Every now and again our little paper up here can sure hit the nail on the had. This ran today. I'll take the premise a step further and say that if conditions for WWII ever came around today we would never have fought - and won - that war.
D-Day as covered by today’s media
By William J. Tobin
Here’s how today’s media might have covered D-Day, 60 years ago:
On the coast of France, June 6, 1944:
Hundreds of paratroopers have fallen wide of their target zone. (In Washington, the Senate Armed Services Committee is demanding an explanation. The Army chief of staff may be called to testify.)
The French village of Cerville has been destroyed by mortar fire from a U.S. infantry platoon. Four civilians were killed, including one elderly great-grandmother. German defenders had retreated hours before the American attack. Army intelligence failures are cited.
NBC Exclusive: Four bombs dropped by 8th Air Force raiders failed to explode when they fell in an empty field close to the village of Le Challimond. An examination indicates the duds came from an Iowa munitions factory. An unidentified Army corporal said additional defective bombs may already be aboard other U.S. bombers heading for France.
Thousands of American casualties were suffered today as troops poured on shore at Omaha Beach. (In Washington, a Nebraska congressmen charged that many GI’s were unprepared for what they encountered during the invasion. “Somebody needs to be held accountable,” he said.)
Heavy Navy shelling from battleships and cruisers had little effect on Nazi gun emplacements raining fire on U.S. forces, several correspondents at the scene reported. (In Washington, a World War I veteran interviewed by a reporter questioned the value of troop support by warships, saying “the days of naval involvement in battles is long past.”)
CBS Exclusive: Bombs falling on the tiny French village of Entierier killed all four cows on which residents depend for milk and cheese. Severe shortages are feared unless U.S. forces can replace the animals by next week.
A 411-year-old church in the village of Marsuiles was destroyed by Army artillery fire after a German sniper was detected shooting from the bell tower. The Vichy French government mayor of the town protested to advancing GI’s, saying the sniper surely would have ceased firing had the American soldiers asked him to do so. He demanded an apology from Gen. Omar Bradley.
NBC Exclusive, in a report from Paris: Residents here fear the Eiffel Tower might be destroyed by advancing American forces. “They probably do not appreciate the beauties of the City of Light,” said Pierre Mutrand, the mayor appointed by occupying German forces. His sentiments were echoed by a number of Parisians and several Nazi SS officers, interviewed while sipping aperitifs at sidewalk cafes along the Champs-Elysées.
A river near the French coast has been contaminated by fuel leaking from two disabled tanks that advancing GI’s pushed over the side of a bridge. French puppet civic leaders questioned the need to clear the bridge by such drastic action, saying it appeared soldiers could have climbed over the wreckage had it been left in place. Correspondents were denied an interview by the young Army captain commanding troops in the area.
CBS Exclusive: American forces bogged down in the hedgerows of the French countryside have been calling for reinforcements to help escape withering German fire. Communication problems, however, have left commanders on the beach unaware that some of their troops are in a desperate situation. It makes you wonder whether their training was adequate — or even if there was any training at all.
On the home front:
As first battle reports indicated heavy casualties on Omaha Beach, a Republican leader addressing a Republican rally in Bloomington, Ind., told a group of somber Hoosiers that the invasion losses are evidence that President Roosevelt is incompetent. The Indiana congressional delegation responded by saying it would begin bipartisan hearings to see whether Roosevelt had concealed information that the invasion would be more costly than expected.
In a panel discussion broadcast by NBC Radio, four White House correspondents provided illuminating insight into the difficulties being encountered by Allied forces in France. Jeremy Jeffords, Washington Bureau chief of a small Midwest newspaper, said, “The decision to start the invasion this early in June is open to severe criticism. Gen. Eisenhower and his planners apparently failed to take into account that delaying this assault until August would have found much of the French population on a holiday and thus removed from the path of the fighting.”
In Chicago, the Rev. Blakely Elmera, a noted peace activist, deplored the violence taking place on the French battlefields. “Apparently our government in Washington gave no thought to the possibility of negotiating with German leaders in an effort to resolve their differences,” he said. “We seem to be blindly following Churchill’s affection for war.” In London, the British prime minister lit a new cigar and declined to respond.
William J. Tobin is an editor of The Anchorage Times.
