magnitude of March Drive
Can Now Be Staged, Is Opinion
(SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO
THE HERALD)
By DON MARTIN
With the American
Armies, Sunday
Despite a quickly-organized
defensive—a defensive arranged on the run as it were—the Germans to-day
continued their retreat before the Allied offensive. They are now at least ten
kilometres from where they were when the French, aided by the Americans, began
their onslaught between Fontenoy and Belleau.
There are now no Germans south of
the Marne, except dead ones and prisoners. A few stragglers were found to-day,
and a few deserters who had hidden in recesses came to light and told their
stories.
On both flanks of the salient the
French, with their Allied comrades, have pressed their line forward. The
Germans gave more evidence of life than they did the day before and turned
loose considerable artillery fire. Everything noted in connection with their
attempted defensive indicated that they were temporarily demoralized, that they
had not entirely recovered from the terror thrown into them by the
daylight-attack of the French on Thursday.
Amexes Win All Objectives
Two hills on a part of the line
where Americans have been fighting, have been captured by the Americans and the
French. Many other strong points west and north-west of Château-Thierry have
been taken partly by the Americans, who have attained every goal set to them.
French patrols entered
Château-Thierry at daybreak. Later American infantry marched into and through
the city. The Germans had found their positions there, as in many other places,
untenable, and withdrew during the night. French patrols penetrated far ahead,
and learned that the German retreat seems to be extending to a point several
kilometres away. At that point the enemy is apparently preparing to make a
stand.
The Germans have been pushed well
north of the Marne and gave no evidence of a desire to remain close to the
river. There is no doubt that the Germans have thus far suffered the worst
defeat in a long time. They were taken completely by surprise, and have not yet
recovered. It would be idle and childish to discount the numerical strength of
the Germans or to minimize the force they may still put into an offensive or a
counter-attack, but the fangs have been drawn from the fifth phase of the
supreme offensive started on March 21, and it is the opinion of many men with
whom I have talked that it will now be impossible for them ever to organize an
offensive even approximating the magnitude of the one launched in March.
The Germans’ offensive has, in
fact, been transformed into a defensive, and the war for the enemy has
unquestionably reached a new critical stage. Even if he checks the Allied move
and is able to counter-attack with some degree of success, he will still be in
a bad way; for the Allies, with America’s constantly-increasing army, are
expanding their strength while the Hun cannot grow more formidable than he has
been. The Allies will be able again and again many times to do what they have
done in the last three days, and with General Foch as the master mind behind
the operations, now that the wizardry of his skill has been demonstrated and
the Americans’ fighting qualities proved—there need be no proof of the valor
and gallantry of the French—the Germans’ day has passed.
German Morale Slumps
The enemy is back across the Marne,
where he will remain. His boasted offensive toward Epernay and Châlons, by
which he hoped to effect a bold front for a crushing advance upon Paris, has
been checked and his line is falling back. His programme, for the present at
least, has collapsed. The morale of many of his soldiers is obviously low. The
fighting spirit is wasting. The men are afraid of the future. They know that
numerical superiority will soon lie with the Allies and they have learned to
their dismay that the Americans are not amateurs on the field of battle.
The Germans have lost tremendously
in the “marvelous” retreat they made from the Marne—the retreat so magically
accomplished that, according to the German communiqué, “the Allies did not even
know of it.” A captured officer said yesterday that out of one German company
eighteen men were left on Friday morning. Of two other companies thirty and
thirty-two men were left. The losses were appalling, he said. He declared
further that the Germans had orders on Saturday night to leave Château-Thierry
at once. He said the thing furthest from the thoughts of the Germans was an
attack by the Allies.
The situation to-day is highly
satisfactory from the Allied standpoint. The German, for the first time in a
long, long period, is heading the right way.
Americans were in the fighting line
at many points to-day. They gave a good account of themselves. One unit which
has been in action south of the Marne has more than 300 prisoners to its
credit.
The following announcement of Quentin Roosevelt's burial was published in the New York Herald on July 22, 1918. Don Martin would later visit Quentin Roosevelt's grave, when the area was taken back from the Germans.
Comments
Post a Comment