Don Martin diary entry for Sunday, July 7, 1918:
Went to second division. Heard the 28th
division had lent men to the French in battle for Hill 204 which the French
failed to get. Went to headquarters of the 28th. Got good story.
Cabled 900 words. Also saw Lieutenant Harwood who narrowly escaped death in
fight with German fliers. Cabled 500 words of this. Think [Edwin] James [New York Times] and I have
scoop on both the 28th and the Harwod story.
Don Martin dated a flurry of
dispatches July 7. This one about Americans fighting near Hill 204 was published
in Paris Herald on July 8, 1918.
AMEX VOLUNTEERS WIN GLORY
UNDER BAPTISM OF FIRE
Boys
From Home Evoked Admiration of French Comrades
in Vaux Fighting.
(SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO
THE HERALD)
By
DON MARTIN.
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Sunday. [July
7]
Americans have been fighting with
the French in the region of Hill 204. Here the ''boys from home" have
distinguished themselves just as their comrades did at Seicheprey, Cantigny,
Bois de Belleau, Bouresches and Vaux. I am able to state now that Americans in
this same locality fought side by side with the French on July 1, and did
things which have brought highest praise from the French officer under whose
command they were battling.
The Americans who fought here on Saturday
and on July 1 were volunteers. The French, when asked if they desired Americans
to aid in their engagement, suggested that a certain number of men be given to
them. In each instance the American commanding officer stated the proposal to the
men and asked for volunteers. All those to whom the proposal was made stepped
forward.
In Saturday's combat an American climbed
a tree and killed with a bayonet a German who was using a machine-gun with
deadly effect and who himself was so protected that it was impossible to shoot
him from the ground. Lieutenant _____, while leading a platoon of men' in a
dash against a machine-gun, was shot in the arm. It was not a serious wound,
and after having it dressed he returned to the fight and led his men until they
had reached their objective.
Lieutenant Cedric C. Benz, Sergeant
Hoffmann and Private Samuel T. Smith captured thirty-eight Germans.
These are incidents related by the French,
who spoke in enthusiastic terms of the conduct of the Americans.
The boys who offered themselves for
the fight on Saturday and on July 1 had never been in battle before. They have
not completed their intensive training, but they are soldiers just the same and
have the freshness and vigor, which will probably be lacking when they, like the
French and British veterans, have been four years in the war.
The
American role in the air war was attracting increasing attention, due to the
exciting stories that could be told of aerial battles. This July 7 dispatch was
published in New York Herald on Monday, July 8.
SEVEN TO
ONE, BUT AMERICANS
BEAT THE BOCHE
Pilot and Observer Have
Lively Fight
with Enemy Squadron Over Lines
OBSERVER INJURED BUT
DOWNS ONE HUN
Odds of Three to One
“About Right for Fine Scrap”
Is
Their Idea of the Game.
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, Sunday [July
7]
An American aviator (name deleted) [Lieutenant Harwood, mentioned in the diary entry] in an American observation airplane has just had one of the most thrilling
encounters with an overwhelming number of Boche flyers that has been known
since our forces took their places on the western front. Seven enemy airmen
dropped from the clouds upon him, but after a battle lasting ten minutes he and
his pilot companion (name deleted) succeeded in volplaning to the ground and landing
in a ploughed field within the American lines.
When the Boche aviators swooped
down they descended with their machine guns in full action. The American
observer's forehead was grazed by one of their bullets and his cheek was
creased by another. Bullets pierced the gasoline tank and one wing was
shattered. In all there were thirty bullet holes in the machine. The observer's
injuries, however, were not serious.
As soon as the Boches came within range
the American got his machine gun into action and began to send a stream of
bullets into them. He accounted for at least one of the enemy, whom he sent crashing
to the earth. Not deterred by the loss of their companion, the German aviators
continued the attack, and only by the excellent work of the American pilot did
they succeed in reaching our lines alive. When their aeroplane landed in our
lines it somersaulted and was wrecked.
“It was rather exciting,” the
observer told me subsequently. “Seven to one is odds that are too big. Three to
one would be fine.”
On their third day aloft the German
air squadrons that are patterned after the “tango circus” of Captain Baron Max
von Richthofen refused to venture across the American line. They now try to
coax the American flyers over the German lines. For hours to-day our airmen
flew on the edge of the line inviting the enemy to come over for a combat, but
the Boches always refused the challenge. The enemy would approach our lines,
then wheel, turn back and disappear over the German back areas. Apparently they
were not at all willing to fight our airmen unless the conditions were
favorable to the Germans.
This air war dispatch was published in the Paris Herald on July 8.
Fresh Air Scores May Make “Ace”
of Lt. Meissner
(Special Telegram to the Paris Herald)
By Don Martin
With The American Army, Sunday, July 7.
It is possible now that there is
another American “ace.” Lieutenant James Meissner, of Brooklyn, today brought
down one and perhaps two German planes. There is verification for one, which
makes his count to date four. If it is proved that he sent the second one to
the ground, he will have five and be an “ace.”
He was flying this morning with
four other Americans, when they encountered five Germans – members, it is
presumed, of the Richthofen group, whose aim appears to be to terrorize the
Americans. One of the Americans landed with a damaged plane inside our lines.
 |
| Lieutenant James Meissner with his airplane |
Lieutenant Goodale and Pilot Noyes
had an exciting experience with several German fliers. The Americans were in an
observation plane over the German lines when the squadron of Germans attacked.
By clever maneuvering and swift machine-gun work the Americans kept the Germans
away and arrived safely home.
And yet another July 7 air war dispatch was published in the Paris Herald on July
8.
Amex Flier Drops In
Parachute from Flaming “Sausage”
(Special Telegram to the Paris Herald)
By Don Martin
With The American Army, Sunday, July 7.
In a certain headquarters an
officer was relating to the man in charge an account of how an American
observation balloon was shot down by a German flier.
“The German came from a high
altitude, and it was apparent that he was intending to attack the ‘sausage.’
The men handling it started to pull it down and had it within 700 feet of the
ground when the German swept by, shot a few bullets into it and through the
observer’s basket and disappeared. The balloon quickly disappeared in smoke and
flame.
“What became of the observer?”
“Oh, here he is,” said the officer.
Whereupon Lieutenant Malcolm
Sedgewick, of St. Paul, Minnesota, stood up and received the felicitations of
the commanding officer. When the balloon collapsed, the young man dropped with
ease with his parachute and did not seem to regard the incident as particularly
thrilling or important.
A
general interest story about Paris, which Don Martin mailed to New York, was published
in the New York Herald Magazine Section on Sunday, July 7.
Paris Much Like New York to Americans
Don Martin, the Herald’s special
correspondent with the American army in France, in a recent letter writes: --
“Except for the architectural
differences, which, of course, are unmistakable, an American visitor to the
boulevards of Paris these days might easily enough fancy himself in one of his
home cities.
“It is only an American who has
lived in a shell who does not hear some one say, “How are you?” or who does not
have to lift his hat several times in the course of an hour’s promenade on any
of the important thoroughfares.
“Khaki is everywhere. American
automobiles with U. S. on the side whirr through the streets: American Red
Cross trucks and huge American camions constantly thunder along the main
streets. New placards reading ‘English spoken,’ ‘American medicines,’
‘American’ this or that appear in windows every day. Volumes printed in English
are on display in the windows of all the bookstores and numberless American
novelties as well as necessary articles of American production, never before
seen in Paris, are on sale in the leading shops.
“The Y. M. C. A. has enormous
headquarters in Paris, and men in the military uniform with Y. M. C. A. on the
sleeve are everywhere. One day in a stroll past the Rue Rivoli, Rue Royale and
Place Madeleine I counted eighty-seven of these Y. M. C. A. men. Red Cross men
in uniform with their insignia on the sleeve are numerous also. Soldiers and
officers coming and going provide the numbers to give a sprinkling of khaki to
every Parisian gathering.
“Quite recently just before dusk on
a beautiful May day I saw more than two hundred Americans in khaki on the
Champs Elysées. Even more might have been along the Boulevard Capucines or the
Boulevard Italiens.
“The hotels are filled with
Americans – government representatives, magazine writers, members of special
commissions and workers – most of them in a score of American charities. One
hears English spoken everywhere. A visitor can get along reasonably well if he
can say ‘Combien,” ‘Merci, beaucoup,’ ‘Tout sweet,’ ‘L’addition,’ ‘La même
chose,’ ‘Comme ça’ – phrases and words which all Americans quickly learn. The
French are clever enough to provide themselves with a few simple phrases in
English, which when linked with the words of the American, provide a fairly
adequate Franco-American vocabulary.
“The French laughingly say the
English and American languages are different, and in a degree they are right.
Many French people who can understand an American give up completely when an
Englishman starts to talk pure British to them. There is nothing startlingly new
in that. Many an American when thrown in with a rapid fire speaking Briton
finds it necessary to ask the Englishman to go slower, please.
“Paris has watched with interest
the swiftly growing number of Americans in their fair city. They are glad to
see it. In the first place, the Americans are good spenders. In the eyes of the
provident, systematic French Americans are foolishly extravagant, but this
enlivens business in the Parisian shops, which are still beautiful, but since
the war somewhat deserted. Furthermore, the French know that the presence of so
many Americans foreshadows a deepening of the understanding between the two
peoples and a steady flow of Americans to France after the war.”
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