On Sunday, September 29, Don Martin was again at the front in the
Argonne Forest, saw the German trench system with its ‘palaces’ and visited
Montfaucon, which had been captured on September 27 after very tough fighting.
Also on September 29, Don Martin wrote from Bar Le Duc what would be his last letter
to his daughter Dorothy in Silver Creek, New York. In it, he commented on the way the war was
being fought in the Argonne Forest:
The Americans are still fighting all along the line,
but it is a queer kind of fighting. The two armies can’t see each other. The
Germans hide themselves in woods and villages and use machine guns The
Americans sneak up on them the best they can.
Don Martin also gave his assessment about the end
of the war, changing from what he wrote in an August 20 letter – ‘the war will not end this year. That is
certain’ – to a more optimistic prediction:
The war is coming along pretty well... The Germans
are on their way home. There is no doubt of it. They will go slow, but they will
never make another advance. America has done it by giving the Allies the
preponderance of men... In fact, I think there is just a possibility that the
war may end this winter.
He sent
three cables to the New York Herald dated Sunday, September 29, which were
published on Monday, September 30. One was a brief political statement about how to end the war.
“FINISH JOB RIGHT,”
IS FIGHTING MEN’S REPLY
TO PEACE CRY
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, Sunday
“Finish the job right!”
That is the message of
American fighting men to America and the world in response to Teutonic peace
efforts.
I have been with the soldiers at various
points on the fighting line and they are all familiar with the world situation.
They declare Bulgaria’s call for peace is a signal for the Allies to continue
to fight harder than ever. That spirit is found everywhere.
Americans
smash viscous counter attacks and forge ahead in Argonne Forest
Don Martin Sees Our Men Drive
Over Huns’ Greatest System Of
Trenches
ADVANCE AGAINST MOST WITHERING FIRE
Herald Correspondent Goes Through “Subterranean Palaces”
Cleared Of Foe After Four Years
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, Sunday
New German divisions have been hurried up to
reinforce the enemy line all the way from Verdun to the Argonne Forest with a
view to trying to check the slow but merciless advance of the American troops.
To-day the fighting was bitter, while developments of the last two days
indicate that this will probably be the stiffest engagement our men have had.
The Huns launched several
counter attacks in an endeavor to regain some of the advantageous positions,
but all have been repulsed with sanguinary losses to the enemy.
A notable change is
observed in the spirit of the German troops and they are fighting with greater
tenacity. They have orders to prevent a further American advance on this front
irrespective of the cost of life, and to-day the Huns are fighting to the
death. The enemy line troops are ordered by their officers to stand doggedly to
the last man, but three are known to have been many instances where German
officers fled from the first line, leaving the rank and file to bear the
attack.
Stick to Guns to
the Death
Despite the action of some
enemy officers there have been recited instances where German machine gunners
stuck to their posts until they were literally crushed beneath the caterpillar
treads of our tanks, which have done and are doing heroic work in this
offensive. I have heard of one German machine gun officer who with five men
stuck to his gunpit and maintained a constant sputtering fire until all his men
had been killed and even after he himself had been badly wounded in the arm.
When he was killed he was operating his machine gun with his shattered arm.
The fighting in the Argonne
region will be historic in narratives of American valor. As at Belleau and on
every battlefield on the Marne, our men here are showing superb examples of bravery
and self-sacrifice.
In one place they found an
American private who was so seriously wounded that he was unconscious. He had
fought until he had reached an enemy machine gun position in a clump of brush.
Four dead Germans there and a smashed Hun machine gun told the story of his
fighting, while a hundred feet away from him two of his dead comrades lay where
they had fallen, face downward, as they plunged ahead at his side in their rush
toward the enemy nest.
Advance with
assurance
In a trip up close to the front lines, I saw
the American troops at their best, when they were earning by the very hardest
kind of fighting every inch of ground that they gained from the enemy. And as I
looked at them force ahead slowly, but very, very surely, I was impressed by
the great confidence they showed in themselves. They advanced with a complete
assurance that they would continue to forge ahead – would continue to push the
Hun back until he gave up.
The German high command was
prepared before our offensive was launched to throw a ponderous force into the
battle in this sector as soon as it was seen that it was necessary to do so.
The enemy is now doing this.
While their comrades to the
east and to the west of them are continuing to push ahead despite the desperate
German resistance, the Americans to whom was assigned the heroic task of
cleaning up the Argonne Forest are advancing in the face of terrific
opposition. As I write this our men in this forest are fighting under
conditions which are hardly conceivable to the folk at home.
They are buried in the
density of a forest that is one of the most famous in all France. They are
lugging artillery forward and are fighting their way over ground that has been
held for four years by the German hordes and which is covered by mazes of
barbed wire entanglements. They are defying the challenges of German machine
gunners, who are here one minute and there the next like treacherous
will-o’-the-wisps.
Sees famous
trench system
To-day I went into this
forest and saw Germany’s famous trench system that is hidden away in the depth
of it. I saw the difficulties that our men faced in the fighting there and,
seeing these things, I could understand as perhaps it would be impossible for
one who had not seen them to know why our progress in this region was
necessarily so slow. The Huns had dwelt in this forest for four long years, and
in this time they had the opportunity to construct permanent defences.
The German trench system
stretches across practically the entire width of the forest, about four
kilometres from the southern end and extends back to a depth of about two
miles. It is nothing more or less than a vast elaborate system of subterranean
passages in which are homes that are almost palatial in their comforts. The
enemy openly boasted that these defences were impregnable.
But then they did not know
anything about American artillery. Our guns cut off the roofs of these
underground palaces and subterranean defences as a giant scythe would pass
through a golden wheat field. Our guns brought down these defences about the
ears of the snug Huns within them.
Then our men went at them
with bayonet and hand grenade and rifle and in doing do encountered some of the
most terrible difficulties, not the least of which were barbed wire
entanglements 500 feet deep, a mile long and completely obscured by ivy vines,
planted by the Huns for this purpose, which had grown four years in the shade
of the forest. Thus did the Germans camouflage the obstructions in this forest,
and while our troops passed hours cutting them away the Huns used their machine
guns, which they had cunningly placed in anticipation of such an advance.
Our troops went at them with a fortitude and
Spartan courage that would be hard to describe. They are still fighting their
way forward – ever advancing and winning territory foot by foot, meanwhile
getting food the best way they can. They are fighting Indian fashion and, what
is more to the purpose, they are making real headway.
I was at American headquarters,
which the French artistically constructed in a mammoth cave four years ago,
talking to a general, when a major entered, and, clicking together the heels of
his mud stained boots, saluted and reported on the progress our men were making
against the enemy.
“I have just returned from
the front line,” he said. “Our men are going ahead with the greatest
difficulties, but they are going ahead. They had a tough job to do at a few
spots, but they went at it with new determination. We now see our way clear for
awhile.”
The general nodded his head
approvingly. “There has been no tougher job than that in this forest,” he said
to me. “It is wonderful what these men have accomplished. It seems as if
nothing was too much for them.....”
Another brief dispatch on September 29 told the story of an American soldier's heroic death.
AMERICAN
SOLDIER SLAYS TEN GERMANS; BODIES ARE
SILENT TRIBUTE TO VALOR
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, Sunday
Some of our officers who
were out this morning examining the battleground of yesterday came on the body
of a doughboy. Nearby lay the bodies of ten Huns, a mute, but eloquent,
testimonial of how this American soldier had died.
Surrounded and opposed by
tremendous odds, he refused to surrender, but fought with bayonet and rifle
butt until he was killed. He was only a lad. How many foes he faced until the
glorious end we could only guess.
Don Martin's daily dispatch for Paris on September 29 included reports in his dispatches for New York with some additions. It was published in the Paris Herald on Monday,
September 30, 1918.
AMEXES AT GRIPS WITH THE ENEMY
IN WEST
ARGONNE
In Face of Most Bitter and Stubborn
Opposition,
They Continue Their Progress
(Special Telegram to the Herald)
By DON MARTIN
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Sunday
In the operations between Verdun and
the western edge of the Argonne, the Americans are engaged in what may develop
into the stiffest brush the Americans have yet had with the Germans.
The Germans have for two days been
hurrying reinforcements to check the advance of the Americans, but have failed
to do more than lessen its speed. On Saturday, in face of most bitter and
stubborn opposition, the Americans boys continued their progress.
In the fighting on the Marne American
troops engaged in many bitter contests, but all with the rearguard, the Huns
leaving detachments to fight while the main army retreated. The same is true of
Saint-Mihiel, but is not true of the fighting going on between Verdun and the
Argonne, the Germans throwing in many of their best troops here.
No stretch of imagination can picture
the present conflict as a foot-race instead of a fight. It is impossible to
tell what the German losses are, but wherever the forces meet hand-to-hand, as
they frequently do, the Germans lose heavily. They are not fighting with
indifference, as on some previous occasions. They are fighting with bravery, persistence
and desperation. There are numberless instances where the Huns stuck to their
machine-guns till the tanks actually ran over them, killing them and crunching
their guns.
From what I have learned the Germans
were ordered to “stick till killed,” and many did so. In fact the word
“kamerade” was seldom uttered. These Huns seem of a different brand, few
surrendering except when completely surrounded.
An
American Boy Hero
This morning American officers going
over the ground where they fought on Saturday came upon a sight which is
thrilling them yet. An American soldier, a mere boy, lay dead with his head
battered to pulp. All around were dead Germans, some killed with the bayonet,
some killed with the butt of a rifle and a few shot.
The lone American—who deserves every
honor a soldier can have—had been shot in the arm and leg and was killed when
the Germans, who very apparently surrounded him, were able to beat him on the
head with their weapons.
The full story may never be known, but
the location of the bodies told eloquently what had happened. This is a sample
of the way Americans fight.
In another case an American was found
seriously wounded, unconscious, in a machine-gun pit, where lay four dead
Boches.
Innumerable similar stories are coming
which show that the Argonne will certainly furnish one of the epics of American
fighting men. The men here since the beginning have been facing one of the most
difficult of all tasks.
Some Germans intrenched in the forest
had orders never to surrender.
The function of Americans was to rout
them out. The fighting had been going on for four days. The “boys” had little
rest. Their food was uncertain, their perils constant. They were shelled,
gassed and peppered at during the night whenever they were seen by machine-gunners
who were hidden in the woods.
Wilderness
of Fire
They were compelled to make their way
through wildernesses of barbed wire strung among trees completely “camouflaged”
with ivy. There were thousands of holes and furrows amid the tree-clusters
which the “boys” had to reach. Yet they went ahead steadily, losing the
minimum, leaving no cesspools of death behind to trap them after they had
advanced. The time will come when I shall be able to state the name of the
units which bore the brunt of the fighting here.
The Germans, tricky as usual, had in
many places left machine-gun snipers hidden, waiting till the Americans passed
them after taking a position. Then they blazed away, striking the Americans
from the rear.
One instance of this kind occurred in
the vicinity of Montfaucon. Engineers at work on a bridge were harassed by
snipers and machine-guns. The Engineers dropped their work and resorted to the
Indian style of fighting. They surrounded the Germans, who were all captured.
The Engineers were bothered no more.
The American air supremacy has been
complete since the beginning of the offensive. On Saturday, after the first
combats in the morning, the Germans made no attempt to cross our lines. A group
of fifty American planes was cruising successfully all day awaiting a glimpse
of the Boche. It is officially stated that the Americans, in many combats,
drove down at least thirty German planes and lost none.
The report has been persistently
circulated that the Germans are using women Red Cross workers as machine-gunners.
This story is almost as persistent as
that of the woman aviator who participated with the Huns in the battle of the
Marne. I have investigated the story of the women machine-gunners, but can find
no verification for it, though it is easy enough to find scores of soldiers and
a few officers who say they have heard it from a reliable authority. I believe
the story is pure fiction.
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