Don
Martin diary entry for Monday, August 19, 1918:
Went to the front today. [Edwin] James [New York Times] went with me. Went to the Chateau Fere
north of Fère-en-Tardenois; afterwards to Coulange and up to Bellevue Farm to
see the old man, Publier, whose home was wrecked during the fighting. Had
luncheon with the Military Police outfit near Coulange and a very good meal it
was. Got back in Meaux at 4 o’clock. Wrote 200 words cable for New York. Sent
cable to Dorothy – yesterday.
Don Martin wrote about expectations for the next German offensive on August 19. It was published
in the New York Herald on Tuesday, August 20, 1918
HINDENBURG, READY TO STAKE ALL UPON ONE BLOW, PREPARES DRIVE AGAINST AMERICAN LINES
Prisoners Tell Don Martin Foe Also Will Use Fleet in Combined Attack
IF REPULSED HUN WILL
FIGHT DEFENSIVE WAR
Campaign to Turn Americans Against British is Latest Form of German
Propaganda
By DON MARTIN
Special Correspondent
of the Herald with the American Armies in France
[Special to the
Herald]
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES IN FRANCE, Monday
Indications are that the German
high command is preparing for a move of some kind on that portion of the
western front held by the Americans.
While he has suffered terrific
losses in the region of the Marne and in the vicinity of Amiens and Montdidier,
the enemy still is able to mass a huge force of effectives, which he doubtless
now is attempting to do, with a view to striking a giant blow before the United
States can mass an irresistible army here to hurl against him.
It is evident from comments made by
prisoners that the Germans realize any possible chance they may have of
achieving victory will disappear after the next few months, and there are only
a few among the most optimistic of the Huns who concede that much—who believe
that Germany can achieve any kind of victory now.
May Stake All On One Blow
There is, however, a feeling among
many German captives that the enemy high command now is attempting to rally his
forces for a great blow. There is an opinion among the prisoners that the enemy
will use his fleet simultaneously with this land offensive. In a word, they say
Germany is preparing to stake all on the result of one giant blow by land and
sea.
Should defeat be the outcome the
German scheme, it is believed, then provides for peace terms of a kind unacceptable
to the Allies. With the refusal of this German suggested peace the enemy
purposes to settle down and fight a defensive war.
Meantime, however, the realization
of the magnitude of their military reverses has caused the Germans to resort to
those methods of warfare which are always characteristic of them in times of
their extreme anger. Now they are bombing everything that is within reach. At
the same time they are trying by means of propaganda to alienate the Allies.
Their latest propaganda scheme is to drop pamphlets excoriating England inside
the American lines. The enemy is using every means within his power of propaganda
to try to fan a flame of resentment in the minds of Americans against the
British.
Tried Scheme on the French
The same attempt was made by
Germany to arouse the French against the English. These latest pamphlets assert
that England, fearing ruin, is getting France and American to pull her
chestnuts out of the fire. They cause the Americans to laugh with a heart full
of mirth, for our men recognize in the scheme nothing more or less than a crude
attempt characteristic of the Huns.
Frequent clashes between our
patrols and the enemy have characterized the fighting on this part of the
western front for the last few days. At the same time German airplanes have
been engaged in extensive bombing attacks. Enemy flyers have been dropping high
explosives on the back areas and on towns and cities in the rear of our lines
more extensively, perhaps, than ever before. The result of these raiding
expeditions, however, has, from the German viewpoint, been far from effective.
Instead the enemy bombers have done astonishingly slight damage. In one city
where five bombs were dropped by the Boches all of them struck in open places,
with the result that there were no casualties and virtually no damage done.
Angered by Gas Attack
Americans here are highly incensed
at reports that the Germans recently have attempted to gas cities in the United
States. Already were they embittered against the Huns by reports brought here
by escaped British and French prisoners of the enemy’s barbarous treatment of
American prisoners, and the reports from the United States of his attempts to
gas places on our seacoast have further enraged our men.
[These reports are probably
exaggerations of the action by an enemy submarine in gassing the American coast
guard station on Smith’s Island, off the North Carolina coast, on August 11.]
Such things make it impossible to
understand German psychology, but they cause the Americans to fight
desperately. Always do the Americans treat their prisoners with decency, even
in cases where they know that the Huns surrender only when their ammunition is
exhausted.
Recently I saw thousands of German
prisoners marching through a city where many American soldiers were quartered.
Hundreds of our men lined up along the curbstones and watched the Huns march
by. They viewed the Huns with mere curiosity, and not once did I hear a single
vituperative remark by any of our men.
This unusual report by Don Martin was published in the Paris Herald the day before it was published
in the New York Herald, on Tuesday, August 20, 1918.
HUN FEET PUMP MACHINE GUNS AS HANDS GO UP IN SURRENDER
By DON MARTIN
Special Correspondent
of the Herald with the American Armies in France
[Special to the
Herald]
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES IN FRANCE, Monday
The Germans have just evolved another new and treacherous device, by
which they operate their machine guns with their feet while holding up their
hands in token of surrender, according to a story told by Americans who are
fighting in the vicinity of Fismes.
Some of our troops in the region of Fismes told me they came across an
enemy machine gunner who when he saw our men approaching him held up his hands
and shouted “Kamerad!” Our men advanced to make him prisoner, and when within
twenty feet of him he began firing at them by means of his machine gun
attachment, working it with one of his feet.
Despite the rain of lead on our men, they charged him with their
bayonets. He fell with twenty wounds in his body.
The incident, however, serves to further accentuate the way the Huns
are fighting in their final desperation. Also I may say in this connection that
it is only in such cases of Hun barbarism that the American troops refuse to
take prisoners.
A very daily report dated Monday, August 19, was published in the Paris Herald on Tuesday,
August 20.
AMERICAN
GUNNERS SHELL AMMUNITION CENTRES OF ENEMY
For Two Days They
Have Been Firing on Important Spots North of Aisne
(Special Telegram to the Paris Herald)
By Don Martin
With The American Armies, Monday
Americans
have made slight advances north of the Vesle. They also have made more secure
positions which the Germans were harassing.
American guns
have for two days been hurling shells on German ammunition centres and other
important spots well north of the Aisne.
Another report, dated August 19, about a German prisoner was published in the Paris Herald on Tuesday,
August 20.
Germans No Longer
Believe in Victory
(Special Telegram to the Paris Herald)
By Don Martin
With The American Armies, Monday
It is very evident that German officers have
about convinced the German soldiers that the Americans kill all the Huns who
some into their possession. Until recently the Americans regarded the
statements of prisoners who expressed this belief, as foolish mis-statements,
but stories have come so straight recently that it seems certain that the Hun
officers have convinced the soldiers that the American is a barbarian and that
he first treats with kindness and then kills.
A German wandered into the American lines in the Fismes
section early this morning. He said he had lost his way in the darkness. He is
a Prussian and of slightly more than ordinary intelligence. He trembled with
fear when he was taken before an officer for interrogation and was in such a
state of fright that he could not talk readily. When asked to explain his
condition he said he feared he would be killed. He added that the predictions
of his officers seemed to be correct—that the Americans would be kind to him,
get such information as he had and then either shoot or stab him to death.
There was no doubt that this particular Prussian believed he was on the
threshold of execution.
He declared that the Germans have given up expectation of
victory, but that they intend to fight for at least three years.
“Rather than have our country devastated the way France has
been,” he said, “every German soldier will be killed.”
Heavy Losses Admitted
He admitted that the recent losses of the Germans have been
heavy and that the soldiers realize that for the first time since the beginning
of the war Germany has been defeated. He said the Germans are tired of war, but
have been fighting because they believed victory was always a little nearer.
The discouragement of many of the soldiers is such now, he asserted, that they
would gladly surrender if they could do so with any assurance that they would
not be mistreated.
Along the Americans’ sector on the Vesle there was no
infantry activity last night or to-day. The German artillery is becoming a bit
more active. The fighting in the region of Fismes and on the opposite side of
the river has resolved itself into a snipers’ contest. The Germans use
machine-guns as well as rifles for harassing their foes.
The Germans are throwing on an average 5,000 shells a day –
many of them gas – back on the American sector. There is every reason to
believe that as many fall upon the Germans as strike on the ground held by the
Allies on the south side of the Vesle.
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