Remembering Walter Cronkite
President Dwight D. Eisenhower drove Cronkite across Normandy Beach on the 20th anniversary of D-Day. Cronkite was a United Press correspondent during the war.
A 1943 report by Cronkite of a B-17 raid on Germany began, ‘‘It was a hell 26,000 feet above the Earth, a hell of burning tracer bullets and bursting flak, of crippled Flying Fortresses and flaming German fighter planes.’’ The article failed to mention that Mr. Cronkite manned a .50-caliber machine gun during the raid.
Cronkite also covered the US invasion of North Africa, waded ashore at Normandy, and landed in a glider behind enemy lines with the 101st Airborne.
A 1943 report by Cronkite of a B-17 raid on Germany began, ‘‘It was a hell 26,000 feet above the Earth, a hell of burning tracer bullets and bursting flak, of crippled Flying Fortresses and flaming German fighter planes.’’ The article failed to mention that Mr. Cronkite manned a .50-caliber machine gun during the raid.
Cronkite also covered the US invasion of North Africa, waded ashore at Normandy, and landed in a glider behind enemy lines with the 101st Airborne.
