The Women who Wrote the War
Page 44
54
Back in France, she sat huddled by the radio — Wineapple, Genet, p. 154.
54
In her Paris letter of October 2 — Flanner, Paris Was Yesterday, pp. 219-220.
55
“Our state will not be the smallest” — Cowles, Looking for Trouble, p. 171.
55
Knickerbocker, Whitaker, and Cowles ... cover the crossing ... into Czechoslovakia — Ibid., pp. 171-177; John T. Whitaker, We Cannot Escape History (New York: Macmillan, 1943), pp. 144-147.
55
“Tell me, did you find ... any bitter feeling” — Cowles, Looking for Trouble, p. 181.
56
“On all the roads in Czechoslovakia” — Gellhorn, “Obituary of a Democracy, Collier’s, December 1938; reprinted in her The View from the Ground, p. 49.
56
“They stood along the curb and waited” — Ibid., p. 63.
56
“It’s like war, Mary thought” — Gellhorn, A Stricken Field, p. 56.
57
“with wild eyes and stunned, exhausted faces” — Ibid., p. 94.
57
“didn’t see a single refugee” — Ibid., Afterword, p. 308.
5. One Thought, One Holy Mission: Poland
59
“a sudden, swift and agonized death” — Kirkpatrick, Under the British Umbrella, p. 282.
59
Biographical material on Sonia Tomara comes primarily from her unpublished memoir made available by family members.
59
“a dark, rather mysterious young woman” — Robert St. John, Foreign Correspondent (Garden City: Doubleday, 1957), p. 97.
60
“blood was still running” — Tomara, unpublished memoir, p. 67.
60
“to plunge again into the thick of things” — Ibid., p. 84.
61
“passed from ... one party to the other” — Ibid., p. 90.
62
On landing in France, she felt... impending catastrophe — Tomara, New York Herald Tribune, August 1, 1940.
63
In Prague for Czech army maneuvers — William Shirer, Berlin Diary, p. 122.
63
Eleanor decided to fly to Tirana — Packard, Balcony Empire, pp. 79-86.
64
Sigrid Schultz was unearthing a ... Nazi maneuver — Voss, Reporting the War, p. 5.
65
invited ... to join Ciano for lunch on the beach — Cowles, Looking for Trouble, pp. 251-53.
65
Helen Kirkpatrick began to sleuth out the German scenario for war — Kirkpatrick, Umbrella, p. 290.
66
“I spent it in the country” — Ibid., pp. 304-305.
66
Cowles flew into Berlin’s Tempelhof — Cowles, Lookingfor Trouble, pp. 258— 261.
67
Sonia Tomara was ... in Warsaw — Tomara, “Democracies’ Envoys at Warsaw Ask Beck If He’ll Compromise,” New York Herald Tribune, August 2831, 1939.
67
On Friday she was awakened — Tomara, “Poland Says It Is Making a Hard Fight,” New York Herald Tribune, September 3, 1939; unpublished memoir, pp. 165-167.
68
boys and girls assembled — Kirkpatrick, Umbrella, p. 334.
68
Chamberlain ... spoke first of Hitler’s “senseless ambitions” — Ibid., p. 335.
68
Sonia Tomara was not heard from again — Tomara, unpublished memoir, p. 173.
69
“I saw high members of the Foreign Office confer” — Tomara, “Polish Cabinet Hides in Secret Isolated Town,” New York Herald Tribune, September 12, 1939; unpublished memoir, pp. 173-182.
69
In her next dispatch — Tomara, “Smigly-Rydz Ignored Advice of Allied Staffs” and “Germans Push on Lemberg to Cut Supply Line,” New York Herald Tribune, September 11 and 14, 1939.
69
On September 15 Tomara crossed back — Tomara, “Polish Morale Cracking Under Swift Invasion,” “Planes Wreak Havoc as Poles Flee Invaders,” and “Poland’s Task Too Formidable,” New York Herald Tribune, September 15, 16, and 18, 1939.
70
“This morning the Polish government learned” — Tomara, New York Herald Times, September 22, 1939.
6. Waiting for Hitler: The Phony War
71
Flanner decided to return home — Wineapple, Genet, pp. 159-165.
72
American Friends of France — Anne Morgan had performed significant relief work after World War I with her American Friends for Devastated France, later called the Comite Americain pour le Secours Civil. By fall 1939 an operation to evacuate handicapped people from Paris was already underway.
72
what would be her last New Yorker piece — Flanner, “Letter from Bordeaux,” New Yorker, September 24, 1939; reprinted in Janet Flanner-’s World, pp. 47-50.
72
“Both much too used to looking out” — Goldberg, Margaret Bourke-White, pp. 216-217.
73
She wrote her husband — Ibid., p. 227.
74
Biographical material on Betty Wason comes from Current Biography 1943, pp. 806-808; David H. Hosley and Gayle K. Yamada, Hard News, pp. 17-21; and Wason’s correspondence with the author.
75
“Down the road ran King Haakon” — Current Biography 1943, p. 807.
75
Her next challenge — Ibid.; Leland Stowe, No Other Road to Freedom (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1941); Wason, “Her Own Stories,” Purdue Alumnus, November/December 1995, pp. 21-25.
76
the Commons jeered him wildly — Kirkpatrick, “His Cabinet Job in Grave Peril, Writer Asserts,” Chicago Daily News, May 7, 1940.
76
“I like your stuff’ — Kirkpatrick, Kasper interview, p. 33.
76
When ... Kirkpatrick sailed — Ibid., pp. 20-21.
77
“a swing around the hot-spot circle” — Kurth, American Cassandra, p. 315.
77
The Simplon Express ... met the Orient Express — Tomara, “Germany’s Path to the East — Belgrade,” New York Herald Tribune, January 9, 1940.
77
In Belgrade correspondents stayed — Sonia Tomara’s Balkan period is detailed in her unpublished memoir, pp. 178-182.
78
when the Germans invaded Norway — Edward W. Beattie, Jr., “Freely to Pass” (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1942), p. 235.
78
Tomara... drove to the Rumanian-Soviet border — Derek Patmore, Balkan Correspondent (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1941), p. 78-79.
79
“Who knows? Maybe some time” — Kurth, American Cassandra, p. 307.
79
“The soldier stands face to face” — Thompson, “On the Record,” May 13, 1940.
7. Fleeing France
81
Meanwhile, refugees . . . “two thirds of them women and children” — Tomara, “Refugee Plight in France Dims Polish Disaster,” New York Herald Tribune, May 23, 1940.
81
a photograph in the New York Mirror — Wineapple, Genet, p. 161.
82
“all fainting and vomiting, poor women” — Ibid., p. 162.
82
“Hundreds of them filed through” — Cowles, Looking for Trouble, pp. 3 59— 360.
83
Biographical material on Mary Welsh comes primarily from her autobiography, How It Was.
83
Welsh procured an assignment with the Royal Air Force — Ibid., p. 47.
83
“clothes, coiffure and savoir-faire” — Ibid., p. 33.
85
“Parisians look at the sky with one thought” — Tomara, “Parisians Face Danger Calmly, Trust Weygand,” New York Herald Tribune, June 7, 1940.
85
“river of gold flowing” — Tomara, “Paris Hears Rumble of Gunfire But Kee
ps Confidence in Army,” New York Herald Tribune, June 10, 1940.
85
Mary Welsh felt the days winding down — Mary Welsh Hemingway, How It Was, pp. 49-51.
87
Virginia grabbed the first available plane — Cowles, Looking for Trouble, pp. 363-371.
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Sonia and Irina and a... friend started out — Tomara, “Reporter With Paris Refugees Describes Nightmare Flight,” New York Herald Tribune, June 15,1940.
89
“All her life she had been troubled” — Cowles, Looking for Trouble, p. 386.
89
“It is with a heavy heart” — Tomara, “French Conceal Despair, Move As Automatons,” New York Herald Tribune, June 19, 1940.
90
Sonia Tomara remained ... to help the Herald Tribune Paris correspondent — Tomara, unpublished memoir, pp. 200-205.
90
Virginia Cowles described the white sand — Cowles, Looking for Trouble, pp. 390-394.
8. Braving the Blitz
92
Biographical material on Tania Long comes primarily from an interview by the author, September 1991.
94
“Hitler’s storm troopers stood about on street corners” — Ibid.
95
“Don’t let them palm off any second-raters” — Raymond Daniell, Civilians Must Fight, pp. 69-71.
95
Long and Daniell spent more and more time together — Ibid., pp. 223225.
96
“In front of you stretched” — Cowles, Looking for Trouble, pp. 404-405.
97
“You have no feeling of carnage” — Kirkpatrick, “Air War Like a Prize Fight, Observer Finds,” Chicago Daily News, August 17, 1940.
97
Virginia Cowles . . . drove down to Dover . . . Invasion Weekend — Cowles, Looking for Trouble, pp. 430-431.
98
“handsome and brave” pilots — Ibid., p. 405.
98
Cowles had a particular connection with the 601 Squadron — Ibid., pp. 277-278.
98
“We made out a batch of tiny white specks” — Ibid., pp. 414-416.
99
Mary Welsh and ... Noel Monks were at the movies — Welsh, How It Was, p. 59.
99
“For nearly ten miles in the East End” — Long, “Poor Suffer Worst in London As Bombs Cut a Ten-Mile Swath,” New York Herald Tribune, September 9, 1940.
99
Kirkpatrick ... had gone downriver with the fire brigade — Kirkpatrick, author interview, June 1991.
100
“London still stood this morning” — Kirkpatrick, Chicago Daily News, September 9, 1940.
100
went down to Cliveden at the invitation of Lord and Lady Astor — Kirkpatrick, Kasper interview, p. 51.
100
The windows of Tania Long’s house — Long, “Herald Tribune’s London Staff Joins ‘Bombs Up Our Street’ Club,” New York Herald Tribune, September 11, 1940.
100
Virginia Cowles was dining with a friend at Claridge’s — Cowles, Looking for Trouble, p. 422.
100
“Husbands and wives ... born and raised” — Welsh, How It Was, p. 63.
101
“hung around the edges of an incident” — Ibid., p. 66.
101
“These were some of London’s dead” — Ibid., p. 63.
102
“It is still the Abraham Lincoln Room, madam” — Kirkpatrick, Chicago Daily News, September 13, 1940.
102
the management at the Savoy understood — Long, author interview.
102
Ray snored and woke up one night — Daniell, Civilians Must Fight, pp. 2 7 8 -279.
103
“When one hears bombs coming” — Long, “The Savoy and Carlton Damaged During Nazi Raids on London,” New York Herald Tribune, November 29, 1940.
103
Long and Daniell, driving through the blacked-out night” — Long, “Midlands City a Scene of Horror, Homes Leveled, Noted Cathedral Gone,” New York Herald Tribune, November 16, 1940.
103
“Thin wisps of smoke still rose” — Long, “Coventry Lays Dead to Rest in Common Grave,” New York Herald Tribune, November 21, 1940.
104
“American women reporters now active” — New York Herald Tribune, February 15, 1941.
9. Working Under the Swastika
106
Biographical material on Lael Tucker Wertenbaker comes from an interview by the author, August 1991.
109
“A full moon lit up the sprawling city” — Long, New York Herald Tribune, October 16, 1940.
110
Schultz and Shirer would broadcast sequentially — “Recollections of Air Raids,” Sigrid Schultz Papers.
110
Her instructions from ... McCormick were clear — Schultz, interview, p. 48.
110
“because of her independence” — William Shirer, Berlin Diary, p. 462.
111
Officials had warned her — Schultz to Colonel Robert R. McCormick, February 24, 1941; Sigrid Schultz Papers.
111
she carried several stories out in her head — Schultz interview, p. 48.
112
Burdette would later prove — Nation, July 16, 1955, p. 3; David Caute, The Great Fear (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1978), p. 451; obituary, New York Times, May 21, 1993.
112
The Italian campaign took place — Wason, Miracle in Hellas, pp. 16-21.
113
“tough Australians with wide-brimmed hats” — Ibid., p. 24.
114
She had become romantically involved — Wason to the author, June 10, 1943.
114
“worrying about seconds while the world crashed” — Wason, Miracle, p. 29.
115
“The Germans are boasting” — Ibid., p. 26.
115
“You had better not depend on me” — Ibid., p. 46.
116
Only when German correspondents . . . received orders to depart — Current Biography 1943, p. 808.
10. Margaret Bourke-White Shoots the Russian War
117
Bourke-White and Caldwell flew with six-hundred-plus pounds of luggage — Bourke-White, Shooting the Russian War, p. 5.
117
They could travel about . . . almost at will — Bourke-White, “A Life Photographer Looks at Moscow a Week Before the Nazi Invasion Began,” Life, August 11,1941.
117
Even when she happened into a church — Bourke-White, “Religion in Russia,” Life, October 13, 1941.
118
an “opium dream” of an opportunity — Bourke-White, “A Photographer in Moscow,” Harper’s, March 1942.
118
driving ... from one collective farm to another — Bourke-White, Shooting, p. 5.
118
Bourke-White ... and Caldwell got a “raid pass” — Erskine Caldwell, Ail-Out on the Road to Smolensk (New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1942), p. 87.
118
set up her camera on the embassy roof — Bourke-White, Shooting, pp. 8990; Bourke-White, Portrait, pp. 176-177; Henry C. Cassidy, Moscow Dateline (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943), pp. 95-96.
119
“I would creep out on the balcony” — Bourke-White, Portrait, pp. 178-179.
120
Bourke-White’s visit to the Kremlin to photograph Stalin is variously described in Shooting, pp. 211-215; Portrait, pp. 174-186; and “A Photographer in Moscow,” pp. 417-419.
121
Erskine thought Lozovsky bore a distinct resemblance — Caldwell, Smolensk, pp. 91-97.
122
In mid-September the press bureau notified — Bourke-White, Shooting, pp. 221-222.
122
the party set out in Ml sedans — Ibid., pp 227-231; Whitman Bassow, The Moscow
Correspondents (New York: William Morrow, 1988), pp. 100-101.
123
More enemy planes followed them — The trip to the front is chronicled by Bourke-White in Shooting, pp. 244-270, and “A Photographer in Moscow,” pp. 419-420.
11. Treading Water, Marking Time
126
She regularly took her message in person — Kurth, American Cassandra, p. 332.
126
“The Abbey stands” — Thompson, “On the Record,” May 14, 1941, quoted in Kurth, American Cassandra, pp. 335-337.
127
“sang for their supper” — Lael Wertenbaker, interview.
128
Mary Welsh did a piece for Life — Welsh, “No Time For Tears,” Life, August 4, 1941.
130
Favorite restaurants and neighborhood shops — Packard, Balcony Empire, p. 316.
130
Japanese nationals in Rome were ... overfriendly — Ibid., pp. 327-328.