“Across occupied Europe, several million were listening eagerly, keen to learn of Allied success or German reprisals”
ust after 9.30am London time on Tuesday 6 June 1944, the world officially learned that Operation Overlord – the largest seaborne invasion in history – was under way. By the time the news was announced on the radio, the first American, British and Canadian troops were already scrambling up the beaches of Normandy and facing intense enemy fire. The landings marked a decisive turning point in the Second World War: the long-awaited opening-up of a “second front” in the campaign to liberate Europe from its Nazi occupiers. But they also represented a decisive moment in broadcasting history. The BBC had been responsible for releasing the momentous news to an anxious listening public and, in the weeks that followed, it would prove to audiences around the world that nearly five years of war had
