To answer some of the questions subscribers all over the world have been asking about how TIME gathers, verifies, writes and distributes its news.
Dateline—Leyte.
Last Friday John Walker of TIME'S Battlefronts department handed his first dispatch from the Philippines to an Army short-wave broadcaster.
"American power came back to the Philippines today over the glass-smooth, grass-green waters of Leyte Gulf under a tropical sun coming through an ominous haze lit by yellow flashes and the blasting of guns," that message began. "It was virtually perfect weather for the landings."
Walker's words flashed across 7,000 miles of ocean via U.S. Army Signal Corps circuits to San Francisco. And there the monitors of the Blue Network picked them up—recorded them—wrote them down—and wired them east by fast overland telegraph—to reach TIME'S editors in New York in less than an hour's time.
"All landings seem to have come off well," Walker reported. "The beach where I am was perforated by both mortar and artillery fire at landing. Two boats hit, one sunk. Casualties relatively light. Loyal Filipinos helping us from the first moment of landing."
Walker went on to tell how General MacArthur got his first view of the Philippines—"a gun-rocked coast backed by rolling hills. He saw it from a cruiser standing in to shore an hour after the landings, sitting placidly on the flag bridge puffing his pipe. . . ."
And when the General came ashore at Red Beach, TIME'S Bill Chickering, veteran of the Gilberts and the landing on Bougainville, was waiting on that "toughest beachhead" to report MacArthur's arrival with President Osmeña:
"Both men seemed calm," Chickering short-waved, "but MacArthur borrowed a canteen and his hand trembled as he held it to his lips. Watching his expression, there was no mistaking his elation. . . .
"This morning on this sandy beach, where nipa huts lean crazily, columns of Filipinos began to pass by. Their clothes were patched and the gay colors faded, but in their faces was dignity above any other native race we have encountered.
"Said one to me: 'Glad to see you, sir.
It has been many years.'
"I'm not ashamed to admit that as I looked into his intelligent brown face there were tears in my eyes. . . ."