Steven Casey
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190660628
- eISBN:
- 9780190660659
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190660628.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Military History, American History: 20th Century
When the newspaper correspondents were grounded after Robert Post’s death, the Eighth Air Force exploited the opportunity to publicize the air war on its own terms. Major General Ira C. Eaker, the ...
More
When the newspaper correspondents were grounded after Robert Post’s death, the Eighth Air Force exploited the opportunity to publicize the air war on its own terms. Major General Ira C. Eaker, the Eighth’s commander, led the way. He began with simple numbers, detailing the missions undertaken, the number of bombs dropped, the amount of damage inflicted, and the casualties sustained. But, along with a team of pushy publicists, including the aggressive Major Richard R. “Tex” McCrary, Eaker’s Eighth soon developed more eye-catching methods, from graphic photographs to a Hollywood movie, The Memphis Belle. Dubbed a “high-octane outfit” by reporters, this publicity team seemed well positioned to dominate how the home front perceived the air war, especially when it forged a close and constructive relationship with Henry Luce’s two powerful flagship magazines, Time and Life.Less
When the newspaper correspondents were grounded after Robert Post’s death, the Eighth Air Force exploited the opportunity to publicize the air war on its own terms. Major General Ira C. Eaker, the Eighth’s commander, led the way. He began with simple numbers, detailing the missions undertaken, the number of bombs dropped, the amount of damage inflicted, and the casualties sustained. But, along with a team of pushy publicists, including the aggressive Major Richard R. “Tex” McCrary, Eaker’s Eighth soon developed more eye-catching methods, from graphic photographs to a Hollywood movie, The Memphis Belle. Dubbed a “high-octane outfit” by reporters, this publicity team seemed well positioned to dominate how the home front perceived the air war, especially when it forged a close and constructive relationship with Henry Luce’s two powerful flagship magazines, Time and Life.
Steven Casey
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- March 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190660628
- eISBN:
- 9780190660659
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190660628.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Military History, American History: 20th Century
Over the winter of 1943–44, the efforts by the Eighth Air Force to dominate media reporting faltered badly. The ill-starred Schweinfurt raid was the spark, since it focused attention on the high ...
More
Over the winter of 1943–44, the efforts by the Eighth Air Force to dominate media reporting faltered badly. The ill-starred Schweinfurt raid was the spark, since it focused attention on the high number of planes the United States was losing in daylight raids over Germany, rather than on the damage it was inflicting on the enemy. Newspaper journalists also began both to recoil from the depressing prospect of reporting the mounting losses and to resent the Eighth Air Force’s obvious bias toward glossy magazines like Time and Life. Only after the command shake-up at the start of 1944 did the reporters’ attitude toward the bombing war become more positive, and by that time the attention of much of the media had already turned to the ongoing land battles in the Mediterranean and the upcoming invasion of France.Less
Over the winter of 1943–44, the efforts by the Eighth Air Force to dominate media reporting faltered badly. The ill-starred Schweinfurt raid was the spark, since it focused attention on the high number of planes the United States was losing in daylight raids over Germany, rather than on the damage it was inflicting on the enemy. Newspaper journalists also began both to recoil from the depressing prospect of reporting the mounting losses and to resent the Eighth Air Force’s obvious bias toward glossy magazines like Time and Life. Only after the command shake-up at the start of 1944 did the reporters’ attitude toward the bombing war become more positive, and by that time the attention of much of the media had already turned to the ongoing land battles in the Mediterranean and the upcoming invasion of France.
