February 24, 1918 - 'Unless I get to the front' wrote Don Martin in his diary

Don Martin diary entry for Sunday, February 24, 1918: 

Went to J. W. Grigg’s (N.Y. World man) home in Liddrake Grove [fontea]. Had a pleasant visit. He has been on the Italian and French fronts. Went to the office in the evening. Read Heralds up to February 3. Find they run a lot of my matter in the Sunday paper but don’t sign it. Can’t say I like the way it is handled; nor do I like the idea of using the mail instead of cable. However, I don’t care one way or another. I went to be in this new world atmosphere for a while. Then I shall kick and return unless I get to the front. Seemed like good night for an air raid but there has not been one yet and it is now 1 a.m. Will write a letter to Dorothy.

Weather fine.

Don Martin hand wrote a long letter to Dorothy on February 24, telling her about the food card, his new suit and air raids.Here are excerpts.

Dorothy,

... On my desk I have what is called a food card. I got it today. Tomorrow and thereafter no one can get meat or butter in a restaurant or a store without a card and he can get only a certain allowance. The card is punched by the restaurant owner or store keeper (if you are a householder) and then you can get no more anywhere that day because no one will honor a card already punched.

It is just a precaution to provide for an equitable distribution of the meat and butter available. With so many ships being sunk food is rather scarce in England. However there is plenty of fish, eggs and vegetables and people get along.

This afternoon I went out to have tea at the home of Mr. Griggs of the New York World. I had a pleasant visit, some good tea and some real cake. Having tea is quite a fad in England. Everyone does it. I guess it is not because people are crazy over tea but simply because it is an excuse for inviting people out. Just now when things are so scarce people don’t invite their friends to dinner.

Oh yes I must tell you how I get sugar. I am entitled under the rationing system to six ounces a week, so every Saturday the hotel management leaves a sack, sealed, containing the exact amount, in my room.

... I wish you could see a new suit of clothes I bought. It is pretty loud I fear. I don’t care. I wanted an English suit and I have one. I shall probably order some more, but of a somewhat more modest design. The one I refer to is a grey check and is a fine piece of woolen. You will laugh when you see it sometime.

... No air raid since last Monday night. Everyone expected one tonight because of the full moon, but there has been no warning yet, and it is one o’clock in the morning. Usually they come before midnight... If there are no raids for three more nights there will be a comfortable feeling in London for three weeks – or until the next moonlight period.

       The evening of February 24 Don Martin wrote a long piece which he cabled to New York. It was published in the New York Herald on Monday, February 25, 1918.

London Beginning to Doubt About Big Drive in West

[Special to the Herald]

Herald Bureau, No. 130 Fleet Street, London, Sunday

     Directly opposite views are entertained here regarding the most important subjects connected with the war—the further German invasion of Russia and the expected German drive in the west. Military experts, government officials and individuals who have returned from Petrograd differ among themselves in an extraordinary manner. On one thing, however, all are agreed—the collapse of Russia undoubtedly prolongs the war.

     Already in possession of 10,000 square miles of additional Russian territory gained during the week and moving irresistibly forward on a 500 mile front, there appears to be nothing that can stop the German armies from taking whatever cities or districts the commanders choose to take, with all their stores of provisions, army supplies, machinery and natural products, whatever the Bolsheviki reply to the German demands published to-day.

What Can Be Got From Russia

     At peace with the Ukraine, Germany can obtain from that granary of Russia plentiful supplies of wheat and other cereals. Copper, lead and iron, so much needed in the manufacture of munitions, can be procured from the Caucasus and Southern Russia and shipped from Black Sea ports to Constantinople and thence by rail to Germany. Oil from the great Baku district, amounting to one-sixth of the world’s production, can follow the same route, crossing the Caucasus by the railway to Batoum.

     About half the iron ore of Russia comes from the Krivoi Rog district, also in the south and favorably situated for export from Odessa. Should the Germans penetrate as far as Moscow they would gain access to another important coal field south of that city. On the other hand the occupation of Petrograd, which the correspondents there consider likely, would have an immense moral effect both in German and Austria.

     Taking all these things into consideration many observers here think that Germany, with the dominated regions of Russia, may succeed in forming a self-sustained, self-contained country, living its own life, with everything needed for the civilian population, at the same time carrying out the war in the west and in Italy. Thus she could hold out for years, and the question is being asked whether her much advertised drive against the French and British lines was not mere camouflage designed to conceal her greater projects in the east.

     Those dissenting from this view dwell upon the difficulty of moving a vast army, even unopposed, so far into foreign territory. The guerilla warfare ordered by the Bolshevik commissaries on Thursday will have at least the effect of impeding the progress of the Huns. German and Russian ordnance are not of the same caliber, so the captured guns would be useless until ammunition is made to fit them.

     The main advantage to be derived from the Kaiser’s move to the east—and one which no one attempts to minimize—is the new source of food supply available in the Ukraine, and which Germany can obtain either by purchase or commandeering in return for defending the republican Rada from Bolshevik attacks. This, it is admitted, will tend to prolong the war, but by no means indicated its termination in a German peace.

The Expected Western Drive

     With regard to the drive in the west such divergent opinions are expressed as those of your Secretary of War, Mr. Baker, whose weekly review of the situation is being regularly cabled here, and Major General Maurice, Director of Military Operations at the War Office. Mr. Baker is quoted as predicting a crushing blow to be delivered by picked shock battalions, while General Maurice says that a general offensive in the west is near.

     Correspondents themselves differ, and it is by no means certain that the drive will take place. Italian officers are quoted as expressing a similar fear of an attack on Venetia and Lombardy as soon as the snows melt in the mountains on the north. Then there is the Macedonia front, easy to attack through Serbia and very difficult to reinforce through the submarine infested Mediterranean. Whether Germany would take the risk of great losses in France and Flanders when other prey lies ready to hand is at least a matter of doubt.

     On the other hand, the critics say that the American troops arriving at the rate of fifty thousand a month, with new American aircraft on the way over and with British reserves continually crossing the Channel and extending their line further south of St. Quentin, the Germans must strike soon or never. It is further argued that so many troops have been moved from the east to the west it is certain Germany intends to use them.

     In any case there will be no surprise. Constant forays at night to capture prisoners and constant airplane observations by day show pretty accurately what the Huns are doing. There has been a great concentration of troops behind the lines on the Cambrai sector and in the St. Mihiel salient. Masses of German troops are being drilled in Belgium, some Austrians are said to have been captured and there was a report the other day that thirty thousand Turks and Bulgarians had arrived in Belgium. This lacks confirmation.

     The British are looking for the attack around Cambrai, which offers the most direct route to Paris. But it is also the point where the Germans have lost the most ground, including a large part of the famous Hindenburg line. The British occupy all the high ground and are confident of being able to repel any attack. The Americans on the St. Mihiel sector are equally confident, and celebrated Washington’s Birthday with an intense bombardment of the Huns’ trenches.