War Correspondents: U.S. Writer Wounded During Operation Torch

Leo Disher, United Press, Really Earns His Pay

While With U.S. Forces in North Africa

Leo Disher's story is a rare one. Here he receives a Purple Heart.

Photo Credit - Wikimedia Commons

Introduction:

'The story is a rare one.' And the photo above is rare as well.

In more ways than one, war correspondents like Mr. Disher really earned their keep on many fronts during World War II.

I found the story about this United Press (UP) correspondent in The Winnipeg Tribune (issue dated Wednesday, November 18, 1942), and another about a war correspondent with Reuters (who suffered less harrowing circumstances than Disher), while looking for any details related to the Canadians in Combined Operations who were active aboard Allied landing craft flotillas during the invasion of North Africa, beginning on November 8th.

Readers can link to more News Clippings from Nov. 17 - 19, 1942 (from The Tribune) to learn more about that significant time during WWII.

Disher is at Oran, centre arrow of Center Task Force above. 

Canadians helped unload American troops and supplies,
w Centre Task Force, at Arzeu, right hand arrow.

[Concerning 'Canadians in Combined Ops', I struck gold. But more about that later.]

The news article about Leo Disher explains why he was selected to receive the Purple Heart:

When I came across the above account about the United Press correspondent, it soon became important to me for two reasons.

First, his survival seemed by the slimmest of margins, in my opinion, and when I posted the article on my site at a later date, along with dozens of other items, I felt encouraged to search for further information. And shortly thereafter, at Wikimedia Commons, I learned that Disher "became the first combat reporter awarded the Purple Heart — citing “extraordinary heroism and meritorious performance of duty” for action on a day in November 1942". Rare find indeed, I thought.

Second, back in July, 2018, while initially reading the article in The Tribune, I caught a glimpse of the word 'Navy' out of the corner of my eye, two narrow news columns to the right. And what a find I made - as a result of stopping to read about Disher and his 'Nine Wounds'.

I might have missed this small piece without Disher's Nine Wounds! 

"Taken before he shipped out from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Sept 2, 1940"

Photo Credit - Kathryn Rollins, Madeline's grand-daughter.

[The small news clipping led to big discoveries about A/B Lloyd G. Campbell, a sailor known to my father and whose name appears in his memoirs. Please link to Editor's Research: Lloyd Campbell, London Ont. for a detailed account of Campbell's lengthy story.]

Also under the heading of "Really Earns His Pay" is another story that comes to us via a detailed eye-witness account "by Charles Wighton, a Reuters correspondent with the Royal Navy on the North African expedition". The hot action involved troop ships that were part of the Eastern Task Force (see above map). Bougie Bay is east of the arrows indicated by the illustrator of that map:

Charles Wighton offered a very descriptive report of the action on that day in North Africa. And more about the writer can be found online, e.g., a few details about the following book he wrote in the early 1960s.

  Photo as found at AbeBooks.

"Reinhard Heydrich was a high ranking German Nazi official during WWII. As the main architect of the Holocaust, he was known to Hitler as 'the man with the iron heart'. He was ambushed in Prague in 1942." As found at AbeBooks.

Wighton also wrote Hitler’s Spies and Saboteurs (Google Books Result).

Disher and Wighton are but two of hundreds of war correspondents we can turn to for eye-witness details related to WWII and actions that concerned Canadian members of the Combined Operations organization. More to follow.

To learn more about several Canadian news writers, please link to War Correspondents: Canadian Writers - Sicily, 1943 (2).

Unattributed Photos GH

War Correspondents: Canadian Writers - Sicily, 1943 (2).

12 Correspondents, Their Photos and Wee Biography

"If there's 12, where are the other two fellas?" Soon to follow : )

Photo Credit - The Winnipeg Tribune, July 28, 1943

Introduction:

Twelve Canadian war correspondents are not only mentioned in a news article found in The Winnipeg Tribune, but ten are represented in a rare photo array. Photos of the other two are also provided below.

In an earlier entry, featuring a news article from The Toronto Globe and Mail and an accompanying photograph from The Montreal Star, seventeen Canadian war correspondents were listed, and only a couple are repeated here. That being said, The Tribune's article supplies a (somewhat) cleaner photo array along with a brief biography re each writer.

On the same day this appeared, a few articles by one of the above writers were also printed. A couple have been presented below along with a link to earlier Tribune articles by Richard (Dick) Sanburn. By following links in the Blog Archive (see side margin),  i.e., February - April, 2017; Articles: Sicily, readers will find many articles written by this hard working band of brothers.

Overseas Staff Of 12 Men Covers War...

Ross Munro provided many excellent news reports, often beating other reporters to the punch:

The above appeared in The Winnipeg Tribune, July 28, 1943

Not only does Ross Munro make the front page on July 28, 1943 (the same day the 12 writers above were featured), he can be found on the inside pages as well:

Dick Sanburn is another fine writer from Canada, and is featured often in The Tribune and other Canadian newspapers during the war. A sample is provides below, along with the link to an earlier post that featured news from Sicily.

Another article by Sanburn and more news from Sicily can be found here - Articles: Sicily, July 16 - 23 (Post 10 of 18)

Both Munro and Sanburn are known to have written articles that mentioned names of Canadians who were volunteers in the Combined Operations organization.

Please link to War Correspondents: Canadian Writers - Sicily, 1943 (1).

Unattributed Photos GH

War Correspondents: Canadian Writers - Sicily, 1943 (1).

An Illustrious List, Vital for Research.

Remember Their Names

 Photo - The Montreal Star (microfiche at University of Western Ontario, London)

Introduction:

The following post appeared on this site a couple of years ago and since that time I have become more familiar with the efforts made by several of the writers listed below, especially those who wrote about their observations of, and experiences with, Canadians in Combined Operations who handled landing crafts during Operation Husky (Sicily, beginning July 10, 1943) and Operation Baytown (Italy, beginning September 3, 1943).

Sholto Watt, Ross Munro and Richard (Dick) Sanburn are three I am most familiar with, and many of their articles will appear under the 'click on Headings' section in right hand margin related such sub-sections as 'articles re Combined Operations' and 'Editor's research'.

Readers who search for news reports or books (written during and after the war) by some of the war correspondents listed below will be amply rewarded.

.   .   .   .   .   . 

The photograph above appeared in The Montreal Star on Monday, July 5, 1943, just a few days before Operation HUSKY commenced, i.e., the Allied invasion of Sicily. It depicts Canadian war correspondents living out-of-doors, perhaps as they accompany Canadian troops during manoeuvres or prepare to find an assigned troop ship, very likely in or near Algiers, North Africa.

The caption above the photo ('Sampler: No Savoy Suites Available Now!') is interesting, in my opinion, because many of the Canadians in Combined Operations - who participated gallantly in the task of transporting troops and all material of war ashore on landing craft during the upcoming invasion - lived in caves near Avola for 3 - 4 weeks and called their accommodation 'The Savoy'.

A caption accompanying the above photo in the Star reads as follows:

London's Savoy is headquarters for the foreign press corps in the United Kingdom. But for Canadian reporters assigned to accompany invasion forces, days of hotel service may be just about over. Digging into his kit for a toothbrush - or a morning seltzer - in the centre of the picture is Sholto Watt, The Star's war correspondent, during extensive manoeuvres with Gen. McNaughton's men.

At left, in stocking hat, is Ross Munro. Still abed, right foreground, is a sleepy fourth-estater identified as Francis H. Fisher, formerly of Montreal, now head of British United Press in Britain. Seated, right rear, are Fred Griffin, Toronto Star; Capt. Kim Beattie, and Bill Stewart, of the Canadian Press.

For those who are attempting to locate more information about Canadians in Combined Ops or other details about the role of Canadians during WW2, I would recommend they remember the names of the Canadian war correspondents and try to locate their news releases. Many newspapers of the era are still available today, often as microfiche, and can be found in libraries, archives, universities, etc.

(Editor: For example, the above photo was found in microfiche copies of The Star in my home city, London, Ontario. I became interested in that newspaper after reading, in a Canadian veteran's memoirs, that someone from The Montreal Star accompanied him on a landing craft from Sicily to Italy in 1943. (As of the date of this post I have not resolved the mystery, though I have more leads).

The following story, which features the names of many correspondents linked to Canadian WW2 stories, appeared in The Toronto Globe and Mail on July 15, 1943:

Photo is of a PDF file displayed on a computer screen. GH

The articles states:

Algiers, July 14 (CP). - Seventeen war correspondents accredited to the Canadian forces are reporting the invasion of Sicily for the Canadian people. Four of them accompanied the original assault force. The rest came to North Africa with reinforcements which arrived just as the invasion started.

The four at the front are Ross Munro of the Canadian Press, Peter Stursberg of the CBC, Bill Wilson of the British United Press, and Lionel Shapiro of the Montreal Gazette. Shapiro was chosen by lot from among Canadian independent war correspondents in Britain.

Of the 13 other correspondents, one is accredited to Allied headquarters, five are accredited to air force headquarters and seven others are awaiting their chance to move up toward the front. All but two are from Canada. Bill Stewart of Riviere-du-Loup, Que., is at Allied headquarters for the Canadian Press.

Others on the Scene

Accredited to air force headquarters are Andrew Cowan of the CBC, formerly of Calgary; Bob Vermillion, recently attached to the B.U.P. by the United Press of America; Ralph Allen of the Toronto Globe and Mail; J.A.M. Cook of Sifton newspapers, and Louis V. Hunter, Canadian Press.

Maurice Desjardins of Montreal, fourth Canadian Press man in the area, covers French-language newspapers on events of special interest to them.

The other Canadian war correspondents on the scene are Jim Chambers, recently attached to the B.U.P. of Canada by B.U.P. of Britain; Sholto Watt, Montreal Star; Fred Griffin, Toronto Star; Major Bert Wemp, Toronto Telegram; Dick Sanburn, Southam newspapers, and Wallace Reyburn, Montreal Standard.

Technicians Assist.

The CBC has two technicians assisting Cowan - Alex McDonald of Kingston, Ont., and Paul Johnston of Edmonton.

A number of Canadian Army public relations officers now are in the Mediterranean theatre to assist the war correspondents in their work. Lt.-Col. C.S. Wallace of Toronto is in charge of all arrangements at this end. Major Royd Beamish, formerly of the Globe and Mail, commands No. 1 Canadian Public Relations Detachment.

After creating this post I found the same story in the July 15, 1943 edition of The Winnipeg Tribune, while searching for a related item. I add it below, as it mentions the writer, Louis V. Hunter, one of the 17 correspondent listed above. He went on to write a few articles that touch on activities of Canadians in Combined Operations. "They're around here somewhere," I say.

As well, coincidentally, I joined an online site an hour ago (!) called "Canadians in the Italian Campaign in World War II" (via Facebook) and a member posted a photograph and news story (13 hours ago) that mentions his uncle, Private Frederick Baldwin, The Royal Canadian Regiment. The news story was written by Major Bert Wemp of the Toronto Telegram, mentioned in Hunter's report.

These reports confirm that there is much to be learned by tracking down articles and books written by our correspondents.

Wemp's news report follows below as found at "Canadians in the Italian Campaign in World War II" in a post provided by Private Frederick Baldwin's nephew Rick Baldwin:

FYI for research purposes, many years' worth of  The Toronto Telegram can be found on microfiche at A.B. Weldon Library at the University of Western Ontario (UWO). Call UWO for hours of operation.

Please link to War Correspondents: Alan Moorehead

Unaccredited Photos GH

War Correspondents: Alan Moorehead

A Great Deal Could Be Written, and It Was.

Book jacket for ECLIPSE by Alan Moorehead, first published in 1945.

Art work by Barnett Freedman. Credit - Imperial War Museum

Introduction:

There were many war correspondents from Allied countries who contributed greatly to our present-day understanding of World War II. They wrote news articles that were sent by cable to waiting audiences all over the world. Some later wrote books about their experiences, some were even published before the war had ended. Several were killed in action.

I will share only a few lines about several war correspondents in order to get their names on record. I will post a newspaper article attributed to them or list the title of any book(s) that may cross my path. These will be short posts and will contain links to articles or books so that readers can get a clearer picture of the value or quality of the writer's work and efforts.

In this way readers are made more aware of another significant avenue that may lead to information they are seeking. And - better armed - with the help of Mr. Google and libraries, archives, etc., readers may successfully search for material connected to a close family member or relative involved in World War II activities. 

Happy hunting, I say. And if readers wish to share names of war correspondents and provide links to their materials, please submit comments to this site or email me at gordh7700@gmail.com

WAR CORRESPONDENT: ALAN MOOREHEAD

Mr. Moorehead was connected to the Combined British Press and I have read a few of his news articles. He wrote ECLIPSE (a copy of which I found at a used book store) about Allied landings in Sicily, Italy, and Normandy, and followed the progress of troops in Italy and France. 

Some of his observations relate to work done by those sailors who manned and operated landing crafts, e.g., the Canadians in Combined Operations, i.e., those men who are at the heart of this blog/site.

LINKS

1. News article re the invasion of Italy

"invasion barges - the same mosquito fleet that made the landing

on Sicily..." More news at the above link.

2. Significant excerpts or passages from ECLIPSE

A fine drawing related to the invasion of Italy, as found in ECLIPSE

LAST THOT

From ECLIPSE by Alan Moorehead:

          As a correspondent following the armies
     round the world through ten campaigns one has seen
     an immense change take hold of the soldier,
     the ordinary man and woman in the war.
     The clerk from Manchester
     and the shopkeeper from Balham
     seemed to me to gain tremendously in stature.
     You could almost watch him grow
     from month to month in the early days.
     He was suddenly projected
     out of a shallow and materialistic world
     into an atmosphere where there really were
     possibilities of touching the heights, and
     here and there a man found greatness in himself.

     The anti-aircraft gunner in a raid
     and the boy in the landing-barge
     really did feel at moments that the thing they were doing
     was a clear and definite good, the best they could do.
     And at those moments there was a surpassing satisfaction,
     a sense of exactly and entirely fulfilling one's life,
     a sense even of purity,
     the confused adolescent dream
     of greatness come true.

     Page 296

To read more by another important war correspondent, please visit Articles: Canadian Flotilla of Landing Craft in Italy (4).

Unattributed Photos GH

Articles: "First Wave of Invaders..." (Italy) by Alan Moorehead

A Well-Positioned War Correspondent

Alan Moorehead stayed in a villa at Taormina in mid-August, 1943 and was

with General B. Montgomery and the Eighth Army at Messina on D-Day Italy,

Sept. 3rd. The above drawing is found in Moorehead's book ECLIPSE. Pg. 32

Introduction:

There were many war correspondents who risked life and limb to observe and write about the progress of Allied troops in the Mediterranean Theatre and on other war fronts during World War II. Their contributions to our understanding of the history of the war - its highlights and low-lights - are extremely valuable.

While reviewing 1943 issues of The Montreal Star, The Winnipeg Tribune and The Ottawa Citizen, articles by Alan Moorehead (British Press) occasionally crossed my computer screen (or monitor of a microfilm reader at A. B. Weldon Library at the University of Western Ontario), and I remarked that Moorehead's eye-witness accounts provided valuable details re the events or operations in which hundreds of the Canadian members of Combined Operations were involved as they manned landing crafts in the middle of intense events in Sicily and Italy, July - October, 1943.

I recently posted four entries on the site that present informative, details passages or excerpts from Mr. Moorehead's book entitled ECLIPSE (first published in 1945). It deals with Allied operations from the invasion of Sicily, to Italy, to D-Day Normandy.

Art work on the front cover jacket of Alan Moorehead's ECLIPSE

Painting by Barnett Freedman - Imperial War Museum

Readers can link to the four entries by clicking on Passages: "ECLIPSE" by Alan Moorehead (1 - 4).

And below, readers will find newspaper articles by Moorehead that relate to the Mediterranean Theatre of war in which Canadians were significantly involved.

For example, when the invasion of Italy began in the dark hours of the early morning of September 3rd, 1943, Moorehead was present, and described the scene in an article that reached Canada in time for the evening edition of The Ottawa Citizen on the same day.



Moorehead provides several lines that give us some better understanding of the conditions in which landing craft squadrons operated (e.g., the 80th Flotilla of Canadian Landing Crafts):

"...at night and without a moon... on a (calm) sea... hundreds of ships and barges (i.e., landing crafts) began setting out for the Italian coast with only starlight to guide them to the enemy beaches."

One member of the Canadian 80th Flotilla wrote the following about the night time invasion in his memoirs:

At midnight on September 3, 1943 our Canadian landing craft flotilla, loaded once again with war machinery, left the beaches near Messina, Sicily and crossed the Messina Strait to Reggio Calabria in Italy. The invasion of Italy was underway.

It was no different touching down on the Italian beach at Reggio Calabria at around midnight, September 3, 1943 than on previous invasions. Naturally we felt our way slowly to our landing place. Everything was strangely quiet and we Canadian sailors were quite tense, expecting to be fired upon, but we touched down safely, discharged our cargo and left as orderly and quietly as possible.

In the morning light on our second trip to Italy across seven miles of the Messina Straits we saw how the Allied artillery barrage across the straits had levelled every conceivable thing; not a thing moved, the devastation was unbelievable and from day one we had no problems; it was easy come, easy go from Sicily to Italy. (From "Dad, Well Done", by Doug Harrison, pages 115 - 116)

Moorehead described the invasion flotillas of landing craft in a creative way when he wrote, "Meanwhile, invasion barges - the same mosquito fleet that made the landing on Sicily - stole up the coast to take the army on board." Perhaps he had seen scores of the small craft swarming deftly into every available cove to pick up soldiers and military equipment from ammunition to fuel to rations. 

He continued:

In Moorehead's book ECLIPSE, published shortly after he left the Mediterranean Theatre of war, he provides clear detail about landing on the Italian shore in a DUKW (aka duck) with General Montgomery ("Monty"). A passage about that event can be viewed here.

Monty enters Reggio aboard a DUKW, Sept. 3, 1943

Photo found in Eclipse by A. Moorehead, Page 29. 

Though the following article does not offer the name of its author, it comes from Taormina (a city on the Sicilian coast several miles south of Messina). Monty and Moorehead stayed in adjacent villas in that city, and the article (from Moorehead's pen? Perhaps!) relates to what Moorehead would have witnessed and later mentioned in Eclipse.

Article is as found in The Ottawa Citizen,

published on September 2, 1943

Alan Moorehead's article about the invasion of Italy on September 3rd, 1943, was also published in The Montreal Star on the same day. It is about 90% the same as what was offered in The Ottawa Citizen. Though the microfiche was of low quality, the story and its differences were not. (I say, be patient and "vive la difference").

The above photo, from the Sept. 9 issue of The Montreal Star, is similar to
so many found in other newspapers, i.e., of poor quality. (Though tantalizing too,
because we know good photos were taken, but where are they to be found?)

Alan Moorehead's article made its way across Canada on September 3rd, or at least to the middle of our vast country. The following map and article (same as above) appears below from The Winnipeg Tribune.

As one can see, The Winnipeg Tribune reads as clear as a bell. It is a digitized newspaper and is available online at The University of Manitoba.

For read more articles that can be directly linked to Canadians in Combined Operations, please link to Articles: Four Canadian Sailors Make Headlines (2).

Unattributed Photos GH

Passages: "ECLIPSE" by Alan Moorehead (1 - 4).

A War Correspondent Follows British Troops to Italy,

And Canadians in Combined Ops Are There.

Art work on the front cover jacket of Alan Moorehead's ECLIPSE

Painting by Barnett Freedman - Imperial War Museum

I again recommend that readers search for a copy of ECLIPSE via AbeBooks or a used book store. Though Moorehead, like most writers, focusses a good deal of his attention and words on Allied troops (from Sicily to Normandy), he describes in fine detail some of the activities related to the transport of troops and their supplies.

By doing so, he supplies readers - who have an interest, for example, in information about Canadian sailors in Combined Operations and their landing craft flotillas - with descriptive glimpses of the valuable work done by a handful of members of the Royal Canadian Navy Volunteer Reserve (RCNVR).

While in Sicily in mid-August, 1943, Alan and other correspondents stayed in a villa in the city of Taormina, north of Catania. Immediately below is a news article from Taormina (as found in The Ottawa Citizen, Sept 3, 1943) that informs us of some of the action described in more detail by Moorehead:

Photo as found in RAF Beach Units by W. S. Sinclair

Below readers will find links to passages or excerpts form Moorehead's book:

Passages: "ECLIPSE" by Alan Moorehead (1).

Passages: "ECLIPSE" by Alan Moorehead (2).

Passages: "ECLIPSE" by Alan Moorehead (3)

Passages: "ECLIPSE" by Alan Moorehead (4).

To read passages or excerpts from other significant World War II texts, please link to Passages: They Left the Back Door Open (2).

Unattributed Photos GH