Traveling Tuesday: St. Malo, France

 Traveling Tuesday: St. Malo, France

Thanks to a big “oops” on the part of the military, Vogue war correspondent Lee Miller scored her first major scoop in St. Malo, France.

Located on the English Channel coastline of northwestern France in Brittany, St. Malo is a walled port city that was founded in the first century by the Romans. Filled with medieval castles and Gothic cathedrals, the city was notorious throughout its history for being the home of French privateers and pirates. Often referred to as the brightest jewel on the Emerald Coast of Brittany, a cultural region that was once its own independent then duchy before united with the Kingdom of France, St. Malo is now a major tourist destination.

But in 1944, it was decimated by American shelling and bombing and British naval gunfire. Inaccurate intelligence reports indicated there were thousands of Axis troops and countless armaments within the city walls. According to an interview with St. Malo resident, Heloise, two citizens found their way to the American commander and informed him there were approximately seventy-five Germans in the city. More importantly, there were hundreds of civilians who could not get out because the Germans had locked the gates.

However, the report was not believed, and the assault began. After two full weeks of attack, only 182 of the original 865 buildings still stood.

Women war correspondents were typically prohibited from the front line, and even if they received permission to go, very few military leaders would transport them into combat zones. However, Lee had been told the fighting was over, so she arrived in historical city only to find herself in the midst of the assault. Hiding in a German dugout under the ramparts, she escaped with her life to write about the “sordid ugly destruction they {the Germans} had conjured up in the once beautiful town.”

When she was discovered by the Allied commanders she was promptly arrested, but still managed to get her article submitted to Vogue. Filled with shocking photographs and copy, the piece was a gritty, realistic eyewitness to the war.

Have you ever heard of St. Malo?

Wartime Wednesday: Those Who Have Gone Before

Wartime Wednesday: Those Who Have Gone Before

As men headed overseas or moved into the defense jobs during WWII, a void was created in every industry from agriculture to manufacturing. Initially, employers were reluctant to hire women, instead using prisoners of war, interned Japanese-Americans, and males too old or too young to go into the armed forces. Eventually, companies realized that without using women, production goals would never be met.

However, there was one industry that seemed to have no shortage of men: journalism. Nearly every newspaper and magazine in the U.S. from tiny weekly periodicals to national publications employed a man who covered the conflict on location. In order to be allowed in a war zone, a reporter had to be accredited. Accreditation was a long, tedious process, but by the end of the war over 1,473 men and 127 women had achieved that coveted status.

Martha Gellhorn and
then husband Hemingway

Despite their approval, many female correspondents faced scorn, derision, and opposition in the form of refusal to transport them to the front, as was part of the “deal” of being accredited. Instead, they had to coerce, bribe, or charm their way onto jeeps, trucks, or ships. Collier’s journalist Martha Gellhorn wrote in a letter to military authorities, “I have too frequently received the impression that women war correspondents were an irritating nuisance. I wish to point out that none of us would have our jobs unless we knew how to do them, and this curious condescending treatment is as ridiculous as it is undignified.”

Dickey Chappelle

Unable to get to Normandy on D-Day any other way, Gellhorn stowed away on a hospital ship. When told by one hard-nosed general that he didn’t want his Marines to have to pull up their pants because she was around Dickey Chappelle responded, “That won’t bother me one bit. My object is to cover the war.” And ex-fashion photographer Lee Miller managed to make her way to Dachau where she captured pictures of the camp’s liberation. These women the other 124 correspondents exhibited grit and grace to get the job done.

My forthcoming release, Under Fire, features War Correspondent/Amateur Sleuth Ruth Brown. It is my hope that her story will honor those correspondents who forged the trail for future generations of women who can now choose to do or be anything they want.