Reporters on Attu

The only way to get to Attu's battle lines was to climb mountains, and a mile an hour was fair speed. Most of the fighting was done on icy peaks swept by winds so bitter and numbing that note-taking was almost impossible. To write a story reporters had to climb back down to the beach, board a ship, thaw out, borrow a typewriter. Then they had to walk to G-2 headquarters for censorship. They dressed in long woolen underwear, field jackets, parkas, sweaters, two or more pairs of wool socks, shoe pacs or leather boots. They wore wool caps beneath their helmets. But still they were cold.

Last week came news that all nine of them* had been commended by the Attu Command. Said Major General Eugene M. Landrum's G-2 (Intelligence) chief, Lieut. Colonel Robert G. Fergusson: "They [earned] respect of all the officers and men. The stories written were the result of first hand information received under fire. . . . [They] shared the hardships in some measure with combatants, which I believe contributed in some measure to the realism of their writing."

*A.P.'s William Worden, U.P.'s Russell Annabel, I.N.S.'s Howard Handleman, Chicago Times's Keith Wheeler, Acme Newspictures' Sherman Montrose, A.P. Photographer Clarence Hamm, Yank's Sergeant George Meyers, TIME's Robert Sherrod.

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