"... [Y]our observer's camera is clicking steadily. It's beautiful up above the sunlit clouds. The smooth drone of your twin motors makes you happy. You feel like singing and then you do. Then out of the corner of your eye, you see four black dots, growing larger momentarily. It's an enemy patrol of German Messerschmitts. Your gunner has seen them too. You hear the rattle of the machine gun as you put your bomber in a fast climbing turn, but the Messerschmitt fighters climb faster. They form under your tail, two on each side. One by one, they attack. A yellow light flashes in front of you. The first fighter slips away while the next comes on at you. Again that smashing yellow flame. Your observer falls over unconscious. Before you can think, the next Messerschmitt is upon you. A terrific jolt. Your port engine belches smoke. It's been hit.... You force-land on the first Allied airfield. That night, seated next to a hospital bed where your observer nurses a scalp wound, you hear an enemy communique. A British bomber was shot down over the lines today. Well, you puff a cigarette and grin."
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Sources
Woo, Elaine. "Larry LeSueur/'Murrow Boy' former war correspondant", (obituary), Los Angeles Times, February 8, 2003, accessed June 21, 2011. As quoted by Stanley W. Cloud and Lynne Olson in The Murrow Boys: Pioneers on the Front Lines of Broadcast Journalism, . LeSueur just "after interviewing a young British pilot who had just flown a reconnaissance mission over Germany.
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Larry LeSueur
Larry LeSueur (June 10, 1909 β February 5, 2003), born Laurence Edward LeSueur, was a well-known war correspondent during World War II. He worked closely with Edward R. Murrow and was part of an elite group of broadcast pioneers known as the Murrow's Boys.
14 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Larry LeSueur β
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