A Letter From The Publisher, Oct. 16, 1944

To answer some of the questions subscribers all over the world have been asking about how TIME gathers, verifies, writes and distributes its news.

These are dangerous days for TIME men, too—as they watch our troops making the news out in the Pacific. For example:

“Pepper” Martin—taking the hard way back to his old post in Chungking —faced the mortar fire at Peleliu with the first landing wave, found himself pinned on the sands between two quizzical Marines (“I wonder where we are.” “It sure ain’t Staten Island”)

“When we hit Peleliu’s sandy beaches we wondered if another Tarawa was developing,” Martin cabled. “The Japs knew we were coming and threw everything in the book at us in a desperate effort to stave off annihilation. Two Jap shells made near misses on our amphtrack, pelted its sides with shrapnel. When we reached the beach another mortar a few yards distant spouted bloodily against the smoky island background, killed one Marine, wounded two others. We had to dig for cover in a ditch because our front lines were only 25 yards inland. . . .”

Battlefronts Writer John Walker is a veteran of the war in Europe (he was one of the last correspondents to escape from Warsaw before the Nazis goose-stepped in) but he got his Pacific baptism by fire when our troops swarmed ashore at Angaur:

“There is nothing between us and Red Beach but twinkling, flaring, dancing explosions. Two white fountains spring up in the water just ahead of our tender and the commander snaps: ‘Here it comes. Mortars. Get down!’ We duck. Then there is the pinging of machine-gun fare and we duck again. Now an amphtank chuffs up on the beach, swings and throws a shot to the left. Next in are the amphtracks, and then the landing boats, loaded with troops. Presently the beach has a jeep, a bulldozer, a U.S. flag. These things make the landing official. I gulp scalding tea from an Army canteen cup and wade ashore. . . .”

And when Admiral Mitscher’s airmen swept down on Manila Bay to strike the first historic blow in our campaign to free the Philippines, TIME’S Bill Gray was on the job for you there:

“Since Sept. 6 when I left Mitscher’s flagship, I have watched the Palau and Philippine operations from five big carriers, five destroyers, one cruiser, one tanker. During the strike at Manila Bay I was on the bridge. Suddenly the squawk-box warned: ‘Four Jap planes closing in,’ and our ships moved into tight anti-aircraft formation. Through our ear-cotton the flash of guns sounded like a mad symphony on kettle drums. A Jap fighter made two strafing passes at our stern and got away with it, but a minute later I watched him dog-fighting a Hellcat—two fly-like dots against the sky going around like Ferris wheels. Our ship opened up again. Black bursts broke high over us and I saw a dive bomber readying for its run. . .

.” Still another TIME correspondent went out to the Pacific front recently—Bill Chickering, veteran of the Gilberts and the landing on Bougainville, reached MacArthur’s headquarters after a seven months writing hitch in our offices here at home. (“TIME’S New Guinea ‘News Bureau’ can almost compete with London!” he cabled us last week after a visit from Walker and Martin.) m Anft before many more days,Bob Sherrod will be getting out his uniform and heading west to rejoin the fighting men he served with in New Guinea and on Attu, Tarawa and Saipan. Cordially,