clothes and drive to Chateau Renault, where General Macon was awakened and informed., Macon shook his head. "We're stretched paper-thin now," he said. "We've got 185 miles covered by a bare 16,000 troops as it is. I don't know where I'd get two battalions. Besides, we might get over the river and get caught in the wringer and lose a lot of men." Sam talked earnestly of his belief that the German wanted to give up, not fight, and he pointed out that if the German column came on, it was eventually sure to clash with some elements of the Eighty-third in a fire fight anyway. Macon still said no, but did send the news forward to Ninth Army headquarters in Mi Foret, six kilometers from Rennes itself. Crabill and Magill walked away from the General's quarters unhappily, but Crabill was not through backing up his lieutenant. "You go back down to the General at Issoudun," he said, "and talk to him some more. Let me know if you have any ideas of anything else I can do."

Still with no sleep and, worse yet, with no solution, Magill again put the Loire behind him. His brain was numb and he dozed in his seat, while Anderson watched him out of the corner of his eye and pulled him back each time he began to slump precariously to the out- side of the jeep. Van de Walle was better off, having caught some snatches while Magill had been with Crabill and Macon. Suddenly an idea struck Anderson. "Remember when we were talking to Elster," he said to Sam, "and he brought up the damage by American planes?" Dull as his senses were at that moment, Magill immediately woke up. Maybe Elster would accept a show of force in the air! Magill had never asked for air support before, since his mission was to find out things, but wherever possible to avoid getting entangled in a scrap. The lonely party in the jeep took on considerably more elation than they were entitled to and, by the time they met with Elster on the lssoudun bridge again, they were eager. Meantime, the field telephone on my tent pole rang. It was Capt. Tom Roberts, PRO of the Eighty-third, to give me a brief rundown. The Ninth Army's reaction to the news of a possible 20,000-prisoner bag was contrary to expectations. Brest and the other ports looked like an elusive prize, and Ninth Army, characterized by General Bradley as "green and ambitious" was now showing its ambition. They wanted those 20,000 prisoners. My tipster didn't have to spell out the chance Lieutenant Sam Magill had to dwarf the famous Sergeant York exploit of World War I when he picked up 132 Germans single-handed. By the phone circuits available, it was finally possible to get Twelfth Army Group at Versailles and Lt. Col. Bert Kalisch came on. By yelling as loudly as we could, I described for him the situation below the Loire and the possibilities for story and pictures. Asking him to send any interested war correspondents first to Beaugency for a check- in with Colonel Crabill, I told him of my plan to leave on September 8 and the hope that I could join Magill among the Germans to get a running account of his adventure to fill in the later arriving press.

The Ashtabula lieutenant, at the time I was phoning, was again talking to General Elster. "My general has asked me if you will accept a show of force in the air," he said. Elster was mystified. "I will radio to my division," explained Sam, "asking them to send a group of planes. They will be instructed to took for a flare we will place on this crossroads. After they come over, they are to return and look for a cloth panel on the ground. If I put out a white one, it means you are satisfied and will negotiate. If I put out a red one, they are to wait twenty minutes, then strafe and bomb your column." The General was not convinced that Magill was not running a colossal bluff, and that went double for Magill. But Magill had that honest face. General Elster agreed and Alvey cranked up the radio. Back over the relay went the message to Colonel Crabill. The time for the show of force was set for 2 P.m., September 8. In a few moments, a return message came through from Crabill: "Have made request through Ninth Army. Am also going myself to XIX TAC to get everything I can." -

Magill set up shop in the small lobby of the Hotel d'Angleterre in Romorantin. It was a soldier's dream come true. The FFI gave them six German PW's to do the cooking, washing and other chores. It was as if they were installed for good.

At 1:30 on the afternoon of the eighth, Magill and the Germans reported to the Issoudun bridge, and the flares were installed at the intersection letting their smoky traits go upward on the still day. As the two o'clock deadline neared, Magill and the Germans looked speculatively up at the sky. The deadline came and went. It was 2:15 and the Germans began to mutter. Then, 2:30 and the sky was still blank overhead. Magill told Van de Walle to request patience, but the Germans were fast running out of it. What's more, they felt they had been bluffed-and almost successfully. Then, at 2:47 P.m., sixteen Thunderbolt fighter-bombers came over in formation. Sam had no way of knowing whether they were the ones, but he had to chance it.

"Van," he said, "ask him, quick! Which'll it be, white or red panel?" Van de Walle put the question.

Elster looked at the planes, making a graceful bank, so pretty yet so lethal and ominous. "Make it white," he said, and the panel was immediately spread in the field. The planes had come so low, some of the German soldiers hit the dirt. Now they looked on in wonder and relief as the sixteen Thunderbolts returned, waggled their wings, then flew off to the north to do battle elsewhere.

This was the crucial time for Magill. Had he now been bluffed? Had he sent his only chance of salvation flying off, and would General Elster now refuse to negotiate? But General Elster kept his bargain. "Will you send an officer with full power to discuss terms?" he asked tiredly. "I will 'send one of mine to act as liaison with you." Sam agreed, took on a non-communicative German colonel in the already crowded jeep, and headed back to Romorantin with the tidings. When the word came through to Beaugency, Crabill designated Lt. Col. Jules French, of Merrifield, Virginia, as exchange representative with the Germans, while Macon himself went down to talk with Elster.

"I could hardly stir up any interest in Paris for this story," Kalisch said, "and I don't know if anyone is coming. I told 'em any tip from you was good enough for me, but it's tough to buck the Folies Bergeres these days."

We crossed the Loire on separate ferries late on the eighth and Kalisch, to make plans for his photographers, went straight to Romorantin to join Magill. Shep and I went by easy stages down Magill's primitive trap line of communications-a radio link here in a house, there in a corner of an inn, and over there in an attic. Gathering background materials on each man, I had a story on them all."

Immediately upon our arrival at the Hotel d'Angleterre, new logistics obstacles began to appear because it had become clear that the final act of taking the 20,000 troops was not going to come off quickly. We informed Twelfth Army Group that the surrender was on, but at least ten days away. Three correspondents, however, were on the way: Collie Small, UP; Charles Haacker, Acme Newspictures; and Fred MacKenzie, Buffalo Evening News. They were charging by jeep down the Paris-Or]6ans road, and Collie had come away so fast he was still wearing his pajamas under his clothes. Highly upset to find they were so early, they nevertheless came down to Romorantin. Shortly afterward, Hal Boyle, AP, and Ivan H. "Cy" Peterman, Philadelphia Inquirer, arrived.

Kalisch's negotiations with Lt. Col. French and Generalmaior Elster were going along famously, it being Kalisch's plot to be sure every phase of this spectacular achievement would be on film record. To start the movie, he needed a day with his cameramen in the German assembly areas, and a guarantee that General Elster would not at the last minute demand the film. General Elster agreed to talk it out. Driven to the headquarters by Private First Class James B. "Sandy" Sandeen, Kalisch was presented to Elster, who found that Kalisch's mother had come from Wirttemberg, birthplace also of both Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and Elster himself. After a chat, as always, Kalisch was in, this time because of his German-born mother. So friendly was their relationship that Kalisch suggested a public surrender, like that of Cornwallis. Certainly it would be with honor, but this could only be proved if he had pictures to show, and outdoor pictures at that. Kalisch needed this condition badly, because he had no lights for indoor shooting. "Agreed," said General Elster, after fifteen minutes of Kalisch's oratory, "I will make a public surrender, but it must be with an honor platoon and a proper military ceremony."

Kalisch promised to deliver his end, and suggested that the token of capitulation be a Luger rather than a sword which would look as out of place as cameras would have at the time of Cornwallis. This arrangement was approved by General Macon, who told Kalisch he could select the spot and time of the surrender.

Kalisch inspected the area from Orleans to Blois. He first thought of the main square in Orleans at the foot of the statue of Joan of Arc. Pictorially it was perfect, politically it was dynamite. The French authorities convinced him that massing 20,000 armed Germans in a town full of armed Maquis might