Runner (soldier) wounded twice and received both the Iron Cross first class and second class during the war. Runner (soldier) A runner was a military courier, a foot soldier responsible for carrying messages during war. Runners were very important to military communications, before telecommunications became commonplace. The Ancient Greek semi-historical character of Pheidippides is said to have been the runner bringing the news of the Greek victory over the Persians from Marathon to Athens in 490 BC. Even though field telephones were widely used for the first time during World War I (1914–18), they relied on copper wire lines, which were often
Athens News Agency each by the journalist unions of Athens and Thessaloniki, the publishers' union and the ANA employees. ANA collaborates with the international news agencies Reuters, Agence France-Presse, DPA, ITAR-TASS and a number of national news agencies, as well as the EPA photograph agency. All the ANA services are on-line, with an estimated 350 news items in Greek and 60-70 items in English updated daily. It also publishes an English 'Electronic Daily News Bulletin' containing all the Greek news. The ANA further has four data banks in Greek—news, biographies of Greek and foreign personalities, election results and sports—and a news bank in