Mediterranean Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 18, 1962, Naples, Naples                                Continued from Page s spy and we should turn you Over to the  Hoge finally convinced the germans that he was a military correspondent and he thrown into a pm Camp. In february 1945, russian troops freed Tom and he spent a month with the soviet army before working his Way Back to the Rome edition of stripes. It was a military newspaper that failed to understand red tape rank or regulations. The staff was Bent on the task of getting news to the troops daily. This Lack of say it was a failure to follow at least two staffers the Croix de Guerre and the Bronze Star the time was january 1945, the place Strasbourg France the Battle of the bulge was raging to the North. The . 7tn army was headquartered in Strasbourg but shortly after the new year s they were ordered to move Back to Lineville West of the Vosges mountains. Stripes had a Strasbourg edition going at the time and orders were to suspend publication and Retreat too de Clark and Vic Dallaire Felt the paper should continue As Long As american troops were fighting in the Vicinity. Two other americans decided to stay a couple of psychological warfare civilians whose Job it was 10 propagandize the local inhabitants in French and German. The populace of Strasbourg saw the Yah is withdraw panic hit the streets with the fear of German reoccupation Foremost in most citizens mind. Then Vic and de swung into action. With the help of the two american civilians the stripes staffers put out daily editions of the paper in English French and Ger Man. Then they took the papers into the streets and distributed them to the people. Seeing that the american military paper was still in operation the people of Stras Bourg calmed Down when French North african troops re entered the City the situation was for everybody but Vic and de. There was talk of a court martial because they had failed to follow orders and Retreat. Instead they were decorated by the French and uj3. Governments for remain ing in Strasbourg and averting panic among its citizens by publishing the stripes tried to publish fire throughout those Days and one of the stripes men Joe Mcbride still with us today remembers when the paper tried to open a Liege edition just before Christmas 1944. When Mcbride then a technician fifth and six other staffers arrived at Liege the. Belgian City was being pounded by v bombs. Nazi paratroopers were dropping around it the German army had broken through to the South and East Luftwaffe bombers were dropping their loads on Liege and . Troops were pulling Back. We re sure opening this joint with a Mcbride told his buddies. For nine Days they scoured the City. Just As they had found an operational news Plant and were set to go into Busi Ness they got orders from Paris to with draw. They did. Another Crew moved in finally after the Battle of the bulge and set up the Liege edition. Sometimes stripes reporting helped the War along. A utile Story that appeared in the edition of May 12, 1944, May have been the forerunner of Parachute aided land Ings which uj3. Jet fighter Craft use today. A b24 Liberator was returning from a bombing run with its Hydraulic brakes shot out. The plane landed safely in Italy after an imaginative Pilot ordered Para chutes to be released from the Waist win Dows of his aircraft As a Means of braking the plane after touchdown two weeks later the Crew of the b17 stage door canteen found themselves in similar difficulties. Someone remembered the Story did the same thing and the plane was landed safely at base. Probably the greatest Battle in which stripes engaged was a Flap dubbed the Battle of stars and by capt Harry c. Butcher Gen Dwight Eisenhower s naval aide. The stars were the three belonging to it Gen George c. Patton cd of the. 3d stripes were the three bid is ing to Bill stripes Carto Chiist and creator of  and Joe. Everybody like Willie and Joer two i crud covered dry Humoured infantrymen who typified the front line fighter to All our combat troops. But Patton. Did t like Willie and Joe. He Felt that portraying these two of uniform and in dirty setting a bad example for the army. He wrote a letter to stripes threatening to bar the paper throughout his command if it did t remove the unshaven and unkempt Mauldin characters from its pages. Mauldin who had been wounded in action Felt his was an honest portrayal of infantrymen. He was backed by the stripes staff which had been successfully fighting the Battle against brass interference. The War Between the stars and the stripes finally came to a victorious end for sgt Mauldin when Eisenhower the supreme commander wrote to his Deputy theater commander april 11, 1945 a great Deal of pressure has been brought on me in the past to abolish such things As Mauldin s cartoons the a bag Etc. You will make sure that the responsible officer knows he is not to interfere in matters of this kind. If he believes that a specific violation of Good sense or Good judgment has occurred he May bring it to my personal  when world War d fighting ceased it was decided stripes would continue As Long As . Troops remained abroad. The first Plant on German sail was set up in a of Ungstad brewery april 5, 1945. A year later stripes moved to Altdorf taking Over the presses of Der Sturmer a nazi Sheet published by jew baiter Julius Streicher. War maps showed shifting front lines. On sept. 27, 1949, stripes finally settled in Darmstadt at a former Luftwaffe train ing Field. It has been there Ever since. Stripes became a no appropriated fund Agency which meant its staff worked for Uncle Sam but had to pay its own Way and could t use government funds. Since it was not allowed to sell Adver Tising stripes had a financial problem. The paper was sold for a Nickel but Cost More than that to print and distribute. This problem was solved through the circulation department which runs the news stands at army and air Force installations. Profits from sales of books magazines and other publication Nave been enough not Only to pay the deficit but also to con tribute Large sums to the army and air Force welfare programs. When stripes settled Down in postwar Germany it began to Civili Anize. As military staffers left stripes built a staff of full time professional civilian newsmen although the paper still has a few military personnel. Many of its wartime staffers went Back into civilian life and important jobs on major newspapers throughout the . Others went into Public relations and re lated Fields. Undoubtedly the most famous graduate of wartime stripes is Mauldin pulitzer boys read stripes too strikes is 20 years old today but its family tree goes Back 100 years great grandpa started telling the troops All about it daring the civil War. There was a private newspaper known As the stars and stripes and printed in a place called tobacco factory va., in August 1861 Bat the first copy of the stars end stripes Pat out As a military newspaper was published nov. A 1801 in Blo Rafield to. The paper was established by four Union soldiers and run Oft the press of a newspaper captured when troops of the 18th and 20th Illinois Volunteer regi ments ran the Confederate forces out of Bloo Rafoeld. Stripes of course was named filter the american Flag but the yanks who ran this predecessor must have had problems. In one article they complained they could write at night when other people were asleep and when we ought to have been doing the same  elsewhere in the four Page Issue they noted that we also had our proper official duties to perform including the care of eight men of col Baxter s regiment of Loyal arkansans wounded by Bush Ackers on the March  at any rate the Bloomfield Effort folded after that first edition probably because those Illinois boys were in hot Pursuit of the rebels who according to reports were hiding out in nearby swamps. Another one edition paper sprang up in to Bidaux la. This edition was printed on wallpaper because there was t any thing else available in the confiscated offices of the Thibodaux Banner. Other Cirii War editions of the stars and stripes appeared in Boston Jackson port ark., and new Orleans. But each was unrelated to the other. Probably the longest runing stripes of the civil War was the new Orleans edition. This paper was published in longhand i Parish prison a pm Camp Tor Northern troops. Before dropping the civil War note that Southern troops also put out army papers. There was a daily rebel Banner an army Argus and crisis the army ant Navy Herald the Vidette and the Missouri army Argus. Stripes faded away Only to reappear again 57 years later. That first edition of world War i stripes was published feb. 8, 1918, seventy one weekly issues were put out the test on june 13, 1919. Sgt Joyce Kilmer the Soldier poet Best known for was a frequent contributor until his death in action july 30, 1918. On the staff was an impressive list of Soldier writers who went on to become journalistic greats in the postwar civilian press. Among them were pvt Harold Ross who later founded and edited the new yorker Magazine sgt Alexander Woollcott noted drama critic it Grantland Bice top notch sports writer and capt Franklin p. Adams syndicated columnist. The world War i paper was different from the one you know today. It was a seven column eight Page affair instead of the tabloid style of stripes today the civil forebears were different in another Way they car ried advertising and editorials. Perhaps the most Radical departure world War i stripes took from the rest of . Journalism was the elimination of the sports Page this care about five months after the paper began publish ing on july 26, 1918, Grantland Rice told the reason there is no space left for the Cobbs the ruths. The Johnsons the wizards and the Fulton s in the ease and safety of Home when the byans the Smiths the Larsen the bernsteins and others Are charging machine guns and plugging along through shrapnel or grinding out 12-hour details 200 Miles to the  world War i stripes began publication in Paris which is never a bad place to get Good things started. Its offices were in the old Continental daily building. The doughboy version of stripes  known As the official newspaper of the Gen John j. Pershing declared that the paper was to be entirely for and by the a policy that was followed by general of the army Dwight d. Eisen Hower throughout world warn Page 4 stars and stripes 20th anniversary supplement april 18, 1962