A bit long but an interesting read, which may add some perspective to today's war headlines.
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.