Ben Miller of the Baltimore Sun; Harold Denny of The New York Times; and Laurence (Larry) Meier of International News Service.

Of the 54 war correspondents listed above, 51 died on or near their combat theaters of operation. Three on the accreditation list died in the continental United States.

BEN MILLER, a military affairs reporter for the Baltimore Sun, received War Department clearance for overseas duty. To prepare for his mission, Miller scheduled a trip across the United States with the intention of sending back "home town" stories about Maryland servicemen. He never left the States. He died on May 18, 1942 in an airplane crash in Kansas.

HAROLD DENNY of The New York Times paid heavily for his long service overseas. He died of a heart attack on July 3, 1945 in New York after returning from an extended tour in the European Theater of Operations. Denny was taken prisoner by the Germans and placed in isolated custody in a concentration camp. There his health deteriorated. He was freed in a prisoner exchange involving civilians.

Denny made major contributions to the on-going war story in the early days of Adolf Hitler. In May, 1940 he was assigned to cover the War Office in London. He was there when Norway was falling to the Germans. In his routine story file on May 1, 1940, Denny reminded America of the old British maxim--"England loses every battle, except the last one."

Denny's stories on May 11 of that dark year reported the invasion of the low countries by Germany. But he noted that "effective opposition would be brought by the Allies" and that victory was just a matter of time. His analysis told of Nazi plans for the establishment of air bases in the Netherlands to be used as jumping off spots for raids on England.

On May 14, Denny filed his first copy from the field. He was with the British army in Belgium noting "the situation is grave, but not hopeless." He was on the losing side as Germany took the offensive.

On May 16, The New York Times had an exclusive comminique from Denny. He wrote about British and Germany units being heavily engaged throughout the low countries. He visited the front at Louvain in Belgium, then under heavy bombardment from both ground artillery and Nazi dive bombers. The Germans were bombing cities and straifing British units at the same time. At this point, America was getting its first taste of what was to become known as the"German blits"--the fast-moving mechanized combination of ground arms and aircraft. Denny said the British counterattacks were weak, but did manage to slow the Germans. With the aid of a Panzer tank division, the invading Germans took the city at night.

In the next seven days, it was over for the British. Units were pulled back across the Channel. Some made it to France and others to Dunkirk.

America was not in the war at this time. But Denny's stories were telling and brutal. He managed to make London where he wrote:

(May 23, 1940)
"And thus today, for the first time since Napoleon sat on a cliff overlooking that same Boulogne and reluctantly decided not to attempt to cross the Channel, Great Britain tonight faces the specter of invasion." Winston Churchill gave Commons the blackest of news. He said German armed forces were beginning to reach the Channel area. Denny was in Commons as Churchill spoke.

One of Denny's final stories came on May 28, 1940. He wrote of the desperate situation facing the British in Flanders, but they continued to fight. He said morale was unbroken, that only one seaport or escape route back to England remained: Dunkirk. Even that would be closed shortly by the Germans. One other alternative remained-surrender to the Germans.

Harold Denny became a prisoner of the Germans. He spent long days and months marching across Germany from one Stalag to another. When he was repatriated, he arrived on the scene in time to cover the closing days of the war and the total reverse of the fates. He was printed in The New York Times of October 22, 1994 with a battlefield dateline from Aachen, Germany.

It must have been a major personal victory for this man to write the following dispatch:

(October 22, 1944)
AACHEN, GERMANY-The American flag went up today in Aachen-Allied Military Government began rule in the first large German city to be conquered by our arms. The government had little real business to do, today, however, once they had set up shop. There were no local customers. Aachen is shattered and beyond description. One encountered not more than a dozen civilians all day, poking in the ruins of their houses or offices and no more than 100 inhabitants can still be here.

The first problem of our military government in Aachen is to get the water supply restored, then the electrical and sewerage systems. Army engineers will clear the streets of debris where needed for our own traffic. The telephone system will be restored for our own use-the Germans had forbidden Aachen to use the telephone, telegraph, radio, post or any other form of communications lest they be employed in our spying.

-30-

Harold Denny's war was one of the longest for a reporter. He came home with victory. He died six months later.

LAURENCE (LARRY) MEIER was another participant in coverage of early fighting. Meier went overseas for International News Service. He was on the European front when the United States entered hostilities. In the dark days between Harold Denny's coverage of the fall of Allied efforts in Europe and the morale-boosting raid on Dieppe by British commando troops, Meier was a front line reporter.

The Allies were badly in need of a military boost. Like General Jimmy Doolittle's classic B-25 raid on Japan early in the Pacific war, the British planned and executed a major punch toward Hitler's legions. The plan was to send a fast-striking outfit onto French turf. Although billed as an Allied strike, it was totally British in planning with only a sprinkling of Free French troopers in the unit.

Faces were blackened against glare of enemy rockets. Highly-trained killers hit the coastline near Dieppe the night of August 19, 1942. The American press was represented by a single reporter. He was selected from a pool on a draw. Meier went in with the early troops, but was hit in the head by gunfire. It was the end of Meier's war. He died many years later in his San Francisco home. An attending physician said he succumbed to after-effects of the head wound he had suffered at Dieppe.

Regardless of the brevity of their field careers, Miller, Denny and Meier were major contributors to the beginning of a major war.