Assignment to Hell

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ALIBER
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First published by NAL Caliber, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

First Printing, May 2012
10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

Copyright © Timothy M. Gay, 2012
Maps by George Ward
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:
Gay, Timothy M.
Assignment to Hell: the war against Nazi Germany with correspondents Walter Cronkite, Andy Rooney, A.J. Liebling, Homer Bigart, and Hal Boyle/Timothy M. Gay.
p.   cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-1-101-58538-2
1. World War, 1939–1945—Press coverage—United States.   2. World War, 1939–1945—Journalists—Biography.   3. World War, 1939–1945—Campaigns—Europe.    4. World War, 1939–1945—Campaigns—Africa, North.   5. War correspondents—United States—Biography.   6. Cronkite, Walter.   7. Rooney, Andrew A.   8. Liebling, A. J. (Abbott Joseph), 1904–1963.   9. Bigart, Homer, b. 1907.   10. Boyle, Hal.   I. Title.
D799.U6G39   2012
070.4′49994053092273—dc23        2011049869

Set in Minion Pro
Designed by Ginger Legato

Printed in the United States of America

PUBLISHER’S NOTE
While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, Internet addresses and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party Web sites or their content.

ALWAYS LEARNING

PEARSON

I know that it is socially acceptable to write about war as an unmitigated horror, but subjectively at least, it was not true, and you can feel its pull on men’s memories at the maudlin reunions of war divisions. They mourn for their dead, but also for war.

—A. J. L
IEBLING
, 1962
M
OLLIE AND
O
THER
W
AR
P
IECES

D
espite all the books and movies, despite popular culture’s genuflection to the Greatest Generation, it’s still difficult for us to imagine the heartache that World War II exacted on our parents and grandparents. This story illustrates why.

In July 2011, my wife, Elizabeth, and I took our kids—Allyson, then twenty-one, Andrew, eighteen, and Abigail, eleven—on a World War II–inspired trip through England and France. While visiting the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial at Colleville-sur-Mer, we wanted to pay our respects to the brother of Associated Press columnist Hal Boyle’s sister-in-law, Radioman Second Class John N. Murphy of Kansas City, Kansas. Young Jack was killed D-Day evening on Omaha Beach. At the visitor’s center, I approached the guide sitting behind the counter and asked for help in finding Jack’s grave. One of Boyle’s best columns was a tender tribute to Jack, written at Normandy a month after Murphy perished.

The guide turned out to be Anthony Lewis, a patient and gracious Brit. Lewis has bushy brown hair, a ready smile, and an enviable, Joe Liebling–
like facility for carrying on simultaneous conversations in English and French. He clearly enjoys helping people find the burial spots of family members and old friends of old friends on the bluff near Omaha Beach.

“Let’s see,” he said, squinting through wire-framed glasses at the database he’d called up on his computer screen. He scrolled through endless names. “John N. Murphy of Kansas City … John N. Murphy …”

After a few minutes, Lewis reckoned that
our
John Murphy was no longer buried at Colleville. Once the war had ended, Jack’s family must have requested that his remains be repatriated; the bodies of more than half the Americans killed in Europe during World War II were eventually transferred back home, Lewis explained.

Lewis continued to eye his screen. He was “sad to report” that there were many other martyrs named John Murphy buried in the eleven cemeteries maintained around the world by the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC).