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Abstract
This article addresses how D-Day and its aftermath were reported in the British press. It focusses on the logistical operation that shaped the news flow from the front line back to the Ministry of Information headquarters at Senate House, London, and out again to British newspaper readers, and explores the extent and range of news reporting that this made possible. It argues that the ways in which the news operation surrounding the D-Day invasion was organised and pursued can best be described as a mutually sustaining collaboration between the military on the one hand and the British media, including the press, on the other. Far from being an independent ‘Fourth Estate’, when it came to D-Day and the Normandy invasion the British newspaper press was—and absolutely considered itself to be —another weapon of war.
Acknowledgement
I would also like to thank the panellists and participants at the ‘Newspapers, War and Society’ conference, Gregynog, 2014, for their comments, and the anonymous referees of this article for their helpful and constructive reports. I would also like to thank the Leverhulme Trust and the Department of History and Welsh History, Aberystwyth University, for supporting the research project ‘A Social History of the British Press in the Second World War', from which this article derives’.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 See for instance, Knightley, The First Casualty; Adams, The Media and the Falklands; Taylor, War and the Media; Carruthers, The Media at War; Farrar, News from the Front; Morgan, “The Boer War and the Media”; Connelly and Welch, War and the Media. There is also a substantial literature of memoirs by war reporters themselves dating back to the late nineteenth century.
2 For a full account of the Allied invasion of Normandy, see Beevor, D-Day: The Battle for Normandy.
3 Knightley, The First Casualty, 322.
4 McLaine, Ministry of Morale; Knightley, The First Casualty, esp. 304–333.
5 See Lovelace, “British Press Censorship”; Farrar, News from the Front.
6 See Badsey, “Battle of the Somme”; Malins, How I Filmed The War.
7 McLaine, Ministry of Morale.
8 Nicholas, Echo of War, 203–204.
9 See Nicholas, Echo of War, 208; Nicholas, War Report, 147–148.
10 Nicholas, “War Report,” 149.
11 The memoirs of both the MOI Chief Press Censor, Rear Admiral George Thomson, and MOI Director of News Censorship, Francis Williams, are adamant on this point. See Thomson, Blue Pencil Admiral, 31–35; Williams, Press, Parliament and People, 15–33.
12 Thomson, Blue Pencil Admiral, 25–30; Williams, Press, Parliament and People, 48–50.
13 Williams, Press, Parliament and People, 18. See too McLaine, Ministry of Morale and Taylor, British Propaganda.
14 For a good description of the MOI’s layout and working practices, as well as a rather beautifully rendered censorship workflow chart, see Thomson, Blue Pencil Admiral, 169–173.
15 “How Invasion Stories Reached London From France,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 1.
16 Private and Confidential letter from Cyril Radcliffe, 20 January 1944, The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA) WO 193/426.
17 Ibid. See also Censorship Stop on Speculation re Future Operations, 24 December 1943, TNA WO 229/56/7.
18 Thomson, Blue Pencil Admiral, 185.
19 See TNA WO 229/56/15 for individual SHAEF Press Censorship Guidance notices.
20 Memorandum for Supreme Commander, 28 April 1944, TNA WO 229/56/6.
21 Thomson, Blue Pencil Admiral, 190; Williams, Press, Parliament and People, 56–57.
22 Thomson, Blue Pencil Admiral, 186–190.
23 “Allied Command PR Division Moving,” Newspaper World, 29 April 1944, 3.
24 “Press Arrangements for Second Front,” Newspaper World, 6 May 1944, 1–2.
25 “Invasion ‘Set Fair’ for Next 3 Weeks,” Daily Express, 9 May 1944, 1.
26 Memorandum on Press Censorship, 18 April 1944, TNA WO 229/56/11.
27 Guidance of Press in Initial Stage, 26 April 1944, TNA WO 229/56/7.
28 D-Day Guidance for the Press, 27 May 1944, TNA WO 229/56/7.
29 Thomson, Blue Pencil Admiral, 192.
30 “How War Correspondents Prepared for D-Day,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 11–12.
31 Thomson, Blue Pencil Admiral, 192.
32 Minutes of meeting of Home Defence Executive regarding Overlord Security: Control of the Press, 24 May 1944, TNA WO 208/2096.
33 Minutes of meeting of Home Defence Executive regarding Overlord Security: Control of the Press, 24 May 1944, TNA WO 208/2096.
34 “What Eisenhower Told Correspondents,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 12.
35 Note by Sir Findlater Stewart, “Calling up of newspaper correspondents,” nd. (likely 25 May 1944), TNA WO 208/2096.
36 See successive memoranda and correspondence 24–27 May 1944, TNA WO 208/2096.
37 Thomson, Blue Pencil Admiral, 193–195; Williams, Press, Parliament and People, 60–63.
38 Thomson, Blue Pencil Admiral, 193. See too Secret Urgent Message, 4 June 1944, TNA WO 229/56/7.
39 Williams, Press, Parliament and People, 63. For more on this story see “It Was D-Day – For Two Minutes Only,” Daily Herald, 5 June 1944, 3; “She Told The World D-Day Is Here,” Daily Mail, 5 June 1944, 3; “Invasion Flash by Joan Set US Ablaze,” Daily Mirror, 5 June 1944, 8; “The Invasion ‘False Alarm’,” Newspaper World, 10 June 1944, 5.
40 The following account of D-Day as experienced in the MOI Press Room is largely taken from the remarkable series of articles about the news coverage published in Newspaper World, 10 and 17 June 1944. For D-Day official statements and Eisenhower’s Order of the Day, see TNA WO 229/57/7.
41 Notes for War Correspondents Accredited to SHAEF, nd. (5 June 1944), TNA WO 229/56/11.
42 Censorship Ruling on Initial Communique (Amended), 5 June 1944, TNA WO 229/56/11.
43 “Covering the News on D-Day,” Newspaper World, 10 June 1944, 1; Nicholas, Echo of War, 212.
44 “Covering the News on D-Day,” Newspaper World 10 June 1944, 1.
45 “SHAEF Correspondents’ Own Information Room in Action,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 11.
46 For the physical impact of newsprint rationing on the wartime British press, see Layton, Newsprint, 8–13.
47 “Provincials’ D-Day Alertness,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 7.
48 See Nicholas, “All the News.”
49 Nicholas, Echo of War, 212.
50 Nicholas, Echo of War, 212–218; see also Nicholas, “War Report”; Hawkins, War Report.
51 “Blitzed Germans Fleeing to Line Fifty Miles North,” Daily Express, 7 June 1944, 1; “Lodgements on Wide Front,” News Chronicle, 7 June 1944, 1; “Beachhead Wider and Deeper,” Daily Mail, 7 June 1944, 1; “Invasion Thrusting Inland,” Daily Mirror, 7 June 1944, 1; “The First Day: Thoroughly Satisfactory,” Manchester Guardian, 7 June 1944, 5.
52 See and compare “Aboard a British Destroyer Off Bernière-sur-Mer,” no byline, Daily Herald, 2; “This is What Invasion Looks Like from the Sea,” Desmond Tighe, News Chronicle, 7 June 1944, 1. “I Saw Them Leap to Beach,” no byline, Daily Mirror, 7 June 1944, 1; “Into Battle—a Page of Eye-Witness Stories,” Desmond Tighe, for the Combined Press, Daily Express, 7 June 1944, 3; “How the Navy Landed the Invasion Forces,” Reuters Special Correspondent for the Combined Press, Manchester Guardian, 7 June 1944, 7.
53 See for instance the Daily Mirror centre spread, “The Liberators,” 7 June 1944, 4–5.
54 “Dropped Advertising,” Newspaper World, 10 June 1944, 3.
55 Box notice, Daily Express, 7 June 1944, 1.
56 See “Forgot to Queue,” Daily Herald, 7 June 1944, 3; “Invasion Commentary,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 6.
57 “Handle 250,000 Words,” Newspaper World, 10 June 1944, 5; “Press’s Help With Communications From Coast,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 2.
58 See e.g., “These Men Cover the Second Front,” News Chronicle, 7 June 1944, 2-3; “Daily Mail Men on the Spot,” Daily Mail, 7 June 1944, 2.
59 “Wounded are Back in Blighty,” by Daily Mail reporter, Daily Mail, 8 June 1944, 3; “The Wounded Come Home—And Here They Tell Their Story,” Daily Express, 8 June 1944, 3; “They Went On—And On,” Daily Mirror, 8 June 1944, 8.
60 “280 Factories Waterproofed Invasion Tanks,” News Chronicle, 9 June 1944, 4; “Big Rush Job Made Tanks Waterproof,” Daily Express, 9 June 1944, 4; “Waterproofed the Army,” Daily Mirror, 9 June 1944, 5.
61 “The First Paratroop Reporter Types His Story in Battle,” Leonard Mosley, representing Combined Press, Daily Herald, 9 June 1944, 2; “How the Paratroops Fought and Won the First Battle of the Invasion,” Leonard Mosley, Combined British Press, News Chronicle, 9 June 1944, 2; “‘The Big Drop’ as One Man Did it on D-Day,” Leonard Mosley, Combined Press Reporter, Daily Mail, 9 June 1944, 4; “With the Parachutists: Early Morning Adventures Behind the Atlantic Wall,” Leonard Mosley, Combined British Press, Manchester Guardian, 9 June 1944, 8. For an extended reflection on his experiences see “Leonard Mosley’s Story of Airborne War Correspondents,” Newspaper World, 24 June 1944, 3, 17.
62 “Sea-Sickness,” Daily Express, 7 June 1944, 1; “Troops Defy Ban: Give Up Their Sweet Ration to Children of Normandy,” News of the World, 18 June 1944, 3.
63 “That superb urbanity was not to be ruffled by anything so natural as a mere invasion.” “Notes on the News,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 7.
64 “ … the correct title, it is felt, would more adequately be ‘War Room’.” “SHAEF Correspondents’ Own Information Room in Action,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 11.
65 See Notes for War Correspondents Accredited to SHAEF, nd. (5 June 1944), TNA WO 229/56/11; “SHAEF Correspondents’ Own Information Room in Action,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 11.
66 “Guide to Invasion Press Arrangements,” Newspaper World, 10 June 1944, 2.
67 “How Fleet Street Solved SHAEF Communications Problem,” Newspaper World, 24 June 1944, 8–9.
68 “How Invasion Stories Reached London From France,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 1.
69 “Handle 250,000 Words,” Newspaper World, 10 June 1944, 5.
70 Censorship Statistics, 12 July 1944, TNA WO 229/56/11.
71 “Notes on the News,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 7.
72 See TNA WO 229/56/15 for individual SHAEF Press Censorship Guidance notices.
73 See Daily Express front page photograph, 8 June 1944; “This is How We Got There,” Daily Mirror, 8 June 1944, 1.
74 “First British Pictures of Assault Troops Lost,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 6.
75 “British Criticism,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 2. This would become a recurrent theme in the British press and trade press: see also “Notes on the News,” Newspaper World, 8 July 1944, 7.
76 See for instance Report to General Morgan on Article by Alan Moorehead in Daily Express, 19 June 1944, TNA WO 229/56/1. For assurances of press parity, see Communication Arrangements for the Press, nd. (7 July 1944), WO 229/56/1.
77 “Correspondents Complain of BBC Favouritism,” Newspaper World, 29 July 1944, 3. See also Nicholas, “All the News.”
78 Colonel Dupuy to Lt. Gen W.B. Smith, Chief of Staff, SHAEF, 1 September 1944, TNA WO 229/56/13.
79 Knightley, The First Casualty, 322–33.
80 “Guide to Invasion Press Arrangements,” Newspaper World, 10 June 1944, 2.
81 “Casualties Among War Correspondents,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 7.
82 Nicholas, Echo of War, 214.
83 Nicholas, War Report, 155.
84 “Hitch-Hiked to See His Quads,” Daily Herald, 5 June 1944, 3; “The Murders of Stalag Luft III,” Daily Express, 24 June 1944, 2; “Deserter Took Aged Widow’s Life Savings,” News of the World, 11 June 1944, 2.
85 “Invasion Commentary,” Newspaper World, 10 June 1944, 6.
86 See for instance Confidential Memorandum, 18 August 1944, TNA WO 229/56/6.
87 “Notes on the News,” Newspaper World, 15 July 1944, 7.
88 “British War Reporters,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 8.
89 “Invasion Commentary,” Newspaper World, 10 June 1944, 6; “What Eisenhower Told Correspondents,” Newspaper World, 17 June 1944, 12; “Leonard Mosley’s Story of Airborne War Correspondents,” Newspaper World, 24 June 1944, 3.
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Siân Nicholas
Siân Nicholas, Department of History & Welsh History, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth, Ceredigion SY23 3DY, Wales, UK.