Trained before the Second World War as both a journalist on the Prairies and as a soldier, Richard S. "Dick" Malone gained a unique perspective of the Allied high command during the war. In 1939, he was called to active service with the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry and was soon seconded as staff secretary to the minister of national defence. Col J.L. Ralston.

Malone accompanied Ralston to England for meetings with Churchill and other British officials. Later as a brigade major in the 1st Canadian Infantry Division, he took part in the Sicilian invasion, was wounded and mentioned in dispatches. He then became liaison officer to Gen Montgomery at 8th Army.

Back in Britain poised for D-Day, now LCol Malone held staff appointments at both 1st Canadian Army and 21 Army Group Headquarters. He was given charge of all Canadian Army Press and Psychological Warfare services in the field. In a very real way, Malone was ultimately responsible for what the Canadian people, and often the British and Americans, knew about the progress of the war in Europe.

He served through the Normandy campaign and in 1944 when it was clear that the battle for Europe was clearly won, he was recalled to Ottawa, promoted colonel and sent to the Far East seconded to Gen MacArthur's Headquarters.

After the war he became publisher and editor of The Winnipeg Free Press. In 1974 he moved to Toronto becoming publisher and editor-in-chief of The Globe and Mail. Upon retirement he wrote his incisive two-volume account A WORLD IN FLAMES. Here he recounts his fascinating personal recollections of some of the most controversial issues involving the top allied leaders.

He also recounts the ultimately humorous encounter with an official from counter-intelligence while in France. In his staff capacity, he was responsible for a team of censors who cleared all news stories being sent back by allied war correspondents in 21 Army Group sector.

He recounts the occasion when a correspondent was suspected of being an enemy agent. This was JAM Cook, one of his oldest newspaper friends and long-time associate on the Winnipeg Free Press. A British intelligence officer from MI-6 asked to see Malone privately.

He showed him a file containing a dozen or so copies of stories Cook had filed by wireless back to Canada. With the stories were sheets full of cryptogram and crossword puzzle calculations, which clearly established that a code of some sort had been used to transmit a hidden message in Cook's press copy. They had deciphered quite a number of the hidden words but they didn't seem to make any sense. Malone continues, "It was quite unbelievable that JAM (Cook) would ever try to break security, so I sent for him at once and faced him with the evidence. JAM bowed his head and sorrowfully confessed his crime. Yes, he had been inserting secret messages within the lines of his dispatches.

"JAM had always had a great passion for betting on the horse races. In some mysterious way he was able to get the postings and odds on horses racing back in Canada. Back in the newsroom in Winnipeg he had a pal on the rim who would place some bets with a bookie, according to the coded instructions hidden in JAM'S stories, as they came over the wire.

"It took some explaining to convince the espionage expert that 'ten on the nose for Northern Challenger' or whatever, didn't mean ten divisions were to attack from our northern flank or that 'across the board' in the sixth did not mean a general assault was due on the 6th. As far as I know after that JAM gave up the ponies for the duration."

Remarkable. The code breakers of the day did not even have the help of handheld calculators, let alone desktop computers!

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