September 6, 1918: Don Martin has busy day as German retreat continues

Don Martin diary entry for Friday, September 6, 1918: 

Visited headquarters 3^rd corps and 28^th 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

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.

Front Lines Map
Paris Herald, September 6, 1918