Eighty years ago, D-Day news 'caught everyone napping' in Lewiston

Jun. 5—LEWISTON — There wasn't anything exceptional in Lewiston on June 6, 1944, a sunny Tuesday.

That Monday was a warm, sunny one in Lewiston, with the normal array of local activities.

Firefighters rescued a cat supposedly stuck in a tree on lower Lisbon Street. An oil burner caught fire on Blake Street. The first woman postal worker in years began her job at the Lewiston post office.

James Cagney's "Frisco Kid" was showing at the Priscilla Theater while the Empire Theater offered "Going My Way," starring Bing Crosby.

A Lewiston High School pitcher came within one out of hurling a no-hitter.

The Androscoggin Lodge of Odd Fellows honored Joseph Morrell for his 62 years as a member at its Pleasant Street hall.

Yet that day 80 years is one that will never be forgotten, not just in Lewiston but everywhere.

In huge type, the headline of the Lewiston Evening Journal carried the biggest news of the day: ALLIES INVADING FRANCE.

"The long-awaited invasion of Western Europe has commenced," an editorial noted, calling on residents to offer "fervent prayer for the safety" of the troops pouring onto the beaches of Normandy.

A front-page notice mentioned a "Victory Service for all people" at the Trinity Episcopal Church on Bates Street that evening.

"Join in prayer for God's blessing upon the Allied nations," the advertisement proclaimed.

Though there are people alive today who witnessed the scene eight decades ago, that day of hope and heroism is hard to imagine for most Americans who have never experienced anything like it.

It didn't come out of the blue. Everyone knew an invasion was in the works — that American, British, Canadian and a smattering of other Allied troops would soon be dropped from the air or taken ashore in landing craft in the face of furious fire from the enemy trying to hold them back.

And yet, D-Day still surprised many.

"D-Day caught everyone napping," the Journal reported that afternoon. It wasn't until breakfast that people heard the news.

The Lewiston Daily Sun that morning reported the first word of the invasion. It came from the Germans.

"Three German news agencies tonight flashed news to the world that an Allied invasion of western France has begun with Allied parachute troops spilling out over the dawn skies over the Normandy peninsula and seaborne forces landing in the Le Havre area," read an Associated Press bulletin published in the Sun.

It said Allied headquarters in London had no comment.

But at the last second, just before the paper went to press, came word that Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, commander of the Allied forces, had gone on the radio to declare an Allied air offensive had begun. Editors managed to squeeze the news into a subhead above the story.

The Journal said that as people learned the news, its switchboard was filled with flashing telephone buttons.

"What's D-Day? What time did it really happen? What was the exact hour? Who's in it? Is this the big invasion? Who? What? When? Where?" callers asked.

At that point, there were many questions, not too many answers.

All over town, residents asked each other, "When did you first hear it?"

"There was not much rejoicing to be seen nor to be overhead," the Journal said. "Too many people were involved too closely for any of that."

"Everybody knew somebody who must be in the thick of things," it added, a consequence of the massive mobilization of manpower to fill the millions of military positions needed to win the war.

Even so, the Journal said, there was "plenty of excitement in the air" because "the invasion was on at last."

The newspaper office on Park Street drew throngs of people eager for the latest word.

"Persons working way off at the other end of town were down reading the bulletins as fast as they were put in the windows," the Journal said. "The office gang were trying to read them as they came off the AP machine," a teletype that sounded like a high-speed typewriter.

"The most sought article in the building," the paper said, "was the map with the coastline of France."

"The minute the little red-headed pins doted out those all-important, sea-coast miles and the map was placed in the window, the people swarmed around it," the Journal said.

The next day's Journal contained a page full of photographs of local men compiled by the paper's military news editor. They were, the Journal said, among the men most likely to have been there on D-Day.

"They were in England and they MIGHT be among those who crossed the channel," the paper explained.

Wherever they were, the prayers of a city — and a nation — were with them.

Copy the Story Link