Skip to main content

March 30, 1918 - Don Martin has good talk with General Pershing, and sees Secretary of War Baker

Don Martin diary entry for Saturday, March 30, 1918: 
Went to Chaumont and saw [Newton] Baker, Secretary of War, and General Pershing. Had quite a talk with Pershing, but he wouldn’t release it for publication. Hung around Chaumont for 4 hours with Junius Wood [Chicago Daily News] and [Edwin] James [New York Times]. Baker seems a weak person to be head of our war department. Doesn’t know what is going on. Pershing is a “line one.” He apparently knows situation on the front is serious. Says the 1st division of our army will start for the real front on Wednesday. I wired Mr. Bennett to make request for me to go with it.
The more I see here the more I realize how infinitesimal our part in the war is and how different the present story might be if Wilson had gone into the war, as he should have done, when the Lusitania sank. All our soldiers in France wouldn’t last an hour in the furnace north and east of Paris. Meantime Germans are starting new attack.

Weather rainy and cold.
        Don Martin hand wrote a letter to Dorothy on March 30 from Neufchateau. It was his first report on what he was experiencing from Neufchateau since the German offensive got under way.
Dorothy:
I’m not writing as frequently as I did. There are two reasons: I am frequently off in queer little places where it is impossible to write and here in the town where I am staying most of the time – it is near Alsace – the room is so cold and the light so poor (as it is now, by the way) that it is not easy to write.
Since your Dad left Paris he has been where there is a distinct war atmosphere. For instance right now, with the rain falling heavily, a steady stream of ponderous motor trucks is passing through here, right in front of the hotel. It seems as if everything is on the move, since the biggest battle of all started a week ago.
... I have seen a good deal of France in a couple of weeks. I ride from 100 to 200 miles a day in an automobile. Today I was at General Pershing’s Headquarters, which is a long way from the battlefront. I had quite a talk with him. I also saw Secretary Baker at a chateau nearby. Yesterday I was up at Verdun, of which you have read. I wasn’t where the shells were falling but could hear the bombarding which goes on incessantly. I have passed through dozens of towns which have been battered to pieces and have seen a little of everything, including a peep into the trenches...
(National Archives photo no. 111-SC-10935, Chaumont, Apri 17, 1918)
Just now everyone is worried over the German attack. I don’t think it can be successful but there is just a chance that it will be. If it fails the world will have to tip its hat to the French again. We – the Americans – do not count and the British seem to lack the genius and valor we all thought they still had. Still no one but the men actually in charge of operations know what is being done so maybe the Germans will be licked good as they ought to be.
I don’t know how long I shall stay here. I may go up to the big battle but again I may not. It is very difficult to get authorization. A hundred want it and only 6 can go. I fear I shall not be one of the lucky ones.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

‘New war with Israel at any moment’, ‘still digging through rubble’

The news about Iran has taken an ominous tone in the last couple days. Here is some reporting and commentary.  Newsweek on August 18, 2025, reported that Yahya Rahim Safavi, senior military adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said ‘ We are not in a ceasefire; we are in a stage of war. No protocol, regulation, or agreement has been written between us and the U.S. or Israel. A new war with Israel could break out at any moment .’  Yonah Jeremy Bob commented in The Jerusalem Post on August 19, 2025, that ‘ Khamenei can either “drink from the poisoned chalice” of diplomatic concessions … or face more airstrikes, possibly next time some targeting him directly ’.   Bob also noted that ‘ right now Iran is still digging through rubbl e’. The U.S. attacked Fordow, Natanz and Esfahan on June 22. Two months of digging. No surprise that there has been no public news about that.
Post a Comment
Read more

U.S. Sanctions, Middle East views

Trump’s special envoy Witkoff has hit the capitals again; in Tel Aviv Netanyahu probably told him to tell Trump that he will take over all of Gaza; in Moscow Putin probably told him to tell Trump that Ukraine will be destroyed and forget the sanctions. Witkoff didn’t get to number 3 on his list, Iran. But Trump played another ‘ getting to a deal ’ with Iran card, adding sanctions he can later get credit for removing. And the Middle East commentators are worriedly reacting to the Iran situation. Here are some highlights.  From Newsweek:       The U.S. announced on July 30 the largest Iran-related sanctions since 2018 , targeting entities and vessels linked to the country's petroleum sector: 20 oil firms, 5 vessel management companies, 1 wholesaler, and over 115 individuals in 17 countries and regions, including the U.K., Italy, Switzerland, India, the UAE and Hong Kong.       U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said: "Today's Depar...
Post a Comment
Read more

“Quit the nuclear deal”

The E3 (Britan, France, Germany) upped their ante with a letter to the UN Security Council on August 12, 2025, that included: ‘ if Iran is not willing to reach a diplomatic solution before the end of August 2025, or does not seize the opportunity of an extension, E3 are prepared to trigger the snapback mechanism ’. (AP, Aug 13, 2025)  So far, we have an Iranian response from Parliament member Manouchehr Mottaki — who was Iran’s top diplomat for five years in the 2000s — saying the Iranian parliament has a “ finger on the trigger ” for quitting the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. “ We only need 24 hours to approve quitting the nuclear deal, ” if the E3 raises the issue at the U.N. Security Council, Mottaki said. (AP, Aug 13, 2025)  On ‘extension’, following July’s meeting in Istanbul [between E3 and Iran], an E3 diplomat said Iran could delay [snapback] by doing two things [1] renewing cooperation with the Vienna-based IAEA and [2] addressing concerns about its highly enriche...
Post a Comment
Read more