Skip to main content

August 23, 1918: Don Martin reports on German prisoners and downed French Ace

Don Martin diary entry for Friday, August 23, 1918: 
Started out at 10 a.m. despite the heat. Motored to Fresnes, the 3rd corps headquarters. Learned the Americans had recovered slight ground lost yesterday. Visited a hospital where I saw many serious cases of Americans wounded. All smile and want to get well so they can go back to the line. Am all packed up ready to move to Nancy or Neufchateau. Everyone seems to know that the Americans intend to make an offensive on the front nearest Metz so I suppose the plan will be changed. French and English continue to harass the Germans. Yesterday got a letter from Ohl [New York Herald Manager]. He seems very friendly but did not say whether he is pleased or dissatisfied with my work. I am quite sure he is satisfied. Cabled 600 words.
      In his August 23 daily dispatch for Paris, Don Martin again reported on German prisoners. It was published in the Paris Herald on August 24.
YANKS TAKE BOCHES WHO TALK 
LIKE HUN COMMUNIQUES
Artillery Fire and Infantry Action Continue in American-Held Vesle Sector
(Special Telegram to the Herald)
By DON MARTIN
With the American Armies, Friday
           Along the Vesle front held by the Americans there was continuous artillery fire and considerable infantry activity last night and this morning. The Americans attacked the Germans at the point where on Thursday the enemy was most active, and drove them back a short distance, capturing four prisoners. They were all members of a well-known German unit, and in their general attitude toward the war, furnished a contrast to other German prisoners of inferior intelligence and experience. The men brought in yesterday claimed they are not discouraged by the recent withdrawal from the Marne salient, nor by the withdrawal at other points under pressure from the French and British. In a way which seemed to carry more boastfulness than confidence, they declared that the German High Command merely desires to straighten out the line and prepare for operations on a large scale.
           In the vicinity of the Château-le-Diable and the Bois-le-Diable there was much fighting all of Thursday night and this morning. The Germans are sniping with machine-guns, the Americans retort with automatics. The fighting at this point, while not of large proportions nor of importance in comparison with the fighting which the Americans engaged in a short time ago, is nevertheless frequently bitter and savage. The Germans seem determined to hold the plateaus there and four kilomètres back from the north bank of the Vesle, but as the pressure from the west increases and the heat of the American and French artillery fire from the south becomes intensified, it is likely that the Boche will fold up his tent and steal away—if he is able to do so. His next stopping place will probably be the heights north of the Aisne.
        Also on August 23, Don Martin reported for Paris on the death in action on August 21 of a popular French Ace, with American family connections. It was published in the Paris Herald on August 24.
Popular Aviator Killed in Action
(Special Telegram to the Herald)
By DON MARTIN
With the American Armies, Friday
           Lieutenant Louis Verdier, a well-known “pilote de chasse,” credited with five German machines and formerly chief of the Lafayette Squadron, has been killed in action. Lieutenant Verdier was popular with all his associates. He was a close companion of the famed Nungesser, also an intimate fried of Major Thaw and the late Major Lufbery.
                   He was a brother of Lieutenant Paul Verdier, in civil life manager of the City of Paris Restaurant in San Francisco, but now in the United States on a special Government mission. Both men are brothers-in-law of Lieutenant Francis de Tessen, an aide to Marshal Joffre during his visit to the United States and now a liaison officer on the American front.

      The life and exploits of Louis Verdier-Fauvety are described in “The Lafayette Flying Corps – Volume 1”, from which these photos are taken.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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
2 comments
Read more

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
1 comment
Read more

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
1 comment
Read more