Under heavy German mortar and shellfire, Doon Campbell waded ashore through chest-deep water with the British Royal Marine commandos on D-Day in 1944. At the age of 24, he was the youngest war correspondent covering the greatest land invasion in history. Representing Reuters News Agency, his Magic Mistress, he was also the first reporter to set foot on the Normandy beaches with the seaborne invasion force. Within two decades, he had become Reuters' editor and deputy general manager, and had reported other great news stories, such as Gandhi's assassination from New Delhi and Mao Tse Tung's civil war meetings with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek in Chungking.