Don
Martin diary entry for Friday, July 5, 1918:
Went to airfield near Collumier. Got good story American fliers
fighting with survivors Richthofen circus. Sent cable. Wrote two mail stories –
one about the Marines, one on sidelights of the war.
Don Martin got a great story about
an American incursion behind the German line, which was published in the Paris
Herald on July 6, 1918.(The story was also published in the New York
Herald on July 7; see July 6 posting.)
AMERICANS BRING IN PRISONERS IN BROAD DAYLIGHT
AMERICANS BRING IN PRISONERS IN BROAD DAYLIGHT
Hazardous Trip into Enemy Lines and Return Is Made by
Three Soldiers.
(SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO
THE HERALD.)
By
DON MARTIN.
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Friday. [July
5]
Hundreds of stories of day raids,
of day reconnaissances in places in the very shadow of death, of prowls through
the enemy lines in inky darkness, have been told of the French and British
during their long ordeal of war, but it is but seldom that one is heard of the
Americans. Here is one which occurred on the Fourth. It concerns an American
corporal and two privates. They were sent out on a day reconnaissance at a
point where the American and German lines are about 1,000 feet apart.
The three men crawled and dragged themselves
through a patch of No Man's Land, which fortunately was covered with scrubby
growths. They got by the German front line and continued back to learn as much
as possible. About a quarter of a mile behind the line they came upon a small
building. There was a faint noise inside.
The three men entered and found themselves
confronted with the most terror-stricken German they had ever seen. He was
working at a telephone and paused in amazement. He was told to keep quiet and
do as he was told, which he agreed to do. So glad was he to have his life
spared that he volunteered information that there was another German
downstairs. The corporal left one of his privates to guard the prisoner and
with the second private went downstairs where they found the second enemy. He
was frightened almost as badly as the other, but grasped the situation quickly
and expressed complete willingness to do as the Americans ordered.
So far everything was splendid, but
the Americans had the hardest part of the task ahead of them. The corporal sent
one of the privates back to the American lines to inform the company commander there
that prisoners were on the way and to protect the return with machine-gun fire.
The corporal waited half an hour, assuming that, in that period the private
would he able to carry the message.
At the end of that time he and his
companion with their two German prisoners started on the perilous journey, first
through a few hundred feet of the enemy territory and after that through No
Man's Land in broad daylight.
It was a difficult trip. German
snipers apparently saw a movement as the four men crawled through the brush and
grass, and presently bullets began spattering around the Americans. The fire grew
hotter every moment, and it seemed certain that the German snipers would bring
ruin to the whole expedition. When the situation seemed desperate the Americans
told the Germans to get up and run as swiftly as possible toward the American
lines. The Germans showed remarkable ability, and speed. The Americans waited a
moment and plunged on behind them. All arrived safely.
The Germans said the building which
the Americans entered was to have been an observation post. Nearby was to have
been a gun emplacement.
The corporal was Randolph A.
Shafer. The privates were John Kane and Alonzo Amendola.
A small raid was made by the
Americans in the Belleau Wood region on the night of the Fourth. A barrage was
thrown and twenty men rushed into the German line immediately after it. They
killed two Germans and brought back one, suffering no casualties themselves.
Don Martin wrote a dispatch
about German attempts to use propaganda on July 5. It was published in the Paris
Herald on July 6, 1918 .
Germans Trying To Sow Discord
Between
Allies
(SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO
THE HERALD)
By
DON MARTIN.
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Friday. [July
5]
Germans are now using propaganda to
stir up misunderstanding between the French and British and to convince someone
somewhere that the stories of German atrocities are pure inventions of the
French and British authorities and press.
More than a hundred small balloons,
each carrying aloft a package containing hundreds of pamphlets were sent up on
the Fourth of July. The pamphlets fell in a shower over the French and
Americans north west of Château-Thierry. The Americans could not read the things,
which are in French; The French, according to reports reaching me, laughed at
the ridiculous efforts of the Germans and made bonfires of the pamphlets.
The pamphlets are elaborately
printed and illustrated. One contains a thousand bitter things which England in
the past is alleged to have said about France. Apparently most of the
quotations are pure German inventions. Another document purports to show the causes
of the war. This, of course, paints Germany a lily white and all other nations
a jet black. According to the articles, Germany not only did not commit any
crime in Belgium, Serbia, France or Poland, but carried out a work of Christian
charity in each of those places. Instead of destroying life she has saved it.
She has been Samaritan, not a monster. She is misunderstood by the world. The
pamphlets furnish an interesting sidelight on German psychology, on German
misunderstanding of things which are instinctive with civilized, refined
nations.
There is significance in the German
attempt to use propaganda at this critical period. When the tide of battle has
been running most vigorously in the Huns' direction he has scoffed at
propaganda and all kindred things, and has said with customary Teuton effrontery
that "our arms will settle the war."
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