Don
Martin diary entry for Tuesday, August 20, 1918:
Stayed in today. Wrote a long letter to Dorothy, one to Helene and one
to McEwan. With [Caroll] McNutt [Colliers], [Fred] Ferguson [U.P.], Smith [Chicago Tribune] and [Edwin] James [New York Times] we went to a new place for
dinner and found some good food. Sat around and talked and sang till ten.
Everyone expected an air raid because of the full moon but there was none.
In his letter of August 20 to Dorothy, Don Martin made a prediction about the end of the war, and showed that
his ‘opinion’ was not infallible:
The Germans are receiving
their first real setback since the first battle of the Marne. They are not
licked yet though – not by any means. People at home are likely to get the idea
from the glowing accounts they read of our troops that we have already started
the Hun back home and that victory is in sight. That is far from true. We have
been able to turn the tide against the Hun but he is still powerful and on the
defensive will be able to fight for a long time. The war will not end this
year. That is certain. It m-a-y end next year. My notion is that it will end
next fall, but that is only opinion.
He also bemoaned the absence of America
coming up with a new weapon to end the war – a premonition of the atom bomb
that ended the next big war?
America has done wonders but the hoped for device or
invention has not yet appeared. The Edisons, Henry Fords, Teslas and other
geniuses have not come through with a single thing which excels the Germans.
The only thing in which United States excels is in the fighting qualities of
the individual soldier. The doughboy as they call him -- the infantryman – has
done more than anyone expected of him. If the airplane makers and the wizards
of industry and invention had done one tenth as much as the fighter in the
ranks, the war would be over this year.
Don Martin again reports on German prisoner. Dated Tuesday. August 20, it was published in the New York Herald on
Wednesday, August 21.
German Expected Bullet
After Good American Dinner
Hun, Told He Would Be Killed,
Trembled When Questioned by U. S.
Officers
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, Tuesday
Interesting
information regarding the attitude of the German soldier in the war was
obtained from a Prussian who was taken prisoner by our troops just before
daylight this morning while he was lost in the darkness. I was fortunate enough
to be present when he was interrogated by our officers and saw him as he stood
before them trembling, pale and so frightened that he was at first unable to
talk. Asked the reason for his collapse, he said:--
“The
German officers say that the Americans at first treat prisoners with kindness
until they are questioned. Then they give the prisoners a good meal, after
which they shoot them or stab them to death.”
This
was the first instance we have had when the fear of the prisoner was genuine,
and he was very near to a complete collapse when he was brought up for
questioning. He firmly expected he would be shot as soon as our officers were
through with him, and he believed their kindness was but a forerunner of his
death at their hands, as he had been told by his officers.
The
circumstance is regarded as further proof that Germany is spreading a
systematic campaign through her armies that the Americans are barbarians and
that we take prisoners only to kill them afterward. This Prussian prisoner declared that German
soldiers believe this.
He
added that the Germans now are hopeless of achieving victory and that they now
are fighting because they believe that by so doing they will be able to make
better peace terms and more quickly. Since the failure of the last offensive
which preceded the German retreat from the Marne, he said, the enemy is greatly
discouraged, but the German troops are willing to fight indefinitely if their
government is unable to make peace.
He
declared that every male German will go to battle before he will permit the
devastation of France to be visited on Germany.
The
fighting on the American front to-day was transformed into a sharpshooters’
contest and a duel between machine guns.
A daily report by Don Martin dated Tuesday, August 220, was published in the Paris Herald on Wednesday,
August 21.
ENEMY RETIRES BEFORE AMEXES
IN TOUL SECTOR
French Official Report Pays High Tribute to Yanks
Who Fought with Foreign Legion
(Special Telegram to the Herald)
By Don Martin
With The American Armies, Tuesday
There was little activity last
night and to-day on the Vesle, where American troops are holding the line. The
Germans continued to bombard our lines and our guns continued to pour a stream
of shrapnel and high explosives upon the Boche.
To the east, in the Toul sector, a
night patrol encountered a strong enemy patrol, and after a brisk fight drove
the Huns back to their lines. It was bright moonlight and an American sergeant
had crawled forward to reconnoitre. He was shot at by the Germans. A German
patrol of 30 to 40 men then opened fire with rifles and grenades, supported by
trench mortars and gas shells. The enemy attempted to envelop the left of our
patrol, but was prevented by the fire of one American sniper, who did very
effective work. The Americans opened with rifles, automatics and grenades, and
the enemy retired. There were no American casualties.
Early Monday morning the enemy in
the American sectors to the east put down a heavy fire on our outposts and
attempted a raid. The Boche could not get within bombing distance, being held
off by the rifle fire of the Americans. Our counter-barrage came down and the
enemy retired.
French Tribute
In speaking of the brilliant work
of a Moroccan division which was in the fight south of Soissons during the
Franco-American offensive, a high tribute is paid by the French to the
Americans who were fighting on either side of the Moroccans. The French report
says:--
“The Moroccans operated between two
American divisions with which they maintained the most perfect liaison and
fraternity in arms. Not only did the Americans show proof of remarkable ardor,
courage and discipline, but of initiative and cooperation. On the night of July
19 an American colonel of the division on the left placed himself under the
orders of the colonel commanding the foreign legion in order that the liaison
might be more intimate between the two divisions. The plan of engagement of the
divisions was made in common with the General Staff of the American division on
the right. The valor and intelligence of the American and French armies were
combined.”
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