Assignment to Hell : The War Against Nazi Germany with Correspondents Walter Cronkite, Andy Rooney, A. J. Liebling, Homer Bigart, and Hal Boyle

by Gay, Timothy M.

• ISBN13: 9780451236883
• ISBN10: 0451236882
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-05-01
• Publisher: NAL Hardcover

Summary

They worked on the front lines-so they could write the headlines.In 1943, a group of journalists-including a young correspondent named Walter Cronkite and cub reporter Andy Rooney-received an invitation to fly along on a bombing run over Germany. Of the sixty-six that took off the next day, only fifty-two made it back to England. A fellow survivor asked Cronkite if he'd thought of a possible lead for his story. 'I think I'm going to say,' mused Cronkite, 'that I've just returned from an assignment to hell . . . ' Assignment to Hell tells the true story of the war against Hitler through the eyes of five intrepid reporters. Cronkite left behind a wife in Kansas City to extol the brave Americans battling flak and enemy fighters in the skies over the Third Reich. Andy Rooney was a smart-aleck draftee who found himself covering the war for Stars and Stripes instead of fighting it for the 17th Artillery Division. The New Yorker's A.J. Liebling turned his back on a pampered Manhattan lifestyle to trudge through the deserts of North Africa and the hedgerows of his beloved Normandy. Homer Bigart of the Trib was a stuttering, chain-smoking Renaissance man, who reveled in covering bombing raids and battles 'from the cannon's mouth.' The Associated Press's Hal Boyle, who nearly drowned storming a Moroccan beach, won the admiration of hard-bitten combat grunts with his infectious humor, salty language, and a flask of whiskey that he was only too happy to pass around.Crisscrossing battlefields as the Second World War raged, together these men formed a journalistic band of brothers, repeatedly placing themselves in the line of fire to get the story. Assignment to Hell is a vivid, thrilling tribute to five of the greatest war correspondents in history and the American soldiers they covered.

Author Biography

Timothy M. Gay is the author of Satch, Dizzy, & Rapid Robert: The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball before Jackie Robinson and Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend. His essays and op-eds on American history, politics, public policy, and sports have appeared in the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, USA Today, and many other publications. A graduate of Georgetown University, where he majored in American history, Tim lives in Virginia with his wife and children.