The Writing 69th

The Writing 69th was a group of eight American journalists who trained to fly bomber missions over Germany with the U.S. Eighth Air Force during World War II.[1]

Writing 69th members (left to right) Gladwin Hill, William Wade, Robert Post, Walter Cronkite, Homer Bigart, and Paul Manning undergoing combat flight training for bombing missions in 1943

The beginnings

The Writing 69th was so christened by one of the 8th Air Force's public relations officers, perhaps Hal Leyshon or Joe Maher. The group also considered the names "The Flying Typewriters" or the "Legion of the Doomed." The Writing 69th included Walter Cronkite, Andy Rooney, Homer Bigart, and Robert Post, among others.[1]

Members

The Writing 69th included:[1][2]

In addition to the writers of the 69th, five newsreel cameramen took part in the training with the Flying Typewriters. They and their affiliations were:[3]

The training

The reporters who accompanied the 8th Air Force were required to undergo a rigorous training course in just one week. They trained in a multitude of tasks, including how to shoot weapons, despite rules barring non-combatants from carrying a weapon into combat. The men were also trained on how to adjust to high altitudes, parachuting, and enemy identification.[1]

The first and last mission

The first and last mission for the Writing 69th would come on February 26, 1943. A group of American B-24s and B-17s were dispatched to attack the Focke-Wulf aircraft factory in Bremen, Germany. As fate would have it, the skies over Bremen were overcast, and the bombing run had to be diverted to a secondary target, the submarine pens at Wilhelmshaven.[1]

Of the eight journalists who comprised the Writing 69th, only six went on that fateful mission; Post, Cronkite, Rooney, Wade, Bigart, and Hill. Over Oldenburg, Germany, the American bomber group encountered German fighters. Post's B-24 was shot down and exploded in mid-air. Eight Air Force crew members were killed, along with Post. The other aircraft returned safely, though Rooney's sustained some flak (anti-aircraft) damage. Post's death effectively ended the days of reporters flying on bombing missions. Others, including Scott and Manning (who both missed the Wilhelmshaven raid), did fly after this mission, but it was not nearly as widespread as it might have been had Post not been killed.[4]

References
  1. Jim Hamilton (1999). The Writing 69th: Civilian War Correspondents Accompany a U.S. Bombing Raid on Germany During World War II. Green Harbor Publications. ISBN 978-0-9717211-0-4.
  2. Timothy M. Gay (7 May 2013). Assignment to Hell: The War Against Nazi Germany with Correspondents Walter Cronkite, Andy Rooney, A. J. Liebling, Homer Bigart, and Hal Boyle. Penguin Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-451-41715-2.
  3. "Plans for handling correspondents participating in operational missions," Memorandum of the Headquarters of the 8th Bomber Command, February 11, 1943.
  4. Harrison E. Salisbury, A Journey for Our Times. New York: Harper & Row, 1983.

Bibliography
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