July 22, 1918: Don Martin reports on Château-Thierry for the Paris Herald

Don Martin diary entry for Monday, July 22, 1918: 

Another interesting day. Went practically up to the front line northwest of Chateau Thierry. Passed through dozen villages which were shelled by the French and Americans before they drove the Germans out. Saw scenes of desolation which brought home very strongly the horrors of war. Went through Belleau woods, where I saw a great many German dead. Saw thousand relics of the terrific fighting at various places - dugouts, trenches, many of them not yet rid of the dead. Bombs dropped in many places while I was there. Germans now making a stand on hills. They were dropping shells here and there, some of them near me, to register the hits, the idea being to get the proper range of villages and roads. Wrote 1,500 word cable and about the same for Paris. Got through early for a change. Brought back from my trip a German helmet which I took from a dead German and an automatic rifle which lay beside him. I might have got scores of ghastly relics but a few I thought would be sufficient.

          Two dispatches by Don Martin dated Sunday, July 21, were published in the Paris Herald, July 22.

CHATEAU-THIERRY ABANDONED DESPITE STRONGEST DEFENCES

“Herald” Correspondent Visits Town After German Evacuation—Defensive Organization Shows Enemy Hoped to Retain Hold on Important Pivot in His Line

(SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE HERALD)

By DON MARTIN

With the American Armies, Sunday

          I was in Château-Thierry this morning a very few hours after the last German left it. French patrols and infantry and Americans also had passed through it, and were then taking up positions well north of the city.

          It is very evident, from the condition of the place, that the Germans had expected to put up a defence before retreating. In one street—the rue Carnot—there are seven barricades between the railway bridge and the City Hall. They are formidable barricades, too hard to get by even when one has nothing else to do and when there is no excitement whatsoever. They are constructed of bricks, stone, boxes, wire mesh and all kinds of rubbish and debris. Other streets are barricaded also.

          The city has been considerably shot about, but it is by no means a ruin. There is one deep scar on the City Hall, where a shell struck. There is one hole, but not a great one, in the cathedral. In a factory building on a hill, which, the day after the enemy occupied the city, was filled with Germans, there are upward of a hundred holes made by shells. I stood on a hill overlooking the city the day the shelling was done by the French with the intention of routing the Germans out, and saw shell after shell strike the factory building.

          The greater part of the damage elsewhere was done by the German shelling from the north before entering the city. The French were systematic in their bombardment. I watched this shelling for four hours when it took place, and observed that the guns were aimed only at places where Germans were known to be hiding.

          The main street—or the rue Carnot, if that is the main thoroughfare—is difficult of passage now, apart from the barricades. Most of the buildings were struck once or more, and the streets are littered with all kinds of debris. Shattered glass, in some places is six inches deep. Practically all the shop windows are broken, and in many instances the entire fronts of shops have been blown in.

          I saw one liquor store which apparently was once a pretentious place. There are hundreds of bottles in it now, but the only one containing liquid is one filled with ammonia. The wares of the merchants have been thrown about a great deal, and it is quite likely that the German occupants helped themselves to whatever they desired, but there is nevertheless much left.

          The residences are not much damaged. A few have been hit. The railway station has been hit a few times, but smashed windows are all the harm done, and the tracks are undamaged. Some streets show no effects whatever of the shell-fire.

          I am told that 150 Germans were in the city and that at no time was the number greater. An equal number of civilians stopped in the city during the whole period of occupation, remaining in cellars whenever there was shelling. I saw none of them. There was no sign of animal life in any part of the place visited, but there were indications that cats and dogs had died of starvation.

German’s Day for Big Offensives Over

Nothing Approaching Magnitude of March Drive 

Can Now Be Staged, Is Opinion

(SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE HERALD)

By DON MARTIN

With the American Armies, Sunday

          Despite a quickly-organized defensive—a defensive arranged on the run as it were—the Germans to-day continued their retreat before the Allied offensive. They are now at least ten kilometres from where they were when the French, aided by the Americans, began their onslaught between Fontenoy and Belleau.

          There are now no Germans south of the Marne, except dead ones and prisoners. A few stragglers were found to-day, and a few deserters who had hidden in recesses came to light and told their stories.

          On both flanks of the salient the French, with their Allied comrades, have pressed their line forward. The Germans gave more evidence of life than they did the day before and turned loose considerable artillery fire. Everything noted in connection with their attempted defensive indicated that they were temporarily demoralized, that they had not entirely recovered from the terror thrown into them by the daylight-attack of the French on Thursday.

Amexes Win All Objectives

          Two hills on a part of the line where Americans have been fighting, have been captured by the Americans and the French. Many other strong points west and north-west of Château-Thierry have been taken partly by the Americans, who have attained every goal set to them.

           French patrols entered Château-Thierry at daybreak. Later American infantry marched into and through the city. The Germans had found their positions there, as in many other places, untenable, and withdrew during the night. French patrols penetrated far ahead, and learned that the German retreat seems to be extending to a point several kilometres away. At that point the enemy is apparently preparing to make a stand.

          The Germans have been pushed well north of the Marne and gave no evidence of a desire to remain close to the river. There is no doubt that the Germans have thus far suffered the worst defeat in a long time. They were taken completely by surprise, and have not yet recovered. It would be idle and childish to discount the numerical strength of the Germans or to minimize the force they may still put into an offensive or a counter-attack, but the fangs have been drawn from the fifth phase of the supreme offensive started on March 21, and it is the opinion of many men with whom I have talked that it will now be impossible for them ever to organize an offensive even approximating the magnitude of the one launched in March.

          The Germans’ offensive has, in fact, been transformed into a defensive, and the war for the enemy has unquestionably reached a new critical stage. Even if he checks the Allied move and is able to counter-attack with some degree of success, he will still be in a bad way; for the Allies, with America’s constantly-increasing army, are expanding their strength while the Hun cannot grow more formidable than he has been. The Allies will be able again and again many times to do what they have done in the last three days, and with General Foch as the master mind behind the operations, now that the wizardry of his skill has been demonstrated and the Americans’ fighting qualities proved—there need be no proof of the valor and gallantry of the French—the Germans’ day has passed.

German Morale Slumps

           The enemy is back across the Marne, where he will remain. His boasted offensive toward Epernay and Châlons, by which he hoped to effect a bold front for a crushing advance upon Paris, has been checked and his line is falling back. His programme, for the present at least, has collapsed. The morale of many of his soldiers is obviously low. The fighting spirit is wasting. The men are afraid of the future. They know that numerical superiority will soon lie with the Allies and they have learned to their dismay that the Americans are not amateurs on the field of battle.

          The Germans have lost tremendously in the “marvelous” retreat they made from the Marne—the retreat so magically accomplished that, according to the German communiqué, “the Allies did not even know of it.” A captured officer said yesterday that out of one German company eighteen men were left on Friday morning. Of two other companies thirty and thirty-two men were left. The losses were appalling, he said. He declared further that the Germans had orders on Saturday night to leave Château-Thierry at once. He said the thing furthest from the thoughts of the Germans was an attack by the Allies.

          The situation to-day is highly satisfactory from the Allied standpoint. The German, for the first time in a long, long period, is heading the right way.

          Americans were in the fighting line at many points to-day. They gave a good account of themselves. One unit which has been in action south of the Marne has more than 300 prisoners to its credit.

            The following announcement of Quentin Roosevelt's burial was published in the New York Herald on July 22, 1918. Don Martin would later visit Quentin Roosevelt's grave, when the area was taken back from the Germans.