The 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion is Friday, June 6th. On Saturday, June 7th, the BBC World Service will release a special documentary looking at the American women who reported on the D-Day invasion.

D-Day Dames is available for broadcast Saturday, June 7 until Thursday, June 12.

This is an hour program that follows the World Service Clock.

ONLY available from Content Depot, under the American Public Media Exchange. We hope to have audio available to review by Thursday.

Program description:

In the spring of 1944, female American war correspondents gathered in London in anticipation of the D-Day invasion, which took place on June 6, 1944.

At that time, women were not allowed to report from the front line, although that did not stop all of them. Martha Gellhorn hid on a hospital ship to cross the channel, then went ashore and wrote a dramatic account of the invasion. She was subsequently disciplined by the authorities as she had no accreditation. Other women, such as Helen Kirkpatrick, witnessed Eisenhower’s return from the Front as they reported from D-Day headquarters.

After D-Day itself, female reporters gradually started going to Normandy. One example is Lee Miller, who filed dramatic photo-journalism accounts for British Vogue from a field hospital and then found herself on the frontlines of the siege of St Malo. It was a key moment in the history of female war correspondents as they followed the troops across Europe, arriving in Paris for its liberation in August.

On the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings, the BBC-s Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet, recounts these women’s stories using archive audio, readings from their articles and letters, and interviews with their relatives and biographers. And she explains how the work of women war correspondents has changed since 1944.

TIMINGS:

00:00-00:59 Billboard

06:00-29:00 Part 1

30:00-30:30 Second half billboard

30:30-32:30 BBC Newscast

32:30-59:00 Part 2

As with all programming, this information is subject to change.