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SC001- Edition 2,500 - June 1944
JUNE 1944
WE LAND IN FRANCE
From our Special Correspondent
D-DAY IS HERE! I am sending this dispatch to you
from a beach in France, the first time I have set foot here since the British
Expeditionary Force was evacuated from Dunkirk and Cherbourg four long years
ago.
We left the South Coast of England in the small hours, surrounded by a vast
fleet of ships. This was the long-awaited attack on the ‘western front’ which
had been prepared for many months, with equipment stored in readiness in fields
and depots in the East and South of England.
But where were we going? The Pas de Calais? The coast of Holland and Belgium?
Only as we landed after an uncomfortable sea journey was it evident that we were
in Normandy.
From my vantage point above the beach I can see hundreds of ships still
disgorging troops and equipment, and I can hear distant explosions as Royal Navy
ships and RAF aircraft bombard German defences inland.
This beach is only one of a number already in the hands of the forces of the
British Empire. Other
beaches are under assault by the American armed forces.
Surely the enemy cannot withstand this onslaught of the full might of the allied
forces, and we will soon go on to Berlin and victory.
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Mr CHURCHILL ADDRESSES THE HOUSE OF COMMONS
6 June 1944
I have to announce to the House that during the
night and the early hours of this morning the first of a series of landings in
force on the European Continent has taken place. In this case the liberating
assault fell upon the coast of France. An immense armada of upwards of 4,000
ships, together with several thousand smaller craft, crossed the Channel.
Massed airborne landings have been successfully effected behind the enemy lines
- and landings on the beaches are proceeding at various points at the present
time. The fire of the shore batteries has been largely quelled. The obstacles
that were constructed in the sea have not proved so difficult as had been
apprehended.
The Anglo-American allies are sustained by about 11,000 first-line aircraft.
This vast operation is undoubtedly the most complicated and difficult that has
ever occurred.
The battle that has now begun will grow constantly in scale and in intensity for
many weeks to come, and I shall not attempt to speculate upon its course.
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THE FALL OF ROME
Though overshadowed by today’s momentous news of the landings in France, another
important event reported today is the liberation of Rome by the allied Fifth and
Eighth Armies under the command of Generals Alexander, Clark and Leese. This
marks an important stage reached in the Italian campaign, which has already been
under way for five months.
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