D-Day Radio Stories

Written by

John F. Barber

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International

Re-Imagined Radio
Season 13, Episode 04

Final draft

D-DAY RADIO STORIES

A World War II collage documentary

Re-Imagined Radio
Season 13, Episode 04
Final Draft

Premier broadcast: June 16, 2025

Written, Produced, Hosted by John F. Barber

Sound design, Music composition, Post-production by Marc Rose

Graphics by Holly Slocum with Evan Leyden

Social Media and Announcing by Rylan Eisenhauer

Synopsis
Re-Imagined Radio combines stories from more than eighty years ago, each told by a radio correspondent present at the start of the D-Day Invasion. Woven together they create a storyline about Allied military forces landing on the beaches of Normandy, and pushing back the German army occupying France, and much of Europe, June 6, 1944. "D-Day Radio Stories" provides a different perspective of this World War II turning point, and we hope, a worthy tribute to the Allied invading forces and radio correspondents who describe to the world what they see and hear.

Sources
"WWII News and Related Sound files from 1944." Internet Archive.
https://archive.org/details/WWII_News_1944/

Laurenceau, Marc. "D-Day Figures." D-Day Overloard.
https://www.dday-overlord.com/d-day/figures

"D-Day Fact Sheet." The National WWII Museum.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/media/press-releases/d-day-fact-sheet-0

"What Is D-Day?" The D-Day Story. Portsmouth, England.
https://theddaystory.com/discover/what-is-d-day/

Ramsburg, Jim. "D-Day on Radio." Jim Ramsburg's GOldtime Radio.
http://www.jimramsburg.com/d-day-on-radio-audio.html

Color Code
Yellow highlighted text = sound effect(s), either pre-recorded or created for episode. Pre-recorded audio is used as content in this episode.

Magenta highlighted text with strike through = text deleted for episode timing

MUSIC = pre-recorded

MUSIC = bespoke, created for this episode

COLD OPEN
SFX 0.1: BBC, SAMPLE FROM REPORT BY FRANK GILLARD, "TAKES COVER," JUNE 3, 1944, 0:28 LENGTH
FRANK GILLARD
(EXPLOSIONS HEARD IN THE DISTANCE) I'm lying down here at full length in the cornfield. Just in the hedges around me I can see many men taking shelter behind the banks, wearing their steel helmets, while the terrific barrage goes on around us. In this barrage we've got our 4.2 inch mortars, our field guns, our medium guns, all the guns are complete, the shells are whistling overhead now. Just listen to them. (GUNS FIRING, SHELLS WHISTLING, EXPLOSIONS IN THE DISTANCE)
SFX: CROSSFADE TO . . .
SFX 0.2: CBS NEWS, BOB TROUT ANNOUNCES "UNCONFIRMED REPORTS FROM BERLIN RADIO REGARDING AN INVASION OF NORMANDY BY ALLIED FORCES," 1:27 LENGTH.
CBS World News, Bob Trout speaking, and again, we bring you the available reports, all of them from German sources, on what the Berlin Radio calls "The Invasion." There is still no Allied confirmation from any source. Correspondents who rushed to the War Department in Washington, soon after the first German broadcast was heard, were told that our War Department had no information on the German reports. There's been no announcement of any sort from Allied headquarters in London. The first news of the German announcement reached this country at 12:37 a.m. Eastern Wartime. The Associated Press recorded this broadcast and immediately pointed out that it could be one which Allied leaders have warned us to expect from the Germans. Shortly after 1 a.m. Eastern wartime, the Berlin Radio opened its news program with a so-called "invasion announcement." Columbia's shortwave listening station here in New York heard the Berlin Radio say, and I quote, "Here is a special bulletin. Early this morning, the long-awaited British and American invasion began when paratroops landed in the area of the Somme estuary. The harbor of Le Havre is being fiercely bombarded at the present moment. Naval forces of the German Navy are off the coast fighting with enemy landing vessels. We've just brought you a special bulletin." End of the quotation. That is the invasion announcement as heard from the Berlin Radio by Columbia's shortwave listening station.
SFX: CROSSFADE TO . . .
SFX 0.3: BBC NEWS, JOHN SNAGGE ANNOUNCES "COMMUNIQUE #1, THE FIRST OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT D-DAY," *** LENGTH.
London calling in the home, overseas, and European services of the BBC and through United Nations Radio Mediterranean, and this is John Snagge speaking. Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, have just issued Communique Number One, and in a few seconds I will read it to you.
(PAUSE)
Communique Number One. Under the command of General Eisenhower, allied naval forces supported by strong air forces began landing Allied Armies this morning on the northern coast of France. I'll repeat that communique. Communique number one. Under the command of General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing Allied Armies this morning on the northern coast of France. This ends the reading of communique number one from Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.
THEME AND ANNOUNCER
MUSIC: RIR THEME
ANNOUNCER
Welcome to Re-Imagined Radio, a program about sound-based storytelling. With each episode we explore how dialogue, sound effects, and music can engage your listening imagination and promote storytelling. Here to tell you about THIS episode is John Barber, producer and host.
HOST OPEN
HOST
Thank you, Rylan. Hello everyone. Thanks for joining us. This episode is called "D-Day Radio Stories." It combines stories told by radio correspondents more than eighty years ago. Woven together they create a storyline about Allied military forces landing on the beaches of Normandy, and pushing back the German army invading and occupying France, and much of Europe.
This amphibious invasion, the largest in the history of human warfare, is called "D-Day," a military term for the day an operation begins. The day is June 6, 1944.
These first-hand reports from radio correspondents embedded with the Allied paratroops, infantry, and naval forces, are some of the earliest uses of RECORDED material in news broadcasts. This allows millions of eager listeners to experience D-Day events as if they are present.
Part documentary, part sound collage, part "eye witness" account, "D-Day Radio Stories" is about a turning point in World War II.
It is also, we hope, a worthy tribute to the Allied invading forces and the radio correspondents who describe to the world what they see and hear.
For more information, and the episode script, which we recommend for following along, visit the episode page at our website, reimaginedradio dot FM.
Thank you for listening as Re-Imagined Radio presents "D-Day Radio Stories."
MUSIC: FOR TRANSITION
ACT #1: THE RUN UP
HOST
Our story begins in May 1940. German military forces invade and occupy France. This puts German forces in control of much of Western Europe and within 21 miles of England. Invasion, from the Western Coast of France, across The English Channel, seems eminent. Military and political leaders plan to invade Europe, and drive out the German military.
The gateway for this invasion is Normandy, in Western France. A fifty-mile stretch of the coast is selected for landing zones.
In the two-year run up to the Normandy invasion, Allied troops, ships, and airplanes are amassed in England.
BBC correspondent Frank Gillard, reports, June 5, 1944, about the supply stockpiles he sees.
SFX 1.1: BBC, SAMPLE FROM REPORT BY FRANK GILLARD, "ON BUILD UP TO D-DAY," JUNE 5, 1944, 0:43 LENGTH
FRANK GILLARD
England has become one vast ordinance dump and field park. In every wood and cops, in leafy dead-end lanes and side roads, often in private gardens, under quarries and embankments, there it all was. Trucks, ambulances, tanks, armoured cars, carriers, jeeps, bulldozers, ducks, vehicles of all kinds. Vast, really vast numbers of them. Right in the midst of it all, just as I'd turned for home, I passed a field where 22 men in khaki shirts and battle dress trousers and heavy hobnail boots were having a quiet knock-up game of cricket. They made me think of Francis Drake and Plymouth Hoe.
HOST
Security surrounding preparations is extremely tight. Many people suspect an invasion is coming, but very few know the details.
BBC correspondent Robin Duff, is fully informed about the upcoming invasion, but as he explains, cannot tell anyone.
SFX 1.2: BBC, SAMPLES FROM A REPORT BY ROBIN DUFF, "ABOARD A SEALED SHIP," JUNE 3, 1944, 0:42 LENGTH
ROBIN DUFF
All contact with the shore has ended. No one may come aboard. No one may go ashore. In Navy jargon, the ship, and all of us aboard here are "sealed." We're sealed because we've been told the answers. The answers to the questions that the whole world has been asking for two years, and more. Where, and how, and when.
The troops swarmed up the rope ladders last night. Strong, healthy, formidable men. Many of them going into battle for the first time. As you walk along the decks, men are reading, or sleeping, or talking in small clusters. Across the water we can hear the jazz from a minesweeper's gramophone.
HOST
The Resistance in European countries needs to know about the pending invasion, and are sent coded messages by the BBC European News Service.
SFX 1.3: BBC, SAMPLES FROM EUROPEAN SERVICE, "RESISTANCE MESSAGES," JUNE 5, 1944, 1:09 LENGTH
BBC EUROPEAN SERVICE
This is London calling. The European News Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. Here is the news. But first, here are some messages for our friends in occupied countries. The Trojan War will not be held. John is growing a very long beard this week. The long sobs of the violins of autumn. Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne. Wound my heart with a monotonous langer.
HOST
On June 5, 1944, 9:30 PM, Supreme Allied Commander General Dwight D. Eisenhower gives the "Order of the Day," informing Allied troops about the pending invasion.
SFX 1.4: GENERAL EISENHOWER'S PRE-ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING D-DAY TO TROOPS, "ORDER OF THE DAY," JUNE 5, 1944, 1:42 LENGTH
GENERAL EISENHOWER
Soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!
You are about to embark upon the great crusade toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave allies and brothers-in-arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.
Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well-trained, well-equipped, and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.
But this is the year 1944. Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats in open battle man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground.
Our home front have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned. The free men of the world are marching together to victory.
I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty, and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory!
Good luck and let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.
Source: "Order of the Day." National Archive, https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/general-eisenhowers-order-of-the-day
HOST
British Field Marshall Bernard Law Montgomery, nicknamed "Monty," also speaks to the Allied troops.
SFX 1.5: BBC, "FIELD MARSHALL MONTGOMERY SPEAKS TO ALLIED TROOPS," 0:54 LENGTH
MONTGOMERY
On the eve of this great adventure, I send my best wishes to every soldier in the Allied team. To us is given the honour of striking a blow for freedom which will live in history. And in the better days that lie ahead, men will speak with pride of our doings. We have a great and a righteous cause. Let us pray that the Lord mighty in battle will go forth with our armies, and that his special providence will aid us in the struggle. I want every soldier to know that I have complete confidence in the successful outcome of the operations that we are now about to begin. With stout hearts and with enthusiasm for the contest, let us go forward to victory.
MUSIC: FOR TRANSITION
ACT #2: SETTING THE STAGE
HOST
Originally scheduled for June 5, 1944, bad weather forces a 24-hour delay of D-Day, until June 6.
Ahead of D-Day, troops and equipment must be positioned behind enemy lines, ready for the invasion.
German military defenses, especially the anti-aircraft guns, called "Flak" or "88s," must be destroyed or disabled.
And roads and bridges important to the movement of Allied troops and equipment from the Normandy beaches into the French countryside must be secured.
Paratroops are tasked with these undertakings. The evening of June 5 and early morning, June 6, 1944, airplanes carry paratroops and their gear across the English Channel and drop them into enemy territory.
Richard Dimbleby, BBC correspondent, reports on the first aircraft to leave England heading for France.
SFX 2.1: BBC, SAMPLE FROM REPORT BY RICHARD DIMBLEBY, "THE FIRST D-DAY AIRCRAFT," JUNE 5, 1944, 0:47 LENGTH
RICHARD DIMBLEBY
The first aircraft that is going to lead the very front in the early hours of tomorrow morning is turning onto the end of the tarmac to make its takeoff. A graceful machine, with its wingtip lights shining red and green over the heads of the dark, small figures of people on the aerodrome, watching it take off. Taking off from here, loaded with parachutists, taking with it perhaps the hopes and the fears, and the prayers of millions of people in this country, who sleep tonight, not knowing that this mighty operation is taking place. There she goes now, the first aircraft, leading the attack on Europe. (LONG FADE OUT AS AIRCRAFT DEPARTS AIRFIELD
SFX: LONG FADE OUT AS AIRCRAFT DEPARTS AIRFIELD
HOST
An estimated 23,400 airborne troops jump into Normandy, from more than 800 airplanes (National WWII Museum). What was it like . . . Jumping into the night sky over France, descending to ground not knowing what awaits? BBC correspondent Guy Byam parachutes into France and files this report.
SFX 2.2: BBC, SAMPLES FROM REPORT BY GUY BYAM, "PARACHUTES INTO FRANCE," JUNE 8, 1944, 0:34 LENGTH
BYAM
We're over the enemy coast now, and the run in is starting. One minute, 30 seconds, red light, green light, and out, out, get on, get out, get out. Out fast into the cool night, out, out into the air over France, and we know that the dropping zone is obstructed. We're dropping in fact into fields covered with poles. But I hit my chute, and lower my kit bag, which suspends on the end of a 40-foot rope from my harness, and then the ground comes up to hit me, and I find myself in the middle of a cornfield. (GUNSHOTS ARE HEARD IN THE DISTANCE)
SFX: EXPLOSIONS AT END OF PREVIOUS SFX AS TRANSITION.
HOST
On the ground, BBC correspondent Alan Melville watches troops and supplies parachuting into battle.
SFX 2.3: BBC, ALAN MELVILLE, SAMPLES FROM "SEES PARATROOPS LANDING," JUNE 8, 1944, O:23 LENGTH
MELVILLE
The paratroops are landing. They're landing all around me as I speak. They've come in from the sea and they're fluttering down, red, white, and blue parachutes fluttering down, and they're just about the best thing we've seen for a good many hours. They're showering in. There's no other word for it. (EXPLOSIONS)
SFX: EXPLOSIONS AT END OF PREVIOUS SFX AS TRANSITION
HOST
Melville and other BBC correspondents, use new, portable "midget recorders" developed by BBC engineers to make their field recordings. Housed in wooden cases, each recorder includes batteries, a microphone on a clip which can be attached to a tree branch or the rim of a steel helmet, and a set of 12 double-sided 10-inch discs, with just under three-minutes recording time per side. These midget recorders weigh forty pounds (Hendy, David. BBC. "War Report." https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/ww2/war-report/)
Jumping into enemy territory, ahead of the actual invasion, paratroops also secure landing areas for gliders carrying troops and supplies.
The gliders, planes without motors, are towed behind Douglas C-47s, called tugs, and cut loose at landing areas.
Chester Wilmot, BBC correspondent, reports from inside a glider of the British 6 Airborne Division, bound for Ranville, France on June 6, 1944.
SFX 2.4: BBC, SAMPLES FROM WILLIAM CHESTER WILMOT'S, "REPORT FROM INSIDE A BRITISH GLIDER 1," JUNE 6, 1944, 0:33 LENGTH.
CHESTER WILMOT
This is Chester Wilmot broadcasting from a glider bound for France and invasion. We've just crossed over the coast of France and all around us along the coast Ack Ack fire is going up. Away to the right. And way off to the left. But in front of us there's nothing coming up at all. I can see away on right the river which is our main guide for coming into the landing zone, which is on the left of the river, and there now I can see the light which is to guide us into our main landing zone.
SFX: CROSSFADE TO . . .
SFX 2.5:, WILLIAM CHESTER WILMOT, BBC, "REPORT FROM INSIDE A BRITISH GLIDER 2," JUNE 6, 1944, 0:45 LENGTH.
CHESTER WILMOT
From where I am, standing between the two pilots of this glider, I can see the navigation lights of the tug in front of us, and off to the left and right, the navigation of other tugs and other gliders bound on the same mission. Circling above from time to time I can see the lights of the fighter screen which is protecting us. And looking back down the glider there are seated, although I can't see them in the half light, likenesses of men, all laden up with gear so heavily that they can hardly walk but they've got to carry with them the means by which they can fight the moment they land.
SFX: CROSSFADE TO . . .
SFX 2.6: BBC, SAMPLES FROM WILLIAM CHESTER WILMOT, "COMMENTS ON OPERATION MALLARD GLIDERS LANDING THE EVENING OF D-DAY (9 P.M.)," JUNE 6, 1944, 0:27 LENGTH.
CHESTER WILMOT
It's just about 9 o'clock and a whole mess of gliders has just come in, having been towed across the Channel from Britain. They've received particularly severe welcomes from the German Ack Ack defenses and the Flak has been going up from all around us. I can see about four or five coming in through the trees skimming very low over the plowed fields and coming in to touch down. There'll barely be room for them. (EXPLOSIONS)
SFX: EXPLOSIONS AT END OF PREVIOUS SFX AS TRANSITION
HOST
Another aspect of the pre-invasion is destroying German defensive positions, the so-called "Atlantic Wall," coastal concrete bunkers and other artillery emplacements. More than 11,000 airplanes, estimated, carry more than ten tons of bombs across the Channel from England, and drop them on enemy positions (Laurenceau, Marc. "D-Day Figures." D-Day Overloard).
As the bombers, fighters, gliders, and their tugs leave England, bound for France, anecdotal reports speak of miles-long waves of airplanes, so numerous they seem to blot out the sun.
BBC correspondent Richard Dimbleby, who earlier reported the first aircraft leaving for Europe, is aboard one of the bombers and describes what he sees.
SFX 2.7: BBC, SAMPLES FROM RICHARD DIMBLEBY'S REPORT, "FLYING OVER NORMANDY," JUNE 12, 1944, 1:49 LENGTH
RICHARD DIMBLEBY
This is Richard Dembleby calling you from over the English Channel flying between England and France. We're on our way out south from the coast, crossing over towards Normandy with a wing of Spitfires on its way to take over the patrol and the protection of the Allied armies on the beaches and inland.
A very lovely sight the Spitfires are on our port side, ranged in their ranks of three. And now we're going in, over the cliffs and the green fields of France, and over there to starboard, the big warships firing in shore, towards the Cherbourg Peninsula, where the Americans are . . . flash of their guns, just gone now . . . another flash from a ship further down the line. And now we are winging in behind the Spitfires. They're spreading out now, right and left, searching for German aircraft as we follow them inland. Right ahead of us there are great fires burning on the ground and clouds of white smoke coming up from the battlefront. There's a great pattern of France, cratered and re-cratered where our bombs have fallen in the past. Here is the new landing strip, lying out looking for all the world like an old established and magnificently prepared aerodrome. We're diving down and coming in over it right now, flying straight over the top. And there in the distance, and all round us, as though in a great semi-circle, is the battlefront. I can see the whole of it from east to west. Fires are burning in every direction. There's smoke going up in clouds. We've seen the guns firing and the ships firing in shore, and we're flying so low now that I can see individual people on the ground. There are anti-aircraft guns. There are some cows sitting in a field. More guns. An Ack-Ack road transport just below us and a military policeman waving them on. You know I could even see his red cap from here that he's wearing there and not his tin hat. The roads are full of our transports, all our chaps driving on the right in the continental style.
HOST
The final piece of the pre-invasion is to position a fleet of ships carrying troops and supplies off the Normandy coast. Warships, landing craft, fast attack boats, ferries, rusty tankers and freighters, hospital ships, and fishing boats. All are pressed into service.
More than 7,000 vessels, estimated, the mightiest assembled in human history, leaves the coast of England in the early morning hours ("D-Day Fact Sheet").
From the air, this armada is a spectacular sight. Richard Hotelett, whom we'll hear in just a moment, tells fellow CBS correspondent Charles Shaw, [QUOTE] "If I had to parachute out of the plane, I could have walked across the channel on the ships . . . There were so many of them!" [UNQUOTE] (Cloud and Olson 204).
Aboard one of those ships is an anonymous radio correspondent who offers this report.
SFX 2.8: STANLEY RICHARDSON, "ABOARD A PT BOAT," JUNE 6, 1944, 0:55 LENGTH.
ANONYMOUS CORRESPONDENT IS ACTUALLY STANLEY RICHARDSON, NBC LONDON BUREAU DIRECTOR 
I've just returned from the channel approaches to the coast of France where I was privileged to watch the opening phases of the largest scale military invasion operation in history. My ringside seat was a heaving deck of a United States Naval Patrol Torpedo boat on which I traveled across the Channel with the first contingent of a naval task force. This force was composed mostly of American units. Altogether, my squadron of PT boats was in the channel for about 20 hours. We covered scores of square miles of rolling, choppy sea. We were patrolling and acting as escorts for literally hundreds of slower moving vessels of all descriptions. Many of them had been at sea longer than we had. In the area we covered, we could see hundreds of bombers and fighters shuttling back and forth, dropping their bomb loads and returning to England for more explosives to blast the enemy.
HOST
Robin Duff, who earlier reported from a sealed ship somewhere along the English coast, reports again, this time mid-way to the Normandy coast.
SFX 2.9: BBC, SAMPLES FROM REPORT BY ROBIN DUFF, "MID-CHANNEL TO NORMANDY," JUNE 8, 1944, O:26 LENGTH.
ROBERT DUFF
In the wardroom, dinner. From the menu, soup, roast beef and green peas, and apples and cream. It might have been a crossing to Cherbourg in peacetime, and then you realized that your hand was moving just a little sluggishly to your mouth. Your tummy wasn't just where it usually was, the men around you were rather silent, and when they spoke they were self-conscious. It was a room full of men on the way, wondering, waiting, and listening.
MUSIC: FOR TRANSITION
ACT #3: THE CUSP
HOST
Where "D-Day," is a term that signifies the day a military operation begins, "H-Hour" signifies the exact time. For D-Day, H-Hour is 6:30 AM, in Normandy, June 6, 1944.
Five minutes before "H-Hour," the start of the invasion, Robin Duff, aboard a landing craft, files this report.
SFX 3.1: BBC, SAMPLES FROM REPORT BY ROBERT DUFF, "FIVE MINUTES BEFORE H-HOUR," 0:33 LENGTH.
Just five minutes before H Hour. H minus 5, and looking straight in towards the coastline of France. Our assault craft are now out of sight, lost in the lowering cloud there by the beaches. Our LCTs are in there and within a few moments the first tanks that lead the assault will be on the beaches and opening up with their guns.
HOST
At H-Hour, the signal for landing is given. Duff reports.
SFX 3.2: BBC, SAMPLES FROM REPORT BY ROBIN DUFF,"AT SIGNAL FOR LANDING," JUNE 6, 1944, 0:28 LENGTH
(EXPLOSION) Now, there's a signal from the flagship.
("ALL HANDS TO BEACHING STATION. ALL HANDS TO BEACHING STATION.")
All hands to beaching station. That's the signal for our sailors on board this craft to get ready for the landing, and of course for the soldiers, down in the hold, to get ready with their kit on, up onto the deck and down the ramp as we go into shore.
HOST
At the cusp, the moment the pre-invasion becomes the actual invasion, CBS correspondent Richard C. Hottelet is aboard a British Royal Air Force Marauder light bomber, flying low and fast along the Normandy coast. When he returns to London, Hottelet gives this report to listeners in America via shortwave radio.
SFX 3.3: CBS, SAMPLES FROM REPORT BY RICHARD C. HOTTELET, "D-DAY LANDING SEEN FROM THE AIR", JUNE 6, 1944, 7:13 LENGTH.
And now for the report of Richard Hodlett of CBS, go ahead, London.
This is Richard C. Hottelet speaking from London. The Allied forces landed in France early this morning. I watched the first landing barges hit the beach exactly on the minute of H-Hour. I was in a 9th Air Force Marauder flying at 4,500 feet, along 20 miles of the invasion coast. From what I could see during those first few minutes, there was nothing stopping the assault parties from getting ashore.
We spent about half an hour over enemy territory. We flew over and bombed some of the coastal fortifications, but except for some light Flak from inland positions and from some tanks firing at us, we saw no enemy gunfire. The only other sign of life in enemy territory were some white and yellow parachutes dotting the ground where our paratroopers had hit the ground.
The weather is favorable for the operation.
Offshore Allied warships were bombing the enemy coast, and they seemed to be doing it without any opposition. As far as we were concerned, there was no opposition from the air either. The Luftwaffe just didn't seem to be there.
What I saw was literally the last minute of the invasion preparation and the first minute of invasion.
We were low, but we were traveling fast, and we could not tell how the battle for the beaches would develop. But if the ground action goes as smoothly as the air preparation we can hope for the best.
Now we're in with a bomber group, probably the hottest group in the 9th Air Force. Our mission was to plaster the invasion beach and some coastal fortifications with bombs seven minutes before our assault parties came ashore.
This group was chosen for the hair-trigger work because of its previous superb record. Well, we delivered, and we delivered on time.
This is the way it worked. Last night we were told briefing would be at three o'clock. We got up at two, had griddle cakes and fried spam for breakfast. Went into a long Nissan hut that served as briefing room. The doors were closed and the commanding officer announced that the invasion had begun. He said that since midnight, three hours before, our paratroopers, some 20,000 of them, had been landing in France. The men cheered.
The colonel went on to say that the air forces were being called upon for their maximum contribution. There were going to be more than 1,500 Fortresses and Liberators flying ahead of us. Hundreds of medium bombers, too, were going to precede us, and our group was to wind up the pre-invasion bombing. When he said this, the men really cheered.
To top it off, we were going to have cover from more than 2,500 Allied fighters. The colonel made it plain that nothing was to be left to chance. The weather in the target area had been unsettled and cloudy, and if we were going to deliver precision bombings, we would have to fly below the clouds, and that we would to go down and bomb from a thousand feet. When he said that, not a man blinked an eye, despite the fact that such a low altitude counts as suicide with the Marauders.
It was still dark when we took off and raining. But one by one those Marauders roared down the runway and took off. An hour and a half later, we were out over the English Channel. First, we couldn't see anything except a few stray vessels.
Great care had been taken to keep our ships from firing at their own planes. Every single bomber and fighter had been painted overnight with special markings on wings and fuselage. And the direction we were to fly, the way we were to turn if we got into trouble, and the recognition signals we were to give had all been very carefully worked out.
Even so, when we passed over the first few barges, we had the uncomfortable feeling that we were being shot at. It didn't last long. We were out and away in a matter of minutes. By this time, it was getting on, and the sun was painting the sky a bright orange color on our left. Below us, the English Channel was a fine deep blue. There were a few whitecaps. But we got the impression that it wasn't very rough down below.
About five miles off the French coast, we saw a plane in a steep dive laying a smokescreen. Just about the same minute, a pilot said he saw fires on the shore. I looked as hard as I could, and there down to the left were some naval vessels. They looked like cruisers firing broadsides onto the shore. Their guns belched flame and smoke. Once I saw a fountain of water not far from one of them, which may have been a shot from the shore or a depth charge.
Near the cruisers were dozens of landing craft of all kinds, hardly visible in the early morning haze. All this while, we saw medium bombers and fighters crisscrossing on the way to the target. without a sign of a German plane.
Then, as we turned in over the coast about ten minutes before H-hour, we saw a fast assault boat race along parallel to the beach, laying a smoke screen. From the way the screen lay, smooth and even, it looked as if there were no wind.
We opened our bomb bay doors. Light Flak began to come up after us. Little bells a fire off to our right and to our left. Some heavy Flak off to our left, not near at all, firing only sporadically. The flights ahead of us dropped their bombs, the guns on the ships offshore resumed fire. The bombs and the shells burst together on the target.
There were sheets of flame down below, then rolling balls of brown and black smoke. Four and a half thousand feet up, our plane was rocked by the concussion, and we got the stench of the explosives.
We dropped our bombs as scheduled, and just then we saw down below on our left dozens and scores of white streaks as the assault boats raced over the blue water to the beach, leaving their white wake stretched out behind them.
As we turned away from the target, we saw the boats hit the beach. Then we took evasive action, and I couldn't see anymore. Down below, except for some more sporadic Flak, it was a dead country. No sign of life. No vehicles on roads, no troop movements, and all the way in, we saw Marauders weaving in and out in perfect formation above us, below us, and around us, on all sides. We didn't see a single one of our planes in distress.
The mission wasn't the way we had figured it. We had expected to see German fortifications give back blow for blow with our ships. There was no sign of it. We had expected to see the Luftwaffe, out in its full remaining strength, to try to stop our planes, or at least strike a blow against our landing craft. We didn't see either. We had expected to find enemy territory full of anti-aircraft, alive, with reserves moving into threatened areas. We didn't see that.
The circumstances of our flight, the fact that we got there simultaneously with the invading troops and left in a minute, make it impossible to draw any far-reaching conclusions on how the battle is going. But one thing we can say already, and that is our air supremacy over the coastal invasion zone today is not seriously challenged. I return you now to the United States.
MUSIC: RIR FUSEBOX THEME FOR INTRO
THE FUSEBOX BREAK
HOST
This is John Barber. Thank you for listening to Re-Imagined Radio. I'd like to take a moment just now and tell you about "The Fusebox Show." If you're concerned with the state of current events and news, "The Fusebox Show" is definitely for you.
Produced by Marc Rose, Milt Kanes, Jeff Pollard, and Regina Carol, each episode features unique conversation and commentary. Here's a sample.
SFX: THE FUSEBOX SHOW TEASER
MUSIC: FUSEBOX THEME, FADE UNDER AND OUT FOR THE FOLLOWING
HOST
"The Fusebox Show" is also available as podcasts. Learn more at their website, thefuseboxshow dot com.
MUSIC: FUSEBOX THEME, FADE UNDER AND OUT FOR THE FOLLOWING
ACT #4: ON THE BEACH
HOST
You're listening to Re-Imagined Radio. Our episode is "D-Day Radio Stories" about the invasion of Europe during World War II.
D-Day is June 6, 1944. The objective is to put Allied troops, equipment, and supplies on sections of Normandy beaches code-named Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword. The landings begin at 6:30 AM, Normandy time, H-Hour.
BBC correspondent Collin Wills tells of landing with infantry troops.
SFX 4.1: BBC, SAMPLES FROM REPORT BY COLLIN WILLS, "LANDING WITH INFANTRY", JUNE 6, 1944, 0:27 LENGTH
("ALL HANDS TO BEACHING STATIONS.")
This is the day, and this is the hour. The sky is lightening, lightening over the coast of Europe as we go in. The sun is blazing down brightly now. It's almost like an omen, the way it suddenly came out just as we were going in. The whole sky is bright. The sea is a glittering mass of silver, with all these crafts of every kind moving across it and the great battleships in the background blazing away at the shore.
HOST
An anonymous correspondent describes the initial moments of a beach landing.
SFX 4.2: CAN, SAMPLES, "RECOUNTING THE LANDING, JUNE 6, 1944, 0:22 LENGTH.
ANONYMOUS
Then the struggle across the soft sand. Five minutes that will always be vivid in my mind. Shells were falling on the beaches, mines still exploding, the whole beach covered with small craft, men at work organizing the beaches already, bulldozers widening the exits and laying the wire carpet, ammunition and tanks and supplies and vehicles and guns, coming ashore as far as the eye could see.
HOST
A member of a British tank crew recounts his experiences.
SFX 4.3: BBC, SAMPLES, "BRITISH TANK CREW DESCRIBES LANDING," 0:26 LENGTH.
CREW MEMBER
I was crouching in the barge. Sergeant in charge said "Okay, this is it." So I jumped up, grabbed my gear, jumped into the water. It was a long way from the shore. Further than I thought it would be. About 300 yards. Jumped into the water. It was deeper than I thought. I started to swim. Eventually made the sea wall. Just as we were getting alongside the tank forward, we thought we were pretty good then. A Jerry 88mm gun hit our tank and blew us the hell out of it.
HOST
Another British soldier tells about landing near coastal mines placed by the German army.
SFX 4.4: BBC, SAMPLES, "UK SOLDIER LANDING NEAR COASTAL MINES," 0:22 LENGTH.
BRITISH SOLDIER
When we actually beached, we were lucky enough to go between two of the mines, which the Germans had put on stakes as one of the beach defenses. The craft . . . One of the mines came up along our starboard side, and the craft which beached immediately on our port side hit the next one.
HOST
Charles Collingwood, a CBS radio correspondent, is on a Normandy beach late in the afternoon and records his impressions.
SFX: 4.5, CBS, SAMPLES, CHARLES COLLINGWOOD,"NORMANDY BEACH, D-DAY," 14:35 LENGTH
EDWARD R. MURROW
This is London. Late on the afternoon of D-Day, Charles Collingwood took his recording gear in a little 36-foot LCBP onto a French beach. Nearing the beach, the water was filled with floating objects. Part of a parachute. A K-Rations box. A life jacket. Wreckage from a ship. Shell cases. Here is part of the recording.
CHARLES COLLINGWOOD
This is Charles Collingwood. We are on the beach today, on D-Day. We've just come in. We caught a ride in a small boat which came in from our LSC loaded with a thousand pounds of TNT, half a ton of high explosive on this beach which is still under considerable enemy gunfire.
While we have been here, we have just seen one of the strangest and most remarkable sights of this invasion so far. Two great fleets of over a hundred gliders have gone overhead towed by C-47 transports, who are certainly proving the workhorses of this invasion. They've hauled them right over the beaches, and it seems as though the German gunners amazed at this incredible sight have stopped firing on the beach now because it's quiet here, and the second batch are droning over now. I can see them. They're casting off the gliders as they circle around over the beach and the transports are circling around and beginning to make off home.
Where they're landing we don't know because we're down here on the beach and there's a seawall in front of us and we can't see the land behind.
This is the way the beach looks, which was hit by our troops about twelve hours ago, early this morning. It's a flat, sandy beach, like almost any beach that you're likely to see, and it floats gently away from the shore, from the seashore, up to the dunes, and then to the sea wall, which was the first objective of our troops and which they took early on in the game.
Since that time, we have been able to bring in quite a bit of equipment. There are various trucks and jeeps and motor vehicles of all kinds here. There are also anti-aircraft guns. We've breached the seawall in various places and have set up guns there to defend against any possible enemy counter-attack on the beaches, which has not occurred.
A naval party has just come in from the shore and begun to unload our TNT here, which is taking a load off my mind as well as a load off this vessel, and I asked him how things were going and he said that it was pretty rough still. I asked him how far the troops had gone on in shore, and he said that they've got five or six miles inshore, which sounds as though they're making good progress. He said that the beach was still under considerable gunfire. The Germans had some 88s, which we hadn't been able to silence.
These . . . ahh . . . These boys are apparently having a pretty tough time in here on the beaches. It's not very pleasant. It's exposed and it must have been a rugged fight to get it. Although, as nearly as we can see, there is not a great deal of evidence of damage. Perhaps that's because it has been smoothed up. We can look on down the coast now and see this flat part of the beach, which joins the water going all the way down to the lower beach, which is marked for us by columns of white smoke which are rising from it, and further up at the end of this beach, you can see another huge column of white smoke which has apparently been caused by naval gunfire.
Looking out to sea, all we can see of the vast invasion fleet, which is assembled for us, are the silhouettes of the big warships, the battleships and cruisers, which have been putting a steady bombardment against the enemy positions all day.
We can also see a few of the transport, but the fleet of LCTs and LCIs and other crafts, which we have brought and assembled back maybe 10 miles offshore, is invisible from us at this moment.
They're coming back now, taking off more and more of this ammunition. We've got a captain here who's come by and is looking rather curiously at this gadget we've got. Captain, can you come over here a minute? Can you tell us how things are on the beach?
I don't blame you for thinking me a captain, but actually, I'm a Naval Lieutenant. Sometimes we get on these beaches, where we get to look like all kinds of things, particularly after you take a few running jumps in the sand.
Well, Lieutenant, what's your name?
Well, I worked for a rival network in New York City . . .
You do?
. . . so that . . . Well, I did, and I don't think I aught to ruin your broadcast. Let's just say we dropped in and said hello.
Okay, well how are things going on the beach there?
I've only been in, uhh . . . a little while. Some of these other boys have been there all day, and, uh, you and I have made . . . the Army word is rugged as a matter of fact.
Is the beach still under some enemy shellfire?
The beach is being pounded by enemy shellfire, but we hope to have it knocked out in the near future.
Boy, those gliders that just went over were quite exciting, weren't they?
That was a very impressive thing.
I think that all of you folks listening at home, if you could have heard the oohs and ahhs from men who are really dug in the shell holes in the sand, you'd heard those, would have done your heart a lot of good. It certainly did mine to see them go by.
I can agree with that too because it was a very impressive sight . . .
. . . and now looking out we can see them going back very low along the water, the C-47s which brought the gliders in. They've cut loose and here comes another flight, a third flight of gliders which is being pulled in. I can't count how many of them there are. They're coming in over the beach here, squadron upon squadron of them lined up in perfect formation with the gliders coming along behind the big C-47 and they're coming in apparently to drop right where they dropped before.
Further up the beach there's a fire which has apparently just been started by enemy shelling. It's maybe a quarter of a mile up from us. At the moment, there's no shelling in our immediate vicinity, although when we first beached our little LCVP about 100 yards down the beach, German 88s were kicking up big clouds of sand as they shelled our positions down there, and you can still see some smoke drifting off from it. And over to our left there's what is left of some small craft or other which has been hit and is burning.
A great big Rhino Ferry is making its way into the beach loaded with every kind of vehicle and craft. I can make out jeeps and trucks on it and men sitting up there manning their guns which are all ready in case of enemy air attack but there is no enemy air to be seen anywhere around here.
The sky, however, is filled with this third fleet of gliders, which are coming in full of our Airborne Infantry. There is something which just dropped into the ground, into the sea. I don't know whether it was a plane or what it was, but it made a big splash up there as it dropped down from out of the sky.
The gliders are coming in now, towed by the C-47 and protected by fighters which are around there. I can make out Thunderbolts and Spitfires which are giving them cover, and they've just taken off the last of our thousand pounds of high explosives which is making it considerably more pleasant on this little boat. They're having to wade in across maybe 50 yards of water to get it into the beach.
We've come in this LCVP from the transport area where our ship is. It's taken us about two hours to get here, and we came in through the choppy seas with every second wave breaking over the ship and dousing us with spray. Gene Ryder and I, and everybody on this little boat are soaked absolutely to the skin. We're wet through and through. The salt is caked in our eyebrows. Every time we lick our lips, we taste the salt. all our hands are cold and chapped. We just count ourselves lucky that after having made a trip like that, we don't have to go on to the beaches and fight. All we have to do is make the trip again.
I might tell the Navy Department that we owe them one recorder.
Gene? Gene is referring to the fact that we took our recording machine, which the Navy has lent us along with us here, and it has been absolutely inundated with the spray. Somehow or other Gene has made it work. I don't know what. He was down there polishing it with his handkerchief. Gene says he doesn't know how it made it work either.
And looking back now, turning around with my back to the beach and looking out to the sea. More and more and more of these glider-borne troops are coming in. These gliders are coming in towed very slowly by the big C-47s in what is apparently an unending stream. It's an incredible sight, and as that Navy lieutenant told us a moment ago, the troops are waving and pointing and talking about it on the shore, at least those of them who have time and are not too busy taking care of themselves.
The troops are well dug in here along the seawall, which is partly covered by sand. They're sitting down now, most of them, dug deep into the ground, as close as they can to the seawall to protect themselves from the enemy shelling.
Some men are lining up further down the beach near a sign which says "5," they're taking over a truck and are apparently about to move off, whether through a breach in the seawall back inland or not, one can't tell.
We're standing here, it's an absolutely incredible and fantastic sight. I don't know whether it's possible to describe it to you or not. It's late in the afternoon, the sun is going down, the sea is choppy, and the beach is lined with men and materials and guns, trucks, vehicles of all kinds. On either side of us, there are pillars of smoke, perhaps a mile, two miles away, which is rising from enemy shelling, and further back we can see the smoke and results of our own shelling.
Looking behind us, we can see the big ships and the . . . Ahh . . . some of the transports which have brought the troops in, and overhead, this incredible sight is still going on as more and more gliders are towed in by the C-47s going over the seawall disappearing out of sight in apparently a wide sweep and dropping their men somewhere back there for a function which we don't know anything at all about. All we can do is stand here and marvel at the spectacle.
Now, our men, we're trying to get the LTVP in closer to figure out up the men who have been wading ashore in this bold sea and choppy wind to pick up the stuff.
This place even smells like an invasion. It has a curious odor which we always associate with modern war. It's the smell of oil, and high explosive and burning things.
Oh, thank you. Come on over here. Champer, who is one of the sailors, has just come in with a handful of sand because he heard me say a while ago that what I wanted to do most of all was just to get ashore and reach down and take up a handful of sand and say, "this is France, and I've got it in my hand. France at last. After four years."
Champer, how did it feel to just to reach out and grab a piece of sand and say, "I'm grabbing French soil," huh?
Well, it's ahh . . . since I was born in France, it had special meaning to me.
Were you born in France?
Yes.
Where were you born?
In Calais.
If you were, well, that's not very far from here.
Well, it has a special meaning for me, too, if you can imagine. Have you got some? We've got to save this. We've got to put it in a bottle or something.
Now, the transport planes are going back, the C47s who came in towing the gliders. They're going back very close to the sea, and we're going back, too. We've got our men aboard, all with handfuls of France in their hands, and we're going to save it because this has been a momentous occasion for all of us.
There go our motors. The ramp is going up. We're backing away from the beach now, and soon we'll be out in the salt spray, and it'll be impossible for us to broadcast anymore.
EDWARD R. MURROW
That was a recording made by Charles Collingwood at a French beach on the afternoon of D-Day. We return you now to the United States.
This is CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System.
HOST
Another American radio correspondent, George Hicks, with the NBC Blue Network, is aboard the USS Ancon, a US Naval headquarters and communications command ship, part of a combined British and American naval convoy, stationed off Omaha Beach, Normandy. Hicks is using a 75-pound Amertype Recordgraph film recorder on loan from the Navy. A few minutes before midnight, D-Day, Hicks begins recording this sound-filled report about encounters with German aircraft.
SFX 4.6: GEORGE HICKS, SAMPLES FROM REPORT ABOARD THE USS ANCON, JUNE 7, 1944, 14.11 LENGTH
BBC ANNOUNCER
SFX: Westminster Chimes.
This is London calling in the North American service of the BBC. In a few seconds, we shall be broadcasting a dispatch by the American war correspondent George Hicks of the Blue Network. Stand by for George Hicks.
GEORGE HICKS
We have yet to see a German plane over the amphibious convoy, which doesn't necessarily mean that we shan't see them before the attack is over. Our air support has been fine and the loudspeakers call out almost constantly Spitfires on the port, or Mustangs overhead, or B-17s passing on the starboard side. And as far as I know, no report has come in of attack by a Nazi-sea craft onto the convoys.
Now it's almost black dark, and you see the ships lying in all directions, just like black shadows on the great sky, some signaling out to sea, sheltered on the inside from the Germans' eyes, signaling with red lights, blinking code.
There are four fires on the shore, looking like pinpoints, winking, much by smoke.
Now planes are going overhead.
SFX: Plane passes low overhead.
That baby was plenty low.
SFX: Plane recedes into distance.
I think I just made the statement that no German planes have been seen, and I don't think that was the first one we've seen so far.
It came very low. Just cleared our stack and as he passed he let go a stream of tracer that did no harm. And then just as that happened, there was a burst of fire on the coast just off of us five miles.
German planes have been in the sky now, the darkness is on us, and the tracers have been flying up. They seem to have withdrawn for the moment. But the plane that we just had come over our ship was the first match that we've seen so far. It took a pass at us and went on and nothing particular happened.
(WARNING SIRENS)
Our own ship has just gave its warning whistles, and now the Flak is coming up in the sky, and streamers from the warships behind us. The sparks seem to just float up in the sky, and we're too far away to hear their explosions.
Heavy firing now just behind us, and anti-aircraft bursts in the sky, and bombs bursting on the shore and along in the convoys from the German planes that are beginning their first attack on the night of June 6th now that darkness has come on it.
These planes you hear overhead now are the motors of the Nazis coming and going in the cloudy sky. The reverberation of bombs . . . every once in a while you see a burst of fire from a bigger caliber on one of the warships firing up.
That was a bomb hit, another one, and the tracer line keeps marking it up into the darkness.
Very heavy fire now off our stern, some more ships in that area, fiery bursts, and the Frankensteamer is going out in a diagonal slab.
SFX: Anti-aircraft gunfire.
It's right over our heads now . . .
SFX: Gunfire.
It's bursting over our head, the ship, and the ship to the side of us.
SFX: Heavy gunfire continues, then fades to a stop.
Now it's died down. Blue white flash . . . Right over our head. And we can't see the plane, nothing but the black burst of the Ack Ack in the dark sky.
Here come the planes, more anti-aircraft fire, inboard toward the shore, and the Germans must be attacking low with their planes off our stern, because the streamer fire, the tracers, is almost parallel with the water.
Our tracer lines are coming up almost all around us, off the stern and off the sides and towards the French coast. Flares are coming down now. You can hear the machine gunning. The whole sea side is covered with tracer fire. Going up, leading . . . bombs . . . machine gunning, and the planes come over toward her.
Firing low, drifting smoke, bringing fire down low toward the French Coast, a couple of miles. I don't know whether it's on the shore, or is a ship on fire.
There's very heavy Ack-Ack now.
SFX: Heavy gunfire and airplane engine noises.
Planes seem to be coming over directly overhead.
SFX: Heavy gunfire, prolonged, then ends.
Well, that's the first time we've shot our gun.
SFX: Gunfire and airplane engines begin again.
Bursting right over our heads. They're hammering away to the outboard side. Tracers are going up in almost every direction . . . as we take up the German bombers overhead.
Heavy fire from the naval warship, as well as 20mm and 40mm tracers, were the sounds you just heard, and perhaps the burst of two of the bombs.
Well, let's pass for a moment now. There's nothing but black cloud puffs from the explosions in the sky, and the distant roar of the planes' motors.
Now they're working toward our aft again, down there near some of the British convoys. If you'll excuse me, I'll just take a deep breath for a moment and stop speaking.
Now the air attack has seemed to have died down, except for the British convoy off a couple of miles beyond us, and for that one fire burning near the shore, the French shore, which is beginning to die down somewhat.
I can't report that there were any hits because they seem to have been none on any of the ships around us at all. I see nothing in the night, no fires or anything of that kind.
(GUNFIRE)
Here we go again . . . Another plane's come over.
(Anti-aircraft gunfire, airplane engines.)
Right over our port side. Tracers are making an arc right over our bow now, they're disappearing into the clouds before they burst.
(Gunfire dies down.)
Tracers still going up, and now the plane has probably gone beyond. Looks like we're going to have a night tonight. Give it to 'em boys. Another one coming over, and a cruiser right alongside us is pouring it out. We see some tracers, hot fire, coming out of all the small ships and the large as well.
Something's burning. It's falling down through the sky . . . and circling down . . . may be a hit plane.
(GUNFIRE)
Here we go. They got one! 
(CHEERS OF GUN CREW IN BACKGROUND. "WE GOT ONE!")
They got one.
(GUN CREW IN BACKGROUND. "WE GOT IT. GUN 42. I GET TO PAINT THE STAR." LAUGHTER.)
Great blocks of fire came down and is smoldering now just off our port side in the sea, smoke and flame there.
We've had a few minutes pause. The lights of that burning Nazi plane are just twinkling now in the sea and going out, and the tracer starts up again and there's warning of another plane coming in.
Now ten past twelve and the German air attack seems to have died out.
To recapitulate, The first plane that was over, that we described at the beginning of the broadcast was a low-flying German, probably JU-88, that was leading the flight and came on the convoy in surprise, we believe, because he drew up and only fired as he passed by, and perhaps he was as surprised as we were to see each other. And, ahh, there seems to be no damage to the amphibious force that we can discover. One bomb fell astern of this warship, 150 yards away. A string of rockets were fired at a cruiser beside us on the port side. No damage was done, and gun number 42 at our port, just beside the microphone, shot down the plane that fell into the sea off to the port side.
It was Ensign William Shriner of Houston, Texas, who was the gunnery control officer, and Seaman Thomas Squirer of Baltimore, Maryland, handled the direction finder. It was their first, ahh, kill for this gun, and the boys were all pretty excited about it. A twin-barrel 40-mm anti-aircraft piece. They're already thinking now of painting a big star on their turret. They'll be at that first thing tomorrow morning when it's daylight. Meantime now the French coast has quieted down. There appears to be no more shelling into it, and all around it is darkness and no light or no firing.
Now, 10 past 12, the beginning of June 7th, 1944, this is George Hicks speaking, I now return you to the United States.
MUSIC: FOR TRANSITION
ACT #5: REPORTS
HOST
The reports we've heard so far are recorded on location and returned to London for broadcast. In some instances this means later on D-Day, or the next days, June 7 or 8.
One of the earliest reports is broadcast over the CBS radio network by Robert Trout. A portion is included in this episode's opening. Trout talks about unconfirmed reports of an invasion heard on Germany's Trans-Ocean News Service.
The first official report of the D-Day invasion, "Communique Number 1," is also heard in this episode's opening. It is broadcast on BBC and American radio networks simultaneously, and precisely at 9:32 AM, London time, June 6, 1944. The announcer is John Snagge.
SFX 5.1: BBC, SAMPLES, JOHN SNAGGE ANNOUNCES "COMMUNIQUE #1, THE FIRST OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT ABOUT D-DAY," 1944-06-06, 0:37 LENGTH.
JOHN SNAGGE
London calling in the home, overseas, and European services of the BBC and through United Nations Radio Mediterranean, and this is John Snagge speaking.
Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, have just issued Communique Number One, and in a few seconds I will read it to you.
Communique Number One. Under the command of General Eisenhower, allied naval forces supported by strong air forces began landing Allied Armies this morning on the northern coast of France. I'll repeat that communique.
Communique Number One. Under the command of General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing Allied Armies this morning on the northern coast of France.
This ends the reading of Communique Number One from Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force.
HOST
The first eye witness report comes at 1:00 PM from William Helmore, a British Royal Air Force Air Commodore aboard a Mitchell bomber, who records his flight over the Normandy coast at "H-Hour." This recording is broadcast on BBC after Helmore's return to London.
SFX 5.2: BBC, WILLIAM HELMORE, "FIRST EYE WITNESS ACCOUNT," JUNE 6, 1944, 1:37 LENGTH.
Now we're just trying to pick up our markers. The clouds painfully open now. I can see flashes where the bomber command stuff's been falling down. We're just outside the area. A lot of the bomber command are pounding this invasion spot like hell. We're best to tear it to pieces because our job is communication. I heard the bombardier say just now, go in and do your stuff, right-O. Oh he hasn't let them off. I hear him telling the pilot to go straight and steady, straight and steady. Oh there they go, my God what a lift, what a good lift up into the air. We feel much lighter now, there's a colossal splash on the left. We're banking round to see what's happened. There's a hell . . . A colossal lot of flame from these bombs. It's the most remarkable thing I've ever seen. Anyway, we've dropped our stuff and I think we're going to make a break for it. The best thing is to get out of here. Anyway, pretty good show. I think the bomb aim is satisfied. Hello, the rear gunner has reported, or the bloke at the back rather, has reported night fighter after us. So we've done one or two rather quick turns, port to starboard, and pilot's urging all along. I hope we make this cloud ahead of us, I don't feel very belligerent these days. Every now and then I can hear the corrections from the navigator, but we're heading for the coast now. I don't know how far away it is, but we're climbing because we're getting away from the place where we dropped that stuff.
(Hendy, David. "D-Day." BBC https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/ww2/d-day)
HOST
The evening of D-Day, BBC's John Snagge presents "War Report," the first nightly recap of news and events associated with the invasion of Europe. (Hendy, David. BBC. "War Report." https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/ww2/war-report/
SFX 5.3: BBC, SAMPLES, JOHN SNAGGE, "WAR REPORT WITH EISENHOWER'S D-DAY ANNOUNCEMENT TO WESTERN EUROPE," 1944-06-06, *** LENGTH.
Announcer -- Here's John Snagg to introduce tonight's War Report.
War Report number one, "The story of D-Day."
Throughout the day, the British Broadcasting Corporation has been telling the world that Allied forces have crossed the Channel into France.
With every arm of the liberating forces went a BBC Correspondent and soon after the assault was launched their reports began to come in. We have arranged these reports to present a picture of what has happened in Britain and across the Channel on the beaches, inland, and in the air over France.
You all know how the news of D-Day broke. At 9:45 this morning, a statement by General Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, was broadcast on all transmitters.
It began . . . "People of Western Europe, a landing was made this morning on the coast of France by troops of the Allied Expeditionary Force. This landing is part of the concerted United Nations plan for the liberation of Europe, made in conjunction with our great Russian allies."
The General went on to ask all members of resistance movements to follow the instructions they had already received.
To the others he said, "Continue your passive resistance, but do not needlessly endanger your lives. Wait until I give you the signal to strike the enemy."
His message ended . . . "This landing is but the opening phase of the campaign in Western Europe. Great battles lie ahead. I call upon all who love freedom to stand with us now. Keep your faith staunch. Our arms are resolute. Together we shall achieve victory."
HOST
By the end of June 1944, the fifteen nations allied against Germany land an estimated 850,000 troops, 570,000 tons of supplies, and nearly 150,000 vehicles across the beaches of Normandy ("D Day Fact Sheet").
Almost a year later, after heavy fighting across Europe, in May 1945, Allied forces capture Berlin, Germany, and World War II in Europe ends.
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HOST
This is Re-Imagined Radio, a program about sound-based storytelling. Each episode explores how Voice, Music, and Sound Effects can engage your listening imagination and promote storytelling.
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Support for Re-Imagined Radio comes from KXRW-FM (Vancouver, Washington), KXRY-FM (Portland, Oregon), KMWV-FM (Salem, Oregon), and the Electronic Literature Lab at Washington State University Vancouver.
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Original music composition, sound design, and post-production by Marc Rose.
Graphic design by Holly Slocum and Evan Leyden.
Announcing and social media by Rylan Eisenhauer.
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Re-Imagined Radio acknowledges the debt we owe to previous and contemporary radio artists and we hope our curation and stewardship of their artifacts and efforts demonstrates our sincerity.
This is John Barber. Thank you for listening.
MUSIC: RIR THEME UP, THEN DUCK UNDER THE FOLLOWING
ANNOUNCER CLOSE
ANNOUNCER
This is a production of Re-Imagined Radio. To learn more, visit our website, reimaginedradio (all one word, no punctuation) DOT fm. 
Please join us for another episode of Re-Imagined Radio as we continue our exploration of sound-based storytelling.
MUSIC: RIR THEME UP, AND TO END.