Don
Martin diary entry for Friday, September 6, 1918:
Visited headquarters 3rd corps and 28th division
with [Edwin] James [New York Times]; went up to observation post; saw German
plane bring down two observation balloons; had lunch with some doughboys; ride
175 miles; had dinner with Sam Blythe [Saturday Evening Post] and Arthur
Sinnott [Canadian educator] and wrote 700 word cable for New York
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| Arthur Sinnott on June 15, 1918 |
Published
in the Paris Herald on Saturday, September 7.
Defeating Strong Rearguard Forces French and American Troops
Make
Further Progress North of the Vesle
German Resistance Stiffens on the Aisne Line as Preparations Are Made
to Continue Retreat
to Chemin des Dames
(SPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE HERALD)
By DON MARTIN
WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Friday
In their move northward from the
Vesle the Germans are continuing their rearguard resistance with increased
vigor, but are gradually falling back under pressure from the French and
Americans. A considerable advance was made to-day by both the French and
Americans, and it is evident that the Germans intend to put up a stiff fight
along the canal, which for a considerable distance parallels the Aisne.
There is apparently no doubt that
the Boche intends to take his entire force over the Aisne and to maintain a
machine-gun resistance, buttressed up with artillery fire, up to the Chemin des
Dames, where he hopes to stop and where, it is probable, he will stop for some
time, unless the pressure from the French under General Mangin forces a further
withdrawal. If such a withdrawal comes it will be farther back, at several
points, than the old Hindenburg line.
With his heavy guns belching away
from their new emplacements north of the Aisne, the Boches last night and
to-day kept up a bombardment of the plateau between the Vesle and the Aisne,
and threw shells on spots well back from the Vesle. He gassed Fismes several
times, but did not prevent American linesmen from stringing telephone and
telegraph wires; nor did he lessen the zeal of the Americans who are clearing
the débris from the streets of this town, which for weeks was No Man’s Land.
American and French artillery threw
a constant stream of high explosives on the ravines north of the Vesle, between
the plateau and the Aisne. It is here that the Germans have left their
machine-gun crews with instruction to stay until killed or captured. In an
observation post, from where every elevation north of the Aisne was visible, I
watched the shelling of the German areas. To the northeast of Fismes and in the
region close to the Aisne there was a terrific explosion and about two o’clock
this afternoon a great fire broke out.
On the horizon one might easily
have imagined it to be a great oil-tank fire raging. A swirling column of black
smoke, seeming acres in extent, rose steadily and drifted off to the east. Arms
of smoke shot with flame darted in all directions from time to time, indicating
that a huge ammunition dump was in process of destruction—whether from the fire
of the Allied guns or from a determination of the Hun to destroy property as he
makes his way north, could not be told. There was more than a hundred small
jets of smoke on the horizon. It seemed a fair assumption that the German is
again destroying everything he cannot carry away with him.
A Heroic Division
A story is now told of the tenacity
and courage of a division which has done splendid fighting side by side with
the French in the Soissons region.
These men, among whom are Indians,
woodsmen and various types of men of rugged character and physique, advanced in
the line so they were in a salient which could be fiercely assailed by the
enemy. They might have withdrawn when the Germans began their withering
enfilading fire, but they preferred to fight it out. It was the first time they
had been on the defensive. On their dash from the Marne to the Vesle they were
in constant pursuit of the Germans and on the offensive, of course, all the
time.
On this particular occasion the
Americans lay flat in a field and used their rifles. The Germans made five
counterattacks, coming in waves in much the same manner that the Americans had
been attacking. The Americans pumped away with their rifles, which they can use
with deftness and accuracy and never budged an inch. The Germans finally ceased
attacking. An officer told me that he was over the ground and found the German
dad so thick that one might have walked on them in many places.
The American unit which did this
has earned a splendid reputation for bravery and initiative. There are but few
men in the unit less than six feet in height and hardly more than a handful
more than twenty-five years of age.
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| Front Lines Map Paris Herald, September 6, 1918 |
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