Don
Martin diary entry for Friday, July 26, 1918:
Took 11 o’clock train for Paris. Ordered new tunic at Cook & Co.
Bought a lot of stuff. Had dinner at the Chatham Grill; spent night at the
Crillon. Rained most of the day in Paris. Read the papers part of the
afternoon. Found the Herald is playing my stuff up pretty well.
Published in the New York Herald on July 26.
DON MARTIN SAYS GERMANS LOOTED CHATEAU-THIERRY
WRECKING PRIVATE HOMES
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, Friday
Eager to know the exact truth of the stories of Boche
vandalism, I visited homes in the villages whence the Boche had driven the
inhabitants in their present drive. I found not only that the reports were not
exaggerated but had been minimized. I visited twenty of the best residences in
Château-Thierry, beautiful as those of Fifth Avenue for their elegance. It is
hard to believe that human beings would sink so low.
To describe a particular case,
illustrative of twenty residences, which would represent in America $150,000
each, I can report that shell fire and concussion broke the windows; that
German officers had occupied them for five weeks. The keys of expensive pianos
were smashed, statues broken, mirrors seven feet long shattered in fragments.
One library with the costliest books had been wrecked and thousands of volumes
thrown on the floor, their covers ripped and pages torn. Five marble clocks
were ruined, their works mangled.
Tapestries were cut or torn and
pictures slit. Expensive china and glassware were hurled against walls. Beds, chairs
and cabinets, delicately carved, were hacked to pieces and dwellings ransacked
from top to bottom. The floors were strewn a foot deep. Everything in the wine
cellar had been emptied. Bottles were everywhere, some smashed against the
walls. There was complete ruin everywhere.
It is impossible to identify all
the residences. The Germans obviously hurried from the city, but made a parting
house carnival of vandalism. The damage in one residence was upward of $30,000.
There is no question but the German officers were guilty. Soldiers looted the
stores, but left much stuff they were unable to carry away. The indelicacy of
the subject makes it difficult to describe the extent of the mutilation, but I
have seen with my own eyes what the Huns do, even in face of defeat, committing
dastardly crimes.
Don Martin wrote another report on the American advance dated Friday, July 26; it was probably written the night of July 25-26. The New
York Herald published it on July 27.
AMERICAN GUNS ARE POUNDING HUB OF HUN TRANSPORT LINES AS ENEMY
STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE
Fere-en-Tardenois and Intricate Communication
System Held Under Fire
MEN AT FRONT EXPECT HARD COUNTER ATTACK
Germans May Attempt to Make Stand on the Vesle,
Says 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, Friday
It is momentarily expected that the
Germans will launch a new and vigorous counter attack against the Allies in the
Soissons-Château-Thierry-Rheims salient with a view to trying to check, at
least temporarily, the victorious advance of General Foch’s armies. Meanwhile,
however, the French, American, Italian and British troops continue gradually to
force back the enemy. The Hun hordes now have withdrawn northward from the
Marne to points north of the Ourcq River, and, unless they are encircled and caught
in a trap, the possibility is that they will attempt to make a stand along the
banks of the Vesle.
Meanwhile the American troops
continue, as usual, to accomplish the tasks assigned to them by the French
commander. The units which began their drive from south of the Marne are resting
just now, following their dashing and fruitful pursuit of the German troops
northwest of Jaulgonne.
To-night the American troops
command the stretch of road leading to Fere-en-Tardenois, the heart of the
enemy transport system in the salient and a junction at which the railroads of
the section converge. It does not seem possible he can maintain a man south of
the line of the Ourcq if Fere falls, or even if he is unable to improve its
defense.
Main Force Has Withdrawn Northward
The German losses in the last three
days have not been great in this section, due to the fact that the enemy’s main
force has retreated northward. They have left platoons of machine guns, many of
which are posted in trees, with a view to retarding the advance of the
Americans as much as possible. These tactics, however, have not materially
aided the Huns, and our men continue to sweep ahead in their victorious advance
despite all the efforts of the enemy to halt them.
The Germans again have resorted to
night gas attacks, but the advance of our men is so rapid that even this mode
of warfare is useless to stay the onrush even temporarily. At the same time the
French forces are advancing in all directions against the enemy with a speed
equal to that of the Americans.
Throughout the region north of
Dormans an American division is forcing its way northward on the trail of the
fleeing Hun. However, the consensus is that the Germans will make a desperate
attempt soon to rally. They have the men for a big assault, which, perhaps, may
be directed against the whole allied front, according to the plain statements
of prisoners taken by us.
The news of the German disaster in
the salient at last is filtering through neutral countries into Germany, where
the people are frantic at finding that Americans in such vast numbers are on
the western front and that their effectiveness is so great that they are being
used as shock troops. Germany realizes now more than ever before that it she
hopes to win at all she must smash her way to victory now, no matter how
stupendous may be the cost to her in men.
More Surprises Coming
On the other hand, as time passes
Germany will get even bigger surprises than she already has had. I am satisfied
that regardless of what forces she uses the most that she will do will be to
hold her lines temporarily against the Allies, who, as all men know, are
stronger to-day than they ever were before.
To-day I saw a line of American
soldiers ten miles long as it moved off to the front. I asked a husky Minnesota
lad if he was worried at the prospect of entering the battle.
“No,” he said. “It is easy now,
fighting in the open. We can lick the Germans anyway, but it will be easier to
do if we only can continue to fight them in the open. We’ve been fighting in
the trenches, which I don’t like. I prefer to fight where I can see the enemy,
who will soon have plenty coming to him from the Americans.”
And this came from a farmer boy!
I saw a regiment which was a part
of the unit which captured Epieds and talked with a top sergeant, who, in civil
life, was a motorman.
“It was rough business,” he told
me, “but we don’t mind it. Some of the men were slightly worried when they were
first told to advance, but all of them were crazy to get into a hand to hand
fight.
“But when we get out in open
fighting out in the fields and in the woods we are afraid of nothing. We know
then that the Boche is somewhere in reach of us, and we all want to get him.
“I was in half a dozen close fight
and I like them. I know that I may get killed, of course. Some of my pals are
dead, and that’s the very thing that warms our blood. When our men see their
comrades fall and think of it all it make madmen of them.”
Fun Under Shell Fire
The enemy began shelling the
American back areas this afternoon, but their aim was poor and the indifference
of the American troops to the artillery fire was amusing. Once the Boche was
trying to hit a new bridge across the Marne which was almost in pointblank
range of his guns. Some American soldiers were swimming in the river near by,
but they paid no attention to the enemy’s shelling of the bridge.
Close to the place where the shells
were falling five other Americans were resting and throwing dice, totally
unconcerned.
In a crumpled village within a mile
of where the Hums were supposed to be I heard the sound of a piano. Upon
investigation I found a group of Americans, one of whom was an actor from
Chicago, who played Broadway tunes as well as any one could have played them.
Another of the group sang “Jack o’ Lantern” songs and songs from “Very Good,
Eddie.” The fact that the enemy was dropping his shells near by was in itself
of no interest to them. I asked them where they were from, and here is the
result of my query:--
Two of them were from New York
city; one each was from California, New Mexico, Illinois, Ohio, Mississippi,
Montana and Vermont. All of them expected soon to be in the fighting and were
glad.
They were mere boys, but the
sturdiest lot of boys ever seen in Europe.
Don Martin wrote a brief airwar dispatch dated Friday, July 26, which was published in the Paris Herald on July 27.
Lieut. Avery Shoots Down
Hun Aviator
(Special Telegram to the Paris Herald)
By Don Martin
With The American Army, Friday.
Lieutenant [Walter] Avery, of
Columbus, O., today brought down Captain Meierkopf, the German aviator, who is
credited with sixteen victories. After a long fight Lieutenant Avery got home a
bullet in the engine of the German birdman, bringing the Hun machine down
behind our lines north of Château-Thierry. The German aviator was immediately
surrounded by American soldiers. Lieutenant Avery landed near by, and conqueror
and conquered rode away in the same automobile.
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