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#AirborneAnecdote - A look at the US War correspondents who jumped with Airborne forces into Normandy on DDay.
Did it actually happen? Yes.
Do messenger pigeons need a higher character count? Also Yes.
*Photo - Correspondent Allan Wood in Netherlands, '44 - Dennis Smith
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Did it actually happen? Yes.
Do messenger pigeons need a higher character count? Also Yes.
*Photo - Correspondent Allan Wood in Netherlands, '44 - Dennis Smith
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War correspondents were an integral part of the war effort, many of them having to send reports home from the true sharp end of things. For this thread we will focus on Airborne correspondents in Normandy, Summer 1944
*Photo not in Normandy, but Alan Wood again on the left
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*Photo not in Normandy, but Alan Wood again on the left
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Enter Col. Barney Oldfield (USAF, Ret.) - He was a US Army Press Officer in the Summer of 1944. He coordinated correspondents and had the job of advancing written media from front line to news sources.
He also was the first US Army Press Officer to earn his Jump Wings.
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He also was the first US Army Press Officer to earn his Jump Wings.
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In May 1944, Oldfield was given 58 names of correspondents to be involved with the DDay invasion. Some of these few would jump with Airborne divisional HQs in the initial parachute landings on 6th June, others in the beach invasions.
(Oldfield is in back left of this photo)
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(Oldfield is in back left of this photo)
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Oldfield recruited 6 of these reporters to join him in parachute training, as they’d be jumping with Airborne forces in the first wave.
They underwent 15 days of "parachute basic" training and then jump training.
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They underwent 15 days of "parachute basic" training and then jump training.
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They were: Robert Reuben, Reuters; William Walton, Time; Walter McCallum, Evening Star; Marshall Yarrow, Reuters; Cpl. John Preston, Yank; and Cpl. Phil Bucknell, Stars and Stripes.
Reuters Correspondent Robert Reuben of Nebraska, jumped with the 101st Division on DDay. In a letter written to Col. Oldfield in 1957, Reuben describes his drop on DDay (see photos for letter).
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5th page of letter
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Reuben went through parachute training school in Hungerford, England in 1944, receiving his jump wings after the standard 5 training jumps. He was assigned to jump in the same aircraft as Gen. Maxwell Taylor who was at the time in command of the 101st Division.
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General Taylor jumped 2nd in the plane, Bob Reuben jumped 6th. He had a large “WC” painted in white on his helmet (war correspondent). He jumped with a folding stock carbine and full combat supplies, and his objective was to stay attached to divisional HQ once on the ground.
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Not only did Bob Reuben jump with General Taylor, but one of the first men he (quite literally) ran into on the ground was a smiling and cheery General Anthony McAuliffe. It was soon after that the first “story” out of the Normandy landings was published.
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By a stroke of luck, Rueben came across a paratrooper with carrier pigeons, and talked him into letting him "borrow" one for a message back to England. He wrote on a cigarette rolling paper “Landed Normandy Rueben Reuters (sic)”.
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Just like that, information was flowing back across the English channel, and also communicated back to Col. Oldfield.
(Ever seen a bird strapped to a parachute harness before? You're welcome)
These photos from http://www.americainwwii.com/articles/pigeons-of-war/
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(Ever seen a bird strapped to a parachute harness before? You're welcome)
These photos from http://www.americainwwii.com/articles/pigeons-of-war/
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Reuben’s first major piece was published in Liberty Magazine in August 1944. There is a wealth of written information from these airborne correspondents on DDay, and many others took part.
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William Walton of Time Magazine jumped with the 82nd Div. He jumped with a portable Hermes typewriter from the same aircraft as Gen. James Gavin. Time published a piece detailing his account from June 6-9th in their June 19th edition.
William and typewriter (See "C" helmet)
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William and typewriter (See "C" helmet)
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Leonard Mosley of Manchester worked for Kemsley Newspapers at the time. He jumped with the British 6th Airborne, also seeing a piece published in Time.
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Leonard Mosley, right, with Gen. Richard Gale of the 6th Airborne Division in Ranville
(photos from http://ww2ondeadline.com )
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(photos from http://ww2ondeadline.com )
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Guy Byam of the BBC (and a veteran of the Royal Navy, torpedoed in Atlantic by U-Boats) also jumped with the 6th, having a report air on the BBC’s "War Report” program on June 8th. Byam unfortunately went missing in an 8th Air Force B-17 raid over Berlin in Feb 1945.
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In all, looking into these #warcorrespondents has opened a goldmine of articulate accounts from the war, and I look forward to presenting more here in the days to come.
Hope you enjoyed!
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#WWII #SWW #History #Airborne
Hope you enjoyed!
/End
#WWII #SWW #History #Airborne
Other Sources:
https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/alumnus-wwii-publicist-remembered-in-net-profile/
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-05-22-we-60917-story.html
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/
https://ww2ondeadline.com/2020/06/05/d-day-normandy-overlord-paratroopers-gliders-correspondents/
https://nebraskastories.org/videos/d-day-barney-oldfield-segment/
#WWII #SWW #History #Airborne
https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/today/article/alumnus-wwii-publicist-remembered-in-net-profile/
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-05-22-we-60917-story.html
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/
https://ww2ondeadline.com/2020/06/05/d-day-normandy-overlord-paratroopers-gliders-correspondents/
https://nebraskastories.org/videos/d-day-barney-oldfield-segment/
#WWII #SWW #History #Airborne
