June 26, 1918: Don Martin's good story about Private Pat Donohue

Don Martin diary entry for Wednesday, June 26, 1918: 

Went to 2^nd division headquarters with [Edwin]  James [New York Times]. Got story about fight marines made against Germans in top of Bois de Belleau. Saw more than 200 prisoners, bestial looking men. Also saw many Germans injured in old church, used as hospital by Americans at Bezu. Returned before noon. Wrote 200 words full rate for New York, about 500 words regular press rate. Got them off by 1 o’clock courier. Returned to 2^nd division headquarters. Got more details of marines’ fight. Sent further story by cable. Wrote long story for Paris also. Finger bothering me somewhat yet. Voice still hoarse. Air raid in Paris tonight. Big barrage here.

        Don Martin's story about Pat Donohue, mentioned in the June 25 diary entry, was published in the Paris Herald on June 27.

GERMANS CAPTURED ‘PAT’ DONOHUE,

BUT COULDN’T HOLD HIM

“Pat,” When a Prisoner, Saw Enemy Officers

Disguised in American Uniforms

(SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE HERALD.)

By DON MARTIN.

WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY, Wednesday. [June 26]

   "How many divisions are holding the Belleau Wood sector?"

   "Forty-two American divisions and thirty French."

   "Schweinhund!"

           That is a verbatim report of a dialogue between Private James A. Donohue and a German intelligence officer. The third line was not spoken. It was hissed. Donohue is not exactly clear as to what happened immediately after that.

        Of these things he is reasonably certain: The intelligence officer pushed him brusquely aside. Two privates jerked him from the building. Practically every German within easy reach either kicked him or at him. He was put to work cutting brush to be used as camouflage. He ate little, but wanted much. His fare consisted of very bad soup and black bread. But he is back in the American line now. He says he has three niches in his stick, each one meaning a dead German

             "But," he says, "I have thirteen yet to go. I made a contract with myself that when I got over here I'd kill sixteen Huns, and, take it from me, there are thirteen somewhere who have got something coming from Pat Donohue—Pat's my army name."

               Donohue is an American from his toes to his scalp—the type that joins the army when he runs away from home and never leaves it. He has been there so long he knew all the army by their first names. "Of course it's different now," he says apologetically.

             He was captured during the fighting at Bouresches. He was a prisoner twelve days. It took him five days to work his way across fourteen kilometres of French soil held by the Germans. It took him all one night to get by American sentries. Most of his story is a sort of romantic military melodrama, but in it there is one discovery which has no doubt given the Allied officers something to think about quite seriously.

"Pat's" Useful Discovery

                Donohue says that while he was being questioned by the German intelligence officer, four Germans, speaking good English, came in to make reports and receive orders. They wore the uniforms of American majors. Three others came dressed in the uniforms of French captains.

           The inference made by some of the officers who heard the statement was that these spies presumably try to work their way into the enemy lines.

       Donohue's story, destitute of some of its picturesqueness, was about as follows: "Five Germans surrounded me in Bouresches and I would have got rid of the outfit only one walloped me over the head with something which put my light completely out. The next I knew I was being sort of pushed and kicked into the German intelligence office, where the things I have already mentioned took place. I certainly got the Germans' goat when I told them there were 42 American and 30 French divisions opposite Belleau. If they had asked me how many Americans there are in France I would have said the last time I counted them there were ten millions, but probably I overlooked a few divisions as I was busy the day I did the counting.

            "They got their snout full when I made the first statement and then I was christened a Swinehund or swineherd or something we don't have in Philadelphia and Boston. After all the privates who could be readily summoned had taken a kick at me—and some of those guys can kick—I was put to work cutting brush. They are using it to camouflage new gun positions. I must have cut enough camouflage to hide all the guns in Europe. When that was done I was put to work cutting wood. For meals I got soup and black bread, both the worst I ever saw. While I was getting this indigestion inside of me, the Huns sat round eating good cheese, drinking coffee and wine and eating good bread. They just laughed at me.

"How They Love Americans!"

               "Fine people, these Germans. And how they love the Americans! They treated me about like a rattlesnake, only with a little more suspicion. I hung around with them, about fourteen kilometres back of the line with four Germans usually standing guard over me. They put me to work one day filling a hole in a road where an American shell had struck. I filled it up with soft dirt instead of rock, and the next day when a German cannon came along it sank down in it and is there yet I guess. The Germans are bringing up a good many big guns and camouflaging them alongside the roads. Some of the German guns have been put out of commission by artillery fire almost as soon as they were put up. The Germans are also putting a pile of machine-guns in little pits in woods and fields. They arrange them so they can be swung around at any angle.

               “Well, anyhow, I heard enough to know that they are losing a pile of men through artillery fire, and that they bury their dead crisscross in pits about twenty feet square and six feet deep. They have plenty of dead to bury, too.

                "One night I saw a chance to make my getaway. The sentinel was asleep beside me, but in such a position that if I moved quickly I would awaken him. I worked around till I got hold of a pick. That's a good instrument for almost any kind of dirty work. That German won't perform any especially difficult military service for some time. Then I spent five days and nights getting back to our lines, and here I am, Pat Donohue, waiting for a chance to get at them again."

        Don Martin’s two dispatches cabled June 26 appeared in the New York Herald’s June 27 edition.

AMERICA’S FAMOUS MARINES 
IN FRESH ATTACK CLEAR WOODS 
AND CAPTURE 300 GERMANS

Add Another Brilliant Feat to Exploits 

at Bouresches and Belleau

ENEMY SPEECHLESS AT AMERICAN DASH

All of Thousand Huns in Woods Were Killed, 

Captured or Wounded

By Don Martin

Special Correspondent of the Herald with the American Armies in France

 [Special Cable to the Herald]

           WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES IN FRANCE, Wednesday [June 26]

        Add another brilliant feat to the exploits of the famous American fighting unit, which already has to its credit Bouresches and Belleau. South of Torcy at sundown yesterday they made a dashing assault on a position the Germans thought impregnable. With vicious artillery fire, lasting thirteen hours, they terrorized and killed Germans who were intrenched in the woods adjacent to Belleau.

          Then they continued with a barrage, which was like a solid sheet of steel, shutting off the retreat of a thousand Germans in the woods. The Americans charged the woods in the face of machine guns, numbering fifty, I afterward learned. They took approximately three hundred prisoners and killed hundreds. All of a thousand Germans in the woods were killed, captured or wounded. The Americans numbered (deleted) and their casualties were relatively small.

        This was an important victory, for the Germans had determined to retain in this point, as it opens the way to the railways and also the main road to Paris. Seven German divisions have been already shattered and taken out of this sector, which during the entire time has been guarded by one American unit which is noted the world over. The French acclaim the newest victory as one of the most important, though small, for many months. Remember, it is at the point where the Germans are nearest to Paris.

            The Germans are speechless at the dash of the Americans. I saw the barrage, which was terrific, also wounded Germans and Americans taken to the dressing station close to the line. I talked with the German prisoners, who were illiterate. There were many Poles and Alsatians among them. They are tired of the war, and say it will be over in three months, as the soldiers will quit fighting.

-- -- -- -- --

Cheers From the Marne Front 
are Heard Along the Piave

ITALY’S SONS FIGHT HARD IN THE WEST

One American Veteran Samples Life of Prisoner, 

Finds It Not Worth While

By Don Martin

Special Correspondent of the Herald with the American Armies in France

 [Special Cable to the Herald]

Herald Bureau, Paris, Wednesday

            With the Italians in the midst of one of the notable achievements of the war, dealing what may be the deathblow to Austrian participation, and Americans flocking into the line all the way from Alsace to the coast, demonstrating their superiority over the Germans, the war situation is swiftly taking on new aspects. The Americans are congratulating Italians everywhere on their splendid victory at the Piave. The Italians also are proving their valor on the western front in France, so, instead of being the weak factor as was indicated once, they are now likely to be an important aid in giving the crushing blow to Germany.

              The significance of the Austrian defeat coupled with the social disturbances in Vienna are not being overlooked by the military leaders of the Allies, who think they see the beginning of the end of Austrian activity in the war on a large scale. Meantime the stupendous drive Germany has been expecting to make is held up, though it is likely to start at any moment.

A Fight Over The Line

               The Germans are showing some vexation with the Americans as a result of the Belleau Wood situation. During last night a French and American patrol met a German patrol and killed two Germans. It was learned from papers found on one that he was a Prussian and a member of a new division brought up hurriedly to aid in giving a savage lesson to the Americans. The latter, however, are not in the least worried.

               This morning there was a fight over the American line between a German and a French airplane. The German was brought down in flames inside our lines, dead. The Germans have been flying freely over our lines and this morning a flyer appeared, little larger than a speck in the sky. The anti-aircraft guns got into action and surrounded him with shrapnel. The German dived, intending to destroy ‘la sausage’ balloon which was hanging at the edge of some clouds observing for our artillery. In a moment the French flyer dropped through a fleecy bank and shot straight at the German. The Frenchman wheeled around the German a few times, got him in his gun sights and the latter plunged to the ground in a cloud of smoke and flames. Thousands of American soldiers witnessed the spectacular duel.

                The Germans have been active in the air over our sector, evidently preparing to make a smash there.  It is the front nearest to Paris and also covers one of the main Paris roads. The Americans who have been holding there these three weeks tell wonderful tales which deserve a niche in the hall of fame and will get it, too.

About Belleau Wood

            “Will we clean Belleau Wood? We’ll clean it or keep trying till the last of our bunch are gone.”

                 That is the statement of one American I saw.

             James A. Donohue, a typical American veteran who was captured at Bouresches and escaped back into our lines, says the Germans are worried most by the accurate artillery fire of the Americans. He says dozens of big German guns were destroyed soon after being mounted. Donohue is a remarkable character. He was captured while unconscious. Prodded by guns in the hands of German soldiers, he was taken before an intelligence officer, who asked him the strength of the force opposite Belleau. He replied: -- “Forty-two divisions of Americans and thirty French.”

          The German officer hissed, “Swinehund” and pushed Donohue away. The private was jerked down the road, where he was put to work cutting brush to be used to camouflage the roads.
        On June 26, the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, under command of Major Maurice E. Shearer, supported by two companies of the 4th Machine Gun Battalion and the 15th Company of the 6th Machine Gun Battalion, made an attack on Belleau Wood that finally cleared that forest of Germans, ending one of the bloodiest and most ferocious battles U.S. forces would fight in the war. Finally, the Americans had prevailed but at the cost of nearly 10,000 dead, wounded, or missing in action. Don Martin reported on this important Battle of Belleau Wood, based for the first few days in Neufchateau, and then from a new base for the American war correspondents in Meaux.