Don Martin diary entry for Sunday, May 26,
1918:
Went to Toul, taking
Lieutenant Baird of the Secret Service along with me. Had luncheon in Nancy;
then went to the Aviation field, Boucq and home. Spent the evening at the
Lafayette Club.
Now it was back to the job of finding and reporting stories from the front. Don Martin on Sunday, May 26, collected and reported tales from No Man's Land, and about the excellent American preparations on the medical front. The dispatch was published in the New York Herald on Monday, May 27, 1918.
AMERICAN
NERVE BAFFLES HUN IN NO MAN’S LAND
American Who Seizes Spying Device
Causes Consternation in Trench
HAS TO FLEE UNDER HAIL OF BULLETS
Patrol Discovers that “Listening
Apparatus” is Dangerous Bomb Placed by Enemy as Trap
By DON MARTIN
[Special
cable to the Herald]
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE,
Sunday
Grim
tales come from No Man’s Land, but seldom more grim than this. An American
worked his way by daylight through a tunnel to practically the brink of a Boche
trench. The intention was to kill the Huns and make a quick getaway. Peering
from cover he saw a periscope sticking just above the trench level and decided
to capture it. He crawled on his belly to the very edge of the trench and
grabbed the periscope, only to find that a Hun was there making an observation
at that very moment. There was consternation both in the trench and outside.
The American made a vicious tug and almost
landed the thing. Then bullets began to fly around him and he dived ten feet
into a tunnel. He was later exposed to rifle fire from the startled Huns while
he raced forty feet to safety.
Discover a German Trap
In the same sector a patrol of five
Americans, creeping across No Man’s Land, came upon what appeared to be a
valuable listening apparatus. One started to pick it up when the corporal said,
“No, maybe it’s a Hun trap,” which proved to be correct. There in the pitch
dark, with no gleam of light to aid them, the Americans felt and dug around
until satisfied that the thing was only an infernal machine so attached that it
would explode if moved an inch or more.
Gathering up the wire, the soldiers
carried it toward their own trench, then gave a tug, causing an explosion which
would have been deadly had any one been within a hundred feet.
Clip Dangerous Wires
Near Toul American scouting patrols
learned the seven large wires running across a wide strip were heavily charged
with electric current every night. A corporal and four men last night set out
to destroy them. The men had insulated gloves and strong pincers and after
three hours’ work had clipped every wire.
Life in No Man’s Land, with death lurking
everywhere, seems to have a strange attraction. Some of the men are known to
have spent five or six hours stealing from place to place, almost able to peer
into the Hun trenches. Now and then these patrols encounter Germans, when there
occurs a silent battle to the death for one side or the other.
The Cross of War was given to Lieutenants
Walter V. Barneby, pilot, of Oklahoma, and Kenneth B. Cultert, observer, of
East Orange, N. J., for their courage and skill on a trip over the enemy lines
which resulted in the death of both. They were making observations over an
important sector of the German line when bombarded by powerful aircraft guns.
Despite the fire, which was very heavy, they finished their task, although
their machine was hit several times and the bombardment was constantly
increasing.
When through with their work they started
back, but their machine was crippled so badly that it toppled to the ground
when just over our own line. The two men were commended in a citation for their
remarkable bravery.
Excellent Hospital Work
Statistics of the largest American
evacuation hospital show the percentage of wounds healing with the formation of
pus to be astonishingly large, which attests to the skill of the surgeons and
the perfection of the hospital system, also the alacrity with which the wounded
men are borne from the trenches to the hospital. The figures are ninety per
cent. This is admittedly remarkable and has opened the eyes of every one.
America has good reason to be proud of the
superior hospital facilities. The large hospital is a model—eighteen hundred
beds—mostly empty now. the system of handling patients is marvelous. The
surgeons are the best from many cities and are capable of handling twenty-five
hundred surgical cases in twelve to sixteen hours. There is no call for such
capacity yet, of course, but when the test comes there will be no failure.
Revelation in Recoveries
Men getting back home will be proud of
what America’s medical and surgical profession is doing here. Not only have the
American hospitals already come to be recognized as unexcelled, but the
character of the operations and the quickness of recoveries is a revelation.
For instance, Archie Roosevelt, whose knee was badly shattered, walked in
nineteen days.
I was in the Evacuation Hospital to-day,
which originally was French and afterwards the Americans co-operated. Now the
French are gone. Many patients have left the hospital practically whole and
sound after injuries which seemed certain death or permanent injury. This is a
strange comparison to make, but is interesting just the same.
The officer in charge told me this
hospital alone, through its ability to handle difficult cases quickly and
efficiently, saved Uncle Sam in insurance alone $3,000,000 as all the soldiers
are insured. This is important when it is realized that the career of this
great institution, not a great way from the front, has only begun. One thing is
sure, the American soldiers are assured, as the surgeon in charge says, just as
competent medical care here in the shadow of the battle line as in the Post
Graduate or Johns Hopkins hospitals back home.
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