Skip to main content

March 26, 1918 - Report on Archie Roosevelt, as French combat German offensive

Don Martin diary entry for Tuesday, March 26, 1918: 
Everyone in Neufchateau waiting, almost breathless, to hear from front where Germans attacking. Solid line of trucks loaded with supplies – airplanes, machine guns, etc. – passing through Neufchateau all day. 1200 trucks thundered by between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. Now at 6 p.m., great guns, hundreds in number, going through on motor trucks. Americans marveling at capacity and organization of French and deploring American inability to help out the Allies in this vital crisis of the war. People gobbling up papers to get latest news. French confident they will be able to repel advance of the Boche. U.S. a rather pitiable spectacle, hanging around here where nothing is going on. My own opinion is the war will be won or lost in coming 6 days and I believe the French and British will turn the Germans back and make victory in another year assured.

Weather very cold and snappy. Slight snow flurries.
        With the German offensive underway,the war correspondents probably were restricted in what they could send. But news of the Roosevelt family was sought after information. Don Martin wrote and cabled this dispatch about Archie, which was published in the New York Herald on Wednesday, March 27, 1918.
ARCHIE ROOSEVELT SCORNS PUBLICITY; BARS REPORTERS
Refuses Interviews, Putting Himself on Same Basis as Other Wounded
HAPPY IN HOSPITAL; HEARS BOOM OF GUNS
Nurse praises Courageous Spirit He Shows During Dressing of His Wounds
By DON MARTIN
[Special Cable to the Herald]
AMERICAN FRONT in France, Tuesday
     Captain Archie Roosevelt doesn’t believe in publicity. Every newspaper correspondent at the American front has tried to get an interview with him, but all have been turned away. “Roosevelt won’t see you newspaper reporters,” says his nurse. “He sees no reason why attention should be paid to him any more than to others who, he says, are far more deserving of attention and honor than he.”
     “But isn’t there some word he’d like to send back to the people of America who worship the name of Roosevelt?” I asked.
     “No: the people at home must be content with the same news concerning him as they get of all other soldiers in France. He is very happy here in the hospital and getting along splendidly. He feels in good spirits and is just one of many patients and wants to be treated like every one else. He won’t accept favoritism of any kind.”
     Captain Roosevelt is in a hospital not a great way from one American headquarters. The sound of guns easily is heard by him as he lies on a cot in the officers’ section of the hospital. His injury is painful, but will leave no permanent effects. He is very courageous, showing much of the elder Roosevelt’s spirit during the dressing of his wounds, which cause severe pain. He grins, but makes no complaint.

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 Fr...
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

September 30, 1918: Don Martin assesses war situation, and visits recaptured Varennes

           On Monday, September 30, Don Martin sent a cable sent to the New York Herald beginning with his review of the war situation in France, and then reporting on his day at the front in and around Varennes-en-Argonne. It was published on Tuesday, October 1. ENEMY EXHAUSTED BY FOCH STRATEGY OF VARIED BLOWS Enemy Forces Bewildered  and Never Quite Certain of Plan of Defence 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                  Competent observers who long feared to believe their own convictions are now fully convinced that Germany is in a most serious predicament – not only because of her desertion by Bulgaria, but because of the general military situation on the Western front. To-day this situation is far more favorable to the Unit...
1 comment
Read more