By Frederic A. Wallace, City Historian
June 6, 1944
As the clocks struck midnight ushering in a new day the town lay quiet. Yet there was a tension in the air that had been building for months. It was supposed to be a military secret, but how do you hide such an operation? In England, the Allies had been amassing arms and equipment for months. Hundreds of thousands of troops had gathered there as well. Everyone knew what was coming – the invasion of Europe. The question was WHEN?
Downtown at the offices of the Framingham News, the telegraph began chattering at 1:30 a.m. German radio was reporting the invasion had begun and by 4 a.m. there was confirmation by U.S. sources. In an age free of television, cell phones and so on, the news did not travel as fast as it does today. Chief Air Raid Warden of the town, John Jordan, ordered the air raid sirens to sound throughout the town at 7 a.m., and that was the signal – everyone understood this was D-Day.
People gathered around their radios for any news. The local paper, emblazoned with the headline “CONTINENT INVADED, U.S. TROOPS POUR INTO FRANCE,” were soon sold out at every news stand in town. Flags were set up along the major streets. Businesses closed for the day. The following quote from the Framingham News, June 7, sums up the town’s response to the news.
The long awaited D-Day was received by the people of Framingham in a spirit of prayer, rather than with celebration, as churches of all faiths held special invasion day services of prayer as requested by Gov. Leverett Saltonstall.
Hundreds of wounded soldiers, recuperating at the Harvey Cushing General Hospital on Dudley Road huddled around radios throughout the wards hoping for the latest news on the progress of the invasion.
And that is what was happening here 75 years ago on this day (June 6, 2019).