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September 24, 1918: Don Martin reports resumption of German shelling

Don Martin diary entry for Tuesday, September 24, 1918: 
Stayed in again. Wrote about 600 words cable on the doughboy as a fighting man. Major Bulger, chief of press section, at six this afternoon told all the correspondents to be ready to start off on a three or four day trip at short notice. We cannot leave Nancy tonight or tomorrow. This means the Americans are to start an offensive somewhere probably west of Verdun. My opinion is it will be a big French offensive with the Americans co-operating. We have a vast army ready for business. Had dinner at Angleterre with Claire Kennimore of St. Louis, McNutt of Colliers and Boothboy of the Y.M.C.A.
          That was Don Martin’s last diary entry, written on Tuesday, September 24, 1918, in Nancy. Why he stopped and whether he wrote more that didn't survive, we do not know. It was then less than two weeks until his death.
     Don Martin's September 24 daily dispatch for Paris on developments at the front was brief. It was published in the Paris Herald on Wednesday, September 25.    
GERMANS OPEN FURIOUS FIRE 
ON AMEX FRONT
Artillery Bombardment Is the Most Intense
Since the Saint-Mihiel Victory
(Special Telegram to the Herald)
By DON MARTIN
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Tuesday
                       Furious artillery engagements marked last night on a large part of the American front.
                       Beginning soon after midnight, an American raiding party started for the Germans’ region south of Preney. The outposts were abandoned but for a small section enclosed in a box barrage. There was considerable stiff fighting here for half an hour. The Americans took five prisoners and lost none.
                       The Germans opened up with the heaviest artillery fire since the Saint-Mihiel salient was cleared. The guns echoed for hours. Villages nineteen to twenty kilomètres back were shelled to-day by a six-inch gun.
       Also for Paris, Don Martin sent this somewhat confused brief report, which perhaps was shortened in its publication in the Paris Herald on Wednesday, September 25.
GERMAN-AMERICAN CAPTURED 
IN BALLOON BROUGHT DOWN
 (Special Telegram to the Herald)
By DON MARTIN
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Tuesday
                       A German observation balloon was brought down over our lines by anti-aircraft guns. Both fliers are uninjured.

                       One is a German-American, who before the war was a dealer in motorcycles in Sixth avenue, New York.

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