June 2, 1918 - Don Martin spends day close to battle, as Paris Herald publishes his stories

Don Martin diary entry for Sunday, June 2, 1918: 

Got up early and motored up near Château-Thierry. Saw the French shelling the city. Was within a kilometer and a half of the city. Heard twenty shells a minute pass over! Airplanes were constantly overhead. It was soldiers, soldiers, soldiers! The French are moving by tens of thousands to check the sweep of the Huns. Things look bad just now. I was within sound of the guns all day. Saw thousands of refugees getting out; saw cattle being herded and driven back out of the threatened zone. [Don Martin does not record it, but he met Martin Green at Château-Thierry on June 2; see Martin Green's tribute to Don Martin in the October 13 blog posting.]
Started back for Neufchateau at 7 p.m., there being no other place where I could file cable dispatches. Bearing broke near Ligny. Spent the night there. Managed to get telephone connection with Neufchateau through the kindness of a Croix de Guerre man who came down in his night clothes and opened the telephone station.

          Don Martin saw that a lot was going on but the war correspondents did not have the big picture of what was going on. The third German offensive of the year, in late May 1918, known as the Third Battle of the Aisne, had penetrated the Western Front to the north bank of the Marne River at Château-Thierry, 95 kilometres (59 mi) from Paris, on 27 May. On May 31, the U. S. 3rd Division held the German advance at Château-Thierry and the German advance turned right towards Vaux and Belleau Wood. On June 1 Château-Thierry and Vaux fell, and German troops moved into Belleau Wood. 

      On the evening of 1 June, German forces punched a hole in the French lines. In response, the U.S. reserve—consisting of the 23rd Infantry Regiment, the 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, and an element of the 6th Machine Gun Battalion—conducted a forced march over 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) to plug the gap in the line, which they achieved by dawn.
      By the night of June 2, the U.S. forces held a 20 kilometres (12 mi) front line north of the Paris-Metz Highway running through grain fields and scattered woods, from Triangle Farm west to Lucy and then north to Hill 142. The German line opposite ran from Vaux to Bouresches to Belleau, names that would become famous in the coming days.
                 ---

The Paris Herald was deciding how to publish Don Martin's dispatches, which were  now arriving daily. In the June 4 edition they dedicated a whole page 1 column to Don Martin's short dispatches, with his name at the end, as was their custom. One of these, dated Saturday, included a droll story about the shooting skills of Kentuckians.

KENTUCKY MOUNTAINEERS

HIT BULL'S EYE EACH TIME

Lanky and Languid, But They Can Handle a Gun—

Boys as Companions of Soldiers.

(SPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE.)

AMERICAN FRONT, Saturday.

            Just how well the brawny mountain boys from Lee and Breathitt, Kentucky, can fight in the kind of war going on now is problematical, but if they can fight half as well as they can shoot it will be tough on Fritz. One afternoon some of the soldiers were doing some practice shooting. They were getting ready to take an examination for sniping. One of these lanky mountaineers was among a group of onlookers. He looked somewhat disappointed when one of the embryo marksmen missed three times. He offered a suggestion as to how the aim might be improved.

            "If you think you can beat it, go ahead," said the soldier, with some evidence of pique.

             "All right, if you don't mind," said the Kentuckian.

        Bull's-eye one; bull's-eye two; bull's-eye three; bull's-eye four.

           Then the Kentuckian handed the rifle back to the piqued soldier. The latter put out his hand.

          "Say, Buddie, I don't know where you came from or who the hell you are, but you certainly can shoot. You must be one of those Kentucky experts."

           "Don't know, sir, as to that, but I'm from Kentucky, and I've always shot some."

---

       All through certain parts of France one hears curious utterances from the children. They have learned a few American expressions, and unfortunately some of them are by no means polite nor intended for parlor use. Some are merely amusing. One day an American major was walking through a village street, when a little girl, not more than four, stepped in front of him, saluted and said in the sweetest childish voice:—•

            "Hello, kid!"

         Everywhere the children wave and say goodbye when they see an American. To them it means "How do you do?" In a town rather close to the line, where our boys have been quartered for some time, the pet of the troops and the town, in fact, is a youngster about five, who is always smiling, always dirty and always full of fun. The general of the division was impressed by him and stopped to speak to him. The boy listened a moment to the kindly words and said : —

            "Good bye, go chase yourself."

         The first request made by a French youngster of an American is for gum.

           They never saw gum until the Americans came. Now they get it in their hair only occasionally and swallow it only once in a while. The American soldier loves the French children, and the children follow the Americans around everywhere—not looking for coins, but just to be with them.

                                                                   DON MARTIN.

       Another of the dispatches published in the Paris Herald on June 4 included a story about a German deserter.

MEATLESS DAYS IN THE GERMAN ARMY

(FROM THE HERALD’S CORRESPONDENT.)

AMERICAN FRONT, Friday.

            From a German who deserted to the American lines interesting information has been gathered. The German army now has three meatless days a week. The restriction has caused dissatisfaction, but it is accepted as necessary. The soldiers manage to spread the allowance so as to get some meat each day during the week except one.

           The new troops show great eagerness to learn the movements of the Americans. The recent raid, resulting so costly to the Germans, in the Lunéville sector was undertaken on orders to get American prisoners at any cost, but they got none. The prisoner who deserted says that the morale of the Germans is good, but that the sturdiness of the troops is below the former standard.

           The story of the prisoner's entry into the American lines is remarkable. He left once to cross No Man's Land, but got lost in the mist and wandered back to his own lines. The next time, just before dawn, he crossed No Man's Land and came on an American officer and five soldiers. He saw them first through the mist. Then the Americans saw him and watched the smile on his face. The prisoner, who speaks English, said, "Good morning." The Americans gave him a cigarette while they talked matters over. The prisoner was a merchant in peace times and was forced into service. He has been friendly to America from the start. 

                                                                                       DON MARTIN.