Don
Martin diary entry for Monday, August 12, 1918:
Went to Paris chiefly to buy a camera. Had a talk with [Percy] Mitchell,
manager of the Paris Herald. He says the circulation of the Paris edition is
165,000. A year ago it was 8,000. I bought a camera for 240 francs, including
films and a leather case. Had luncheon at the Cafe de la Paix. Returned on the
4:25 train. Wrote a 600 words cable for New York on stories told by escaped
British prisoners.
Don Martin's report on formation of the 1st American Field Army, dated August 12, was published
in the New York Herald on Tuesday, August 13. A similar report appeared in the August 12 paris Herald.
First American Field Army Is Reply to Sneers of Huns; to Hold Marne
Sector Line
Average Age in This Largest Army Ever Seen Will Be Only 22 Years—Americans from Switzerland to English Channel Rejoice at Announcement
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, Monday
Announcement
of the organization of the First American Field Army is the direct answer of
the United States to the sneers of the Huns that ours is “a contemptible little
army,” and that it will be impossible for America to be a factor in the war in
time to prevent the triumph of German arms.
Our First
Field Army, it has just been announced here, now is fully organized and is
ready for service. It will be used on that part of the line which was formerly
the Marne salient.
Americans
from Switzerland to the English Channel are overjoyed at the news contained in
the announcement. Devoutly they have been longing for the day when America
would solidly exhibit her strength of numbers and would show the Hun what the
“contemptible little army” can do.
Will Be Largest
Single Army
The American
First Field Army will be as large as any army on the battle line, although it
must be remembered, of course, that both France and England have many armies
which are formed into a single unit. But it is expected here that ours, which
will comprise five army corps, will exceed any of them in size. This will mean
that it will have a numerical strength well above 500,000 men.
[General
Peyton C. March, Chief of Staff, has announced in Washington that five American
army corps have been organized or are in process of organization in France. He
definitely states that the First, Second and Third Army corps contained between
225,000 and 250,000 men each. If this numerical strength applies to the five
army corps which compose General Pershing’s First Field Army, its strength
would be above 1,225,000 men. No definite total has been cabled from abroad and
it is not known here whether all five army corps in the First Field Army have
the same strength in the new organization that General March credited to them
some time ago.]
Average Age of
Privates Only 22
The entire
artillery, air and tank corps resources of the United States at the present
time will go into this army, and not only will it be the largest single army ever
seen, but the average age of the privates who constitute its effectives will
not be more than twenty-two years. In this it will be the very antithesis of
the armies of the Entente Allies, who have been compelled to draw older men to
form the backbone of their fighting strength. Indeed, in this connection I may
say that the average age in the armies in Europe now is about thirty years, or,
perhaps more.
Too, our men
are in the very pink of condition and represent the embodiment of freshness and
youth. A week ago I talked with a general in the French army who had American
troops in his command. He spoke enthusiastically of them.
“A finer army
it would be impossible to find,” he told me. “It is an honor to have such men
with us. They will hasten the end of the war, for they know no turning back and
are more than a match for the Prussians.
“I am happy
to say that soon the Americans will have their own army and will take charge of
an important part of the front.
“France is
glad. She trusts everything to the Americans. They are noble, heroic soldiers.”
This came
from him spontaneously. I have heard the same sentiment expressed everywhere.
Veterans Despite
Their Youth
The American
troops who compose the First Field Army all had their baptism of fire at
Bouresches, Torcy, Belleau Wood, Cierges, Sergy, Seringes and on the dozen of
bloody fields between the Marne and the Vesle, while others won their spurs at
Seicheprey and numerous other places in the Toul sector, at Cantigny and north
of Chalons. Instead of being amateurs, to-day these men are veterans despite
their youth. The participation by the Americans in the fighting since June 14
has helped turn the tide against the Germans. When they were used as shock
troops they swept the Prussians and the Bavarians before them.
While this is
the situation with the Allies, Germany is weakening and showing unmistakable
signs of the lowering morale of her troops. Simultaneously, the number of
American troops reaching this side is increasing mightily, and their arrival
here, according to the opinion of experts with whom I have talked, makes it
impossible for the Germans ever to force their line back as far as it went in
their last offensive. In fact, it now is believed that Germany never will be
able to push her lines further southward or westward then they now are, but
that she will steadily be pushed back to her own border.
Good Soldiers Made in
Six Weeks
I have
watched the swift, the magical growth of the American army here. I have seen our
troops pouring into France and swarming by thousands into villages and training
camp’s, where they demonstrated the rapidity with which they could learn the
art of warfare and proved their eagerness to get into the fight with the Hun.
Indeed, it is, I think, a mistake to believe that they are unfit to fight until
after six months’ training here. Some of the very best fighting that has been
done was by Americans who were in training in Europe for only six weeks.
The formation
of our own armies means that the relation of the Americans to the French will
be the same as those of the British to the French. All of them will be under
the supreme command of Marshal Foch, but each will command its own armies as
subordinate units. They will use their own initiative in their part of the
operations, but will defer to Marshal Foch, of course, in the big operations,
which course is obviously essential.
In Harmony With
French
The Americans
and the French have been operating together in the most perfect harmony. In one
part of the Marne salient a French division was for weeks under the command of
an American general, while American troops in regiments and divisions have been
under the command of the French, who characterize them as the finest soldiers
they ever saw. In this connection I may add that these tributes to our men by
the French, who are masters of warfare, are sincerely appreciated.
The American
troops soon will be a most powerful factor in the war. They all are eager and
impetuous and want to match their strength with that of the Germans, because
they know their superiority. Their theory is to give the enemy no rest and
bombard his incessantly. For every gas shell the Hun sends over, our men give
him back two, and for every heavy explosive from the enemy we fire five back
into his lines. And all this our men are able to do. The indications are that
they will be heard from very swiftly now, especially in view of the tremendous
rate at which our soldiers are arriving here, Indeed, at the present rate,
Americans soon will have armies in France equal in size to those of England and
France.
Don Martin lauded American airmen in a August 12 dispatch, published in the New York Herald on Tuesday,
August 13.
DARING U.S. AIRMEN MAP
AISNE REGION DESPITE 100 HUN AEROS
Special Correspondent of the Herald with the American Armies in France
[Special Cable to the Herald]
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY ON THE VESLE FRONT, Monday
With a daring which was most
admirable American aviators have just completed a series of aerial photographs
of the entire Aisne region. Allied aviation officers, commenting on them,
declared they are of a most remarkable character and show in detail the
positions held by the Germans and the enemy works.
Today I saw these pictures in
the office of the general commanding. The photographs had been dovetailed
together and in this form represented a complete picture about ten feet square,
upon which was shown the enemy defenses in detail. The photographs were made at
an altitude of only one hundred feet, and by the aid of magnifying glasses I
could see the Aisne plains and objects on them and new bridges which the Huns
have constructed across the stream and which were shown at many points,
stretching from bank to bank.
Enemy Airplanes
Numerous
The coolness the American
airmen showed while engaged in this dangerous work was most impressive,
especially in view of the fact that they, by bravery and daring, succeeded in
making the pictures at a time when the enemy was operating about two hundred
airplanes in the Vesle region, through which our flyers had to go to reach the
Aisne.
Invariably
our aviators would head straight for the enemy country, and usually our men
would return to their hangars. On one occasion I saw four of them start up on
one of these perilous flights, and later I saw two of them return with splendid
aerial photographs. One of the two who returned reported that he saw forty
Boche airplanes in the sky at one time. The other American who returned from
this photographing expedition said he saw seventeen Boches, who were whirling
constantly over the border line between Vesle and the Aisne, always on the
lookout for our flyers, for whom they would immediately head in battle
formation as soon as they were sighted.
Win High Praise of
Allies
In the
face of such odds as these our aviators are earning the very highest praise of
both French and American officers and men. Indeed, our aviators never hesitate
in the face of danger, and frequently I have seen observers and aerial
photographers ascend without armed escorts in the face of strong enemy
squadrons.
Only today
I saw an exhibition of American coolness, judgment and bravery in the air. One
of our observation balloons, hovering 3,000 feet in the air, was attacked by a
German airplane. Our observer leaped from his basket and descended to earth,
landing within our lines by means of his parachute. The first thing he asked
for was a cigarette. Meanwhile his balloon was slowly descending, and it, too,
finally fell within our lines. An examination of it revealed that it had
received only five bullet holes, and the balloon was otherwise uninjured, the
punctures were quickly patched and an hour later the same observer was
ascending to his work.
“My shift
was not finished,” he told me as he stepped into the basket of his balloon
preparatory to again ascending. “I was up only three hours and I had five hours
to go,”
From a
concert pianist to an aerial observer flying daily amid a hail of shrapnel and
machine gun bullets sent by the foe in his direction is still another story.
But in both roles Lieutenant P. Erwin, whose home is in Chicago, has won
plaudits. Last Tuesday he was attacked while in the air by five boches. His
pilot was killed by bullet wounds in his stomach. Lieutenant Erwin, however,
managed to reach the ground uninjured, but he landed a long ways from his
hangar. In the last two weeks he has been in eight battles and has had several
miraculous escapes from death.
Recently
Lieutenant Erwin took me to his hangar and pointed with pride to his huge
flying machine. “That’s my boat,” he said. “She looks tough, but she is as safe
as a houseboat on the Illinois River. Look at her scars! She’s got more of them
than has Château-Thierry. Once she lost a wing and got a lot of bullet holes in
her fuselage, but she always returns and brings me home safe. I think she would
sail home if there was nothing left of her but her engine.”
I asked
him how he liked flying. “It is quite different from playing a piano,” he said,
“but I like this better. Certainly flying is more exciting.”
Called “The
Unkillable”
His
companions call him “The Unkillable.” Last Friday he was attacked by ten enemy
airmen. He soared straight up above them into the clouds, and there, 15,000
feet above mother earth, he hung, seemingly for an indefinite time, waiting for
the boches to lose his scent.
Then
suddenly he opened up his motor and started downward, plunging like an eagle
with outstretched pinions, while the boches, circling wildly about him like
giant crows, opened up with the metallic throated chorus of their machine guns.
Again he
justified his right to the title of “The Unkillable.”
I need only say that by such actions as
these American flyers are proving they are among the best airmen in the world.
To meet them in combat the Germans are turning loose their best aces in the
American sectors, and frequently five American airmen are meeting ten boches.
There was a banner
headline in the New York Herald on Monday, August 12, above two photos sent by
Don Martin, who had realized the value of photos and would soon be sending his
own.
The Washington Post on August 12 also published a photo sent by Don Martin.
Don Martin on August 12 provided the Paris Herald with a daily update on the Vesle front, published on Tuesday, August 13.
AMERICANS
LAUNCH ATTACK
AT
MOMENT OF GERMAN CHARGE
Close fighting Along
the Vesle Preceded
by Violent Artillery
Preparations on Both Sides
(Special Telegram to the Paris Herald)
By Don Martin
With The American Armies, Monday.
Along the Vesle last night the
Boche made an attack on the Americans and almost simultaneously the Americans
launched an attack on the Boche. Violent artillery preparations accompanied both.
The Germans sent forward a large detachment of infantry and there was some
close fighting. The German losses were considerable.
On several occasions during the
night the Germans threw barrages over the American lines, but came over but
once.
To-day there was sniping and a play
of artillery but, in comparison with the operations of last week, the situation
along the Vesle was placid.
In the North, Americans took part
in the Franco-British offensive. American infantry conducted itself with the
same dash and tenacity as marked its operations along the Marne.
That dispatch was followed by this nice little report.
GENERAL PERSHING MOVES TO CHATEAU OF FAMOUS WRITER
General Pershing changed his residence
on Saturday and is now situated in an ancient château, the property of one of
France’s most famous writers.
On the first day when he was seated
at luncheon with this staff he was interrupted by the gardeners of his new home
who entered the dining room and offered the Commander of the American Forces a
wonderful floral design representing the decoration recently conferred on him
by the French Government.
At the same time a
fourteen-year-old girl made a little speech in which she thanked General
Pershing for the help that the United States had brought. General Pershing
thanked her and expressed himself very much affected by this new mark of
sympathy.--Havas
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