July 13, 1918: Don Martin describes "A Soldier's Funeral"

Don Martin diary entry for Saturday, July 13, 1918: 

Went out with [F. J.] Taylor of the U.P. Had luncheon with the gas experts of the 1^st Corps. They say we are now supplied with a good deal of gas but not enough. They are able men but not competent, in my estimation, to cope with the German scientists and chemists who are devising or inventing new gasses. Visited 26^th division headquarters and returned early to Meaux. This morning while catching a basketball thrown by Ray Carroll [Philadelphia Public Ledger] received a tough knock on the little finger of my right hand. It swelled up considerably so when I returned to Meaux went to a hospital. The doctors put it in splints saying I had a bad bruise which, if not properly cared for, might result in a stiff joint. I am having a fine time. My second finger is about well and I was just getting in condition to do some real typewriting when another finger is hurt. Guess I am a hoodoo.

German offensive has not yet started. Everyone expectant and worried. Everyone thinks it will be made north of Chalons. I don’t. Think it will be made directly toward Paris. I was told today U.S. has 24 divisions of 30,000 men each ready for the front line.

        Don Martin mailed a poignant piece he wrote on July 13 about the death of a young soldier. It was published in a black-lined box in the New York Herald on July 28.

A Soldier’s Funeral

By DON MARTIN

 [Special to the Herald]

WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES IN FRANCE, July 13

        He had been a slender, handsome boy. Now he was being laid to rest by comrades who knew him only by the name on his tag and a number. A piece of shrapnel had struck him and he died on the way to the hospital.

        The top sergeant was a rough man. War and death ordinarily mean little to him. He gave orders in a stern, deep voice.

        “Hansen, get down there and straighten the boy out! Move his feet this way—there, just a bit more—careful, careful, all right—that’ll do!”

        Hansen, a ruddy faced, red haired youth, lifted himself slowly and quietly out of the grave. The top sergeant, with a shade of softness in his voice, falteringly read a short burial service. On the faces of the young men who were paying last tribute to a comrade—a youth who had made the supreme sacrifice—was an expression which showed that tragedy sickens the hearts of even those who live in the wake of war.

        The words “dust to dust” were spoken. The sergeant picked up a handful of earth and sprinkled it over the blanket covered body of the hero. Guns boomed. They are always booming. The sun beamed. A lark sang. The top sergeant spoke:--

        “We’ve put him away the best we could, boys. Hats off to him and to this mother somewhere back home.”

        The seven soldiers stood for a moment with heads bared and bowed. As we walked from the cemetery I heard the dull dropping of earth, growing fainter and fainter. Hansen had remained behind. Guns boomed. Bursting shells rolled their crashing thunders across the beautiful landscape. The top sergeant turned to me. Rage flashed from his eye.

        “That boy wasn’t twenty years old, either,” said he. “I’d like to meet the man face to face who started this war.”

Second Battle of the Marne

   The ‘big offensive’ that Don Martin wrote was about to begin is called the “Second Battle of the Marne.”  It took place in three phases:

Phase I: The 5th Ludendorff Offensive, July 15-17, 1918;

Phase II: The Aisne-Marne Counter Offensive, July 18 - August 17, 1918; and

Phase III: The Oise-Aisne Offensive, August 18 - September 16, 1918.

    This great battle turned the tide of the war, as the Germans were forced to begin their retreat from forward positions held since 1914. Don Martin reported daily on the battle from the base in Meaux. The war correspondents were given limited information about war plans and could report only on what they were told by the military and on what they experienced in their excursions along the front lines. Don Martin was a master of the latter.

     Phase I was a German offensive. In the first days of July, it became apparent to the Allies that the Germans would be able to launch only one more great attack, and towards the 10th of the month it was believed certain that if the enemy attacked the blow would fall in the area of Champagne. The Germans did indeed select Champagne and the eastern face of the Marne salient as the fronts for their offensive on July 15. Thanks to the arrival of American troops, the Allied reserves were now sufficiently numerous for the Champagne front to hold with the troops already allotted to it. This decision of the enemy allowed the Allied to mount a counterattack in Phase II. This began on July 18 and afforded immediate relief from the enemy's thrust.