War reporter who broke story of WWII dies
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
11.01.2017 08:23
Clare Hollingworth, the British war correspondent who brokethe news of the German invasion of Poland in 1939, has died aged 105.
Clare Hollingworth in Vietnam in June 1968. Photo: Flickr/manhhai.
On 1 September, 1939, Hollingworth was the first to report about German tanks and troops in Poland and the start of World War II, which was called “the scoop of the century”.
Hollingworth was living in Katowice, in southern Poland, at the time, reporting on growing tensions in Europe and helping refugees from German-occupied Czechoslovakia.
On a day trip to Germany in late August, an gust of wind lifted a tarpaulin, unveiling a row of tanks facing Poland.
Her article “1,000 tanks massed on Polish border. Ten divisions reported ready for swift stroke" was printed on the front page of the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper on 29 August, 1939.
Three days later, when the German invasion started, she was the first to call the British embassy. She is said to have held the telephone speaker out the window to relay the sound of tanks to prove her claims.
She is also attributed with rescuing thousands of people from the Nazis by arranging British visas.
After World War II, Hollingworth reported on conflicts in Vietnam and Algeria and published five books.
She celebrated her 105th birthday three months ago in Hong Kong, where she lived. (vb/pk)
Source: IAR