Don
Martin diary entry for Monday, May 20, 1918:
Went to the Gare d’Lyon at 8:30 to meet body Mr. Bennett. It arrived on
time. [Cohick] (looking like an undertaker) and Price there also. Met Percy
Mitchell, Bennett’s secretary for first time. Spent couple hours reading
Herald’s for April. The office certainly is “keeping me up.”
Weather terribly hot.
The New York Herald on Monday, May 20, 1918, advertised its Big Three Special War Correspondents.
The Big Three—Don Martin,
Percival Phillips and Herman Bernstein—are cabling to the HERALD, daily and
Sunday, all the news of Pershing’s forces, Haig’s armies and the Russian
tangle.
Don Martin blew the trumpet for America's impact on the war in this article dated Monday (probably written Sunday night) and published in the New York Herald on Tuesday, May 21, 1918.
AMERICAN
AID MAKES FRANCE IMPREGNABLE
Presence of United States Army as Front
Heartens Nation
PRISONERS ADMIT HOPES ARE SLIGHT
Spirit of Americans Is Wonderful and
Prospect of Heavy Casualties Causes No Worry
By DON MARTIN
[Special
cable to the Herald]
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE,
Monday
France now is supremely confident and happy
at the presence of so many Americans at the real front, where death is certain
to take a big toll from them, but where Germany will suffer even more heavily.
The Germans will be fought in Picardy and Flanders to a ghastly awakening.
France again is impregnable and at the threshold of seeming victory, this time
aided substantially by what the Huns sneeringly and hypocritically called a
“contemptible army.”
Americans have been for weeks in the
reserve line, with shells falling in their midst constantly, but they are keen
to take their place with the French, and also the British, to help give the
Huns a crushing blow now that the Huns surely are preparing their greatest
attack and are ready to sacrifice more lives in a month than America has
soldiers in France.
Germans Cannot Win
The
Germans may gain territory but they cannot win. Even penetrating the allied
line would mean only a temporary advance.
From information from good sources, the
Hun expects a stupendous sacrifice to drive through the allied line and then,
with the effrontery of a highwayman, with his pockets filled with the loot of
victims momentarily at bay, to say:--“How much can I keep?”
A year ago an advance such as the Germans
have made might have been serious, but this is not the case now with America in
and France revivified. France, from all I learn in talks with soldiers and from
civilians’ statements, is willing and also determined to go to the limit. The
French want America to have an opportunity to show her prowess in the field of
battle, and the French are confident the steady stream of khaki pouring from
the transports will furnish the force needed to give the Huns the ultimate
smash.
The announcement on Friday that America
had an army with the British caused no surprise. It had been known that the
Americans were undergoing intensive training immediately on arrival, to help
provide an insurmountable wall when the Boche hurls his storm troops against
the Allies in the forlorn hope that he can convince the people of Germany and
pacifists everywhere that Germany can force her will on the world.
Germans Nearing Breaking
Point
It is evident from the German newspapers
seen here and also from the news from Switzerland and Holland that Germany is
nearing the breaking point unless her army in the present crisis can deal a
staggering blow.
Prisoners echo the discontent in Germany
and say the feeling there is that with America putting her whole heart and
vigor into the war and also with France reinvigorated by the American’s
participation, it is impossible to beat the Allies, and she seeks only to
frighten them by the impending assault. The same source is authority for the
information that Germany is only whistling to keep up courage and hope when
talking of an indemnity.
To Americans a
splendid feature of the situation is that Uncle Sam is ready months ahead of
expectations, with a virile army, and is piling men in the reserve line to
relieve the French and British when the German attack is about reaching its
climax. I have been on the various fronts and have talked to the American soldiers and
to the soldiers of other allies. Their spirit is wonderful.
Americans Are Confident
“It’s dangerous business, to be sure,”
said one American, “but what do we care? Take it from me, the Americans are
going into the big fight to do their best and to give the Hun the right kind of
a licking. He has been swaggering around, insulting and browbeating the world
long enough.”
The Americans realize that their entry
into the big battle means a big casualty list, but that is the least of their
worries. Losses from time to time serve only to stiffen the courage of the
Americans.
Now that new arrivals from the United
States are brigaded with the British as well as with the French on the eve of
the vital struggle, Americans representing all elements of the nation’s
citizenship are likely to play an important part in the battle.
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