Beachhead Don: Reporting The War From the European Theater, 1942-1945 PDF
Preview Beachhead Don: Reporting The War From the European Theater, 1942-1945
“ ” Beachhead Don world war ii: the global, human, and ethical dimension G. Kurt Piehler, series editor 1. David E. Cane, Judy Barrett Litoff, and David C. Smith, eds., Fighting Fascism in Europe: The World War II Letters of an American Veteran of the Spanish Civil War.Lawrence Cane. 2. Angelo M. Spinelli and Lewis H. Carlson, Life Behind Barbed Wire: The Secret World War II Photographs of Prisoner of War Angelo M. Spinelli. “ ” Beachhead Don “Beachhead Don” –—–— reporting the war from the european theater, 1942‒1945 Don Whitehead Edited by John B. Romeiser fordham university press new york 2004 Copyright © 2004 John B. Romeiser All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. World War II: The Global, Human, and Ethical Dimension, No. 3 ISSN 1541-0293 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Whitehead, Don, 1908– “Beachhead Don” : reporting the war from the European Theater, 1942–1945 /Don Whitehead ; edited by John B. Romeiser.— 1st ed. p. cm. — (World War II—the global, human, and ethical dimension ; no. 3) Collection of articles originally published in various American newspapers. Includes index. ISBN 0-8232-2412-0 1. World War, 1939–1945—Campaigns—Western Front. I. Romeiser, John Beals, 1948– II. Title. III. Series. IV. World War II— the global, human, and ethical dimension ; 3. D756.W43 2004 940.54'21—dc22 2004019063 Printed in the United States of America 08 07 06 05 04 5 4 3 2 1 First edition All reprinted material in this volume, including photographs and artwork, is used with permission of the Associated Press. In fond and lasting memory of two extraordinary men who served their country with distinction during the Second World War, my father, George Clement Romeiser (U.S. Army, 1939–47), and my father-in-law, Ronald Wesley Cornwall (U.S. Navy, 1941–81). george clement romeiser ronald wesley cornwall 1917–1974 1922–1991 This page intentionally left blank Contents foreword, by fred brown ix acknowledgments xiii introduction xvii Part One 1 Prelude, 1942 Part Two 17 Sicily, Salerno, and the Advance on Rome, 1943 Part Three 91 Anzio and Cassino, January–February 1944 Part Four 113 Operation Overlord: The D-Day Landings in Normandy, April–August 1944 Part Five 205 The Liberation of Paris, August 25–28, 1944 Part Six 225 The Drive into Germany, Fall 1944 Part Seven 287 On to Berlin, February–May 1945 Part Eight 359 Return to Normandy, May–June 1945 index 367 This page intentionally left blank Foreword W ars have always attracted writers and journalists. Some writers pack off to the front lines simply because they want to be close to the action of the moment, while others yearn to be at the battlefront of history as it rises over the horizon. One of the finest reporter-writers in World War II, who covered the ac- tion from the deserts of North Africa to the beaches of Normandy and be- yond, was Don Whitehead, a war correspondent for the Associated Press. After World War II, Whitehead covered the Korean War, for which he won a Pulitzer prize. In 1952 he earned his second Pulitzer for a story he wrote on President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s trip to Korea after the presi- dential election. At that time, only seven other journalists in the history of the award had won two Pulitzers. In 1959, Whitehead, born in 1908 in Inman, Virginia, became a colum- nist for the Knoxville News-Sentineluntil he retired in 1978. He came out of retirement in 1980 to write once more for the News-Sentinel, and then died one year later. During his fifty-year career, Whitehead, who called himself a “hillbilly at heart,” wrote close to 12 million words, which included not only his news- paper columns and war stories, but also five books. The FBI Storybecame a best seller. But it was his World War II coverage that earned him widespread noto- riety, not only among his readers back home, but among peers in the trenches with him and also the boys on the front lines, because that’s where he could be found. Like his buddy, Scripps Howard’s Ernie Pyle, Whitehead went with the troops, and he lived in the foxholes and tents to see for himself what war was all about. Writing in an inimitable style, he relayed those dreadful scenes in vivid and precise detail and with the color and horror that combat produces. Whitehead once said that the Invasion of Normandy, when he landed at Omaha Beach with First Infantry Division, the “Big Red One,” was one of the most exciting moments in his career. “Our boys had to fight it out at the
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