150,000 Men and One Woman
When I worked on the movie, “Saving Private Ryan” where we re-created the Normandy Landing using Special Effects, I did some research and came across another interesting fact related to the real invasion itself.
There is a lot more to this story. On June 6th 1944 150,000 men and one woman hit the beaches of Normandy.That woman was Martha Gelhorn, a journalist and the third wife of Ernest Hemingway. She was going to be a credentialed reporter for Collier’s Weekly until Hemingway found out and told Collier’s he would report for them, so due to his fame he got her credential.On June 5, 1944, however, journalist Martha Gellhorn hid herself in the bathroom of a hospital ship — just one of the 5,000 vessels set to sail across the English Channel with some of the estimated 150 to 160 thousand men and 30 thousand vehicles headed to Normandy.
“Where I want to be, boy, is where it is all blowing up,” Martha is quoted as saying. By dawn on June 6, better known as D-Day, her hospital vessel landing craft was on the beach of France, shortly before the invasions began.By nightfall on June 6, 1944, more than 9,000 Allied soldiers were dead or wounded. More than 100,000 others — including that one female stowaway — had survived the landing. Now that is guts. Hemingway and all the other male reporters saw the landing thru binoculars from far away.
This is just one story related to my new book.
Thanks for reading. My book “Inside The Star Wars Empire: A Memoir” is published by “Rowman & Littlefield. You can find it in book stores everywhere and also on Amazon.
Copyright Bill Kimberlin, All Rights Reserved.
