D-Day Front Pages – 1944 & 1964

Today is the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Invasion of Normandy. Above is the front page of the Lorain Journal from that day. (Back in 2019 here, I posted the front pages and many inside pages from the newspaper beginning on December 5, 1944 the eve of the invasion, to December 12, 1944. They make fascinating reading.)

As summed up on the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library website, "The D-Day operation of June 6, 1944, brought together the land, air, and sea forces of the allied armies in what became known as the largest amphibious invasion in military history. The operation, given the codename OVERLORD, delivered five naval assault divisions to the beaches of Normandy, France. The beaches were given the code names UTAH, OMAHA, GOLD, JUNO, and SWORD. 

"The invasion force included 7,000 ships and landing craft manned by over 195,000 naval personnel from eight allied countries. Almost 133,000 troops from the United States, the British Commonwealth, and their allies, landed on D-Day. Casualties from these countries during the landing numbered 10,300. By June 30, over 850,000 men, 148,000 vehicles, and 570,000 tons of supplies had landed on the Normandy shores. Fighting by the brave soldiers, sailors, and airmen of the allied forces western front, and Russian forces on the eastern front, led to the defeat of German Nazi forces."

It's interesting see how the Lorain Journal (back then an evening paper) was able to provide such up-to-the-minute details of the invasion. There's even some reassuring comments about the success of the operations from Lorain's No. 1 son, Admiral Ernest J. King.

Twenty years later, this was the front page of the Journal on June 6, 1964.

Coverage of the 20th anniversary of D-Day is given a prominent spot on the page, but seems relatively low-key. I suppose it reflects the attitudes of the times, and the fact that many of the members of the Greatest Generation who fought in World War II didn't define themselves by their considerable wartime achievements. A lot of the veterans (like my father) really didn't want to talk about their war experience at all; it was an unhappy time they would rather forget. And those families that lost loved ones in the war grieved in relative anonymity.