Next week will mark the 75th anniversary of the Allied landings at Normandy. Americans experienced that day quite differently, depending on which time zone you lived in.
Bob Hope visited Seattle's Victory Square at Fourth and University in September 1942 on his way back from entertaining the troops in Alaska; his summary two years later of the experience of listening to D-Day coverage on the radio on the West Coast was spot-on.
D-Day, the June 6, 1944 landing on the northern coast of France with tens of thousands of American, British, Canadian and other Allied troops – along with thousands of pieces of equipment and tons of supplies – is justifiably regarded as the greatest military operation in the history of mankind. It’s something we take for granted now in the age of the internet and cable news, but this kind of media coverage can be traced back to D-Day.
It’s no exaggeration to say that in June 1944, nearly every American was related to someone or knew someone who was serving in the military in Europe. It’s also no understatement to say that news of D-Day was anticipated for months before it happened, and that when the news finally arrived, it was met with a mixture of welcome and dread.
Here’s how CBS described in their promotional pamphlet what happened in the minutes and hours leading up to the big moment. What Colonel Dupuy read, and what radio listeners, particularly those west of the Rockies heard, is known as “Communiqué Number One.” It was so short, Dupuy actually read it twice in a row; it’s almost as if the Gettysburg Address and Paul Revere’s midnight ride were all rolled into one monumental, static-filled moment of American history, world history, and radio broadcasting history.
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