 Soldiers of the press with the British 8th Army in Egypt at an allied advanced base in Libya Those are date lines All of you have seen in your newspapers or heard on the air and many of you undoubtedly are familiar with the name of the man Whose byline appears above many of those stories the man whose story we bring you now Richard D. McMillan United Press staff Correspondent accredited to the British 8th Army in North Africa McMillan has seen and reported action on six fronts of the present war Paris the Low Countries London Gibraltar He saw the British fleet smash Italy's Navy at Toronto then came assignments to Cairo to Albania in Greece McMillan teamed with UP correspondent Henry Gorell to scoop the world with the first vivid eyewitness story of the British withdrawal For the past two years. He has reported brilliantly on the seesaw battle for control of North Africa I'm what my front office likes to refer it to as a veteran war reporter Well looking back over the past three years. I guess the description fits But my own impression is that I'm more of a veteran sandhog You see I followed virtually every drive across Egypt and Libya in both directions since the Germans and Italians Elected to make the North African desert a battlefield I've eaten sand with my food and cursed it and I've burrowed into it for safety from enemy shells and thanked God for it Many a time in the past two years But that's a long story So suppose we start with June 27th, 1942 That's a date that will stick in my memory for a long time. I had followed the British winter drive that push past Benghazi and Had managed a narrow escape from captured to Brooke when field Marshal Rommel started rolling the 8th Army back toward the Libyan border The night of June 27th. I was at Matru well inside Egypt. The British had been under constant pressure for days Our position was endangered and I could hear the rumble of an artillery duel only a few miles away But I fell into an exhausted sleep in a field truck a British soldier put an abrupt end to my neck Millen Mac old fellow wake up. Oh Come out of it man Wake up and listen. Hey, what's the idea? I'm sorry. I had to clip you a bit to get you awake But we've got to be on the move. We're abandoning my true abandoning my true I'm afraid that's how it's got to be if we're to avoid another towbrook Jerry's all but have us bottled up as it is I'm mechanized forces are fighting their way through the enemy columns to join the main army. There isn't much time Okay, what are we waiting for? Let's get going right you are Just let me get under the wheel of this lorry and pick up a couple of other newspaper laddies and we'll be on the way That's it We sped off on the cover of darkness joining other men and equipment that had been moving out as I slept Soon we began meeting tanks tanks going faster than I believed a tank could move Racing along the road westward from Alexandria to join the battle the air was choked with dust We came upon a tank stop beside the road for repairs We draw up to have a chat with a young British tank officer. He said the evacuation of mattress a bad blow Puts the entrance to the corridor leading along the coastal highway to Alexandria to the hands of Rommel Mark my words. We'll get him yet Through the bitter days that followed that statement kept ringing in my ears. We will get him yet It was typical of the spirit. I found everywhere expressed by Britain's hard-pressed troops Still we continued falling back back past Fouca past El Daba Then the Libyan Plateau fell off to the Qatarer depression and the British decided to make a stand at El Alamein guarding the narrow corridor between the sea and the impassable depression on June 30th Rommel's Africa Corps struck Corresponded Macmillan watch from the front lines as contact was established between British forward forces and enemy light scouting units Along the road west of El Alamein the big battle for Alexandria and the Nile was underway That night Macmillan wrote Field Marshal Erwin Rommel commander of the Axis forces knows that victory is in his grasp if he can hold it He is aware that if he delays he may lose it He also must be fully aware that if he is over hasty he may run into disaster He has struck. Are the British ready for him? All I can say is that in the front line the British think so The Imperial forces are convinced that they are going to fight this time to a finish Those were prophetic words for the British did hold at El Alamein They held and Correspondent Macmillan spent the succeeding weeks at the front sharing the lot of the defending British forces dodging shells and bombs and fighting the desert's constant scourge of flies and ants He ate his share of sand and in the process He became aware of a growing spirit of determination and self-assurance among the British forces Through July and August the British adopted the slogan hit the enemy and hit him hard wherever you find The expression bracing the enemy up the British equivalent of giving him the business was on everybody's lips I think the best illustration of what I mean occurred one night in mid-July The night in mid-July The desert silence was suddenly broken at about midnight by bursting flares and the distant buckle of machine gun fire. I Couldn't sleep so I went out to have a word with the troops Drop down beside the crew of a battery of 25 pounds. Hello there Nice fire you've got going mind if I join you this night airs a bit chilly. Okay, give now make yourself at home Yeah, what's that insignia you're wearing get a newspaper manager. That's right. My name is Macmillan Richard Macmillan of United Press Did you know you sir say how do you get such a swell fire to burn? There isn't enough vegetation on this entire God-forsaken desert to make a respectable bonfire And we are burning the blooming sand the trick is to take an empty petrol tin and fill her up with sand Then you pour petrol over it and you got as fine as to was ever was made in Birmingham It's a good idea and I does a great good job frying sausages to a try one This bite is done. I'll cover your fingers now Say this is good. You know how to cook these things just right and I ought to it's my business I'll run a fish and chip shop back home in London. Oh Are you getting homesick for London? I'd like to be home right enough. I can't say I'm exactly homesick We've been too busy fighting to talk or think about it. We're just getting on with the war Getting on with the war They were doing that all right The men of that battery went into action and sent their first shells of the new day screaming through the dawn as we sat there roasting sausages To a man those seasoned troops refused to think of anything but getting on with the war Through August and September they powered every thrust of Ronald's forces and one could sense a growing pressure behind our lines masses of supplies of men and Overhead we were becoming increasingly aware of a mounting allied superiority in the air American bomber and fighter forces appeared Then on the night of October 25th I was summoned together with other correspondence to the headquarters tent of Lieutenant General Bernard L. Montgomery General Montgomery sat under the marquee of his tent Carefully balancing a fly whisk on his index finger then in a manner as calm as if he were lecturing an army class he said During moonlight tonight terrific battles will be fought terrific When day breaks tomorrow, we shall see a hot stand But there is no doubt of the issue Since the beginning of the war We and our allies have been plugging holes Now it looks as if with the Americans on our side. We have passed from the defensive to the offensive So the battle begins tonight The eighth army and our air power are one British troops are first class all they want is success Tommy will never let you down The offensive begins with the speed of lightning. I scurry from Montgomery's headquarters to join a regiment of Highlanders The eerie scurl of bagpipes sounds in the chill night bright moonlight of the desert The sound shrills across the minefields to the German lines at Alamand So to me the pipes are drowned out by the reverberations of the biggest blast the desert ever heard as the British open up with a barrage The British troops move forward attacking German positions at many points tanks burst through the German outer positions I am accompanying the units of the 51st Highland Division Which is getting its desert baptism in its first action since it was reformed after the Battle of France In two years of covering Western Desert campaigns I've never seen the British go to battle with such drive Coordination of effort and meticulous timing 20 minutes after the first crash of battle troops with fixed bayonets have filed through the corridors in our minefields and have Mopped up enemy forward posts Everything is going according to plan Three nights later Macmillan was witnessing the action from an advanced post in the northern corner of the area where British forces had broken through fixed Nazi defenses He wrote It looks like a dark hour for Hitler and Africa tonight I've been watching the battle from an observation post inside a damaged crusader tank The post is on what is known as hill 27 Germans light dead only a few feet away atop the knoll and the battlefield all around is strewn with wreckage German machine gunners and riflemen are sniping at us from dug-in positions only a few hundred yards away About a mile and a half to the south the tank battle is being fought in a tornado of sound volcanoes of smoke and world winds of dust It is clear that the entire 8th Army has the real offensive spirit It must be clear now even to the Germans that this is a bold and vigorous attack back by a tremendous weight of arms But it is still too early to hang out the bunting Until Rommel has answered and we know beyond a doubt whether we are able to hold and break his best efforts to retaliate Well the answer to that question was not long coming After more than a week with advanced units I had dropped back to British headquarters to comply with a request from New York for a step-by-step analysis of the action a courier strolled into the press tent and told us that general Montgomery had scheduled a press conference within the hour I dropped what I was doing and went to the tent which served as his desert headquarters The weary desert be grand press corps was assembled in the blazing Sun Suddenly Montgomery stepped through the tent flaps and into the glare an expectant hush fell over the group Montgomery cleared his throat and said gentlemen We've had a fine battle and there is no doubt now of the result complete and absolute victory Boss is completely finished Some portions of the enemy are struggling to get away But those portions still facing us in the south will be put in the bag Well, you know the rest the Axis forces were put in the bag and After two years of watching the British buffeted back and forth across the desert You can bet that I was willing to go on eating sand a little while longer to follow every step of the action Correspondent Richard McMillan has seen and written much of history in the making in North Africa And you can count on ace United Press Correspondents like him to bring you speedy complete news of every phase of war action on the fronts around the world For these soldiers of the press are on the job around the clock covering the news wherever it is wherever it may be We will be back soon with another story of adventure with United Press correspondence. Be sure to listen And meanwhile remember to look for United Press news in your favorite newspaper Listen for it on the radio. It's your guarantee of the world's best coverage of the world's biggest news