To answer some of the questions subscribers all over the world have been asking about how TIME gathers, verifies, writes and distributes its news.
Here are a few personal reports on what has been happening to our TIME & LIFE correspondents. They may make their stories in this week's TIME more interesting to you, as they have to me.
One comes (by way of Teddy White in Kunming) from Harry Zinder, who took part in the B-29 bombing of Japan aboard one of the four big planes that crashed:
"I am safe back at the Twentieth Bomber Command's China base after thirty-six hours of wandering just a few miles behind the Honan battlefront where the B-29 I was in crash-landed flying back from Japan bombing. I spent most of the time with crew members working out a scheme to avoid being captured by Japs, while Jap fighters and bombers throughout the morning mercilessly strafed and bombed the ship into a total wreck. I fortunately escaped any injury. I hope my story on bombing will reach you in time for publication. (It did. See WORLD BATTLEFRONTS.) For the second time I am glad to be alive and walk away from a plane crash, but again I lost all my equipment."
One comes via Algiers from Stoyan Pribichevich, who was captured (instead of Tito) by the Nazis in Yugoslavia:
"I am in Italy, in good health and spirits, to re-equip myself and write my stories, after which I will go back to rejoin Tito. I was captured by Nazi paratroopers (see PRESS), lined up against a wall for execution, talked the Germans out of it, then escaped, covered 120 miles on foot, went through battles, passed twice through no man's land, was encircled once and broke through again. I believe I am the only Allied correspondent captured by and escaped from the Germans. Other stories will tell what I saw and heard among the Germans during my captivity, about German atrocities, marches and battles in forests and rocks, including Allied Airforce help; and about the Partisan spirit and details of life during the campaign."
A third is from Charles Wertenbaker (see FOREIGN NEWS), chief of the TIME & LIFE staff on the beachhead in Normandy:
"Your invasion team is all present or accounted for. Walton and Capa are with me, Landry is down the road. Scherschel is somewhere on the beach and Ragsdale, I hope, is on the way back to London. Byron Thomas and Bohrod are also said to be beachcombing somewhere. Reports from the second batch of correspondents arriving yesterday are that Belden and White are still held up in England.
"Walton, who landed with the paratroopers, is with the 82nd Airborne, which is probably the best spot here, and will stick with them. I will try to keep you covered on overall American action and am now proceeding with Capa for a closer look at the currently most active sector.
"Walton wants a pair of OD pants; and I want a pair of OD pants, one of my heavy shirts, some saddlesoap, a bottle of Vitamin C and a bottle of whiskey. We have plenty of brandy and Calvados."
So far we have no direct word from Bob Sherrod on Saipan. Here's hoping he is not having as tough a time as he did on the beaches of Tarawa.