CBS radio reporter George Hicks, located on USS Ancon, filed the best American radio report that 6 June. Of the approach of the 5,000-ship invasion armada to the coast of France, he said: ‘You see the ships lying in all directions, just like black shadows on the grey sky…. Now planes are going overhead…. Hearing fire now just behind us… bombs bursting on the shore and along in the convoys…..’ Then he added, ‘If you’ll excuse me, I’ll just take a deep breath for the moment and stop breathing.’ His initial D-Day recording was aired in parts by CBS, NBC, and the North American Service of the BBC, between 11 and 11:30 pm, Eastern War Time, on 6 June–although the transmission of those broadcasts broke down several times. From D-Day on, recorded news became more prevalent in the radio industry. Previously, producers believed recorded messages could be falsely altered, and so had favoured live broadcasts.

Subscribe Today

• Did you enjoy our article?
• Read more in British Heritage magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!!!
 

The buildup to D-Day had been secretive and effective. As Allied troops rehearsed in Britain, Allied journalists made their own preparations for The Second Front to take pressure off.

Allied leaders treated the media almost as another branch of the military by June 1944, so completely had media owners and staff cooperated in defeating the Nazis. A week before the invasion, Allied journalists had been put on trains and shipped to Scotland as part of a broad deception plan designed to make it look as though something big was happening in the north. But when the time came for the actual invasion Allied governments did everything they could to help those same journalists cover what was to come. No fewer than 558 writers, radio reporters, photographers, and cameramen were accredited for the landing.

The correspondents soon sent back some 700,000 words recounting the events of the first day. When you reading these reports today, you can’t help feeling that the size and violence of the invasion overwhelmed them, making most reporters less than eloquent at the time. Radio reporters seemed to manage best because, unlike the print media, it allowed reporters as much space (time) as needed, provided the circuits didn’t break down from bad weather or faulty wires.

The BBC assigned 48 correspondents to the D-Day operation, including Chester Wilmot in a glider, Richard Dimbleby with the RAF, Robert Dunnett with the US Army, Stanley Maxted in a minesweeper, and Robert Barr with Gen. Eisenhower at Allied Headquarters. Seventeen BBC men landed on the beaches that day.

American journalistic preparations had gone on for several years, ever since CBS Radio had assigned Edward R. Murrow to organize radio programmes in London in the late 1930s. Murrow lobbied with New York headquarters a long time before the CBS top brass allowed him to personally report news, which he did famously with his patented ‘This is London’ lead-ins.

CBS management thought Murrow, the most famous American journalist working regularly in Britain during the war, was too valuable to send across the English Channel on D-Day. Instead, he read Eisenhower’s announcements via radio to Allied troops, letting them know how important they were to the super-historic operation. Murrow had already proven his courage and skills. His London After Dark programmes during the Blitz included many late-night reports from the roof of the BBC’s Broadcasting House, a prime Nazi target. Murrow often broadcast from BBC facilities, because it had the gear to do the job.

James Cameron, the noted British journalist who would eventually cover many global hotspots brilliantly and earn a C.B.E., also missed D-Day. After his first wife died in childbirth in May 1940, he tried to enlist. Due to ‘organic cardiac disease,’ he was rejected and told he should never be at an altitude of more than 3,000 feet. Later, he flew so often and high, he’d recall, ‘In the years to come, in Germany, Korea, Malaya, Indo-China, I was to reflect upon the curious durability of the officially infirm.’ All this came later, though. Cameron’s boss kept him at home during World War II.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to