June 27, 1918: Don Martin writes about what German prisoners told him

Don Martin diary entry for Thursday, June 27, 1918: 

Slept till 9:30. Need the sleep. At one o’clock with [Edwin] James [New York Times] went to 2^nd division headquarters. On way stopped at Hospital (old church) Bazu to have finger dressed. It is still bothering me and makes it difficult to write, dress or do much of anything. While in hospital shells began falling in village. Germans apparently trying to hit hospital. One shell hit within 1,000 feet of hospital while I was there. Surgeons calm enough – calmer than I was probably. Took back road to division headquarters. Stopped and watched shells fall in village of Bazu and in fields close by. Were big ones. While at division headquarters saw many drop on village which only mile away. Took road never taken before by me to La Ferte. Road we had come over being badly shelled. This is a great war. No one safe anywhere. Air raid at night; shells falling everywhere. Just now guns begin booming; barrage at Meaux to catch airplanes passing on way to Paris. Electric lights have gone out. Am finishing this by candle light. Can’t say I like this business a great deal.

       Don Martin wrote a long letter to his daughter Dorothy from Meaux dated June 27 covering what he wrote in his diary that day and family news, but also including his comments on the need to prepare American soldiers for a battle like they had just fought at Belleau Wood, and on war itself:

      The Americans are making a wonderful fight but everything to date shows that a soldier must be trained. With proper training the Americans can lick anyone. Without proper training the bravest and strongest man in the world is a pygmy. Anyhow gas and long-range artillery take all the glory and color out of war. It is a horrid thing.

        He also included a comment about his going ‘automobile riding’ after the war, but he didn’t get to test the truth of that:

     I take automobile rides every day of from 100 to 200 miles. I recently made one trip which covered 675 miles in three days. I am quite sure I shall never care for automobile riding when I am finished here.

       Don Martin reported on the expected next German offensive in a dispatch  published in New York Herald on June 28.

HUN PRISONERS PREDICT DRIVE 
NEXT AUGUST

Don Martin Learns Germans Will Begin 

Their Greatest Effort Then

CAPTURED SERGEANT PREDICTS SURPRISE

American Lieutenant Tells of Hun 
Who Begged for Mercy, Then Killed Captor

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, Thursday [June 27]

              Field Marshall von Hindenburg will begin the greatest offensive of the war in August, according to German prisoners just captured by the American forces. Arrogantly some of these prisoners told me that von Hindenburg does not care if there are a million American troops on the Western front; that his offensive, with all the power behind it that Germany can muster, will begin in August. Then he proposes to bring up all the reserves at Germany’s disposal and hurl them at the allied line with a view to breaking through. On this drive von Hindenburg will take his hope of a quick victory and peace.

                  Color was given to the statement, first made to me by a Prussian sergeant, when it was repeated in substance by other prisoners taken by the Americans.

                    I saw this young Prussian sergeant in a hospital. An American bullet had ploughed its way through his cheek. Despite his wound and the fact that he was a prisoner, he was surly and overbearing in his manner. He declared, however, that the Americans fight well, but asserted that there was a big surprise coming to them.

                When I asked him what this surprise was, he told me of von Hindenburg’s plan for the most stupendous German offensive of the war in August.

Foolish to Resist Americans

             Speaking of the American troops in battle, he said: --

            “The Americans advance on the run. It was foolish for us to resist them in Belleau Wood. The detachment to which I belonged was suddenly confronted by fifty Americans. I told my comrades not to fire at them, because they were too close. Some of my comrades did fire, however, and to this the Americans replied with grenades. One of them hit me on the head.

          “Out of eighty men in my company, thirty were killed and the balance taken prisoner. Other companies fared worse in their encounters with the Americans.”

         From statements made by other German prisoners, there can be no doubt that the intrepidity and dash of the Americans on Tuesday night struck wonder into the hearts and minds of the Germans whom they encountered. Many German prisoners told me that they had never before encountered anything like it.

        The thing uppermost in the minds of the German prisoners with whom I talked was their eagerness for peace. The thing they most desire is to see the war end. They declared, however, that Germany had plenty of food.

            These prisoners knew nothing of the Austrian defeat by the Italian forces under General Diaz until they were told of it by their captors. They expressed surprise at the size of the American armies in France and said that the United States had only seven hundred men on the western front.

             Then they repeated the statement that the size of the American armies did not make any difference to von Hindenburg; that his great August offensive would be launched just the same. They confidently declared that the German high command is determined to pound out victory then, no matter what the cost may be.

             The Prussians, who are the most numerous among the prisoners captured by the Americans, took this view. They declared that, while their losses have been overwhelming, they must win or die. Other prisoners appeared defiant, although as a rule they were deceitful. All of them were hungry and grabbed the bread which was offered to them by the Americans.

         They attempted to explain their hunger by the statement that owing to the heavy artillery fire of the last three days no food supplies could be brought up to the front. The prisoners looked healthy and well nourished. All of them were treated with kindness by the Americans.

              There are twenty wounded Germans in one hospital. They are all sturdy specimens of manhood, but of low intelligence. All of them objected to injections of tetanus serum, because of their belief that is was a deadly germ. They shrank when the doctors approached them and were amazed when they found that they got the same kind of treatment as the Americans received.

Glorious Record of the Marines

              The victory by the Americans in this section adds another brilliant chapter to the glorious record of a unit which for years has been a beloved household name throughout the United States. This unit, after having been in the first line under a deadly fire for weeks, went over the top and crashed its way through some of the pet German divisions. Every man in it still is eager to get at the foe.

             Everyone here expected that this unit would do heroic deeds, but its record up to this date outshines all expectations. It adds a splendid and glorious page to the history of these men, who represent all the States.

               The German way of treating wounded prisoners and allied troops who show them mercy was graphically told to me by Lieutenant Harold T. Parsons, whose home is in Cleveland, Ohio. Lieutenant Parsons had just reached an American base hospital with a slight shell wound in his back. A portion of the projectile had struck his belt and torn off his coat.

            He was watching the surgeon treating wounded German prisoners.

               “It has got to be done, I suppose,” he said “but to me it seems all wrong, after what I have seen.

Wounded Hun Kills American

                 “I was fifteen days in that inferno there and I know. I saw a German with his leg shot off and begging mercy of the Americans. The Americans left him where he fell. As we moved away from him we heard a shot and turned. Then we saw that German with a rifle in this hands. He had shot an American in the back and killed him.

                 “That’s the German way of murder.

            “In the Belleau Wood they left three big German shells – ‘sea bags,’ we call them – while the fighting was going on. When they exploded their own men were killed and our men, too.”

                I am unable because of the censorship to print his name, but I am permitted to tell a remarkable account of an American sergeant in the latest engagement near Belleau Wood. Before he entered the war he was a grocery clerk and small of stature. I saw him in a hospital and heard at first hand the story he told, modestly.

            While he was alone in a shell hole five Germans attacked him. He took them all prisoner. Then he left his shell hole and marched them through a field in the direction of the American lines. A sniper’s bullet struck him and pierced his left arm. As his rifle dropped from him grasp he drew his automatic pistol and covered the men he had taken. With his pistol aimed at them he forced them to improvise a litter of boughs from trees and his coat and to carry him to the nearest point held by his comrades. When he reached there he turned his prisoners over to them and was taken to a hospital.

             Despite his wound, which is not serious, he is an optimist. “We were having a great time in the vicinity of Belleau Wood,” he told me. “There is plenty to eat, and at night the bombardment lulls one to sleep. There is nothing to do but to kill Germans. I hope soon to be able to get back there and make a good job of it.”

             An amazing account of an escape from the Germans and the taking of prisoners was related to me by Frank Leunert, a private who came from Chicago.

           When in the operations in Belleau Wood, the Germans surprised and captured him. He told them that the Americans had the wood surrounded. They believed him and surrendered. Alone, he marched his prisoners back to American headquarters and delivered them to an officer. Among his captives were five German officers.

                More than a thousand prisoners were taken by the Americans in the wood and vicinity. They have engaged no less than seven German divisions and, presumably, have shattered them and rendered them useless for some time to come. These Americans have justified their reputation for bravery in action and now are the idols of the French people. If they hold Belleau Wood, they will command the valley, which is a mile long, and be able to force the enemy to fall back.