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Witness to D-Day

Broadcast Date: June 8, 1944

Swimming with his pack and waterproof typewriter, Matthew Halton navigates the rough, rising tides to the beach. Around him, the Allied troops swim forward and land on the shell-swept Normandy beaches. They move through curtains of machine gun fire. Today is June 6, 1944, and the campaign to liberate France and Belgium from Germany has begun.

Halton takes note of the military barrage, bombing, assault and retreat. He describes the precise order and organization of the attack and the courage of the fallen men. But with deft skill, Halton manages to bridge the dividing line of despair and hope. He tells of French families emerging from their homes with roses and strawberries for the troops. He observes another Normandy woman placing roses on the face of a dead Canadian soldier. This is, he describes, a "splendid and terrible" day.

Witness to D-Day

• Operation Overlord, now know as D-Day, was the Allied invasion of Northwestern Europe. On June 6, 1944, almost 5,000 ships – the biggest armada in history - sailed to the coast of Normandy, France, and landed 156,000 men on the heavily-fortified beaches.
• The British and U.S. Armies attacked five beaches, codenamed Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah. Canadians were responsible for Juno, in the centre of the British front.

• Matthew Halton and Reuters reporter Charles Lynch also brought a basket of birds with them to the D-Day invasion. Halton and Lynch were hoping to write their reports and send their accounts back across the Channel to London via carrier pigeon. Once released, however, the birds flew inland to Germany. Lynch shook his fist angrily in the air and shouted "Traitors! Damn traitors!" at the fugitive birds.

• Other correspondents who covered the war for the CBC included Peter Stursberg, John Kannawin, Bill Herbert, Don Fairbairn, Bert Powley, Marcel Ouimet, Benoit Lafleur and Paul Barrette. Ouimet acted as the senior correspondent for the French Radio-Canada service. He later became vice-president of the CBC.

• The CBC reporters would record their stories, mix them in the field and return to camp. The 78 RPMs would be handed over to a dispatch writer who would take them to an airfield and fly them to a high-powered transmitter. The broadcasts would then be beamed to London and then over to Canada, usually the same day.

Witness to D-Day

Medium: Radio

Program: CBC Radio News

Broadcast Date: June 8, 1944

Guest(s):

Reporter: Matthew Halton

Duration: 13:53

Photo: National Archives of Canada - PA 132651

Last updated:
Jan. 12, 2005