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Martha Gellhorn, the only woman to report on the D-Day landings from the ground

In June 1944, the veteran journalist hid on a hospital ship so she could report firsthand as Allied soldiers fought their way onto the beaches of Normandy

Lacking proper credentials, she lied her way onto a hospital ship traveling from England to France, then rode in a water ambulance to the still-dangerous Normandy shore as artillery shells from battleships roared overhead. They’re sort of an epitaph on their marriage.” (Gellhorn had used her connections to secure Hemingway a spot on a flight to London, but her trans-Atlantic journey proved more perilous: She spent more than two weeks traveling on board a Norwegian freighter packed with dynamite.) Describing the scene in her article, Gellhorn wrote, “Piles of bloody clothing had been cut off and dumped out of the way in corners; coffee cups and cigarette stubs littered the decks, plasma bottles hung from cords, and all the fearful surgical apparatus for holding broken bones made shadows on the walls.”

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