Jack Thompson of the Chicago Tribune parachuted into Algeria and Sicily, went ashore on Omaha Beach 90 minutes after H-Hour, and was present for the U.S. linkup with the Russians at the Elbe.
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On Aug. 15, 1944, U.S. troops followed by French forces landed on the Riviera, a move met by little German resistance despite clear signs an invasion was imminent.
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On June 4, 1944, Allied troops liberated Rome. Correspondents who had covered the brutal slog through Italy reveled in the moment.
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The decision to destroy a centuries-old monastery on an Italian hilltop remains controversial to this day, but soldiers on the ground had no qualms with the bombing.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address is known to history as the ‘Four Freedoms’ speech, but those lofty ideals were not the focus of press coverage at the time.
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The official start of World War II was still nearly a year away the night of Nov. 9 and 10, 1938, but what occurred that evening — now known as Kristallnacht — made clear to the world the savagery of the Nazi regime.
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The Chicago Tribune ran one photograph on the front page of its July 12, 1943 edition, a day after the Trib and newspapers worldwide had first reported on the Allied landings in Sicily. The picture in question was a one-column cutout of Tribune war correspondent John Hall “Jack” Thompson, dressed in paratrooper gear. The headline above it read “Sky Writer”.
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