D-Day Broadcasts

Picture shows C.D Adamson, engineer correspondent of the BBC War Reporting Unit, with a midget Recorder of the type used in Normandy.

When Operation Overlord – to reclaim mainland Europe from the Nazis - began with the Normandy Landings on 6 June 1944, BBC news reporters were in at the start, reporting from the frontline. The news broke at home with the 8.00am bulletin, when Freddy Allen reported that paratroops had landed in France. Any doubt that D-Day had come vanished with the newsflash just after 9.30, when John Snagge introduced General Eisenhower’s announcement.

The BBC set up a War Reporting Unit to cover the allied invasion. Seventeen reporters were embedded with the initial British and US invading forces. For Guy Byam this meant jumping with the 6th Airborne Division. For Howard Marshall it involved wading ashore from his landing craft, which had hit a mine.

They were aided by the portable “Midget” recorder which - though a cumbersome 18kg - was able to capture sound in the field as never before. The results were heard on the pioneering news special War Report, which began that night. It carried vivid accounts of the conflict, including one from Marshall.

Two BBC correspondents were among the many casualties of the invasion. Kent Stevenson died reporting on a raid over Germany two weeks after D-Day, and Guy Byam was killed in a raid over Berlin early in 1945. War Report continued nightly as the Allies pushed into Europe, ending after 235 editions.