Oblivious to the coming storm: Daily Mail front pages from June 1944 reveal how immense secrecy kept the population unaware of the looming do-or-die D-Day mission

As we approach 75 years to the day since British troops landed on the beaches of Normandy, the world is reflecting on how the 6 June 1944 changed the course of history.

But in the UK at the time there was no talk of an allied invasion at all, especially not in the country’s daily newspapers. The operation was kept top secret in the months beforehand, with the British desperate to mislead the Germans on the time and location of the landings. 

Daily Mail archives for the week 3 to 6 June 1944 reveal how Britons were instead reading about the goings on in Rome, the first European city to be freed from Nazi control, instead.

The Normandy landings were absent from the pages of the paper, which hit the shelves every day despite war raging elsewhere, apart from Sunday, which only got its own paper in 1986 when the Mail On Sunday launched. 

With rationing still in full swing, the newspaper was just four pages long, but still crammed with practical advice from the RAF on how to peel potatoes, or grow the best tomatoes despite having to cope with rationing. There were also book reviews, crossword puzzles and sporting results – all which would have helped give readers a welcome respite from the war coverage.

Here MailOnline takes a look back at how the Daily Mail, perhaps unknowingly, covered the run-up to D-Day from Fleet Street to the front line between Saturday June 3 to Tuesday June 6 1944, when the famous operation that changed the face of the Second World War took place. 

Saturday, June 3, 1944: KESSELRING’S ‘ROME LINE’ SMASHED

The Daily Mail’s front page on June 3 1944 features several stories about the Allied troops’ invasion of Italy, the disappearance of Marshal Tito of the former Yugoslavia and an advert reminding readers to return stoppers from empty bottles of Bulmer’s Cider 

A story from the front page of the Daily Mail on June 3, 1944 tells of how the cities of Hull and Cardiff defied a Home Office ban on council staff getting jobs in the local Civil Defence services – with no mention of D-Day at all 

Page 2 on June 3 1944 featured a question and answer report from a nurse serving on the front line in British military hospitals across the world. Readers also got a two-day radio guide, a crossword and practical trips on how to grow the best tomatoes and rhubarb with rationing still in full swing 

Page 3 on June 3 1944 told of a small town in Cambridgeshire saved by two railwaymen who disposed of a truck load of bombs. It also warned readers that a rationing ban on all forms of indoor heating was back in place to save on energy and that a potato famine would soon arrive in the UK due to chronic shortages in crops 

With rationing still in place, the Daily Mail was just four pages long each day. Page four of four on June 3 1944 told of a German attack on Marshal Tito’s headquarters, a desperate plea from the Pope for ‘moderation in war’, as well as offering readers racing tips, week-end cricket schedules and London Underground updates

Monday, June 5, 1944: ROME OURS: GERMANS FLEE NORTH

There was no Mail on Sunday until 1986, so the next paper that week was on Monday. The front page of the Daily Mail’s June 5 edition 1944 was news that Rome was safely in Allied hands by midnight of June 4, the first European city to be freed of Nazi control. A small article from Daily Mail Radio Station warned that ‘D-Day posters’ were being stuck to billboards in Paris warning German people living there that the Allied forces were due to invade. The British gave several false dates as part of their Operation Bodyguard to mislead the Germans on when they would land 

A front page story from June 5 1944 tells of how a Mail correspondent risked being pelted with mortar bombs to cover stories from the front line in Rome as the Allied forces reclaimed it from the Nazis. Stories from D-Day week focused mainly on the liberation of Rome as the Normandy landings remained top secret 

Page two of the Mail’s edition from June 5 1944 has a lead story headlined ‘Rome!’ telling of how British troops were due to march through the centre of the Italian capital after taking it from Nazi forces. Another story told of how Americans paid 10 times the TV licence fee Britons did to watch the BBC 

Page three of June 5’s edition tells an unfortunate story about a female teleprint operator who was working for the Associated Press in Fleet Street in 1944. She accidentally delivered the news US President Eisenhower had announced an allied landing in Europe while she was practising for the momentous day, sending ‘five continent shaking’. She apologised from her home in Camden, north west London. Another article describes a Cambridgeshire town that dressed in second-hand clothes for a thanksgiving service. The page also includes an advert for Barkers department store in High Street Kensington, which now houses the new Daily Mail offices 

The final page of the edition on June 5 told of how forts were being hit by Allied forces in Boulogne, France and also featured a special report from ‘the Mail’s man’ reporting from the front line in Soviet Russia. Still on the subject of Russia, a short story informed readers of how tomatoes grown from Russian seeds were being planted across Britain  

Tuesday 6, 1944: ADVANCE SPEEDING BEYOND TIBER

Page one: On D-Day itself, there was no mention of the Allied forces landing on the beaches of Normandy. The paper went to press in the early hours of June 6, with the invasion still a well-kept secret to prevent any intelligence leaks. Instead reporters continued to focus on the liberation of Rome, with King Victor Emmanuel of Italy stepping down following the Allied invasion 

Another front page report, this time from D-Day, June 6 itself, tells of General Alexander’s forces blasting through Rome. The paper went to press in the very early hours of Tuesday, June 6, 1944, before news of the invasion arrived in London 

In its leader column for the day, on page two, the newspaper welcomed the ‘famous victory’ in Rome, likening it to the defeat of Napoleon. There was also a crossword-style puzzle and radio listings for the coming day, as well as think-piece columns – similar to those found in today’s ‘Right Minds’ section

On page three, the paper’s ‘special correspondent’ brought incredible news of a young ‘green-eyed’ British woman, Doris King, from Southsea, who had hidden out in occupied Rome with a family of Italians after she and her fellow dancers had been captured in Florence at the outbreak of war and sent to prison, only for her to later escape. There is also a photograph of jubilant Italians cheering on the allied troops as they made their way through Rome 

There was grimmer news about food shortages in Paris on the back page of the paper that came out on June 6, 1944 – the day that would be immortalised as D-Day, although readers would not have yet known that. There was also a cricket report as the West Indies took on England at Lords, and a declaration that ‘Persian Gulf’ may be the best four-year-old colt out there ahead of the day’s racing at Newmarket

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