« Scenario of the day | Main | Guess the author! »

"...like khaki dolls hanging below green lampshades..."

Click here to hear the broadcast

Thats the way that Edward R. Murrow described a drop of US Paratroops into Holland as part of Operation Market Garden in September 1944. A perfect 'word picture' to describe to people who only knew of war from what they saw in magazines what men falling to the earth from thousands of parachutes might look like.

You can think of this as a journalistic "palette rinse".

This broadcast describes the drop of paratroops from a Douglas C-47 into the fields of Holland. This is recorded at the actual event. You hear the engines of the aircraft, you hear the wind through the door and you can feel the moment in his voice.

Its electric, the moment fills me with tears.

Occasionally, its nice to be reminded of a time when journalists were on the same side as you and your country, instead of the 'perfumed preening pimps for socialist utopia' that we have today.

And for the "kids" out there, Operation Market Garden didnt go that well for our side. Its very likely that a large number of the men Mr. Murrow witnessed in the jump from that aircraft, died within in the following weeks.

The sound of those engines on the C-47. Theres nothing quite like that.

Posted @ October 03, 2007 02:39 PM | Current Affairs