Skip to main content

September 24, 1918: Don Martin reports resumption of German shelling

Don Martin diary entry for Tuesday, September 24, 1918: 
Stayed in again. Wrote about 600 words cable on the doughboy as a fighting man. Major Bulger, chief of press section, at six this afternoon told all the correspondents to be ready to start off on a three or four day trip at short notice. We cannot leave Nancy tonight or tomorrow. This means the Americans are to start an offensive somewhere probably west of Verdun. My opinion is it will be a big French offensive with the Americans co-operating. We have a vast army ready for business. Had dinner at Angleterre with Claire Kennimore of St. Louis, McNutt of Colliers and Boothboy of the Y.M.C.A.
          That was Don Martin’s last diary entry, written on Tuesday, September 24, 1918, in Nancy. Why he stopped and whether he wrote more that didn't survive, we do not know. It was then less than two weeks until his death.
     Don Martin's September 24 daily dispatch for Paris on developments at the front was brief. It was published in the Paris Herald on Wednesday, September 25.    
GERMANS OPEN FURIOUS FIRE 
ON AMEX FRONT
Artillery Bombardment Is the Most Intense
Since the Saint-Mihiel Victory
(Special Telegram to the Herald)
By DON MARTIN
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Tuesday
                       Furious artillery engagements marked last night on a large part of the American front.
                       Beginning soon after midnight, an American raiding party started for the Germans’ region south of Preney. The outposts were abandoned but for a small section enclosed in a box barrage. There was considerable stiff fighting here for half an hour. The Americans took five prisoners and lost none.
                       The Germans opened up with the heaviest artillery fire since the Saint-Mihiel salient was cleared. The guns echoed for hours. Villages nineteen to twenty kilomètres back were shelled to-day by a six-inch gun.
       Also for Paris, Don Martin sent this somewhat confused brief report, which perhaps was shortened in its publication in the Paris Herald on Wednesday, September 25.
GERMAN-AMERICAN CAPTURED 
IN BALLOON BROUGHT DOWN
 (Special Telegram to the Herald)
By DON MARTIN
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Tuesday
                       A German observation balloon was brought down over our lines by anti-aircraft guns. Both fliers are uninjured.

                       One is a German-American, who before the war was a dealer in motorcycles in Sixth avenue, New York.

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