July 17, 1918: Don Martin reports more on AEF deeds in battle

Don Martin diary entry for Wednesday, July 17, 1918: 

Franco-American offensive started. Lieut. Delany called me at seven a.m., said all correspondents wanted for important announcement. Said Americans had attacked. Got an auto. Started with [Edwin] James [New York Times] for La Ferte from where we went to the 26^th division headquarters. Got story. French with Americans attacked from south Soissons to west Chateau Thierry. Won everywhere. Sent 400 words full rate. In the afternoon went to the 1^st. division headquarters also 2nd. Returned to Meaux early evening. Wrote a long cable for New York.

           Don Martin was hitting his stride; with lots of war news becoming available, his dispatches expanded in length and number. For New York he wrote a dispatch about the deeds of the American soldiers dated July 17, which the New York Herald published on Thursday, July 18.

“AMERICANS FIGHT LIKE WILDCATS, SOLDIERS WHOM FRANCE RESPECTS,” FRENCH GENERAL TO DON MARTIN

Calls Crowding Huns Back to Marne One of the Finest Things of War

KILL ENEMY FIGHTING, TREAT CAPTIVES WELL

Epernay and Chalons Were the Huns’ Objectives

and Disappointment Is Great

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 [July 17]

                  A study of the strategy of the German offensive now raging shows that Americans have been a serious barrier to the Germans' determination to batter their way through two points where the Americans are. One is north of Chalons, one at (deleted).

                 At both points the Germans launched ponderous thrusts with the intention of encompassing Rheims and also extending their line to Dormans, on the southeast, forming a circle around a vast territory, including Rheims and Epernay. The Americans, fighting with the French. form a stone wall at both points where it was necessary for the Germans to force the Allies back.

                 The Germans are now driving toward Epernay from a point east of Dormans, using four shock divisions. No Americans are here. The Germans are advancing slowly as I write, leaving a ghastly record of their own dead. There is the highest praise for the conduct of the Americans, who are in the line north of Chalons. They seem not to know what it means to retreat. They fought like heroes, killing three for one.

                 The same is true of the Americans west of Dormans, also of those whose magnificent valor is forcing the Germans back to the Marne in the region of Mezy. Inspiring and enthusiastic was the tribute of a French general, who said: "More magnificent fighting is impossible."

                 When the full story of the fighting in this offensive is told it will be found that the American, colored too, played an important part.

“Fought Like Wildcats”

                  The magnitude of the operation, coupled with the fact that the Americans are fighting as members of the French command and are responsible to the French, make it difficult to obtain details of the whole line. To-day 1 called at the headquarters of the French army and saw a high officer, who was surrounded with detailed maps, marked minutely. He explained the operations of the day and pointed to the line to which the Huns were shoved north to the Marne after the Germans had established their line between Fossoy and Crezancy. His eyes glowed with admiration as he said: —

               "The Americans did it. These fine soldiers, whom all France respects, fought like wildcats. They never stop. The Germans settle down. You Americans jump out, despite losses, and crowd the Germans back to the Marne. One of the finest things of the war! More than five hundred prisoners! I am proud of fighting with such men."

             Twice again the officer pointed to the line which is jammed back to the historic river, shook his head and expressed pride and confidence in the outcome when the Americans are able to fight so well.

              A statement issued by the French direction says the fighting of the Americans has made a great impression in France. The newspapers feature the exploit of yesterday. Some call attention to the fact that in the midst of one of the greatest battles of the world a young Goliath of unknown ability steps in and proves to be among the world's best.

Shoot Straight, Never Surrender.

                 I talked with several French officers who have seen the Americans burnt with the smoke and steel of battle. They say that the Americans are wonderful. In handling the rifle they are swift and shoot twice to the others’ once. They shoot straight, are quick and agile, giants in strength and also indomitable in spirit. They are humorists as well as idealists and are in evidence everywhere.

                 The achievements of the Americans have braced the French to such a degree that they are willing to submit again without grumbling to the ordeal of moving and living out in the cold the life of a refugee.

                 I saw the heroes of the fighting west of Château-Thierry to-day and learned some details. A company under command of a captain, caught in the onrush of the Germans, should have retreated, but did not. They fought inch-by-inch, slaughtering scores of Germans. They were surrounded by Germans, but fought still with no surrender and arrived at their own line sadly depleted in numbers. But they had convinced the Boche that an American is not a quitter.

                 One lieutenant returned from fighting in a wood with five times the number of Germans. Eighteen men were left in his company. They had plenty of chances to surrender, but scoffed at them and fought. That is the way of all.

                 I passed Americans on a road marching prisoners back. All had stopped by the side of the road to lunch on bread and sausages. Two Germans, weak from lack of food, collapsed. The Americans treated them the same as themselves.

                 One of the custodians said: -- “We kill the Boche when fighting, but afterward use them decently. It comes hard, but it’s the only way.”

Surprised at Americans

                 Many of the prisoners are only eighteen or nineteen years old. They tell the usual story. They are weary of the war, think it will be over by September, ended by negotiations and not by a battle decision. They do not know the extent of the present offensive, except that all say they expect to take Epernay and Chalons. They were surprised to find Americans opposite to them. They thought they were British.

                  A French interpreter, who has been interrogating prisoners for three years, says the morale of the Germans is no doubt less. He can discover no indication that artillery efficiency or supply of ammunition is decreasing.

                 The German offensive is known to be the greatest since that of March 21. There was the same preparation as then. There are ninety divisions in the attack now. Between sixty and eighty of these are assault troops, who have been rested. Many of the very best reserves are ready to take their place in the offensive, which is likely to last ten days in view of the immensity of the preparation and the expenditure of ammunition.

                 The defeat of the attack will be a blow to Germany. She has been tripped at many points. There has been no advance except in some spots, and there has been a retirement in others from points gained on the first day. This failure to advance according to schedule is a shock to the German leaders and discouraging to the men. This was indicated by a statement from German officers captured.

Epernay and Chalons

                 There were two objectives on which the Germans had determined, Epernay and Chalons. A study of the map shows how by gaining these and taking the woods and mountain south of Rheims they could confidently have expected to force a withdrawal of the Allies or capture a large force if at the same time they forged ahead past Epernay, which they confidently expected to do.

                 Four of the strongest German division are now assailing the French northwest of Epernay, showing their eagerness to get the city.

                 They are on a short front, using the heaviest artillery. The Germans are keen to force a French withdrawal from Rheims for the moral effect they think it will have on the French when the announcement is made, also for its effect when the Germans at home are told they have captured Rheims. But it means nothing to the French now that the ferocity of the German attack is understood.

                 They are known to be using what amounts to a division for every kilometre. At one place there were twenty divisions in thirteen kilometres. Ordinarily the Germans hold five or seven kilometres to one division. However, the German divisions now are smaller than usual.

At One American Headquarters.

                 I called at the headquarters of an American unit north of Chalons and found they had moved the place a week ago owing to the intense shell fire of the Germans, penetrating everything. I found the commanding officer and his staff deep in a dugout. Shells were whizzing constantly overhead, bursting sometimes close to the dugout. Telephones were busy and clerks at work the same as in an office in Wall Street. There was the same precision, though there was danger of constant interruption.

                 It was singular to see Americans, who a short time ago were lawyers, merchants, clerks and salesmen, busy underground in the grim work of war, death whirling past in a battle likely to have an effect on the world’s history raging only three miles away.

                 “Some changes from a year ago, but I like it. Hear that one strike,” a big youth said.

                 Speaking of the bravery of the Americans there are a thousand instances, but it would be unfair not to mention the daring and coolness of the Signal Corps. During the fiercest shelling of our lines in vicinity of Fossoy on Monday, six youthful Americans repaired eighteen breaks in the wires. Shell fragments were flying everywhere, high explosives crashing and banging on all sides. Two men were injured and one killed, but the others continued till they finished the job. It would seem immodest for an American to praise his compatriots ordinarily, but apologies are unnecessary. The youth are adding a bright lustre to the flag, causing the exuberant French to exhaust their vocabularies of admiration.

Checked Huns Above Suippes

                 I learn from details of the American stand north of Chalons and west of Suippes that it was one of their accomplishments equaling the best. It prevented the advance of the Germans in their sector, who were killed in vast numbers, demoralizing the plans of the Germans and compelling the abandonment of the Huns’ programme to storm the Americans’ position by our artillery which threw one of the fiercest and most skillful barrages possible.

                 There is a full division of American artillery here. Many of the officers and men are from Plattsburg and similar places, making war their temporary business. The Huns were massed in strong force, determined by a bold push to take Chalons, which is an important link in the new chain the Huns seek before advancing on Paris. They threw a barrage on the Americans which did no damage. Then the American artillery turned loose the furies of big and small explosives and shrapnel.

                 The Germans started back in masses. There seemed tens of thousands of them, though this is exaggerated. They left the woods and entered a hay field newly cut. Our shells sprayed them with a drench of death. They faltered and some turned back. New masses sprang out of the wood. They faltered too at our artillery. Its unceasing aim was wonderful.

                 The Huns at dawn quit, leaving hundreds of dead in the field and carrying a hundred dead back. It was a frightful experience of American artillery, which is only the gateway of resistance for the infantry, which was waiting, hungry to fight.  This is significant, for on the north Chalons is one of the points essential to carrying out the Germans programme of the present offensive.

              Don Martin wrote another version of that story for Paris on July 17, which the Paris Herald published on July 18.

AMERICANS IN THE THICK OF FRAY AROUND RHEIMS AND 

IN DORMANS VICINITY

Attacks and Defensive Operations Are Praised by the French Commander—One Sergeant and Squad of Ten Men Capture 159 Germans in Trench

(SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE HERALD.)

By DON MARTIN.

WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Wednesday [July 17]

                  Americans may feel proud of the fact that American soldiers, fighting under French direction and side by side with poilus who, in their four years of carnage, have learned all there is to know about modern warfare, are occupying important positions in the line which the Hun, in his desperate attempt to reach Epernay and Châlons, is striving to force back or break.

                 The French are enthusiastic in their praise of the Americans. They use superlatives in describing their fighting qualities.

                 Americans have been at two vital points in the line, and with the French prevented the advance of the Germans. One was east of Rheims, where the Germans made a violent attack with the idea of going straight through to Châlons. The other was in the vicinity of Dormans. In both places the Americans stood with the valor of veterans, and their artillery played deadly havoc with the enemy.

                 In the region east of Rheims the Germans attempted an advance with massed troops. The Americans waited till they started from a wood which led into an oat field. Then the American artillery turned loose a cyclonic blast of shells, gas and high explosive. The Germans faltered. Their lines thinned. Some moved on. Others came out of the woods in droves. The artillery continued to play its fatal spray of steel upon the enemy, who, for an hour, made a desperate effort to get through.

Wiping Out Stragglers.

                 Some of the infantry got past the curtain of death and were despatched by the Americans, who used their rifles and grenades with customary quickness and accuracy.

                 The infantry had stood coolly under the savage barrage thrown by the Germans and were ready to engage the foe, but the task which finally confronted them was small. The number of German dead must have been very great.

                 Near Dormans the Americans were engaged in co-operation with the French. Everywhere they fought with the quickness and bravery of their French comrades, and in several instances when retreat might have meant the saving of men, stood their ground and fought for every inch they yielded.

                 I saw many of these Americans who had been slightly wounded. They were a revelation to me as they are to everyone— even those who presumably understand thoroughly the American character. Not a complaint from anyone, not a whimper or a sigh of relief that they are temporarily out of the hellholes of modern battle. On the contrary, all with whom I talked—and they were from all States and mostly under 24 years of age—said they aren't exactly in love with shrapnel, high explosives and gas, but that they came over here to fight and want to continue fighting till the work has been completed. Their hatred of the German has been intensified by the knowledge that while feigning a sweetness of nature and a love for the Americans, he is conducting a bombing crusade against American hospitals. The bombing of Jouy is known to all the soldiers. That is only one of many instances where the Germans have deliberately and wantonly dropped bombs with the intention of wrecking hospitals which they knew were exclusively for Americans.

                 They have not only bombed American hospitals, but have shelled them as well.

Mentality of Prisoners.

                  Yesterday American soldiers were guarding 500 prisoners who were captured east of Château-Thierry. Two of the Germans were exhausted by their long walk, following an ordeal in the front line. Americans gave them water from American canteens, gave them chocolate and treated them as if they were brothers in fact. I remarked to one of the Americans that their kindness was a marked contrast to the insults which the Germans heap upon American prisoners.

                  "Sure," said an American, "either one of these animals would throw a grenade at us this minute if he thought he could get away with it; but there's no use being a rattlesnake just because someone else is. The Germans will furnish rattlesnakes for all the world for many years to come. We give them gentlemanly treatment when they're prisoners, but other times have to fight, and they are finding it out pretty fast, too. I have seen a lot of German prisoners. They pretend they are tired of the war and are fighting only because they have to. Then they say, when they surrender, that they are doing it because they don't believe the war should continue. That is their way of trying to deceive us."

                  Most of the German prisoners taken recently say the understanding among the soldiers is that Paris will soon be reached. A few of them apparently believe it.

Some Personal Exploits. - Later

                 There is no doubt that the American soldier has set a very swift fighting pace. The French lay double emphasis on their tributes to the Americans since hearing of what some of the Americans did in the fighting immediately south of Mezy, near the Marne.

                 It is stated on good authority that on the battlefield just south of the Marne, near Mezy, German dead lay thick: it is known that the Sixth German Grenadiers suffered losses which practically render them unfit for further service, one battalion being wiped out by machine-gun fire; that several Americans who as captives were transported across the Marne, killed their captors and swam back across the river; that several soldiers captured machine-guns, and that the Americans lay in holes in the ground and in sequestered spots in the woods until the Germans advancing after their pontoon trip across the river, started ahead, when they, the Americans, rose in their places and either killed the Germans or compelled them to surrender, the Huns being fired on from front and rear.

                 For the first time, so far as the Americans are aware, the Germans used smoke engines. They belched forth voluminous clouds of thick smoke, which were shot now and then with the beams of searchlights which the Germans were using apparently to see how their operation was progressing. It was in the thick of these clouds that the Germans crossed the river at nine points, which, according to prisoners, had been previously and carefully designated. A regiment which started to advance northeast of Chartèves was flanked by machine-gun fire and assailed with artillery at the same time. There was little left of it to retreat.

Sergeant Brown's Story.

                  The story of Sergeant J. F. Brown is one of the classics of the war. I read his own report of a night passed in the region where shell fire first tore up the earth and leveled trees, and where for hours afterwards there was individual fighting and skirmishing very much after the style of old Indian fighting.

                 Sergeant Brown was one of the men who hid in a shallow dugout and let the Germans go by. After a reasonable time he began to prowl around. He met a captain who was venturesome like himself and who said, according to Brown's report: —

                "There are four machine-guns up on the hill there; let us get them."

                 The two started out. They captured one, after killing the one man who was trying to manipulate it. They destroyed it. Then they captured a second, but in so doing the captain was killed. Brown's story says : —

                 "I saw he was going to die so I decided to get after the other two guns myself. I got one and then met a corporal who went with me to get the other. We had to kill a couple of Germans, but we got the gun and put it out of business."

                  Then Brown and eleven men whom he rounded up—all prowlers of this midnight region of death and shell wounds— started out to see what they could find.

                  Each travelled separately. Brown had two personal encounters which came out highly successful. He then spotted a short trench in which were a considerable number of Germans. One, started to shoot, but Brown suppressed all trouble by turning an automatic rifle on the trench. Instantly there were cries of "Kamerad" from such as were able to make a noise of any kind. Brown ordered the whole number to march out and surrender their arms. They obeyed. As the line continued to pour out, he saw that he had a considerable job on his hands, and he called to some of his platoon members who were scouting nearby.

                  Ten Americans, led by the sergeant, then marched 159 prisoners out through a barrage which the Germans were throwing. The sergeant had alone captured slightly more than 100 in his trench raid, and his comrades had, in their prowling expeditions, rounded up in the neighborhood of 50. They were all marched fourteen miles to a temporary detention camp.

                  Four of the captives were injured by shellfire on their way out, the sergeant said. Their wounds were so serious that they died on the fourteen-mile march. Sergeant Brown is twenty-three years old and a boy in appearance. He is mild-mannered and has been a soldier but a year. There isn't such a thing as fear in his make-up.

           Don Martin also reported on the air war on July 17, this being a sad story. It was published in the New York Herald on Thursday, July 18.

HUN AIRMEN’S WANTON WAR ON AMERICAN HOSPITALS IN FRANCE 

TOLD BY DON MARTIN

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 [July 17]

                  The Huns continue to bomb American hospitals. There can be no doubt of their wantonness, for five instances of their ruthlessness have come under my observation.

                  In each instance Boche aviators dropped bombs on hospitals which they knew were occupied by Americans, some of whom, at least, personally doubted that the enemy was heartless enough to attack helpless men and women nurses. They have done these things in the very face of the insidious propaganda they have carried on and in which they professed to love us and to encourage that belief among our troops.

                  There can now be no doubt that they are determined to carry on the same barbarous war against us that they have carried on against our allies.

                  The latest instance of barbarous methods of the Huns' warfare was the attack by Boche airmen on a large hospital which was occupied exclusively by Americans. It was remote from factories and railroad lines and was marked by a huge red cross and gigantic white strips.

                  The Boche airman dropped powerful bombs upon it, injuring nurses there and killing some of the orderlies. Fortunately the bombs missed the crowded wards. The damage to the building was great,

                  One of them came over last night. The barbarian descended until he was about three hundred metres over one of our hospitals. He was close enough for patients and nurses to hear his motor. Then he dropped his heaviest bomb. It is a wonder that anything remains of the hospital to-day.

                  Earlier last night a squadron of German aerial bombers attacked an enormous American hospital far inside the allied lines and in a small city where there is absolutely nothing of military value. They dropped bombs all around it, but fortunately missed the mark. They did succeed, however, in causing consternation among the patients, who numbered into the hundreds.

                  Many other instances of the same inhuman actions of the Germans in the last two weeks might be told. I tentatively overlooked them at the time they occurred, partly, perhaps, with the mistaken idea, which is the disposition of all Americans, of discounting the reports of inhuman conduct of the enemy toward the wounded and ill. Now, however, this incredulity has been wiped out. In Its place is the firm conviction in our minds that the Germans are the black and merciless barbarians that they are painted.

               Don Martin wrote a more upbeat story about the feats of American airmen on July 17, which was published in the Paris Herald on July 18.

American Aviator Is Attacked 

by Six German Fliers

(Special Telegram to the Paris Herald)

By Don Martin,

With The American Army, Wednesday.

                  “I regret to report that in landing my machine was damaged, due to the fact that I struck a shell hole, the location of which was unknown to me.”

                 That is the concluding paragraph in a report of an exciting aerial encounter which Lieutenant Thomas Abernathy, [DSC, 147th Aero Squadron] of West Pembroke, Maine, had on Monday with six German fliers. He landed between a German and a French barrage and waited for an hour with the shells singing an interesting, but somewhat disquieting, song in their passage both ways. His machine was punctured from end to end with German bullets and his engine was severely damaged. Otherwise he had no cause for complaint.

Lt. Thomas Abernathy

                 He started his Monday career with a battle with a single German flier, whom he chased about thirteen miles over the line. When he started back he was pursued by six Boche airmen, who conducted an organized attack on him. He aimed his course homeward and travelled most of the way amid a spray of bullets. After his thrilling rest in the barrage zone he made his way to the first line, which he found occupied by Americans.

                 On Tuesday Lieutenant Charles Porter, of New Rochelle, N.Y.,[2x DSC] brought down one enemy machine; Lieutenant Francis M. Simonds, of New York, [Commanding Officer of 147th Aero Squadron] downed two, and Lieutenant Arthur Jones, of Alameda, Cal., added two to his record. On Monday Lieutenant George Robertson, of Mount Leonard, N.J., sent down one plane, and Lieutenant Miller attacked and destroyed an enemy observation balloon. [All airmen of 147th Aero Squadron]

                 Lieutenant J. H. Stevens set out on a “strafing’” expedition. He attacked a line of German horse-drawn trucks and caused consternation both among the drivers and the teams. One truck was swung into a ditch by its frantic horses, and a dozen drivers scooted to cover.