The Women Who Wrote the War: The Riveting Saga of World War II's Daredevil Women CorrespondentsThey came from Boston, New York, Milwaukee, and St. Louis; from Yakima, Washington; Austin, Texas; and Sioux City, Iowa; from San Francisco and all points east. They left comfortable homes and safe surroundings for combat-zone duty. As women war correspondents, they brought to the battlefields of World War II a fresh optic, and reported back home what they witnessed with a new sensibility. Their experience was at once wide-ranging and intimate, devastating at one moment, heartwarming the next. In this important and timely book, Nancy Sorel eloquently demonstrates the role they played in bringing the war to the folks back home. In their ranks we encounter world-famous photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White, the only western photographer to cover the Nazi invasion of the USSR and among the first to photograph Buchenwald; Martha Gellhhorn, writer and wife of Ernest Hemingway, who reported the menace of fascism from the beginning; Lee Miller, legendary photographer, famously snapped taking a bath in Hitler's bathtub in 1945; the New Yorker'sJanet Flanner, recording in her "Letter from Paris" the bleak realities of life in post-liberation France; and Marguerite Higgins, who dared enter the concentration camp at Dachau just ahead of the American army. These brave reporters and dozens more formed the crucial link in the long chain of women's struggle for full equality in a profession hitherto dominated by men. In her graphic, seamless narrative, Nancy Sorel weaves together the lives and times of these gutsy, incomparable women, assuring them their rightful place in this century's history. |
Contents
The Groundbreakers | 1 |
Cassandras of the Coming Storm | 12 |
Apprentices in Spain | 25 |
The Lessons of Czechoslovakia | 43 |
Poland | 58 |
The Phony War | 71 |
Fleeing France | 81 |
Braving the Blitz | 92 |
A Note on the Foremothers xvii | xvii |
The Groundbreakers 1 | 1 |
Cassandras of the Coming Storm 12 | 12 |
Apprentices in Spain 25 | 25 |
The Lessons of Czechoslovakia 43 | 43 |
Poland 58 | 58 |
The Phony War 71 | 71 |
Fleeing France 81 | 81 |
Working Under the Swastika | 106 |
Margaret BourkeWhite Shoots the Russian War | 117 |
Treading Water Marking Time | 125 |
China Hands | 131 |
Facing the War That Is Our War Now | 148 |
Manila Siena Shanghai | 159 |
Learning the Rules Dressing the Part | 170 |
North Africa | 180 |
Touching Base on Five Continents | 193 |
Slogging Through Italy | 200 |
New Women Come Over for Overlord | 211 |
Trekking North from Rome | 235 |
That Summer in France | 242 |
Liberating Paris | 256 |
Crossing the Siegfried Line | 272 |
The Battle of the Bulge | 283 |
Penetrating the Pacific Barriers | 293 |
Iwo Jima | 301 |
Of Rain Ruin Relationships and the Bridge | 314 |
The Advance | 330 |
The Camps | 347 |
The Longedfor Day | 362 |
It Is Not Over Over Here | 377 |
Epilogue | 390 |
Notes | 399 |
439 | |
Contents | 19 |
Acknowledgments ix | ix |
Prologue xiii | xiii |
Braving the Blitz 92 | 92 |
Working Under the Swastika 106 | 106 |
Margaret BourkeWhite Shoots the Russian War 117 | 117 |
Treading Water Marking Time 125 | 125 |
China Hands 131 | 131 |
Facing the War That Is Our War Now 148 | 148 |
Manila Siena Shanghai 159 | 159 |
Learning the Rules Dressing the Part 170 | 170 |
North Africa 180 | 180 |
Touching Base on Five Continents 193 | 193 |
Slogging Through Italy 200 | 200 |
New Women Come Over for Overlord 211 | 211 |
Trekking North from Rome 235 | 235 |
That Summer in France 242 | 242 |
Liberating Paris 256 | 256 |
Crossing the Siegfried Line 272 | 272 |
The Battle of the Bulge 283 | 283 |
Penetrating the Pacific Barriers 293 | 293 |
Iwo Jima 301 | 301 |
Of Rain Ruin Relationships and the Bridge | 314 |
The Advance 330 | 330 |
The Camps 347 | 347 |
The Longedfor Day 362 | 362 |
It Is Not Over Over Here 377 | 377 |
Epilogue 390 | 390 |
399 | |
Selected Bibliography 439 | 439 |