Evening star., 1944-10-29


admit often he does not see the forest f
the broad story of a day to correspon-
dents at army or supreme headquar-
ters, to which headquarters are available
official reports from the entire front.
A Curious Phenomenon
But think every reporter with troops
soon realizes curious phenomenon.
The further back he gets from the men
in the foxholes the more distorted the
story. Let me illustrate this by couple
of cases from my own experience.
few weeks ago a world radio broadcast
from London stated without reserva-
tions that American troops had entered
the Rhineland city of Trier and had
received an enthusiastic welcome from
the populace. This achievement was
credited to Lieut.. Gen. George S. Pat
tons Sd Army.
Such report was absurd to CORE
spondents attached to the 1st Army
within whose line of advance lay the
ancient city on the Moselle. First Army
Headquarters had no official reports OF
any troops there, but such reports from
advanced units such as motorized cav
airy columns often are delayed for days.
There could be no absolute denial Of the
story.
With another correspondent I made
l00-mile ieep trip through the gloomy
pine forests of the Ardennes on cold,
rainy autumn day. At dusk We arrived
and Immediately contacted the Amer
ican Army authorities. They assured
us the reports we're false-only advance
units of an American infantry division
had fought their way into the outskirts
of Trier in the face of bitter opposi-
ton and they were holding their ground
only with the utmost difficulty. This
was certainly news-if true. To us it
was unbelievable that any Americans
should be in Trier. We proceeded to
the headquarters of the division itself
in dark, dripping forest.
The commanding general happened to
be an old friend. He was amused. and
yet puzzled, at the story of our quest.
1t was obvious that no troops under his
command had been near Trier. Yet
he himself had heard rumors that
reconnaissance party from an armored
unit which was working in front of him
had made a rapid dash through the
edge of Trier. He didn't believe it..
Neither did We. Yet, if true, it would
be one of the stories of the year,
The next day in one of the most
drenching doUnpours I ever have en-
countered we sought out this armored
division. Here again our eventual source
of information was the commanding
officer himself. He assured us that, to
the best of his knowledge, nobody in
his command had been anywhere near
Trier.
"If you 60 there" he said, Il wish
you would hold the place for few weeks
until I get there"
We were through - wet, sick, cold,
in Washington I was asked to explain
the difficulty our troops were meeting
at Aachen after Trier had been taken
with such ease.
Resistance Was Slight
Then there is another personal expe-
rience quite the contrary. BY sheer
stroke of luck one day fell in with an
armored column proceeding toward the
Norman cathedral city of Coutances.
Only one other correspondent was pres
ent. Considerable resistance had been
tn% Of ;,,on NJ
ton. Actually we encountered only a
few snipers in the outskirts.
Our entry was almost without incident
one tank, as I remember it, was blown
up by road mine. Bruce Grant of the
Chicago Times and myself wandered
leisurely about the old town for a couple
of hours-then returned to the press
camp, wrote our stories and submitted
them to the censor.
Correspondents that night told me
they were informed that the armored
column had met with terrific resistance
on the road to Coutances and forced tc
hold up miles outside the city limits
The censor held up our stories-not be-
cause of policy but because he thought
they were false.
The next day nearly all the CORE
spondents tried to reach Coutances by
another road. Late in the afternoon 6
few succeeded in penetrating the city
Grant and I returned by the route VIZ
had followed the day before, spen
several undisturbed hours picking w
souvenirs around the cathedral-and al
the time not a shot was fired at us
That night our stories were released
and the censor profusely apologized fo
his previous questioning. Yet report
actually sent from Normandy the da,
before had told of a hard battle which
never took place.
You Must Be on the Spot
have cited these two cases to shoy
that one must actually be on the spo
to get an accurate picture of any singl
event of the war 1t is equally true, 0
course, that when one makes the mis-
take of weaving the rest of the day
happenings around the nucleus of thi
isolated event that result is equally dis
torted
First Army correspondents used t
groan and clench their fists in angus
as they listened to radio broadcasts fror
England and the United States o
events Of the past "a hours-account
which because they had been on tn
ground they knew to be inaccurat
Cities had been occupied for days
when there were no American troop
within miles of them. On the othe
hand, cities in which we had roame
about freely for days still were resist