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Telegraph.co.uk

Friday 20 January 2017

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Clare Hollingworth, the foreign correspondent who broke news of Second World War, turns 104

Telegraph journalist who broke the news German tanks were massing on the border with Poland in 1939 celebrates in style in Hong Kong

Clare Hollingworth holds her Gerald Barry Lifetime Achievement Award at the What The Papers Say Awards back in 1999
Clare Hollingworth holds her Gerald Barry Lifetime Achievement Award at the What The Papers Say Awards back in 1999 Photo: Brian Smith

She is the doyenne of modern war correspondents who scooped the world to reveal the start of Second World War, and on Friday night – on the eve of her 104th birthday – Clare Hollingworth was to be found still revelling in the company of her own kind.

Toasted in champagne in the ‘bunker’ at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Hong Kong where even now she remains a regular, Hollingworth is still lionised as the Telegraph reporter who broke the news that German tanks were massing on the border with Poland in 1939.

Hollingworth, aged just 27, had gone to Katowice in Poland where she commandeered the local consulate’s car and set off to the border where she discovered von Rundstedt's 10th Army and its Panzer Corps massing in a valley.

Her report appeared the next day on The Telegraph's front page, underneath the headline: “1,000 tanks massed on Polish border. Ten divisions reported ready for swift stroke.” She went on to write: “The German military machine is now ready for instant action.”

“I broke this story when I was very, very young,” she said in an interview with The Telegraph in 2009, “I went there to look after the refugees, the blind, the deaf and the dumb. While I was there, the war suddenly came into being.”

Clare Hollingworth revisits the valley near Katowice, Poland, where she saw German tanks 60 years ago at the beginning of the Second World WarClare Hollingworth revisits the valley near Katowice, Poland, where she saw German tanks 60 years ago at the beginning of the Second World War

Three days later, on September 1 1939, Hollingworth had a second scoop when she awoke in Katowice to the roar of tanks and aircraft as the German advance began.

She immediately telephoned the British embassy in Warsaw who initially dismissed her story, saying that negotiations continued; Hollingworth simply hung the receiver out of the hotel window so the disbelieving diplomat could hear the tank engines for himself.

It was the start of a glittering career that would take Hollingworth to cover conflicts from Algeria to Vietnam, Poland to India.

• Women war correspondents

Clare Hollingworth in Beijing, 1971Clare Hollingworth in Beijing, 1971

“There was a steady procession of admirers,” said Julian Stargardt, an old friend, who was present at the festivities which lasted over three hours and were attended Hong Kong resident veteran journalists and correspondents.

He passed on a special birthday greeting from the current Telegraph foreign desk, where the Hollingworth name remains an inspiration more than 70 years after her great scoop.

“Our correspondents attempt to match your skill and bravery every day around the world as we cover wars, coups, migration crises and the rest,” the tribute read.

“You might like to know that the current foreign editor, deputy foreign editor and two of three assistant foreign editors are all women - a great tribute, we hope you agree, to your pioneering spirit and shining example!”

Clare Hollingworth on the Egyptian side of the Suez, 1968Clare Hollingworth on the Egyptian side of the Suez, 1968

Charles Moore, the former editor of the Telegraph, joined in congratulating Hollingworth a correspondent who - despite measuring only 5ft 3in in her stockinged feet - became a giant of her trade.

“Clare got this paper's greatest scoop,” he said, “and in the first half of the 20th century and for many years more, blazed the trail along which the 21-st century's many women war reporters tread.”

Although her own reporting days a far behind her, she has never lost her zest for a profession and still keeps her passport and shoes by her bed, lest the foreign desk call again for one last assignment, according to Patrick Garrett, her grand-nephew, who has just completed a new biography of Hollingworth.

“Some people say, ‘isn’t that rather sad?’, but that is to misunderstand Clare. Journalism and The Telegraph were part of her life-force. It’s her burning desire to be at the centre of everything, that’s what keeps her going year after year.”

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