(2 of 2)
The Red Army retreated. But Bess Elsenburg, lovely U.S. newspaper girl, who "experienced a glorious, cold twitching throughout her body" whenever she heard Stalin's voice on the radio, refused to retreat. She got herself a peasant smock, changed her name from Bess to Katski. Luckily, her redheaded lover, Roger Dameron of the International Press Association, entered Rostov with the German army. He saved Bess by telling the Nazis that she was his Russian prostitute.
Meanwhile the fight for Rostov continued. Temperamental Rostovian Josef Balenkov played the great organ in Rostov Cathedral: when he touched the top note, hidden machine guns began "electrically muttering." Their "nasty chatter of death" finished off 50 Nazis in the front pew. Larcenous Nazi Corporal Kette opened the cash register in a German brothel, innocently blew the whole place to hell.
When the Red Army counterattacked, Bess and Roger escaped to the Russian lines in a sledge. The Russians thought they were spies. But Bess sent her photograph to Marshal Timoshenko, who gallantly replied: "Please release Bess Elsenburg and her companion at once." "What could possibly stop us now?" cried Bess, as they took a plane to Iran. "Now I'll have something to tell my grandchildren!" answered Roger.
Said Novelist Hughes last fortnight: "I realize that the historical novel is my forte. My next book will be about the war in China."