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H-hour at Normandy headlined the afternoon edition of the Medicine Hat News on June 6, 1944, “the greatest offensive in history hurled against northwestern France.”
The News is reprinting our coverage of major historical and local events to celebrate our 140th publishing year later this fall.
Few historical events rank equal to the D-Day Invasion, bringing the allied fight to the mainland of Europe with the “avowed aim of crushing the Nazis and liberating the people of Europe by total victory over their German overlords,” as Associated Press war correspondent Wes Gallagher put it on the day.
A reprinted message from King, a photo-engraved map of the invasion area and war office flashes blanketed the front page.
Canadian Press writer Ross Munro’s coverage direct from Juno Beach of the Canadian advancement came the following day under a huge headline declared “Beaches Cleared of Foe.”
Heavy fighting inland was reported.
Victory in Europe Day would not come for another 11 months in May 1945.
On the monumental day, Canadian, British and U.S. troops came ashore at 6 a.m. Greenwich Mean time, translating to 10 p.m. on June 5 at Medicine Hat, behind a “flotilla of mine sweepers” and after 96 hours of heavy and constant bombardment from the skies and navy guns.
Landing at Normandy their task was to secure a beachhead along the Cherbourg Peninsula despite a host of ruse locations to defray German defences.
(Note to readers: Reprinted here is the June 7 edition of the Medicine Hat Weekly News, which itself was a direct reprinting of the June 6 edition of the daily News. In this case the substitution is made due to print quality issues of the latter.)
