Keep Your Heads Down

A young American soldier, blessed with the sure touch of the “born” journalist and a deep personal understanding of what it means to be an active participant in this war, tells here the story of his three eventful years in camp and in combat.

Beginning at Fort Benning, Georgia, on a fine afternoon in 1941 with the war three thousand miles away, and ending in Marshal Tito’s headquarters in Yugoslavia in 1944, Sergeant Bernstein’s war adventures have taken him to many fronts in many countries. While he was still in the United States he served with the famous 8th Infantry of the 4th Infantry Division, watched the paratroopers train, did publicity for This Is the Army. Then came two months on a freighter as guest of the U.S. Army. He was with a regimental intelligence detachment in Italy, and did reconnaissance work in Sicily. Once he was lost from his regiment and wandered about alone, seeking his, outfit, through the terribly dangerous battle area.

He marched into Yugoslavia with fifty Partisans to Marshal Tito’s headquarters. They climbed tortuous mountain trails and crossed through German-occupied territory for seven days. Bernstein was the first correspondent to interview Tito.

These experiences are exciting in themselves, and Bernstein is a skilled and sensitive reporter who presents his story in an enviably simple and graphic manner, without heroics or sentimentality. He is not just a correspondent writing about the men who are fighting for us. He is himself one of them.