'ORCHESTRATED HELL'

摘要

Royal air force wing commander Jock Abercrombie and other pilots of Bomber Command gathered at mid-afternoon on Thursday, December 2, 1943, to find out the day's weather, which was cloudy, and the day's target, which was Berlin. On that night's mission, Aber-crombie's four-engine bomber, an Avro Lancaster with the nose art D for Dog, would carry to the German capital five tons of high explosives and one passenger. The passenger was the chief CBS radio correspondent in Europe, Edward R. Murrow. Murrow was likely the most influential private U.S. citizen during the Second World War. In London during the Blitz, he had his own, personal, finest hour. Each night, standing exposed on rooftops, he gave to an American audience of 20 million live coverage of the city's bombardment and its citizens' resilience. Introduced with the trademark phrase "This... is London," Murrow's reports converted many of his listeners from isolationists into supporters of the British cause. Speaking back in the United States in 1938, he told his audience, "Whether we like it or not, the answer to Europe's problems will be found, not in Europe, but right here in the United States."