A small item headlined "Tallahassee Gets Invasion News" appeared on the June 6, 1944, front page of the Daily Democrat. It was nestled amid the banner headline coverage of the historic Allied D-Day invasion. We are republishing it as well as a local pastor's column and a Democrat editorial that appeared inside the same paper.
A flood of long distance telephone calls and the wailing of the fire department's sirens at 4 a.m. today notified Tallahassee that the European invasion had started.
From watchful offices of The Associated Press in Jacksonville, manned around the clock to keep wires operating, came telephone calls - that roused editors and printers and had them hurrying to The Democrat office for publication of a 7 a.m. "extra."
North Florida D-Day training grounds:Revisiting history: Camp Gordon Johnston trained infantry for D-Day invasion
Lieutenant Johnson turned on the big siren of the fire department and its shrill tones cut through the quietness of the early morning. The siren broke the sleep of lots of people, and they telephoned The Democrat to know "is the invasion on?"
"May God's richest blessings rest upon our boys," one woman said on the telephone. Then she added: "My boy's over there."
First calls about the invasion, reporting the German radio had broadcast a statement that Allied forces were landing, came from The Associated Press in Jacksonville to The Democrat about 2 a m. Then, a few minutes after the official announcement at Allied Headquarters, at 3:32 a.m., Oliver S. Morton chief of the Associated Press in Florida, telephoned Henry S. Wrenn, publisher of The Democrat.
"The invasion is on," said Morton. "Thanks," said Wrenn.
The conversation ended that quickly, because for months newspaper offices and The Associated Press had prepared for those words.
A Tallahassee pastor's day and night prayer for 'deliverance of captive peoples and the overcoming of tyranny'
Meanwhile, Jeffery Alfriend, the rector at St. John’s Episcopal Church wrote in the newspaper that the church will be open for prayer day and night.
“All people are invited and urged to attend. Fervent prayer is made to Almighty God for the success of the Allied cause. Now has begun that invasion which is necessary to the deliverance of captive peoples and the overcoming of tyranny.”
“Forced into bitter conflict, we put not our trust in our armed strength only, but in the help of Almighty God. Let us unite our prayers with all others of the faithful for God's blessing to sustain our armed forces and for all who support them and minister to them. Let us pray for our nation and for the nations allied with us; for all who must take decision and lead in the day of battle; for our Congress and all orderly councils of the peoples. Let us pray for our President and all in like authority. Let us pray for the fallen, the wounded, the sick and the dying; for all in affliction, refugees, prisoners, the bereaved, and for helpless children.”
Tallahassee Democrat editorial calls for aggressive push to secure peace: 'This time, let's go to Berlin' and 'finish up the job'
The Tallahassee Democrat also wrote an editorial on Page 4 calling for a “a day for calm thinking.
“This is Invasion Day. It is a day of high hopes, and fervent prayers in millions of carta. It should be a day for calm thinking. Let no mind run to extremes of optimism, for ahead of the forces of liberation there lies the victory road that will be strewn with the bodies of American fighting men."
"There will be heartaches in many homes in the months to come before the flags of freedom displace the Nazi banners and Nippon's Rising Sun. But let there be calm thought that nothing short of absolute victory will be sufficient this time. The future peace of the world must be secured if, in our time, it can be secured. It will be secured only if we remain steadfast in our cause of right above might, and push the war masters into fine grist. And now that the crushing is under way, America must guard carefully against a spread of sympathy for the German peoples that might halt our armies short of Berlin."
"A solid sock on the German chin by America's clinched right fist, a knockout blow for the Nazi warriors will prevent another war being started. The fighting men and women of today are the sons and daughters of the fighting men and women of 1917-18. They are ready, willing and able to finish up the job that Dad didn't quite get finished 25 years ago because American sympathy for 'the German people' as distinguished from the German war machine pulled our victorious forces out before they reached Berlin."
"This time, let's go to Berlin, and to Tokyo, and this time let the war-making people of Germany and Japan know that we want peace, but that we're going to give them a taste of what war really is like."
"They will long remember that taste. Yes."
"There will be tears and heartaches in many American homes for there will be American dead in this war. And there will be heavy hearts for years to come because of the war wounds that American fighters will suffer. Let us in firm resolve know that we didn't want this war, but let us remain steadfast in the determination that nothing short of complete victory and absolute destruction of Nazi tyranny will be sufficient this time."
"Because we fight only to establish security in a free world. We firmly believe God to be on our side. If you cannot bend your knees in prayer to Him for our forces, then at least you can say that prayer in your heart."
"Shoulder-to-shoulder, free men of the world are marching to victory. Onward, ever onward, Christian soldiers!"
This story is part ofTLH 200: the Gerald Ensley Bicentennial Memorial Project. Throughout our city's 200th birthday, we'll be drawing on the Tallahassee Democrat archives and the beloved columnist and historian's research as we re-examine Tallahassee history. Read more attallahassee.com/tlh200.
