October 4, 1918: Don Martin writes his last dispatch for Paris Herald

      Don Martin checked in at his ‘home’ in Paris, the Hotel Crillon, on Friday, October 4. He was seen by a doctor, who said he needed rest. The Crillon invoice for this stay shows him having only cake and Port.

       Here is the last dispatch written by Don Martin, dated Friday, October 4, and published in the Paris Herald on Sunday, October 6. In order to prepare this must he have gotten war information from colleagues while at the Crillon, and someone delivered it to the Paris Herald office--perhaps explaining the delay of a day in publication.

AMERICAN ATTACKS HELP FORCE ENEMY INTO BIG RETREAT

How Yanks’ Offensive Operation

With Gouraud’s Men Led to Freeing of Rheims

(Special Telegram to the Herald)

By DON MARTIN

 WITH THE AMERICAN ARMIES, Friday

                       The American attacks east of the Argonne have endangered the Boche Kriemhilde defence line.

                       To-day’s push was between the Meuse and the Argonne. The Americans jumped off without the usual artillery preparation, following closely after a tight, steadily moving curtain of artillery fire which drove the German machine-gunners under cover.

                       The Doughboys, “leaning against” the barrage, jumped the Germans as soon as they popped their heads out of the dugouts.

                       Thursday’s attack in the Champagne netted the Americans the south slope and the crest of Blanc-Mont four hours after the first gun had been fired, this despite the fact that the hillside bristled with machine-gun nests and artillery positions hidden in the shell-shattered remains of some woods.

                       Hundreds of prisoners were rounded up in this fight, steady streams of them coming in after the first half hour. The Boches were amazed at the artillery accuracy and the speed of the fire, as well as with the rapidity with which the Doughboys followed it.

                       The infantry units, all along the difficult sector from Blanc-Mont to the Médéah farm, reported that they had taken their day’s objectives by noon. They were held to consolidate them during the early afternoon, during which they assisted the French divisions on their flanks against more stubborn opposition.

                       The attack gave General Gourand’s army the control of dominating heights in Champagne looking down on to the “terrain” which enables the Germans to harass Rheims.

French Officers’ Praise

                       French officers praise the speed and dash with which the American success was carried out and placed their artillery in the sector under the control of the Americans after the first hours.

                       In the Argonne the attack was a stubborn advance into a well-fortified and strongly disputed series of rolling hills.

                       The Germans captured admitted that they were taken by surprise, though they expected an advance along the Meuse. Eventually, the curtain-fire caught them unaware and inflicted serious losses.

                       A heavy mist hung over the Argonne, making visibility poor. The Germans again attempted to filter through the advancing line of Doughboys to machine-gun from the rear, but veteran experience lead the Americans to organize their skirmish lines with a man covering every few yards, mopping up the captured territory as it was taken.

                       Tanks preceded the infantry and did effective work, driving out machine-gun nests. Along the left wing, where the Americans made their greatest  advance, the resistance was almost entirely by means of machine-guns. Here the “terrain” is broken by small ravines. A doctor handling the wounded said he had not seen a single bayonet wound. Doughboys returning in ambulances say that the Germans made no hand-to-hand resistance whatever, their whole plan of defence being to delay the advance as long as possible with machine-guns.