She witnessed and covered many pivotal moments of WWII. She was one of the first female wartime correspondents, and one of the few journalists to be at Omaha Beach on D-Day.
Making a Name for Herself
One of the first female wartime correspondents, and one of the few journalists to be at Omaha Beach on D-Day, Martha Gellhorn witnessed and covered many pivotal moments of WWII. But, it wasn't easy to get there. While she is most often known as the third wife of fellow journalist and literary giant Ernest Hemingway, she was determined to not be a footnote in someone else's life.
In 1936, shortly after meeting Ernest Hemingway, Gellhorn received the call from Collier's to cover the Spanish Civil War. She took her last $50, along with some cans of food, to Spain where Hemingway said he would be waiting. The two wed in 1940 and honeymooned in China, where Collier's had sent Gellhorn to report on the deteriorating situation there.
However, Hemingway preferred having Martha at their home in Cuba, instead of traveling the world to cover the war.
Their marital troubles climaxed in 1944 when Hemingway stole Martha's credential from Collier's and traveled to England to cover the impending Allied invasion at Normandy, in her stead.
Desperate to cover the opening of a Second Front in Europe, she eventually crossed the Atlantic in a ship filled with explosives after Hemingway blocked her attempts to get a press credential to take a flight.
Because Hemingway had taken Collier's job, Martha had to fight her way to report on the invasion of France, as it started on June 6, 1944. She rushed to the southern British coastline and discovered a hospital ship. She gained access to the ship by lying to the military police, saying she was supposed to interview the nurses on board, and she then stowed away in a bathroom for the journey across the English Channel.
When the ship was in position just off Omaha Beach, Martha found her way onto a landing craft serving as a water ambulance. In the process, she became one of the only women, and journalists, to land on June 6, 1944. She waded ashore and worked with the medics to get wounded men back to the hospital ship for treatment. When she got back to the hospital ship, she took time to record the conversations of wounded soldiers from the beach as they waited to be retrieved from the beach on D-Day - again showing the human spirit in the face of war and devastation.
Martha GellhornPBSMartha Gellhorn
A novelist, travel writer, journalist, and a pioneering war correspondent who covered most of the major conflicts of the 20th century. She was the third wife of author Ernest Hemingway.Martha met Ernest in Key West, Florida, in December of 1936 at the bar, Sloppy Joe's. She was 28 years old; he was 39, and she had admired Hemingway since her college days.
The following year, Martha and Ernest both traveled to Spain to report on the Spanish Civil War and began an affair that would last for years. She wrote for Collier's, while he was reporting for the North American Newspaper Alliance.
On November 4, 1940, after fifteen years together, Hemingway divorced Pauline. Seventeen days later he and Martha were married in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
After they were married, the couple moved to Havana and Martha rented a 19th-century estate twelve miles outside the city, called Finca Vigia-Spanish for "Lookout Farm." Hemingway would eventually buy the property and it would be his home for the next twenty years.
By the summer of 1943, the tide of war in Europe had begun to turn and Martha was intent on covering the Allied advance. In September, she left for England without Hemingway, to report for Collier's. He begged her to return to Cuba; she urged him to join her in London, instead. In early 1944, Martha returned to Cuba, hoping somehow to reassure her husband and rebuild their marriage. It did not work. Finally, Martha told him she "was going back to London whether he came or not."
Eventually, Ernest agreed to go. He signed on with Collier's, thus ensuring that Gellhorn would be overshadowed at the magazine for which she wrote regularly. He also arranged to travel separately from her, arriving in London eleven days before she did. During that time he would meet the woman he would eventually leave Martha for: a correspondent named Mary Welsh.
Martha Gellhorn
WIKIPEDIAMartha Ellis Gellhorn
8 November 1908 – 15 February 1998
An American novelist, travel writer, and journalist who is considered one of the great war correspondents of the 20th century.Gellhorn reported on virtually every major world conflict that took place during her 60-year career. She was also the third wife of American novelist Ernest Hemingway, from 1940 to 1945. She died in 1998 by apparent suicide at the age of 89, ill and almost completely blind. The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism is named after her.
June 1944
Gellhorn applied to the British government for press accreditation to report on the Normandy landings; her application, like those of all female journalists, was denied. Lacking official press credentials, she posed as a nurse and was allowed onto a hospital ship where she promptly locked herself in a bathroom. Upon landing two days later she saw the many wounded and became a stretcher-bearer. Later she recalled, "I followed the war wherever I could reach it." She was the only woman to land at Normandy on D-Day on 6 June 1944.
She was one of the first female wartime correspondents, and one of the few journalists to be at Omaha Beach on D-Day. Ernest Hemingway's 3rd Wife.