Don
Martin diary entry for Thursday, May 9, 1918:
Had a car to myself today. Went to Nancy to do some errands but found
practically all the stores closed. Got a pair of heavy shoes. Went to aviation
field and to Boucq but got little. Cabled 400 words to N.Y. for sort of feature
story. Was at the club for short time in the evening reading.
Weather overcast but not
rainy.
Now that he was accredited, he could take an auto by himself!
Don
Martin wrote to Dorothy on May 9, 1918 from Neufchateau, describing
the life of the American correspondents.
Dorothy:
...
The automobile trips we make are so long that they take up a great deal of
time. For instance today I started out at eight o’clock in the morning, went 70
miles over to a point close to the front and then returned visiting several
other points. I didn’t get back till seven in the evening and was riding most
of the time. Then I have to get dinner—and at the officer’s club we have a very
good dinner—and then write a cable or two in addition to some dispatches for
Paris and wait around the censor’s office till they are read. That takes time.
The censor reads and re-reads them and nearly always makes some changes. After
that I have to walk to the telegraph office about a third of a mile away and
explain what I want done. By that time it is ten o’clock ...
I
was up in Picardy where the big battle is going on but all the American
correspondents returned so I came back also. I stayed only a few days. To
remain there I had to be stationed with a regiment; had to sleep in a stable or
on the ground or wherever it was necessary to be; ran the same risk as the
other soldiers and stood a chance very day and every night of being hit by a
shell. It wasn’t worth while. Later when it is possible to see more and hear
less I shall go back. I have seen enough to know something about what war is
like. I shall for the time being at least remain here with the main American
army and visit the principal points or sectors held by the Americans. I see a
great deal of the soldiers; see them in the trenches, see a barrage now and
then at night; see wounded men brought into hospitals and see about every phase
of the business. It is very interesting and very terrible. United States no
doubt realizes fully by this time that she is engaged in a terrible war but if
she is not fully alive to it she will be before a great while. We haven’t done
much yet and are not in a position to do much but the time will come when we
will be in a position to put the finishing touches on the German if he does not
force the world to peace through terror.
Here’s
a hug and a kiss Dorothy,
Dad
Don Martin did not stay a few days in Picardy, as he wrote in that letter. One can only wonder why he would write that.
Another
story, possibly written on May 9 and dated May 10, reported on Don Martin’s visit to a chemical weapons
facility, and unveils the major role that ghastly “gas’ was playing in the war.
The story appeared in the June 16 Sunday edition of the New York Herald.
CHEMISTS
CONSTANTLY STUDYING
NEW GASES
DON MARTIN
[Special to the Herald.]
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY IN
FRANCE, May 10
On a table in a large room in
which were several American officers—until recently professors of chemistry and
noted scientists connected with prominent American corporations—were several
shells, jars of liquid, small containers filled with powder and every
imaginable thing connected with the business of “killing and safeguarding with
and against gas attacks.” For gas has become the big element of warfare and
there is no telling how gigantic it may be before the war comes to an end.
To sit with these experts in
killing and listen to their simple statements about the possibilities of
destruction, and at the same time to know them as men of finest sensibilities
and humane impulses is a sort of grim revelation of the terribleness of this
war and the appalling transformation that is overcoming at least a part of
humanity. Of course everyone knows that Germany started the use of gas. She has
specialized in the use of gases of most deadly character. She has perfected
methods of spreading thee ghastly fumes where soldiers cannot escape, but must
stand or sit and face death in gas masks. But she has forced the rest of the
world as a means of self protection, to enter upon this cold, calculating,
merciless work of human destruction and without revealing any information not already known to
the Hun. It may be stated that Germany realizes that if she insists upon
carrying on her war with gas she will be met with the spirit of a tooth for a
tooth and an eye for an eye, and it is not unlikely that it may be two for one.
One of the big projectiles on
the desk in the room referred to was a gas dud-- a shell which did not explode. It was
one of 500 which were hurled simultaneously into the American lines. The
projectile is 9 inches in diameter, about eighteen inches long, weighs about
seventy-five pounds and has a rather blunt nose. It contains about two gallons
of the deadly phosgene gas.
“Isn’t it a rather dangerous
thing to keep around as an office pet?” I asked.
“We took the fuse out. It’s
quite harmless,” was the reply.
This
dud is hurled by the minenwerfers. The Germans have a system of attaching a
long string of these weapons so that they are fired with the touch of a button.
This chorus firing is continued for perhaps fifteen minutes and sends a
veritable shower of the big projectiles into the selected spot and releases a
great quantity of the deadly gas. If the range is right and the wind at all
favorable, the result is likely to be serious. The fumes are shot out with
terrific speed over a small area by the explosion of the shell and a few
seconds delay in getting on a mask may spell peril for the soldier.
There were some smaller shells
containing phosgene, a gas used very extensively, and others filled with a new
gas used by the Germans. This is not poisonous but is calculated to pave the
way for a genuine gas attack. The little shells contain a quantity of the
chemical, which is in powdered form and a surrounding layer of TNT which causes
an explosion which suggests shrapnel and high explosives rather than gas. The
powder is widely spread and is intended to irritate the membranes of the throat
and nose just enough to cause the person reached by it to sneeze. When he
begins to do this the supposition is that he will remove his gas mask and on
the theory that he will do so the apparently harmless powder shells are
followed by a blast of mustard gas or phosgene.
“Suppose,” I asked one of the
distinguished experts, “a gas shell should explode in a city street on a
perfectly still day, how far would the fumes penetrate and how long would they
take to cover a given area?”
The expert opened a jar
containing about a quart of dark liquid. When the air touched it a white smoke
arose slowly. The expert blew this softly into the room and it settled with
about the speed of a ring of smoke from a fragrant cigar.
“That’s about the way the gas
would travel if the air were perfectly still. One shell would probably cover an
area of fifty feet in circumference and the gas would remain for a half hour or
more.”
Shells gather by the Americans show
that the Germans are constantly working on new gases. This, coupled with the
statements made by German prisoners, indicate that the German believes gas will
be his biggest and most effective weapon to hasten the end of the war.
No gas bombs have as yet been
dropped by either side of the war. Not long ago some small rubber balloons were
found after a German aeroplane had passed and they were thought to have
contained poisonous gas. This was found to be untrue. The balloons were filled
with ordinary gas and were used for meteorological purposes. Should Germany
start the use of gas bombs on civil population, history would no doubt contain
a ghastly chapter from the Twentieth Century—but the chances are thought to be
that there will be no gas bombing.
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