Clare Hollingworth, reporter who broke news about start of World War II, dies at 105

[muriel_volestrangler]

In early 1939, peace activist Clare Hollingworth arrived on the Polish-German border to aid Jews and other refugees fleeing from the Sudetenland, newly annexed by Nazi Germany. On a brief return to her native England, 27-year-old Hollingworth — who once professed to “enjoy being in a war” — was hired as a part-time correspondent in Katowice, Poland, for the London Daily Telegraph.
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Ms. Hollingworth, who died Jan. 10 at 105, had driven into Germany to get a better sense of the impending danger. Without divulging the reason, she asked to borrow a diplomatic vehicle from her ex-lover, the British consul in Katowice, knowing the Union Jack on its hood would get her across the heavily restricted border.
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“So when I got back I said, ‘Thank you for lending me your car.’ And he said, ‘Where did you go, old girl?’ So I said, ‘I went into Germany.’ He said, ‘Stop being funny.’ And I said, ‘What’s more, I got a very good story: The tanks are already lined up for invasion of Poland.’ He went upstairs and sent a top secret message to the Foreign Office.”

Ms. Hollingworth called the Telegraph correspondent in Warsaw, and he filed a front-page story published on Aug. 29, 1939, under the headline “1,000 tanks massed on Polish border. Ten divisions reported ready for swift stroke.” Three days later, she awoke to the sounds of German planes and Panzer tanks invading Poland. After notifying her editors, she called the British Embassy in Warsaw and declared, “It’s begun.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/clare-hollingworth-reporter-who-broke-news-about-start-of-world-war-ii-dies-at-105/2017/01/10/6aa9ca72-d73f-11e6-b8b2-cb5164beba6b_story.html?utm_term=.8e19bad9b063

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Obituary: Clare Hollingworth

While driving back to Poland, having bought wine, torches and as much film as possible, she passed through a valley in which huge hessian screens had been erected.

As the wind blew one of the screens back, it revealed thousands of troops, together with tanks and artillery, all facing the Polish border.
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Three days later, Hollingworth saw the German tanks rolling into Poland. But when she phoned the secretary at the British Embassy in Warsaw, he told her it could not be true as negotiations between Britain and Germany were still continuing.

"So I hung the telephone receiver out of the window," Hollingworth later recalled, "So he could listen to the Germans invading."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13960347