The Wilmington morning star., 1944-06-04
TELETYPE OPERATOR
RESPONSIBLE FOR
ERROR ON INVASION
CONTINUED from Page One)

In New York and elsewhere
newspaper and radio station
sWitchboards were almost instantly
swamped with inquiries from per
sons who had heard the origina.
and incorrect flash but not the
kill"
The London bureau Of the Asso-
ciated Press cabled this explana
ton:
THE flash enormously stating
Eisenhower had announced Allied
landings in France was transmit.
ted by new teletype operator in
wholly unauthorized test Of a
perforator.
1T moved without authority Of
censors and without knebtedge OF
the editorial staff, which had no
such copy on hand.
Experienced operators saw the
flash on the printer and immedi-
ately notified New York and the
editors, who sent kill
Both editorial and traffic stats
were under strict instructions
neither to prepare nor to practice
with any such kind of copy, against
the possibility of precisely such an
incident
Joan Ellis, the young operator
who erred, said she had been
practicing on a disconnected ma
chine and thought she had torn up
all that tape and thrown it away.
Ran Through Tape
However, before trarUmitting
the first take of the Russian COM
muniuue she said she inadvertent-
ly ran through part of the tape that
she thought she had destroyed.
1.-THE wholly mechanical error
occurred in one of the busiest
periods OF the evening, which the
fearful operator said probably ac-
counted for the fact she did not
notice her mistake at once.
The censors were entirely I'M
aware of the transmission"
1.-The girl was one OF severa
operators authorized to transmit on
the direct facilities and fully and
individually instructed to send only
material passed by the censor and
80 stamped. Each operator has
signed a secrecy form affirming he
or she understood his full RESPONSE
bility.
"In this instance, however. no
CODY such as that wrongly trans
mitted had passed through the reg
ular guarded editorial and censor
ship channels. The censors are not
concerned with traffic routine nor
physically able to keep tab on prac-
ticing operators. Nevertheless cen
sorship also is taking added pre-
cautions.
.'Miss Ellis is % and has been
with the Associated Press since
January, 1914. Prior to that she had
four years experience as a tele-
type operator in the WAAF( Wom-
ems Auxiliary Airforce.)"
Then censors in London work
from the typed copy prepared by
reporters and editors. not from
teletype perforator tape. Since in
this case there was no copy, they
did not know about the erroneous
flash until it had been transmitted.
The teletype system operates
with a roll of narrow paper tape in
which holes are punched as the
oerator manipulates keyboard.
When the tape is then run through
transmitting machine, each OF
these series of holes causes a diff
ferent electrical impulse which
causes the printers at the receiv-
ing end to print the different let
tiers and characters. The sending
operator also has printer at
hand for "record copy purposes.
Thus it is possible, as occurred in
this almost unheard of instance, for
the tape, with its code-like rows OF
unreadable except by the
IllSIlly- w w = N~AA
through transmitting machine
hours or even days after it was
actually perforated.
The Big American radio chains.
NBC, CHS, Blue Network and Mu-
tual, all interrupted programs to
carry the erroneous flash, and
again to announce the correction.
which they repeated at intervals
during the evening.
By coincidence the B ri i s h
broadcasting company at the time
was broadcasting a dramatic re-
enactment of the Dunkerque epic
of four years ago. The BIC did not
receive the false flash, but had
anyone tuned in on it's program the
impression might easily have been
gained that invasion was in
progress.
-V
CADETS PARADE
WEtCT DnTN1rr r~