Posted by Vicky | Comments : (0)
Category : Archive Stories, Kay Summersby
Tags: Admiral, Admiral William P. Leahy, Algiers, American Expeditionary Force, Amilcar, Archive Stories, Axel Munthe, Bari, Bay of Naples, Britain, C-54, Caacie, Cairo, Capri, Caruso, Caserta Palace, Chemical Warfare, Chief of Staff, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Clark, Dakar, Distinguished Service Cross, Egypt, Eisenhower, Ellen Ruthmann, Flying Fortress, Gen Carl Tooey Spaatz, Gen Mark W. Clark, Gen Walter Bedell (Beetle) Smith, Harry Hopkins, Italian POWs, Italy, Legion of Merit, London, Maj Gen Leroy H. Watson, Malta, Marrakech, Marshall, Mattie Pinette, Mediterranean, Mike Reilly, Mount Vesuvius, Naples, Nazi Europe, North-Africa, Overlord, Pacific Theater, Palestine, Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt, Prime Minister, Prince Urnberto, Red Cross, Rome, Sarah Oliver, Sicily, Signal Corps, Sir Alan Brooke, Sir Winston Churchill, Smith, Spaatz, Sue Sarafin, Telek, Tunis, Washington, Watson, White House
Returning from Cairo to Algiers, I began digging away at the minor mountain of paper accumulated on my desk. Memories of Egypt and Palestine faded completely as I worked late each night to reduce those piles of the General’s fan mail. Like everyone else at headquarters, however, I was still busier on unofficial duties… working overtime on the old rumor that Gen Marshall, not Gen Ike, would head the new American Expeditionary Force building in Britain, and that Ike would go to Washington to become Chief of Staff.
Continue Reading >>>
Posted by Vicky | Comments : (0)
Category : Archive Stories, Kay Summersby
Tags: Advance CP, AFHQ Deputy Chief of Staff, Air Chief Marshal Tedder, Algiers, Bethlehem, Bizerte, Bond Street, C-54, Cairo Conference, Cairo-Jerusalem, Chief of Staff, Cleopatra, Egyptian, Egyptian History, Elliott Roosevelt, Fifth Avenue, Garden of Gethsemane, Gen Eisenhower, Gen Marshall, General "Jock" Whitely, Greece, Holy Manger, Holy Sepulcher, Italian Campaign, Italy, Jerusalem, Kansas, Karnak, King David Hotel, King Tutankhamen, Louise Anderson, Luxor, Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Maj Emery, Mediterranean, Mena House, Middle East, Moslems, Mount of Calvary, Nile River, North-Africa, Palestine, Parisian, Pharaohs, Rameses II, Rome, Rue de la Paix, Ruth Briggs, Sphinx, Thebes, Turkish, Valley of the Kings
Big Brass gathered for the Cairo Conference were concerned mostly with world-wide strategy. But they also wanted to hear testimony on the war raging right there in the Mediterranean… so Gen Marshall dispatched a special C-54 to bring the star witness. Instead of flying over in lonely pomp, Gen Eisenhower made a characteristic gesture. He invited about a dozen of his lower-rank staff members to go along : There’s no use wasting all the space in this big plane, he explained. Besides, it may be the only chance you’ll ever get to visit the Middle East.
Continue Reading >>>
Posted by Vicky | Comments : (0)
Category : Archive Stories, Kay Summersby
Tags: Algiers, Atlantic, Ethel Westermann, Hedy Lamarr, Jean Dixon, Life Photographer, Margaret (Peg) Bourke-White, Mediterranean, Oran, Peg White, Royal Air Force, Scotland, Straikallen, Tangier, Telegraph Cottage, Tex Lee, Washington
Troopship life evolved into a world without privacy, a world of restless boredom and endless rumor. Fortunately, my two cabin companions were old friends : Ethel Westermann, the dispensary nurse who had been out to Telegraph Cottage for innumerable bridge sessions, and Jean Dixon, a friendly Washington girl whose British husband had been killed in the Royal Air Force. We took turns sleeping on a dirty mattress wedged into the floor beside a double-decker bunk. With three separate sittings for each meal, we spent much of the days inching along the deck in snake-like lines. Even loafing space was rationed. We queued, slept, and strolled; strolled, slept, and queued.
Between times, we joined the gossip-manglers.
Continue Reading >>>
