Durdin was in Nanking in 1937 when it fell to the Imperial Japanese Army. He left Nanking on the on December 15, 1937. Durdin's report was one of the first printed accounts of the Nanking Massacre. Although Durdin is often credited as being the first to inform the non-Japanese world about events in occupied Nanking, it was actually Archibald Steele of the "Chicago Daily News" who broke the news, bribing a crew member of the Oahu to send his story in. In what David Askew characterizes as "one of the best journalistic accounts of the fall of Nanking", Durdin reported all the major issues of the Nanking incident: the murder of civilians, the execution of Chinese soldiers, conscription, looting and rape.