Operation Overlord: D-Day

It is hard to conceive the epic scope of this decisive battle that foreshadowed the end of Hitlers dream of Nazi domination. Operation Overlord was the largest air, land, and sea operation undertaken before or since June 6, 1944. The landing included over 5,000 ships, 11,000 airplanes, and over 150,000 service men.

 After years of meticulous planning and seemingly endless training, for the Allied Forces, it all came down to this: The boat ramp goes down, then jump, swim, run, and crawl to the cliffs. Many of the first young men (most not yet 20 years old) entered the surf carrying eighty pounds of equipment. They faced over 200 yards of beach before reaching the first natural feature offering any protection. Blanketed by small-arms fire and bracketed by artillery, they found themselves in hell.

When it was over, the Allied Forces had suffered nearly 10,000 casualties; more than 4,000 were dead. Yet somehow, due to planning and preparation, and due to the valor, fidelity, and sacrifice of the Allied Forces, Fortress Europe had been breached.

The program below is from CBS World News on the morning of June 6, 1944. It begins with readings of Radio Berlin's report of the invasion (heavily dosed with disinformation) and ends with Edward R. Murrow's reading of General Eisenhower's message to the Allied Forces:

" Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force! You are about to embark upon a great crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers in arms on other fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

"Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened, he will fight savagely.

"But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man to man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our home fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to victory!

"I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full victory!

"Good Luck! And let us all beseech the blessings of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking"

"""""

ANTHOLOGY - Special Memorial Day Edition

Original Broadcast Date: May 30, 1954
(Click > to Play)

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service and has its origins in the American Civil War.
The almost overwhelming number of soldiers, more than 600,000 from both sides, who died in that war, a war sometimes described as a war of brother against brother, meant that burial and memorialization of fallen soldiers took on a cultural significance bordering on the sacred. During the war women of the Confederacy made the decorating of soldiers' graves an increasingly formal practice.
After the war, the first well known organized observance of a day to memorialize the sacrifices of Union soldiers was in Charleston, South Carolina. At least 257 of the Union soldiers held as prisoners at the Charleston Race Course died and were hastily buried in unmarked graves. On May 1, 1865, black residents of Charleston, together with teachers and missionaries, organized a May Day ceremony. The freedmen cleaned up and landscaped what was a crude, makeshift cemetery, building an enclosure and an arch labeled, "Martyrs of the Race Course." Nearly ten thousand people, mostly freedmen including about 3,000 school children newly enrolled in freedmen's schools, members of mutual aid societies, black ministers, white northern missionaries, and Union soldiers gathered to commemorate the war dead. Most brought flowers to lay on the graves. Years later in the north, the celebration would come to be known as the "First Decoration Day."
In 1865, the federal government began creating national military cemeteries for the Union war dead. In the summer of that year a Waterloo, New York, druggist Henry Welles, while talking to friends, suggested that it might be good to remember those soldiers who did not make it home from the war. Not much came of it until he mentioned it to General John B. Murray, a Civil War hero, who gathered support from other surviving veterans. On May 5, 1866, they marched to the three local cemeteries and decorated the graves of fallen soldiers.
On May 5, 1868, in his capacity as commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the organization for Union Civil War veterans, General John A. Logan issued a proclamation calling for "Decoration Day" to be observed annually and nationwide. It was observed for the first time that year on May 30 when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The date was not chosen to commemorate a battle but as the optimal date for flowers to be in bloom, emphasizing the custom of decorating the graves of fallen soldiers. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873 and by 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war.
The preferred name for the holiday gradually changed from "Decoration Day" to "Memorial Day." It was first used in 1882 but did not become the more commonly used name until after World War II. It was declared the official name by federal law in 1967. On June 28, 1968, congress passed the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, which moved four holidays, including Memorial Day, from their traditional dates to a specified Monday in order to create convenient three-day weekends. The change moved Memorial Day from its traditional May 30 date to the last Monday in May. After some initial confusion and unwillingness to comply, all 50 states adopted congress' change of date within a few years.
Many feel that when Congress made the day into a three-day weekend in with the National Holiday Act, it made it easier for people to be distracted from the spirit and meaning of the day. As the VFW stated in its 2002 Memorial Day address: "Changing the date merely to create three-day weekends has undermined the very meaning of the day. No doubt, this has contributed greatly to the general public's nonchalant observance of Memorial Day."
With that in mind and to help Americans remember of the true meaning of Memorial Day, the "National Moment of Remembrance" resolution was passed in December 2000. The resolution asks for all Americans "to voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence" at 3 p.m. local time. Still many feel the "Moment of Remembrance" is a only a small step in the right direction to return the original meaning to the day.
What is needed, they contend, is a full return to the original day of observance. Setting aside one day out of the year for the nation to come together to remember, reflect, and honor those who have given the ultimate sacrifice in service to their country. To return the solemn, and even sacred, spirit to Memorial Day

Waterloo, New York, still celebrates Memorial Day on May 30.

QUIET, PLEASE - Valentine

While living in New Salem, Illinois, Abraham Lincoln became friends with the James Rutledge family and boarded at the family's tavern. While there he fell deeply in love with their daughter Anne. She, notwithstanding her engagement to John McNamar, was no less in love with Lincoln. At the time of her sudden death from typhoid in 1835, Anne was caught between her engagement to McNamar and her growing fondness for Lincoln. McNamar had abruptly left New Salem in 1832 to visit his parents in New York only to return to New Salem in the fall of 1835 shortly after Anne's death.

Mr. Lincoln was grievously affected by Anne's death and a deep gloom and melancholy displaced his infectious cheerful exuberance. He would often express the sentiment that he had buried his heart in the grave with "that dear girl." He reportedly would go often to her graveside and read from a small pocket testament he carried with him. After his election to the presidency and before leaving Springfield, Lincoln confessed his love for Anne Rutledge, admitting that she was a ”handsome girl" and would have made a "good, loving wife."

The Rutledge relationship is one of the major controversies among Lincoln scholars, although Anne's own brother, Robert, testified that "Mr. Lincoln paid his addresses to Anne, continued his visits and attentions regularly and those resulted in an engagement to marry, conditional to an honorable release from the contract with Mr. McNamar." This was much to the displeasure of Mary Todd Lincoln. And because William G. Herndon, Mr. Lincoln's law partner, uncovered and was instrumental in publicizing many of the details, Mrs. Lincoln felt betrayed and maligned by the inference that Anne Rutledge was Mr. Lincoln's first and only true love.

Today's radio drama, "Valentine" from February 13, 1949, deals with that early Lincoln-Rutledge relationship. It is taken from the widely acclaimed old time radio program "Quiet, Please" which first aired on June 8, 1947, over the Mutual Broadcasting System and was written and directed by celebrated author Wyllis Cooper.

To read a scholarly article on the same subject go to the Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association.

Episode 087 from February 13, 1949
(Click to Play)

TERRY AND THE PIRATES

Terry and the Pirates was a comic strip created in 1934 by Milton Caniff and was the inspiration for the popular serialized radio drama of the same name. Storylines of action, high adventure and foreign intrigue, kept listeners enthralled for a dozen years.

The central characters were Terry Lee and Terry's friend and mentor Pat Ryan. Terry's far east entourage included Flip Corkin, Terry's flight instructor; Hotshot Charlie, Terry's best friend in the Army Air Corps; and Connie the Chinese man hired as a guide. And to keep things interesting - the beautiful Elita and Burma, who can throw their curves as well as punches. Throughout the Orient they encounter plenty of bad guys - most notably the pirates run by the beautiful Dragon Lady. For years the pirates have been the scourge of the orient, but in the 1940s things change a bit and Terry and his pals are plunged into the war effort to defend the Asian mainland against offshore invaders!

NBC's Red network was the late afternoon series home when it began airing on November 1, 1937. It was switched to NBC Blue on September 26, 1938 and continued until March 22, 1939. After a two year hiatus, interestingly it returned shortly before the Pearl Harbor attack and was heard in the mid-west on the Chicago Tribune's WGN five days a week from October 16, 1941 to May 29, 1942. 

During the WWII years the series increased in popularity taking off and flying high on ABC Blue, where it aired for 15 minutes each weekday afternoon beginning February 1, 1943. In the post-WWII period following 1945, with "cold-war" villains outside the theater of operations and no "hot-war" villains for Terry and his gang to fight, ratings began to drop. The final episode aired on June 30, 1948.

THE LONE RANGER

The Lone Ranger is a fictional masked Texas Ranger who, with his Native American companion Tonto, fights injustice in the American Old West. The character has become an enduring icon of American culture.

He first appeared in 1933 in a radio show conceived either by WXYZ radio station owner George W. Trendle or Fran Striker, the show's writer. The show proved to be a huge hit, and spawned an equally popular television show that ran from 1949 to 1957, as well as comic books and movies. The title character was played on radio by George Seaton, Earle Graser, and most memorably Brace Beemer. 

The latest Lone Ranger movie featured Johnny Depp as the masked man's "faithful companion". Because of concerns regarding racism claims made against the movie, the Smithsonian magazine sent the director of the American Indian Museum and member of the Pawnee and Comanche tribes, Kevin Gover, to the movie. Here's what he thought: "I admit that I went to see 'The Lone Ranger' expecting to be disappointed and quite likely offended by the portrayal of Indians in the movie. … Johnny Depp’s Tonto isn’t offensive, just weird. Still, many of us were concerned that the movie would just be one more exercise in stereotyping Indians. Fortunately, “The Lone Ranger” does little harm in this regard, in my opinion. … The movie works self-consciously and a little too hard to overturn the old Hollywood stereotype of villainous Indians.”

But let's get back to radio. The first of 2,956 radio episodes of The Lone Ranger premiered on January 30, 1933 on WXYZ, a radio station serving Detroit, Michigan. Sources disagree on whether to credit station and show owner George W. Trendle or main writer Fran Striker with the concept. Elements of the Lone Ranger story had been used in an earlier series Fran Striker wrote for a station in Buffalo, New York.

In any case, the show was an immediate success. Though it was aimed at children, adults made up at least half the audience. It became so popular, it was picked up by the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network, and finally by NBC's "Blue Network", which in time became ABC.

The last new episode was broadcast September 3, 1954. Transcribed repeats of the 1952–53 episodes continued to be aired on ABC until June 24, 1955. Then selected repeats appeared on NBC's late-afternoon weekday schedule (5:30–5:55 pm Eastern time) from September 1955 to May 25, 1956.

THE CHALLENGE OF THE YUKON

Challenge of the Yukon was a radio series that began on Detroit's station WXYZ (as had The Lone Ranger and The Green Hornet), and an example of a Northern genre story. The series was first heard on February 3, 1938. The title changed from Challenge of the Yukon to Sergeant Preston of the Yukon in November 1951, and remained under that name through the end of the series and into television.

The program was an adventure series about Sergeant William Preston of the North-West Mounted Police and his lead sled dog, Yukon King, as they fought evildoers in the Northern wilderness during the Gold Rush of the 1890s. Preston, according to radio historian Jim Harmon, first joined the Mounties to capture his father's killer, and when he was successful he was promoted to Sergeant. Preston worked under the command of Inspector Conrad, and in the early years was often assisted by a French-Canadian guide named Pierre.

Preston's staunchest ally, who was arguably the true star of the show and indeed often did more work than he did, was the brave Alaskan husky, Yukon King. Typical plots involved the pair helping injured trappers, tracking down smugglers, or saving cabin dwellers from wolverines. Sgt. Preston's faithful steed was Rex, used primarily in the summer months, but generally Yukon King and his dog team were the key mode of transportation (as signaled by Preston's cry of "On, King! On, you huskies!." There is some confusion regarding King's actual breed. The writers seemed to use malamute and husky interchangeably. At least once, Preston answered "malamute" to the question from another character. In the early radio shows, the cry of "On, you huskies!" would alternate with "On, you malamutes" from show to show.

The theme music was Emil von Reznicek's overture to Donna Diana a now long-forgotten opera, though the overture remains a concert staple to this day. The shows episodes ended with the official pronouncement, "Well, King, this case is closed."

THE GREEN HORNET

The Green Hornet is an American radio adventure series created by George W. Trendle and Fran Striker with input from radio director James Jewell. The series detailed the adventures of Britt Reid, debonair newspaper publisher by day, crime-fighting masked hero at night. Distinguished by its use of classical music for themes and for bridges between scenes, The Green Hornet was "one of radio's best-known and most distinctive juvenile adventure shows."

Though various incarnations sometimes changed details, in most versions the Green Hornet is the alter ego of Britt Reid, wealthy young publisher of the Daily Sentinel newspaper by day, who goes out in his masked "Green Hornet" identity at night to fight crime as a vigilante. Reid is accompanied by his loyal and similarly masked partner and confidant, Kato, who drives their technologically advanced car, the "Black Beauty." As the Green Hornet, Reid masquerades as a criminal to infiltrate the underworld, leaving behind criminals and any incriminating evidence to be found by the police.

The series originated on January 31, 1936, on WXYZ, the same local Detroit station that originated its companion shows "The Lone Ranger" and "Challenge of the Yukon." Beginning April 12, 1938, the station supplied the series to the Mutual Broadcasting System radio network, and then to NBC Blue and its successors, the Blue Network and ABC Network, from November 16, 1939, through September 8, 1950. Orange Crush sponsored its return in 1952 for a brief run from September 10 to December 5 of that year.

HOPALONG CASSIDY

Hopalong Cassidy is a fictional cowboy hero created in 1904 by author Clarence E. Mulford who wrote a series of popular short stories and twenty-eight novels based on the character. In Mulford's early writings, the character appears as rude, dangerous, and rough-talking. Beginning in 1935, the character ‒ as played by movie actor William Boyd ‒ was transformed into a clean-cut, reserved, and well spoken silver screen hero. He possessed a fine sense of fair play and was often called upon to intercede when dishonest characters were taking advantage of honest citizens. "Hoppy" and his white horse, Topper, usually traveled through the west with two companions - one young and trouble prone with a weakness for damsels in distress, the other comically awkward and outspoken.

Having appeared in a series of sixty-six immensely popular films, Boyd thought that Hopalong Cassidy might have a future in television. And after spending $350,000 to obtain the rights to the Hopalong Cassidy character, books, and his old films, he approached the fledgling NBC television network. The initial broadcasts were so successful that NBC could not wait for a television series to be produced and simply re-edited the old feature films down to broadcast length. On June 24, 1949, Hopalong Cassidy became the first network western television series.

The enormous success of the television series made Boyd a star. And in something that now might seem like a move backwards, the Mutual Broadcasting System began broadcasting a radio version of Hopalong Cassidy in January 1950. At the end of September the show moved to CBS Radio where it ran until 1952.

THREE KINGS DAY

Today, Three Kings Day, marks the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas and is observed this year on Tuesday, January 6.  It is a celebration of the story of three wise men (traditionally Kings or Magi) visiting the newborn Jesus with gifts. The word "maji" (plural of the Latin magus) wasn't used until centuries after the canonization of the books known today as the New Testament, and then to denote followers of Zoroastrianism or Zoroaster and much later as a practitioner of magic, to include astrology, alchemy and other forms of esoteric knowledge. Thus the association or confusion with the scriptural term "wise men."

The story is found in the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew versus 1-12. Neither of the terms, "Kings" or "Magi," are found there:

 1 Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,

 2 Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.

 3 When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.

 4 And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.

 5 And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judæa: for thus it is written by the prophet,

 6 And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.

(Compare Micah 5:2 - " But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.")

 7 Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.

 8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.

 9 When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

 10 When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

 11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

12 And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

In this story, wise men (but traditionally Magi or Kings) from the east follow a star to Jerusalem, where they ask Herod, the king appointed by the Romans, what he knows about a newly born "King of the Jews." This sounds like a challenge to Herod, who gathers his priests to learn where and who is this king. They relay a prophecy that Messiah will be born in Bethlehem, and Herod sends the wise men there, saying: "Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I may go also and worship him." The wise men -- named by tradition, Gaspar, Melchior and Balthasar, but names never appearing in scripture -- eventually find Mary and her son, Jesus, to whom they give gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh, and then return home, having been told in a dream to by-pass Herod.

In 1857 a carol recounting a portion of this story was written by an American, John Henry Hopkins, Jr. Known variously as "We Three Kings" or "We Three Kings of Orient Are" or "The Quest of the Magi" it remains one of the most popular and most frequently sung Christmas carols today

Although Hopkins originally worked as a journalist for a New York newspaper and studied to become a lawyer, he chose to join the clergy upon graduation. He studied at the General Theological Seminary in New York City and was ordained a deacon of the Episcopal Church in 1850. Five years later he became the seminary's first music teacher, a post he held until 1857 in addition to his ministry as the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was during his final year of teaching at the seminary, that Hopkins wrote "We Three Kings" for a Christmas pageant held at the seminary in New York City. By authoring the lyrics and composing the music, he did something extremely uncommon among carol composers, who would usually write either the lyrics or music, but not both.

The carol achieved popularity within the circle of family, friends, and students; thus encouraging Hopkins to publish the carol in 1862. However popular this carol has become, the melody has been described as sad or moody or solemn - almost a dirge - but somehow reminiscent of Eastern Mediterranean music. And in this respect it may have had an influence on American expatriate T.S. Eliot's 1927 poem "Journey of the Magi." The first three lines of the poem reflecting the music's mood:

'A cold coming we had of it,

Just the worst time of the year

For a journey, and such a journey…'

If you really want to read the poem in its entirety, all forty-three lines of it, it can be found at: http://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/journey-magi

The carol is organized in such a way that three male voices could each sing a single verse as a solo, those being the verses corresponding with the gifts of each of the three kings. The first and last verses of the carol would be sung together by all three as "verses of praise." The refrain proceeds to praise the beauty of the Star of Bethlehem. Now, however, the Magi's solos are typically not observed when singing the carol.

Although written in 1857 and not published until five years later in 1862, it appeared in Hopkins' compilation titled "Carols, Hymns and Songs." It was the first Christmas carol originating from the United States to be published in the United Kingdom. In 1928, the carol was included in the Oxford Book of Carols,” which praised the song and labelled it "one of the most successful of modern composed carols.

In traditional form the lyrics are as follows:

We three kings of Orient are

Bearing gifts we traverse afar

Field and fountain, moor and mountain

Following yonder star.

Refrain:

O Star of wonder, star of night,

Star with royal beauty bright.

Westward leading, still proceeding,

Guide us to thy perfect Light.

Born a king on Bethlehem's plain

Gold I bring to crown Him again

King forever, ceasing never

Over us all to rein.

Refrain

Frankincense to offer have I.

Incense owns a Deity nigh.

Pray'r and praising, all men raising,

Worship Him, God on high.

Refrain

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume

Breathes of life of gathering gloom.

Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,

Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.

Refrain

Glorious now behold Him arise,

King and God and Sacrifice.

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Peals through the earth and skies.

Refrain