The Press: In Line of Duty

Some 20 front-line correspondents have been killed or captured since the U.S. went to war, including several believed to have faced Jap firing squads. Numbered with them last week was Melville Jacoby, brilliant, 25-year-old correspondent of TIME and LIFE who died instantly in the freak plane accident that killed Brigadier General Harold H. ("Pursuit") George at an advance air base in Australia.

After Jacoby's last-minute escape from Manila, his numerous close shaves on Bataan and his really dangerous escape through the Jap blockade (TIME, April 13), Australia looked almost like a tame...