![]() ![]() The account doesn’t hesitate before getting to the salient point: the paratroopers ended up landing nowhere near their drop zones. But this much at least can be told by a correspondent who jumped with them to make his second combat jump, and this by night. It would take a book to tell the full story of this operation and it will be days before all details are even learned, for almost every man who jumped did a job worth of an army medal. Even then, Thompson didn’t feel he had really scratched the surface. Running about 2,000 words, it began on the front page of the July 16 Tribune and the conclusion and a sidebar filled up almost all of page 4. The story Thompson filed after he returned safely from Sicily to North Africa was an opus by newspaper standards. Commented upon in nearly every mention of him by colleagues for the rest of his life, it had quickly earned him the nickname “Beaver” and made him one of the more recognizable members of the press corps. Thompson appeared older than his years, thanks largely to his famous beard. Thompson didn’t directly name Gavin in his initial dispatches, referring to him obliquely in a piece printed more than a week after the jump that switched between first and second person:Īs you learned the impending operations in detail by sitting in on all staff conferences, you became aware more and more how the entire combat team reflected the personality of its commander, a quiet spoken, slender “Slim Jim,” whose deep set eyes could crinkle with smiles or become intense with decision.Īt 35, Thompson was about a year and a half younger than Gavin, who was on his way to winning acclaim as a senior officer who insisted upon jumping into combat with his men. James Gavin, as they made their final preparations for the operation. Thompson spent the next 10 days living with the paratroopers of the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, led by Col. My answer to this request was “yes,” while some pixie in my brain cells kept yammering in an undertone, “Don’t be a - fool.” Here was a chance to be the first American newsman in Sicily and the only one to procure an eyewitness story of the greatest airborne effort and what promised to be a hot fight. The experience was harrowing enough that Thompson vowed not to do it again, but the Sicily opportunity was too tempting to pass up: Still, making that trip was enough to secure Thompson the esteem of his colleagues as the first correspondent to jump into a battle zone. Edson Raff of the 82nd’s 509th Parachute Infantry Battalion under what were considered combat conditions - but the paratroopers landed at an airfield to find it had already been secured by French troops. The previous fall in North Africa, he had jumped with Lt. ![]() Unlike just about anyone else in the press corps, Thompson could claim some experience. Matthew Ridgway of the 82nd Airborne, who had requested the Tribune man accompany his forces. Jack Thompson’s typewriter at the First Division Museum at Cantigny ( photo by the author)Īccording to Lloyd Wendt’s 1979 book Chicago Tribune: The Rise of a Great American Newspaper, Thompson owed his coveted spot to Maj. That machine did in fact survive the jump unscathed, leaving Thompson to lug what he later described as “a second hand portable weighing at least 15 pounds” around the island.īut what a story he was in position to tell. Future dispatches will be written on a typewriter dropped from a separate parachute, providing, of course, the machine is not broken in its fall. This reporter will be the first American newspaper man to reach Sicily. It took a few hundred more words before Thompson got to his role in the story. “This paratroop combat team now undoubtedly is fighting hard at the rear of the enemy as you read these lines.” The report began: “Before midnight tonight the greatest force of airborne troops ever launched by the United States army will be settling over the face of Sicily spearheading an invasion by amphibious troops which is scheduled to follow about four hours later. Datelines were an art form in and of themselves among war correspondents, and this one told quite a story: “WITH U.S. Though it would be four more days before Thompson’s first dispatch from Sicily made it into print, the Tribune wasted no time promoting its coup in having one of its own land with the first troops as the Western allies jumped from North Africa back to Europe.Īccompanying the photo on page one was a pre-written Thompson piece outlining what he expected to happen as Allied troops crossed the Mediterranean. The picture in question was a one-column cutout of Tribune war correspondent John Hall “Jack” Thompson, dressed in paratrooper gear.
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