June 5, 1918 - Don Martin recounts growing role of AEF on the Marne

Don Martin diary entry for Wednesday, June 5, 1918: 

With Floyd Gibbons of the Chicago Tribune, Lieutenant Hartzell and [Edwin] James [New York Times] left Neufchateau for Paris by way of the front. Visited various division headquarters on the way. Arrived in Paris at 9 p.m. Wrote a story for Paris.

           Two stories reporting on what Don Martin saw, dated Wednesday, June 5, were featured on the front page, Part Two, in the New York Herald on Thursday, June 6, 1918.

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         The continuations of the two stories on page 3 were under a heading across the top of the page:

DON MARTIN TELLS OF AMERICAN DEEDS OF VALOR

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HUNS BY HUNDRED THOUSAND 
SENT TO SLAUGHTER IN DRIVE 
ON WHICH KAISER STAKES ALL

Tremendous Panorama, in Which Troops Melt Like Mist Before Terrific Gunfire, Roads Are Choked with Streams of Refugees, and Air Throbs with Host of Airplanes, Viewed from Hilltop by Don Martin

NEW TEUTON GAS, INFECTING VICTIMS WITH GANGRENE, REPORTED BY AMERICAN NURSES

Heroic New York Women in Hospital Staff Close to Front, Where 500 Cases Are Handled All at Once, Work Until They Are Ready to Drop from Exhaustion and Win Unstinted Praise for the French

By DON MARTIN

[Special cable to the Herald]

Herald Bureau, No. 49 Avenue de l’Opera, Paris, Wednesday

                  On the days when France has temporarily checked the sweep of the Hun hordes over her beautiful fields, blooming with their harvest, and through villages which a few days before has been sleeping tranquilly in presumed security, I travelled by automobile practically along the whole battle front from Soissons to Château Thierry.

                  I saw war torn France show her gigantic virility and rally in her greatest of all efforts to push back the foe.

                  I saw the despair of the people when rumors came that the barbarian rush would cover half of France. I saw the joy when the report came that French soldiers, with the British, had checked the onrush, making counter attacks and bayonet charges reminiscent of the famous charges of the earlier days of French soldiery. I saw roads jammed with camions crowded with French, Singalese, British and the Belgians.

                 The story of the monstrous battle, now a week old and still at a vital stage, is too vast to be told by any one person. The continuous roar of guns is audible for twenty miles. On the entire line soldiers are thrown into the fight by the hundreds of thousands. Hospitals are filled time and again.

                 The Huns, staking all, are willing to slaughter hundreds of thousands to make the drive a success. Divisions are taken out systematically to make room for fresh troops, which seen inexhaustible.

                 At many points of the line the Germans are able to throw five to one against the French. Still the French, as at the Neuilly front and also at Mont Saint Choisy, by brilliant attacks have forced these overwhelming numbers back and held the ground.

                The British, holding with dogged determination at many places, were finally forced to give way.

Roads Choked with Refugees

                 Roads in the Marne country, which was devastated in the first months of the war, but which now is a fat, rolling field awaiting an early harvest, are choked with carts loaded with personal belongings of the residents of scores of peasant villages, children trudging beside aged grandparents, leaving the results of their labors to the invaders, the same folk returning when they learned that the masses of soldiers trampling past in the day and night with the rolling of camions finally had set up an iron wall, which for the time blocked the German onsweep.

                 Cattle in great herds were moving slowly over the country roads, every one moving to the south out of the danger zone.

                 It is the same picture France has seen so often of suffering and despair, yet gleaming through all the woe is the spirit which has filled France and the breast of every soldier of France with demand for vengeance against the Hun, and the steel-like determination to bear every burden, also every grief, until victory comes at last.

                 The bombardment of Paris by big cannon and air raids is all part of the programme of the Huns to terrify France and to destroy its morale, but the morale never was higher. I have talked to many of the French, who say, though knowing such a capture is impossible, that even if the Huns should capture Paris the war would only be carried on in a bigger scale and with increased vigor.

                The Americans, taking an important, though of course, minor part in this greatest of battles, will play a vital part, perhaps, if it continues for weeks, as it is likely to. The French are overcome with gratitude to the Americans, who say:--“Here are our men, take them, do with them as  you will.”

Americans Glad to Get in Action

                The Americans have been eagerly waiting for a chance to get into a real fight and are delighted at their present opportunity. They were fortunate to see fighting at the southernmost point reached by the Germans at the place called Chateau-Thierry, a beautiful city, the size of Orange, New Jersey, on two sides of the Marne. The Germans shelled it heavily and the French moved to the left bank, or the south part of the town. In lively fighting the French held the city and the Germans tried to take it by storm, but failed to make any headway.

                The French drew up their heavy guns during the night as if by magic, and began shelling the Germans and heavy firing was started.

                In many places the French machine gunners were waiting at the side of the river. If the Germans were to attempt a crossing at the bridges, the orders of the soldiers were to fight to the last man and kill Germans as long as the ammunition lasted. I saw soldiers waiting grimly at their task, meaning death. The Germans made no attempt to cross, and it was too late the next day, when the French guns poured a steady rain of shrapnel into points occupied by the Germans.

                I stood on a hill a mile away, where my glasses gave a perfect view of this beautiful city being mutilated by war. The roads in the morning were alive with German trucks and soldiers. After the French guns turned their hail of death northward the roads were deserted and patches of woods, where it was known the German guns were concealed were whipped with shrapnel. I saw ten shells strike simultaneously on a spot supposed to be occupied by the German artillery. Life there became impossible.

               The French markmanship is wonderful. Guns in an all day shelling hit only particular spots and did a minimum amount of damage. There was no sign of life in the city at any time that I watched it. At night the Germans hurled a few shells, but the guns were quickly silenced. As I write, the château might be said to mark one of the vital points in the checking of the Hun sweep.

               While I watched from the hillside I had a full view of the enemy. An average of twenty shells a minute creased the air over my head. In the beautiful sunlight the city gleamed magnificent, and it seemed a crime, although it is just one of the ravages of war. The birds were singing in the trees all about the hillside. Airplanes were buzzing constantly, all French, and I saw twenty-one. Once, while far back over the German lines, a sausage balloon was hovering, protected by aircraft guns. The French airplanes attempted to destroy it a dozen times, but were kept back by shrapnel.

                I had a final view of the city, one of the prides of France, just at dusk, as the guns were still deluging it with shells. With the exception of a small fire smoldering in an isolated section, the city seemed to have come unscarred through the hail of steel.

                It would be unfair not to speak of the work of the American hospital unit. The women were is a hospital of their own with the French. At night the ambulances poured in filled with wounded. Five hundred cases, all serious, were on their hands at once. The women worked to the point of complete exhaustion. They worked miracles with no preparation at that time for any such number of wounded.

                I saw this heroic bank of American women in the midst of their task only fifteen kilometers distant from the section being evacuated by civilians.

               The women worked twenty-four hours at one stretch and saved untold lives. The names of these heroic women are:--Mrs. Herbert G. Squiers, Marian Hoyt Wiborg, Susan Wills, Mary Withers, May Hammond, Miss Peyton and Miss Meunier, the latter from Miss Anne Morgan’s unit. Captain Sterling Beardsley, of Riverside Drive, New York, of the Red Cross, worked with the women all night. The French paid the highest tribute to the fortitude and devotion of these women.

               “Oh, if America only knew what we know she would rise in her full strength and kill every German in the world,” said Mrs. Squiers. “We know the Huns and what they are.”

               Mrs. Squiers says the nurses and physicians are startled at the rapid development of gangrene in the patients. It develops within a few hours and when sequelent before three days. They think a new German gas induced this condition. A physician said to me:--“It is just another piece of German fiendishness.”

          The second glowing report on the growing role of American forces in the battle for the Marne, dated June 5, was published on Thursday, June 6, 1918.

AMERICANS OPPOSE HUMAN WALL TO BARBARIAN HORDES INVADING BEAUTIFUL VALLEY OF MARNE

In Camp When Called, They Start at Night for Front and Are Attacked Four Times before Actually Getting Into Position, Disturbed by the Huns 
While Shaving or Unpacking

DRIVE ENEMY FROM A WOOD AND KEEP THEM RUNNING UNTIL THEY FINALLY TAKE COVER

Villagers Look on in Amazement as American Infantry and Artillery Pass Through and Eagerly Give Bread and Eggs and Make Coffee for Them

By DON MARTIN

[Special cable to the Herald]

AMERICAN FRONT IN FRANCE, Wednesday

                 American troops have fought on the grave lined field of the Marne. Untrained, perhaps, measured by the veterans of Europe, but they proved a barrier at vital points to check the mad Hun rush toward what the Huns blindly believe complete victory. Americans are in the line at many points at a period when the Germans are hurling masses of troops from Soissons to Rheims and south to Château-Thierry.

                 Americans in their camp in Central France packed and started on their march at night. They went straight to the front line, where they stood as impregnable as anything human could against the fanatical onslaught. One outfit, their shirt sleeves not yet rolled up, was attacked four time before they actually got into position. The men, disturbed while shaving or unpacking, repelled attacks which were very severe. Some Americans fell, naturally.

                 The men crossed a field in front of a wood and entered the wood, which was of scrubby growth, filled with Germans with rapid firers, too. The Americans sailed straight at them and drove them back yard by yard for a few hundred yards. Then they started them running and kept at them for a kilometre and a quarter when the Germans who were not killed took cover with a powerful contingent which the Americans did not attack, seeing their overwhelming numbers.

Americans Drive Back the Foe

                 How much bearing this had on the general cessation of the Germans carrying out their assault along this part of the new line can only be guessed. But the Americans, who are members of units of which America is proud and who have done service in many parts of the world, drove the Germans back and also held the territory gained against the vigorous assault of the Huns, who apparently decided that the soldiers at that spot were a tough proposition. For every American killed many Huns were left on the field.

                When the Americans finished their task, taking up their new position, they moved their belongings up, finished shaving and settled down. But during two days and nights they were constantly harassed by shell fire and an occasional raid by Germans seeking prisoners.

                These men were in camp when the call came. Reserves of every description marched and rode seventy hours. They arrived at dusk on the ground very tired and hungry. Yet they stopped only two hours to rest on the roadside, when they marched straight to the front line, which is now open, without trenches. The cover consists of woods and houses. The fighting, entirely in the open, is satisfactory to Americans.

               The Germans are using mostly Prussians and Bavarians and specially trained storm troops in this great attempt to encircle Paris on one side and force a victory. The Americans made a splendid picture, marching along the roads of the Marne Valley, past thousands of graves, wooden crosses marking the resting places of the Marne heroes of the first year of the war.

Villagers Stand in Wonder

               I saw their units enter a slumbersome village where Americans had never been seen. They came in a steady, undulating stream of brown, down a winding hill, just at daybreak, singing “We’ve got the artillery, we’ve got the infantry, to hell with Kaiser Bill!”

              The old folks and children of the village stood in front of their homes in wonderment. The old men took off their hats and all shouted “Beaucoup d’Americains! Vivent les Américains! Vive la France!” It was a thrilling picture. The troops stopped to rest here, the line strewn all through the village and out into the open country. They were tired and wanted bread and eggs in the villages and offered any price. The villagers gave both bread and eggs and made coffee for them, taking nothing. It was the same in many small towns.

               In one city the size of Plainfield, where the soldiers marched through with artillery and supply wagons coming after them, the curb was lined and the windows of every house filled with persons amazed that there were so many Americans. This was in sound of the guns. The same village was evacuated partly later.

              I talked with many of the soldiers. They were splendid looking chaps. They realized they were going where killing by thousands was nothing but an incident. They saw Red Cross wagons filled with wounded hurrying by almost constantly. All only quickened the steps of the men, who were eager to get to the front to help stem the hordes of barbarians coming further down in the beautiful Marne Valley.

Men Proud of Their Tasks

             They were proud to be permitted to fight on ground hallowed by the wonderful stand of the French four years ago. I spent an hour with an American machine battalion of men inexperienced in actual fighting of this character, but they were the calmest lot in the world. They knew their position was filled with danger. Shells were falling frequently, and gas shells, too. They were watching the shells hit and waiting for the Germans to show themselves. French shells were passing overhead at the rate of ten per minute.

              In one place the Americans made their headquarters in a school house in a small town, cleared the desks and had their organization working in half an hour. On a backboard still was the lesson the scholars had had in the morning. The village was transformed in a few hours from slumbersome tranquility to militant excitement.

               To see the Americans helmeted, carrying the full paraphernalia of war, stepping off so splendidly and heading directly for the front to take part in the greatest battle of all time, to hear them singing the songs known back home as they trudged along, smiling and frequently carrying tiny Stars and Stripes on the ends of their bayonets, one could not help feeling a glow of pride and the feeling that the Americans will give a glorious account of themselves and have a chapter to themselves when the history of the second great Battle of the Marne is written.

Big Obstacle to the Huns

                Further details of the fighting by Americans at the Marne show that the Americans are proving a difficult obstacle to the Germans in the attempt to cross the river. They entered the fight with determination and made a brilliant record. The bombardment hurled against the Americans, who had been in the line two days, was savage. The Americans suffered casualties but stood their ground.

                When they saw it was impossible to prevent a superior numerical force getting over the bridge near Jaulgonne, a party of Americans in the face of a withering machine gun fire dynamited the bridge. The Germans continued the bombardment, but the Americans stuck fast in face of overwhelming odds. They are now masters of the situation at this point, which is an important spot.

                Also at Veuilly Wood a powerful force of Germans stormed the place, which was held by Americans, and long hand to hand fighting followed. The Germans previously had captured the village, where there were no Americans. Then they met resistance such as they were unable to overcome.

                The French speak with enthusiasm of the magnificent work of the Americans, who are sure to prove an important factor in the fight now raging for possession of the Marne country. All the combats are hand to hand and the Americans are getting a severe baptism of real war.

                They hardly recover from the fatigue of long marches and camion trips when they enter the line, usually singing American songs. In many cases they are in the battle two hours after getting into position, of course suffering casualties, but small ones compared to those inflicted on the enemy.

                The reports of the casualties of the Germans are tremendous whenever they meet Americans. The latter are eager to fight. They don’t like the trenches, but now all is in the open and they give no ground unless forced by overwhelming numbers. They want to be a factor in winning the second battle of the Marne.

            Many places where they have camped are dotted with the graves of heroes in the first Marne battle. The French everywhere are holding with the words of Verdun on their lips. The Americans show the same spirit and are ready to die to a man rather than yield. Americans are on the move everywhere, travelling night and day, on dusty roads, in trains and camions to get in the fight, which all realize is the most vital of the entire war. They are commanding the admiration of the French, who say the Americans are justifying by their deeds all that has been said in their favor.