The 1st U.S. Army Press Camp at the Château de Vouilly
Alexander Braun • September 9, 2023
A visit to the press camp of the 1st U.S. Army at the Château de Vouilly
The Château de Vouilly is one of the lesser known but very interesting sites in Normandy. It is located 4 km south of
La Cambe, where the largest German military cemetery in Normandy is located.
The château, which is now a beautiful small hotel, housed the headquarters of the American press camp of the 1st U.S. Army from June 10 to August 2, 1944.
Famous war reporters and photographers such as Walter Cronkite, Andy Rooney, Ernie Pyle, Robert Capa, Robert Dempsey and Ernest Hemingway covered the Battle of Normandy from here.
For two months, General Omar Bradley, 42 journalists and their technicians stayed in this chateau with the owners, the Hamel family.
Being a former PR professional myself, this is one of my favorite places in Normandy.
16 months before they reported from Normandy, two of the aforementioned war correspondents, Walter Cronkite (United Press) and Andy Rooney (Stars and Stripes), were part of a group of eight war correspondents who called themselves "Writing 69th" and were given a unique opportunity to report on a bombing raid on the Reich.
After three weeks of intensive training, six of the eight men were selected to cover a bombing raid on Bremen carried out by 65 four-engine American B-17 "Flying Fortress" and B-24 Liberator bombers on February 26, 1943.
This raid was only the second attack on the Reich by the 8th U.S. Air Force.
As the sky over Bremen was overcast, the bombers changed course and flew towards their secondary target, the U-boat pens at Wilhelmshaven. One of the B-24 Liberators was shot down by a German fighter plane over Wilhelmshaven, killing Robert P. Post, war correspondent for the New York Times, and all but two of the crew.
Robert P. Post found his final resting place in the Ardennes American Cemetery at Henry Chapel, Belgium.
I visited Robert's grave in the summer of 2021 to pay my respect to this brave war correspondent, see photo below.
If you want to read more about the Writing 69th, please visit the web site of my
friend Jim Hamilton who has done a lot of research and published a book about the Writing 69th.
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