War Report

On the evening of D-Day, 6 June 1944, the BBC Home Service broadcast the first in a ground-breaking series of programmes featuring recorded reports from correspondents on the front lines: War Report.

One of the reporters sending back dispatches recorded on the newly-developed Midget Recorder was Frank Gillard (pictured in 1944 above), who in 1985 revisited some of the battlegrounds and recalled how he and his colleagues brought the news back to Britain.

Radio Times feature on War Report 16 June 1944,
as reproduced in the 50th anniversary magazine.

War Report was broadcast for fifteen minutes each evening at 9.15 p.m. from deep in the basement of Broadcasting House, Studio LG1. An enthralled audience of between ten and fifteen million would tune in.  There were some 235 editions, from D-Day until VE Day.  

In August 1985 BBC Radio 4 broadcast two documentaries fronted by Gillard that told the story of War Report. The producer at BBC Bristol was John Knight.