As the war in Europe intensified and as German military strength seemed unstoppable, simple reporting of it seemed inadequate. And so the “experts” those people who either knew the situation first hand or who had “a pretty good idea” were called upon to give impressions, give assessments and offer plausible conclusions to what was going on before them.

Some of the information was reliable, some of it was based on first-hand experience coming fresh from the front. Others were speculation based on what had gone on before.

Retired Major General Stephen O. Fuqua was well versed on war from the perspective of 1917. Many still thought the German invasion of France would be bogged down and fought, much like the previous war had been fought, in trenches. Fuqua talks about the seeming impenetrable defenses of the Maginot Line; that this would be the game changer in the bigger scheme of things. Fuqua also mentions some erroneous reports of nerve gas – and some questionable reports of “beams” or “heat rays” being used on troops of opposing sides by the Germans. None of these reports were confirmed or even substantiated, but since the nature of news gathering from the various fronts was sketchy at best, speculation was bound to run rife.

Also, the broadcast is heavily scripted, further questioning credibility. But the American public were so starved for information on the war at the time, almost anything was welcome particularly since the probabilities that the U.S. would be dragged into the war sooner rather than later were becoming more and more apparent.

So this was what America was listening to and spending sleepless nights over during the early days of World War 2, when it was still confined to Europe – a little over a year later it would all change and eyewitness accounts would be a rule rather than the exception. But for this May 14th in 1940 it was the word of Major General Stephen Fuqua and Ben Grauer that we had to go on.

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