Overview

This book serves as a stirring tribute to five of World War II's greatest correspondents and to the brave men and women who fought on the front lines against fascism-their generation's 'assignment to hell.' ""A book every modern journalist-and citizen-should read.""-Tom Brokaw, Author ofThe Greatest Generation In February 1943, a group of journalists-including a young wire service correspondent named Walter Cronkite and cub reporter Andy Rooney-clamored to fly along on a bombing raid over Nazi Germany. Seven of the sixty-four bombers that attacked a U-boat base that day never made it back to England. A fellow survivor, Homer Bigart of the New York Herald Tribune, asked Cronkite if he'd thought through a lede. ""I think I'm going to say,"" mused Cronkite, ""that I've just returned from an assignment to hell."" Assignment to Hell tells the powerful and poignant story of the war against Hitler through the eyes of five intrepid reporters. Cronkite crashed into Holland on a glider with U.S. paratroopers. Rooney dodged mortar shells as he raced across the Rhine at Remagen. Behind enemy lines in Sicily, Bigart jumped into an amphibious commando raid that nearly ended in disaster. The New Yorker's A. J. Liebling ducked sniper fire as Allied troops liberated his beloved Paris. The Associated Press's Hal Boyle barely escaped SS storm troopers as he uncovered the massacre of U.S. soldiers during the Battle of the Bulge. This book serves as a stirring tribute to five of World War II's greatest correspondents and to the brave men and women who fought on the front lines against fascism-their generation's ""assignment to hell.""

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9780451417152

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Reviews

A book every modern journalist--and citizen--should read. --Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation A sprightly synthesis of literature and history... unique [and] engaging. -- Kirkus Reviews If one can say that reading a book titled Assignment to Hell was a delight, I say it now. The stories are so vivid and alive all these years later that I felt I was there with the legendary correspondents of World War II as they wrote their way from France to Germany. --David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author of They Marched into Sunlight

A book every modern journalist--and citizen--should read. --Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation <br><br> A sprightly synthesis of literature and history... unique [and] engaging. -- Kirkus Reviews <br><br> If one can say that reading a book titled Assignment to Hell was a delight, I say it now. The stories are so vivid and alive all these years later that I felt I was there with the legendary correspondents of World War II as they wrote their way from France to Germany. --David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author of They Marched into Sunlight <br><br>

A book every modern journalist--and citizen--should read. --Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation A sprightly synthesis of literature and history... unique [and] engaging. -- Kirkus Reviews If one can say that reading a book titled Assignment to Hell was a delight, I say it now. The stories are so vivid and alive all these years later that I felt I was there with the legendary correspondents of World War II as they wrote their way from France to Germany. --David Maraniss, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author of They Marched into Sunlight

Timothy Gay is a gifted, perceptive writer who succeeds in deftly weaving together journalism and military history. Assignment to Hell is a poignant human story that will move you deeply. --John C. McManus, author of September Hope

Author Information

Timothy M. Gay is the author of Satch, Dizzy, & Rapid Robert- The Wild Saga of Interracial Baseball before Jackie Robinson and Tris Speaker- The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend. His essays and op-eds on American history, politics, public policy, and sports have appeared in the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, USA Today, and many other publications. A graduate of Georgetown University, where he majored in American history, Tim lives in Virginia with his wife and children.

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