Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-07-11
Letters to The Star
Miss Montgomery Of owl Writes
About Trip to Mannheim

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To the Editor Of The Star:
(The following letter was written by
young woman stationed In England
to q relative here. 1t is published for
the light 1t throws on owl work over
seas.)
Now that the security block has been
lifted on our owl activities here in
the ETO, thought 1t was high time
I should tell you what / have been
doing this past year In London.
No doubt you have heard and read
efforts--the leaflets we dropped long
before We day to the people of occu-
pied countries as well as the ones di-
rected against the Germans; our radio
broadcasts telling the resistance move
ments what they should do and when,
and trying also to convince the Wehr-
macht that they should surrender. Since
We day the texts of our leaflets have
changed The idea now is to give the
people news of what is going on in the
world today-news they have been de-
prived of during their years OF occu-
patton.
Last Friday, June Ga year after
D day and a month after We day.
was lucky enough to be able to 60 on
q mission over Germany. This was one
of our regular leafiet bombing missions
to the displaced persons. Our target
for the day was Mannheim. but our
bomb-bayS were filled with bombs" load
ed with the SHAEF newspaper-inciden
tally a very good little paper. 1t Is
printed in four languages. either Rus
sian, French, German and English; or
Russian, Polish. French and English:
or with the Polish, German combina-
ton, depending on the locale OF the
camp.
We took off at about 1915 Friday
morning from a B-24 base here in Eng
land, crossed the Channel about 10 miles
north of Dunkirk, and I was able to get
a good look at the famous beach. We
crossed Belgium, which Is q beautiful
country, got birds-eye view of Brussels
and made bee line for Mannheim. The
famous Ardennes Forest, and, in fact,
most of the sector where Rundstedt
made his break-through last December
was clearly visible, and naturally very
interesting. I was quite excited about
the whole thing. We could see the
trenches, both the Germans and ours
but now they look quite peaceful and
harmless. 1t was hard to realize that
a few months ago q lot Of our boys
had pretty rough time in this lovely,
quiet section of Germany. 1t was equally
strange to see little villages that were
practically nothing but piles Of rubble.
The streets were deserted in fact, In the
smaller places we didn't see more than
one or two persons In the whole town.
AS we neared Mannheim, we few over
some of the larger cities-the destruction
was fantastic. Ludwigshafen was prac-
tically fiat-the marshaling yards were
in complete ruin, bridges were down all
over the place. However, there were one
or two across the Rhine and Moselle
where we saw American conveys hauling
supplies and equipment.
Finally, as we neared the Mannheim
airdrome, where we were to drop the
SHAEF newspapers, the pilot started
calling the field for clearance and talking
to another plane which also was circling
the field. The other plane landed, our
pilot gave the code word for the day.
we got our clearance and leveled of for
the, -bomb-run." AS you probably know.
these bombs" are parachuted down,
and 1t was beautiful sight as the pilot
yelled "Bombs-away," and the six bombs
dropped, the "chutes" opened and they
floated down right in the center of the
east-west runway. We circled the field
again. wiggled our wings and headed
back to England.
The distribution Of the newspapers
after we drop them is done in this man
ner: Airdrone officers collect the
bombs" and turn them over to the near
est AMG officials who In turn distribute
them to the refugees In the displaced
persons camp. From the reports we re-
ceived here in the office, they are well
received: in fact, at times they almost
fight over copy. Our latest circula-
ton figure has reached the 2,5oo, 900
mark, which is pretty good for four
page daily newspaper.
CORINNE MONTGOMERY.