Skip to main content

April 3, 1918 - Visit to Gen. Edwards, 26th Division, and to prisoner camp

Don Martin diary entry for Wednesday, April 3, 1918: 
Went with [Edwin] James [New York Times] to Menil la Tour to see the 26th Division which has come there to replace the 1st. Watched an observation balloon crew operate. Went to Boucq where General [Clarence Ransom] Edwards [Commander, 26th Division] is quartered in a chateau about 800 years old. 
Gen. Clarence Ransom Edwards in 1917

Gave a French interpreter named Maillot a ride back. Stopped for an hour on way back in a prison camp. Went all through it. Talked with prisoners who have been astonished at passing miles and miles of Americans. “Who will win the war?” I asked a young prisoner. “I am a German,” he said. Cabled couple stories to N.Y. and couple to Paris also to be relayed. Got no reply from Bennett regarding getting accredited. In evening at club sat for several hours with Ray Carroll [Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger], Floyd Gibbons [Chicago Tribune], Jeremy Cobb, Martin Green [New York Evening World], [Bairns father] and several officers.
Armies quiet in Picardy. 

Weather pleasant – 1st one in some time.

  In the coming several months, there would be general recognition that the ‘big four’ American war correspondents were Ray Carroll of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, Floyd Gibbons of the Chicago Tribune, Martin Green of the New York Evening World and Don Martin of the New York Herald.  April 3 might have been the first time the four of them were together.

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