SHELL-ANGLE
SIR.—Mr. Bernard Levin was not quite right about the Hemingway incident, and his shell-angle theories in Madrid . . . at least about the result.
Hemingway's theory that Franco's batteries on Garabitas Hill could not hit the Florida Hotel, be- cause of the trajectory, was explained to us one morn- ing at breakfast in his room. A furious shelling of the Gran Via had sent those of us on the upper floors scurrying to the lower. Among those who listened to Hemingway's theory in exchange for his excellent coffee and rolls were John Dos Passos and Antoine St. Exupery. Neither expressed any opinion, but I saw the ghost of a smile flitting round St. Ex's large jovial face.
Happily I did not agree with his shell angles, and when Sefton Delmer offered me his balcony room, facing the street (and, incidentally. Franco's batteries), while he was away on leave, I declined politely.
A few days later the Florida was hit, and so far as
I remember there were only two journalists there at the time, Martha Gellhorn and myself.
I was sitting at the open window of my interior room, which overlooked a courtyard, typing my daily Copy, when the shells hit. And, believe me, more than a ceiling collapsed. As soon as the bombardment ceased I went out to have a look.
The balcony room formerly occupied by Delmer was a shambles! I was glad I had stuck to my own 'hunch.'—Yours faithfully,
JEROME WILLIS Redlands, Hadlow Road East, Tonbridge
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