Don
Martin diary entry for Saturday, August 3, 1918:
Went out with Forest of the [New York] Tribune. [Edwin] James [New York Times] was still in Paris. Went to
the chateau where the 32nd division has been found but it had moved.
It is now in Cierges which was captured by the Americans only three days ago.
Went over the battleground near there – the Cierges woods etc. Saw more that a
hundred dead Germans in trenches, machine gun pits and in the fields and woods.
Saw quite a few Americans also. Saw Americans digging graves for one group of
75 Americans near Cierges. Spent several hours looking over fields where some
very hard fighting took place. There is no doubt that this is a very rough war.
Wrote 600 words for New York and about 800 for Paris. Got a cablegram from
Herald suggesting I cable full rate but reduce size of my dispatches by half.
It is evident that are not getting my dispatches as early as they thought.
 |
| From Paris Herald, August 4, 1918 |
Don Martin's dispatch dated Saturday, August 3 about the continuing German retreat, was published in New York Herald on August 4, 1918, with headlines which were ahead of his report.
VICTORIOUS AMERICANS
ARE IN FISMES; ALLIES REACH AISNE, SWEEP EASTWARD, REOCCUPY 50 TOWNS IN GREAT
ADVANCE
ALLIES WIPE OUT LAST REMNANT OF THE SALIENT IN THE GREATEST VICTORY
SINCE MARNE IN 1914
Advancing on a Forty-Five Mile Front, They Sweep Forward to the Aisne
and the Vesle, Cavalry Patrols Pushing on West of Rheims in Close Pursuit of
Huns
REAR GUARDS LOSE HEAVILY IN PRISONERS, BURNING VILLAGES WHILE THEY
RETREAT
Greatest Victory in Nearly Four Years Puts Huns on the Defensive and
They Are Likely to Withdraw to the Chemin des Dames
RAILROAD BETWEEN SOISSONS AND RHEIMS REGAINED AND FORDS OF THE VESLE
HELD
Paris Newspapers Say That Victory Surpasses Highest Hopes and Crown
Prince Must Forever Renounce Vast Conception of a Strategic and Dashing Success
Under
Cover of Night and Rain, Abandoning All Hope, Huns Flee
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, Saturday
Blowing up bridges, burning
villages and destroying ammunition which they were unable to move, rushing guns
from the woods in which they had expected to make a determined stand, the
Germans are leaving all hope behind as they retreat to the Aisne and the Vesle.
This means farewell to the Valley of the Marne, which was the object of German
dreams and was to be the gateway for their hoped-for advance on Paris.
Under cover of night and in a storm
of rain the Germans abandoned the forests and villages which we were shelling
and started north. The Allies advanced fast, the Americans in the front, but
were unable to overtake any except vagrant rear guards and occasional ill and
wounded Germans who were left behind in the haste of the retreat.
The Huns are wrecking their
vengeance on the villages in the path of their trek north. Buildings were
destroyed by explosives and also set afire, a proof that the Germans have
abandoned hope of returning.
In the village of
Fere-en-Tardenois, in the wake of the Germans, a village of 2,000 population
now in ruins, American engineers arrived on Friday and were clearing the streets
of debris, preparing a path for the soldiers to pass north. The Germans were
there a long time. I am unable to state the interior condition of the houses,
most of which were destroyed.
Close on the heels of the Germans
the French and Americans trailed north, reaching Saponay a few hours behind the
Germans. Meanwhile French and American artillery threw a merciless rain of
shells on the roads by which the Germans were compelled to pass.
Bodies are found here, there and
everywhere and graves frequently. Still the Germans’ loss is small compared to
the tremendous army retreating.
The Allies are doing a good job
because of the tenacity of the Prussians and Bavarians, who maintained
rearguard actions all the time the Germans were preparing to retreat. It is
impossible to tell where this will end, but it is not likely south of the
Vesle, where they will not be able to establish a strong line.
The loss of Soissons is humiliating
to the Germans. In their retreat to the Vesle they have lost more than half of
all they gained in their offensive from the Chemin des Dames, begun on May 27.
This is a terrific blow to Germany,
though not a crushing one. The opinion in high military circles is that it
means Germany may be able to make one more offensive on a smaller scale than
usual, probably in six weeks, but it marks a reversal in form for Germany to
begin to fight a defensive action against an increasing foe.
This is easily the vital period of
the war. The French are jubilant but guarded. They say, while the horizon is
brighter, Germany will be able to fight long and her defensive will be
formidable. France is almost afraid to believe her lucky star has risen and
gives praise and credit to the Americans.
And here is Don Martin's report for the Paris Herald, published on August 4, 1918.
GERMANS CONTINUE RETREAT IN CONFUSION BEYOND THE VESLE; AMERICANS
MENACING FISMES,
TAKE 8,400 MEN AND 133 GUNS
Enemy, In Getting
Back to River in Double-Quick, Leaves Huge Stocks of Ammunition—Amex Troops
Joyful When They Learn that the French Had Taken Soissons
(Special Telegram to the Herald)
By Don Martin
With The American Armies, Saturday.
Americans continue to advance with
the French toward the river Vesle. The latest information as this is written is
that the Germans are getting back as rapidly as possible to this stream,
leaving much material behind, burning huge ammunition dumps and leaving ruin in
their wake as far as possible.
Pressure at both ends of the
Soissons-Rheims salient gives a faint promise that the Hum will not be able to
stop for any great length of time or will not attempt to stop permanently until
he reaches the Aisne.
I visited many places of which he
had been in possession a few hours before and was fortunate enough to get
distant glimpses of his trucks and soldiers hurrying on their northward trek.
American soldiers are in the
outskirts of Fismes to-night.
American soldiers everywhere were
joyful to-day when they read that Soissons had been retaken by the Allies and
that the Germans are in full retreat, presumably to the Vesle. While the
Americans would like to see the Germans in a retreat which meant final and
crushing defeat, they are not taking a too optimistic view of what has happened
in the last few days. They expect the Hum to make some desperate assaults
before he is whipped, but nowhere do any of the Americans doubt that the Hun is
on the downgrade, with the grade certain to grow constantly steeper.
Germans Killed in Large Numbers
I visited the villages of Cierges,
Sergy, Seringes and others which have recently come into possession of the
American branch of the Allied Army and
saw plenty of evidence in some of them of heavy and savage fighting. The scenes
around the Bellevue farm, just outside of Cierges, are such as are seldom to be
seen. In a quarry which the Huns had converted into a machine-gun pit there are
upward of seventy dead Germans.
In a very deep trench just to the
northeast of the farm there are dead three deep in places. It was here that the
lumbermen, who were the heroes of the Bois de Chempette, and their comrades,
all stalwart young men, marched straight into the rain of machine-gun bullets
and slew the Huns where they stood and sat. All over the slope leading to the
crest overlooking Cierges and on the hill north of the village may still be
seen the deadly effects of the Americans’ rifle fire and bayonet work.
To-day while I was visiting the
wrecked buildings of the farm, the owner, Charles Pellier, and his wife
appeared. It was their first visit to their home since July 2. Instantly a
fox-terrier dog leaped all over them. It was not their dog. It belonged to a
neighbor, but it had remained during the German occupation and was there during
the fighting. In French, the Madame said:--
“He is not our dog, but he knows us
and you can see he is very glad that we are back.”
The dog couldn’t be driven away
from the elderly couple. The woman gazed in despair at the ruined furniture and
at the great holes in the masonry. Her husband, a sturdy man of sixty, with a
gray bushy beard, did not seem deeply distressed. I asked him what he expected
to do. He replied:--
“Oh, we shall straighten things out
and live here. It will be all right after a while.”
Such optimism in the presence of a
wreck so complete as this aged Frenchman’s
home was, was surprising and cheering to say the least. Within a stone’s
throw of the house more than fifty German bodies were then lying.
Beneath a tree in the middle of a
field, on a gentle slope near Cierges, are the bodies of eight German soldiers
and a German officer. They were all in a machine-gun pit and were killed by
bayonets. There are more than 100 machine-gun pits or nests in the vicinity,
which show plainly that the German is making the machine-gun his chief weapon.
Despite the great number of these guns, the Americans advanced successively
over the terrain in the vicinity of Cierges, Sergy and Seringes, and it seems
quite certain that practically all the Germans who were left as rearguard were
killed.
In Cohan the Americans found an
elderly lady who had been there during the German occupation. She said the
Germans had started to go north eight days ago, but had been in the town until
Thursday evening. After they left, and before also, the town was shelled fiercely.
but she said she found safety and some degree of comfort in her cellar, which
has not been damaged.
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