Thursday 20 April 2017

Party Hard

"To the commander of the 61st Radom Rifle Corps

I report that at 23:00 on May 6th, 1945, American correspondents Captains Robert Ruben, John McVane, Victor Berstein, Richard Hotslet, escorted by Sr. Lieutenant Bruce Feshenden and driver Corporal John Doyle were detailed near Hohenwarthe village while headed across the Elbe.
According to the testimony of those detained, they crossed Elbe near Torgau with General Bradley and were present at a banquet hosted by Marshal Konev, after which they returned to their forces on their own while drunk and decided to make a detour to Berlin.

They spent the night and the morning as guests at positions of a regiment, the number of which they do not know.

On May 6th, they left Berlin to find their forces, but did not know where the crossing was, and ended up in Hohenwarthe where they were detained by the commander of the 629th Order of Suvorov Regiment.

The aforementioned correspondents belong to the following newspapers:
  • Captain Berstein: P.M.
  • Captain Hotslet: "Columbia" radio company
  • Captain Ruben: "Reuters" telegraph agency
  • Captain McVane: State mass media company
Interrogation by Colonel Gruzdev
Translation by Junior Technical Lieutenant Altayev"

2 comments:

  1. I wonder what "State Mass Media Company" was?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I doubt you'll see this years-later reply, but John Mcvane worked for NBC, aka the National Broadcasting Corporation. I wonder if it's just an odd translation, or a misunderstanding of the nature of NBC on the part of the Soviet officals.

      Delete