Helen
Kirkpatrick was
born in Rochester, New York in 1909. After leaving Smith College in
1931, Kirkpatrick studied international law at the University of Geneva
in Switzerland.
Kirkpatrick
returned to the United States where
she worked as a reporter for
the New
York Tribune and the Chicago
Daily News. She moved to London
in 1937 where she obtained an exclusive interview with Edward VIII.
Kirkpatrick travelled throughout Europe and wrote two books, This
Terrible Peace (1938) and Under
the British Umbrella (1939).
Kirkpatrick
remained in Europe during the Second World War
and covered the Blitz for the Chicago
Daily News in 1940. She also accompanied the US
Army when it landed in Normandy in 1944.
She also reported on the liberation of France
and the advance into Nazi Germany.
After
the war Kirkpatrick worked as European correspondent for the New
York Post (1946-49)
and chief of the information division of the Economical Corporation
Administration (1949-51). As public affairs
advisor for the Department of State (1951-53) she helped to implement
the Marshall Plan.
(1)
Helen Kirkpatrick, Chicago Daily News (9th September 1940)
London still stood this morning, which was the greatest surprise to
me as I cycled home in the light of early dawn after the most frightening
night I have ever spent. But not all of London was still there, and
some of the things I saw this morning would scare the wits out of
anyone.
When the sirens first
shrieked on Saturday, it was evident we were in for something, but
dinner proceeded calmly enough. It was when the first screaming bomb
started on its downward track that we decided the basement would be
healthier.
The whole night was one
of moving from the basement to the first floor, with occasional sallies
to make sure that no incendiaries had landed on the rooftop.
That was perhaps more
frightening than the sound of constant bombs punctuated by guns near
and far. For the London air was heavy with the burning smell. The
smoke sometimes brought tears to the eyes, and the glow around the
horizon certainly looked as though the entire city might be up in
flames any minute.
On one occasion I dropped
off to sleep on a basement floor and slept probably forty-five minutes,
when two screamers
sounding as though they had landed right next door brought me, startled,
to my feet. A few minutes later a couple of incendiaries arrived just
around the comer, but the fire equipment came within seconds.
Most of the time we felt
that the entire center of the city had probably been blasted out of
existence and we ticked off
each hit with "That must be Buckingham Palace - that's Whitehall."
It was staggering, to say the least, to cycle for a mile
through the heart of London and fail to see even one pane of glass
shattered and eventually to find ones own house standing calm and
in one piece.
A later tour, however,
showed that while none of the bombs hit any objectives we had picked
out, they had landed squarely on plenty of places. I walked through
areas of rubble and debris in southeastern London this morning that
made it seem incredible that anyone could be alive, but they were,
and very much so. Fires for the most part were put out or were well
under control by early morning.
It was a contrast to find
one section of "smart London" that had as bad a dose as
the tenement areas. Near one of many of Sir Christopher Wren's masterpieces,
houses were gutted structures with windowpanes hanging out, while
panes in a
church were broken in a million pieces.
It is amazing this morning
to see London traffic more like New York theater traffic than the
slow dribble it had been during past months, but it is most amazing
to see that there is any London to have traffic at all. It is pretty
incredible, too, to find people relatively unshaken after the terrific
experience.
There is some terror,
but nothing on the scale that the Germans may have hoped for and certainly
not on a scale to
make Britons contemplate for a moment anything but fighting on.
Fright becomes so mingled
with a deep almost uncontrollable anger that it is hard to know when
one stops and the other begins. And on top of it all London is smiling
even in the districts where casualties must have been very heavy.
(2)
Helen Kirkpatrick, Chicago Daily News (27th October 1943)
If most of the U.S. is swinging away from isolationism the same cannot
be said of the rank and file of the Army. Responsibility for this
difference in outlook must be placed squarely at the door of the Army
and its Special Services, in the view of this correspondent and a
good many thinking soldiers to whom I have talked.
Having seen North Africa,
for example, without benefit of explanation, the average soldier is
going to be likely to say at home: "I know Algeria. Let me explain
the Arab-Jewish problem. Hand Algeria back to the Arabs," or
some other equally misinformed, superficial opinion wrung from him
by admiring friends.
Listening to officers who
too often are themselves haters of foreigners, he is getting the idea
that the best thing Americans can do is stay at home and mind their
own business.
"All we do is to hand
out stuff to these people and they don't know how to use it, or they
fight among themselves"-such may be the verdict of the average
man. And that may become a second American if not world tragedy, which
could be easily avoided if certain steps were taken now.
There are so many examples
of what happens to the average American who arrives in, say Algeria,
that it is difficult to choose anyone in particular. One day a few
weeks ago, a red-haired GI was drowsing in front of the press building
when the usual type of overloaded Arab wagon passed by and the overburdened
horse slipped on the cobblestones.
The Arab driver beat the
horse severely. The red-headed American leaped from his jeep and administered
a severe beating to the Arab. City Arabs' treatment of horses is a
subject of extreme criticism from US soldiers who are equally critical,
and often illogically so, of French treatment of Arabs.
At the same time, there
is co-operation here among Americans and British such as has never
been seen before in history between two allies. And in the field there
is the same mutual respect and liking. In the back areas, however,
Americans and British have separate camps and the only contact the
men may have there is in cafes and on the
street.
Obviously there is need
for Army education, which means education and not fifth-rate entertainment.
Books, speakers and discussion groups in the Army could do much to
orient the American soldier without giving him a biased or slanted
viewpoint.
Soldiers are hungry for
facts-facts on what Fascism really did in Italy and how it came to
fall; what the characteristics of various European countries are,
and why things have happened as they have during the last 20 years.
The more thoughtful young
officers and men will sit around for hours telling you how pernicious
they believe is the influence of Hollywood and certain types of radio
programs and newspapers which pander to the lowest rather than to
the highest level of reader intelligence, and it is hard to escape
the impression here that the Army is following faithfully in the footsteps
of Hollywood, the radio and those newspapers in that respect.
The cause is not hard to
ascertain-it seems to be fear of political controversy and its repercussions
in the US But a group of 50 soldiers discussing this the other night
said in effect: "The British have two political parties, but
their soldiers seem able to get reading matter on controversial subjects
presented to them. Why can't we?"
(3)
Helen Kirkpatrick, Chicago Daily News (27th August 1944)
Generals De Gaulle, Koenig,
Leclerc and Juin led the procession from the Etoile to Notre Dame
amid scenes of tremendous enthusiasm.
Lt John Reinhart, USN,
and I could not get near enough to the Arc de Triomphe to see the
parade, so we turned back to Notre Dame where a Te Deum service was
to be held.
The generals' car arrived
on the dot of 4:15. As they stepped from the car, we stood at salute
and at that very moment a revolver shot rang out. It seemed to come
from behind one of Notre Dame's gargoyles. Within a split second a
machine gun opened from a nearby room. It sprayed the pavement at
my feet. The generals entered the church with 40-odd people pressing
from behind to find shelter.
I found myself inside in
the main aisle, a few feet behind the generals. People were cowering
behind pillars. Someone tried to pull me down.
The generals marched slowly
down the main aisle, their hats in their hands. People in the main
body were pressed back near the pillars.
Suddenly an automatic opened
up from behind us - it came from behind the pipes of Notre Dame's
organ. From the clerestory above other shots rang out and I saw a
man ducking behind a pillar above. Beside me FFI men and the police
were shooting.
For one flashing instant
it seemed that a great massacre was bound to take place as the cathedral
reverberated with the sound of guns.
It seemed hours but it
was only a few minutes, perhaps ten, when the procession came back
down the aisle. I think the shooting was still going on but, like
those around me, I could only stand amazed at the coolness, imperturbability
and apparent unconcern of French generals and civilians alike who
walked as though nothing had happened. Gen. Koenig, smiling, leaned
across and shook my hand.
I fell in behind them and
watched them walk deliberately out and into their cars. A machine
gun was still blazing from a nearby roof.
Once outside, one could
hear shooting all along the Seine. I learned later that shooting at
the Hotel de Ville, the Tuileries, the Arc de Triomphe and along the
Elysees had started at exactly the same moment.
It was a clearly planned
attempt probably designed to kill as many of the French authorities
as possible, to create panic and to start riots after which probably
the mad brains of the militia, instigated by the Germans, hoped to
retake Paris.
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