Don
Martin diary entry for Thursday, August 22, 1918:
Stayed in again. Hottest day I have known in France. Had luncheon at a
new place across the Marne. Not very good. Wrote a story for Paris but nothing
for New York. Things quiet along the Vesle where the Americans are holding the
line. The 77th division is doing the fighting and it is not quite up
to the others. It is a draft division from New York city, Westchester and Long
Island. Suffered from the heat. Everyone else did also.
Don Martin wrote a dispatch for his hometown audience, with interesting details about the men. Dated Thursday, August 23, it was published in the New York Herald on Friday,
August 23.
UPTON TROOPS, “NEW YORK’S OWN,” SHOW WHAT FIGHTIING MEN
WHO COME FROM
CIVIL LIFE CAN DO.
Don Martin Sees Seventy-Seventh Division
Off For Trenches
PROVES ITS METAL IN HARD FIGHTING
Men From Riverside Drive and Mulberry Street
Taking Hun Toll Together
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, Thursday
The men from Camp Upton have been
winning laurels since their first baptism of fire two months ago. They all
acted like heroes in recent savage fighting in which they showed the pluck and
initiative of veterans. They have met all kinds of Huns, including crack shock
troops, and held their own in the same manner as the older divisions, which,
starting at Belleau Wood, rolled up a record which always will be a source of
pride to Americans.
The Upton unit is one of the most
interesting in the army. It has been in a good many fights and it grows better
each time. It comes from New York city, Long Island and from Westchester. It
contains oyster men from Patchogue, men of millions from Riverside Drive, stuss
players from Forsyth street, lawyers from all the five boroughs, choir leaders,
blacksmiths and “gangmen” who once were notorious figures in the gas house
section of New York city’s lower east side.
No Illness in Division
They are all making wonderful
soldiers. School teachers, bankers, longshoremen, pets of wealthy families—the
most heterogeneous crowd imaginable. They have been welded into a remarkably
efficient fighting machine. Old army men have watched with keen interest the
development of this unit, which represents a score of nationalities and every
grade of the social and business scale. It has furnished an acid test of the
selective draft system.
There has been no illness in the
unit since it left Camp Upton. I saw the men swarm into a dozen small villages
not far back of the lines and later saw them start for the trenches. It was a
picture of men who were practically fresh from civil life and who in their
wildest moments previous to their induction into the service never dreamed of
being warriors.
“Yes, it is a different life from
that we knew in little old New York, but we will get used to it after a little
while,” one of these men said to me to-day.
“It is not exactly the kind of war
that I like, for many times in this fighting a man can’t see who he is
fighting. But leave it to us. We will take care of ourselves and of Heine, too,
when the time comes.”
It would be hard for the folks at
home to understand the pluck these youngsters, who never before heard a cannon
roar in anger, are showing. They march into the front lines with smiles and
songs on their lips, while death lurks everywhere in front of them and the
little stretch of land their trenches face in an inferno taking heavy toll of
them day and night.
Then, too, no unit here is better
looking than this one from New York city. It landed in France early in May and
pitched its camp back of the British, from whence it could see a backstage war,
so to speak. Then these Camp Upton men moved into training with the French.
From this camp they emerged trained soldiers, ready to go up to the front.
Travelling to the War
They rode two days and two nights
in box cars with no comforts, but never was there a complaint from them. I saw
them as they moved forward, sitting on the roofs of the cars, their feet
dangling down the sides. When the train would slow down at small stations many
of them would jump down to the ground and pick poppies along the track. Then
they would produce a baseball and a bat and pitch the ball and bat it. Then
when their train was ready to start off came a fearful scamper to climb aboard.
It all provided great amusement for the French people, who gathered, like small
farmers, at the station to see the trains go through.
The bombers and the sappers of this
unit come from the well-known “Gas House” district of New York. It is no
uncertainty now how these men have blossomed out; neither is there any mystery
in it. They are powerful and eager men. They have developed magically. Officers
here say there are no better soldiers in all France.
They have their own rules to keep
their comrades in check. They permit no drinking, so there is no intemperance
of any kind. They have arranged a code all their own and all derelictions bring
a definite and quick penalty. None of them, therefore, wants to go wrong.
When I saw these men I recognized
several of them as I had seen them in First and Second avenues. But military
training had made new figures of them.
“Regular living has given me a new
lease on life,” one of them, a great husky lad, told me. “The only trouble is
that they are slow in getting us where we can take a crack at the Huns. We were
licking some Heinies before we left home, but in New York city we get arrested
for killing them.”
I went through a building where 300
of the men sleep. There I saw a man who possesses an independent fortune in New
York city sleeping beside a youngster who came from Mulberry street. And the
two were great friends.
But a couple days later, the following Letter was published in the New York Herald.
But a couple days later, the following Letter was published in the New York Herald.
In another dispatch of the same date, Don Martin reported on a visiting clergyman from New York. It was published in the New York Herald on Friday, August
23.
ALL FRANCE LIKES YANKEE SOLDIERS, SAYS DR. SQUIRES
New York Clergyman, at the Front,
Declares Victory Means Thoroughly
Whipping Hun
By DON MARTIN
Special Correspondent
of the Herald with the American Armies in France
[Special to the
Herald]
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES IN FRANCE, Thursday
The only way to master the Germans
is to thoroughly whip them, is the opinion of the Rev. Ernest M. Stires, rector
of St. Thomas’ Protestant Episcopal Church, in Fifth avenue at the corner of
West Fifty-third street, who now is on the western front. Dr. Stires has been
in many sectors among the American troops and declares that they have
everywhere made a splendid impression.
“Not only must the Germans be
thoroughly whipped, as the only way of mastering hem, but I believe that their
defeat is in sight,” he told me.
Dr. Stires declared that he was
proud of our soldiers in France and that every one at home should be very proud
of them. He characterized them as wonderful fighters, giants in strength,
towers of courage and crusaders for world freedom. He proudly showed a
photograph of his son, a lad of nineteen years, who was invalided home with a
wound which he had received in action.
“He was injured last year,” he told
me, “when he received a bullet wound in the hand, which caused him to be sent
home. A short time ago he came to me and said,:--
“Dad, I’ve got to go back and get
something that will last longer than this.
“He is training now for the
artillery and will soon be back in France.”
Dr. Stires paid a tribute to the
French people and to their courage and patriotism.
This report on Dr. Squires was also carried in the Syracuse Post-Standard of August 23, but with the
following addition at the end (an example where the New York Herald either did
not have space for the full article or chose not to run the story of a mother losing
five sons, but a syndicated newspaper did.)
“I
recently heard a wonderful story that is quite illustrative of this spirit,”
Dr. Stires continued. “An elderly woman walked all the way from Bordeaux to
Verdun, and when she reached there and the
French army officrs heard of her feat and in such a place, they were surprised
and questioned her.
French Woman Loses Five Sons
“I
have come here to the altar of Verdun to give thanks to the great God for the
gift which he gave me in five sons—five sons of France—all of whom died in this
region of Verdun. I am happy now that I have seen this most hallowed of spots.’
“The
French officers to whom she talked were greatly touched by her devout courage
and devotion and they entertained her as best they could. To me, however, I
think the incident shows better than anything else that I have seen the great
soul of the French.”
Mr.
Stires said he expects to remain on the western front for several weeks, during
which time he will do all that he can to help our men.
Don Martin also reported on air war developments on August 22, in a dispatch published
in the Paris Herald on August 23.
LIEUTENANT BLAIR THAW KILLED
WHEN PLANE SIDE-SLIPS
Air Battle Between
Three Americans
and Three Germans Ends in Victory for Amex
(Special Telegram to
the Herald)
By DON MARTIN
With the American
Armies, Thursday
From the Toul front come exciting
stories of the air—as well as the story of the death of Lieutenant Blair Thaw,
brother of Major Thaw—in which Americans seem to be making very satisfactory
progress against the German airmen.
The death of Lieutenant Thaw occurred
several days ago, but release of the fact was not permitted until to-day for
obvious reasons. The lieutenant and a companion flier were starting for Paris,
when their machine side slipped and fell from an altitude of 2,000 mètres.
Lieutenant Thaw was killed instantly. His companion escaped with a broken leg.
The dead lieutenant was buried with full military honors in the same cemetery
where Major Lufbery was laid to rest. Thaw’s mother and sister, who were in
Paris at the time of the accident, attended the funeral with Major Thaw. It is
believed this is the first instance where an American mother has been able to
attend the funeral of a soldier dead in France.
On Wednesday three German planes
attacked three American reconnaissance planes about fifteen kilomètres back of
the German lines. Shots were exchanged. One Boche plane was seen to go down in
flames. The others withdrew. None of the American planes was damaged.
On the same day another
reconnaissance formation was attacked by six Rumplers near Thiaucourt. Three
Germans attacked one plane driven by Lieutenant Urband, who was taking
photographs. He opened fire and hit one Boche plane, which was seen plunging
earthward. This fight took place at a height of 11,000 ft.
Two bombing flights on Wednesday
resulted very successfully. All the American planes returned. They dropped
bombs on railway tracks and roundhouses, and evidently caused much damage.
Lieutenant Blair Thaw’s brother, Major
William Thaw II, was a founder of the Lafayette Squadron, Commander of the 103rd
Aero Squadron, and a flying Ace.
 |
| Major William Thaw II, Ace |
And finally for August 22, Don Martin reported again on men surviving a stay in No Man's Land. It was published in the Paris
Herald on August 23.
Ten Days Without Food
in No Man’s Land, Is Rescued
(Special Telegram to
the Herald)
By DON MARTIN
With the American
Armies, Thursday
Besides artillery activity, almost
continuous in duration, there was a raiding party which achieved considerable
success last night on the American-held Vesle front. Near Tannières a
detachment of Americans invaded the Germans’ first position, took the enemy by
surprise, killed several, and returned with fourteen prisoners.
Back into
the American lines yesterday came two privates with hair-raising stories. One
was Mike Litnauoski, of Langley, Ill. He said he had been without water of food
for ten days, with the exception of a few scattered remnants of meat and bread
that had been left on the field and such water as he could get out of a shell
hole after a shower.
Unable to
move, he had been in the heart of No Man’s Land, and to attract attention meant
to invite attack from one or both sides. Yesterday he managed to attract notice
from Americans, and during the night they went out and brought him in. He was
very weak physically, but, according to his commanding officer, was quite
cheerful.
The other
adventurer in the No Man’s wilderness was Harold Harmen, of Mt. Carmel, Ill. He
took refuge in a shell hole, hiding by day and passing his nights hoping that
some of his comrades would find him. He was in an extremely dangerous position.
Snipers from both sides could easily have picked him off if he had stuck his
head above the level of the shell crater. Once the ground about him was sprayed
with machine-gun bullets. A German aeroplane flew over and dropped bombs and an
American barrage almost reached him. He was found last night by a patrol and
was very weak.
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