Don Martin diary entry for Wednesday, May 29, 1918:
Wrote a ten page letter to Dorothy, much of
it about the children of France. Went with [Edwin] James [New York Times] to Nancy. Wandered around. No
news. On return wrote an advance cable on Decoration Day in France. Also wrote
a cable on [Douglas] Campbell, the first American flying ace.
The German offensive continues.
Is very formidable.
 |
| Lt. Douglas Campbell, 94th Aero Squadron National Archives Photo No. 111-SC-11308, April 1918 |
Don Martin's cable, dated May 29, was about Douglas Campbell and also Eddie Rickenbacker. It was published
in the New York Herald on May 30.
Americans Taunted Foe By
Air Pranks
By DON MARTIN
Special Correspondent of the New York Herald with the American Army in France
[Special Cable to the Herald]
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY IN FRANCE, Wednesday
Douglas Campbell and Eddie
Rickenbacker battled nearly three miles above the German lines with the six
Boche aviators in the combat in which they shot down one and possibly two
machines. Campbell and Rickenbacker each will get credit for a victory, and
both certainly deserve it.
The fight was in the sight of
the men in the observation posts, who say that the airplanes were so numerous
and also so nimble that they seemed like a flock of frightened birds. Shrapnel
was bursting around the Americans as the fight neared a finish.
The odds were heavily against
our American fliers, who nevertheless sent a triplane to the ground and
disabled a second machine, a biplane. The German batteries fired hundreds of
rounds to shield the four monoplanes acting as protectors to the German
biplanes, which are the observation machines.
When all was over Campbell
arose just out of range of the German shells and aircraft guns and turned a
somersault directly over their batteries, just in the way of showing his
contempt. Then he and Rickenbacker pursued the Germans back to a point five
kilometres from the front line, returning amid a hail of shrapnel and escaping
any injury.
I talked with Rickenbacker on
his return. “I think we surprised the Huns,” he said. “We saw six of them
cruising around close to our lines. The biplanes were taking photographs while
the scouts were protecting them. We flew up three miles and shot down toward
the fleet. They saw us and began firing. We signaled ‘stick together,’ and
singled out a biplane. When we began shooting, our shots were returned, but we
decided to stick till we landed her. Others buzzed round but we managed to keep
our altitude while we poured shots into the biplane.
“We saw her start down and she
landed in a strip of woods, no doubt finished. Then we picked out a second
biplane and worked the same game on her. We poured shot with our machine guns
while one of the monoplanes tried to get under our tails. Finally we saw the
second biplane start down. Campbell said it landed but in bad shape.
“The Huns certainly tried hard
to get us, but just to show his contempt Campbell turned a flip-flop directly
over their batteries. It’s a great game.”
Campbell
got another machine the day before in fighting three Germans.
In
the May 29 10-page letter addressed to 11-year old Dorothy, but obviously intended for the whole family, Don
Martin included his experience in covering the war, his expectations for how it might continue, and he vented his feelings about the German use of gas. Here are excerpts.
Dorothy:
... I was in Paris for a week, first
to see about going to the Rheims front and then to attend Mr. Bennett’s
funeral. ... [Back in Neufchateau], we each have an automobile but very often
go in groups of two or three for the sake of company. The rides are very long
but the country now is very beautiful and the weather good so I don’t mind.
There was one stretch of 26 days during which it rained on 24 days. Now it has
been sunshiny every day for two weeks. ... Clouds are always floating
around—this is in the Vosges country you know, which is the approach to the
Alps—and storms come up very suddenly. The nights are cool.
... Our troops are scattered around
so much now that it is hard to be where they all are—in fact it is impossible.
The Herald gets the war stories of Percival Phillips of the London Express so
that we are covered on the British front. Then from the French front we get the
Associated Press reports. Phillips is the dean of the war correspondents and
one of the best. He works for the London Express and the same articles he sends
to the Express are cabled each night to New York. ... I roam around where the
bulk of the American troops are and some day if I remain here will have stories
just as big as those coming from the Picardy-Flanders front now. ...
About the big offensive ... [it] is
serious of course. Germany is throwing her full weight into it, sacrificing men
like sheep in the expectation that she will emerge from the present test
apparently the stronger of the two forces—so strong that the Allies will not
dare to make an offensive themselves this year or next either; in fact not till
United States comes into her full strength here. Should Germany be successful
she would expect the unrest in France and England, or at least what she figures
would become unrest, to force a peace which would be satisfactory to Germany.
Of course no one knows what the result of the present offensive will be. The
worst storm will be over by the time this letter reaches you and my personal
opinion is that the Germans, after going ahead a good way and seeming like
victors, will find themselves against some genuine [General Ferdinand]Foch (pronounced as if Fosh
with the same 'o' sound as gosh) strategy and tactics which will give them the
same kind of dose they got at the Marne. In a way it is the critical battle of
the war because it is Germany’s last chance of impressing her will upon the
world. A complete victory for her troops now would be a very serious if not
disastrous affair but at the same time Germany might break the Allied line and
then be licked in two years. She has troubles at home which are likely to break
out. They are certain to make trouble for her military leaders if the present
battle does not bring a great victory for Germany.
France has a wonderful army yet. She
has reserves who have never yet been in the line. When Germany goes up against
these men, whose whereabouts is known only to French generals, there will be
some dead Huns. The French are everywhere. They are backing up the line from
end to end and they say there is no more chance of the Huns getting to Paris
then there is of Germany capturing Philadelphia. If the battle now going on
ends in what amounts in a draw then there will be a different story to tell.
Germany will find herself gradually facing an army larger than her own and she
will have to get back herself or draw back under constant attack. But that may
not be till next spring and summer. It is bound to be a long war unless
something cracks during the next six weeks and I do not think anything will
crack. The Germans are desperate. I have seen examples of their barbarity which
would not be believed unless actually seen. They are beasts. They don’t belong
in a civilized world. They may seem like, and be, good citizens in times of
peace. They may pay their bills, take part in public functions and help their
respective communities, but they are all of the same material. They are the
Vandals and Huns reincarnated and worse than their ancestors because education
and scientific perfection make them more dangerous. I wouldn’t trust a German
anywhere, no matter where he is. But they are in for a licking in my opinion
and my only fear is that when peace seems in sight the sentimentalists and
mollycoddles of the world will begin to weep because of the suffering of the
poor German women and children and urge a peace which is too fair for Germany.
The thing for the world to do if it can ever do it, is to go straight into
Germany and devastate their country the same as they have devastated France,
killing people wherever they find them and making the whole nation cry for
mercy. Then after it begins to cry, go on to Berlin and tell the Germans how
they must conduct themselves in the future. If some of the people in Silver
Creek could see what I saw the other day—150 fine young Americans from out
West, suffering from gas poisoning—they would never speak to a German as long
as they live. I never saw anything to compare with the tortures of these
youngsters many of whom are dead of course. The Germans threw a thousand huge
gas shells into their line while the boys were asleep and there was not time
even to get gas masks on. They are constantly inventing new gasses, each more
deadly than the other, and they are all frightful. Of course the Allies are
using gas. It is necessary. They would lose the war if they didn’t. But the
Allies would never have resorted to such a fiendish method of warfare if the
barbarians over the Rhine hadn’t started it....
With love
Dad
P.S. No, Notre Dame has not been hit by
shells, bombs or anything else yet.
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