Summer 1944: Arthur summarizes the news for his Maquis unit (variations on a theme)

Here is a particularly exciting (and rare) research event: My grandfather describes the same event on more than one occasion (in 1944, 1974, and 1988) ...

Headphones on, pencil in hand, he quickly takes a few notes by the flickering light of a candle. A few minutes later he announces the latest news: "No message concerning us - Rus [Russian] advance of 40 km in 24 hours in the Bialystok sector. - One thousand American bombers attacked German fuel resources. - Enemy counter-attacks repulsed by British south-west of Caen, etc...".

-- Arthur Lubinski, 1944

In the farm kitchen and later in the woods and mountains, if only bombs were not dropping and bullets were not buzzing, the writer listened a few hours a day to the broadcastings of the B.B.C., British Broadcasting Corporation.  He used to write news bulletins and place them on bulletin board. These news from various battle fronts were sometimes exciting, giving a lot of hope for a fast liberation. Sometimes they were disheartening; why the beachhead did not enlarge since a whole week? Shall we spend a winter snowbound in the mountains?

--Arthur Lubinski, 1974

The radio operator, I was listening to personal messages and for news from the world, and once a day I had to give them a … summary of what happened on the front of Normandy – in the world – because I was listening all the time.

-- Arthur Lubinski, 1988

... AND someone else describes my grandfather by name as he reads the daily news summary to the maquis unit.

Each day, the summary of the communiqués received on a biscuit post [radio] by LUBINSTKI (sic) was read at the Company gathering where the instructions of the day were transmitted.

--Dr. Michel Planas, 1955

Bibliography: 

• Planas, Michel. History of the 4th Company 2nd Battalion FFI of Drôme or; Three Doctors from the Same Family in the Maquis. 1955