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Show i'f f ? ' ."-! ' . .. ,v.,,, 'i? ' X X sr!-.""" ' Sr"p 1 ' " ' V- , ' - '-- .- STARS AND STRIPES Armed Forces Official Paper Commences Publication in Korea The Stars and Stripes, official newspaper of the United States armed forces, has opened shop in Korea, thereby continuing a tradition ol frontline front-line news service to weary fighting men no matter how tough the job of printing and circulation. Millions of copies of the paper were distributed at fighting fronts in both world wars. Staffmen got their news under fire and sometimes had to print it wherever they could find type and a press. Ships, planes, jeeps, donkeys any available means of transportation were used to get copies to forward areas. In Korea the same hazardous task will be undertaken by a group of soldier sol-dier journalists recently sent there from Tokyo. Stars and Stripes was first printed print-ed February 8, 1918, in Paris by order of Gen. John J. Pershing. Then a weekly publication, it gained gain-ed a circulation of 500,000. In his memoirs General Pershing commented, com-mented, "I do not believe any one factor could have done more to sustain sus-tain the morale of the A.E.F. than the Stars and Stripes". The paper was discontinued after the armistice, but it came back bigger and better than ever in World War II. More than 30 daily editions were published in various war theaters. The first appeared in London in 1942. Later Stars and Stripes went to Africa, Sicily, Italy, France, Germany, and the Pacific areas as the fighting fronts moved on. Paper Grew in Late War The London edition, initially published pub-lished as a weekly, blossomed into a tabloid-size daily with a peak circulation of nearly 700,000. When allied assault troops hit the beaches in Normandy, the paper sent ashore i a special eight-page "liberation issue" is-sue" containing a summary of in- vasion operations, a pictorial re-view, re-view, headlines from the home front and reprints of comic strips that the invasion troops had missed. First attempts to set np a continental edition ended when a German artillery shell scored scor-ed a direct hit on the Stars and Stripes printing plant at Carentan, France. Undaunted, the staff moved on to Cherbourg Cher-bourg and brought out its first edition on the appropriate date of July 4, 1944. Later the stafT moved its headquarters a dozen times or more as American forces slashed Inland. In Germany Ger-many Stars and Stripes printed one edition on wallpaper before commandeering a paper mill and other supplies. Traditionally this newspaper for fighting men has been written and edited by noncommissioned personnel, person-nel, generally with a minimum of supervision by officers. It is breezy but accurate, and its alumni alum-ni now include many well known names in American journalism. In World War II Stars and Stripes had its own teletype news network, carrying 30,000 words of copy daily to various editions. Since the war, editions have been published for occupation troops in Germany and Japan. World's Largest Route The distinction of maintaining the world's largest paper route was claimed by Mid Pacific Stars and Stripes during fighting against the Japanese. Military aircraft flew more than 20,000 miles daily to distribute dis-tribute the newspaper at a host of pinpoint islands in the vast reaches of the Pacific. Perhaps the best illustration of the paper's freedom of expression was a "gripe" column for enlisted men's letters published in the wartime war-time European edition. , |
