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This story is taken from an interview with Jimmy Hawthorne, and has been added to the site with their permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions. The interview was by Walter Love, and transcription was by Bruce Logan.
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It was the wireless — the radio as we know it hadn’t been invented. It was very important during the war. It’s well-known that there was lot of pressure on the ´óÏó´«Ã½ to become a propaganda arm of the Government. The pressure was from on high, but it was resisted for the good of the country. Because the ´óÏó´«Ã½ had credibility, people believed it.

There was some holding-back. Frank Gillard was a very famous war correspondent who became my boss, and he told me they kept back on the gore. He was with the D-Day army.

There is the documented case of a German u-boat commander who was convicted of scuttling his sub when he claimed it had been sunk by enemy action. The evidence against him in a German Nazi court was a ´óÏó´«Ã½ broadcast. The Prosecution and the court believed the radio of the enemy.

There were no weather forecasts. All road signs were taken down to confuse the enemy.
The Germans were probably capable of ascertaining it.
When it came back, it was marvellous.

I lived in Creagah road, suburbia. Behind out house, wheat fields appeared. Everyone dug for victory. Whether it was a viable crop, I don’t know.

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