George Hicks

Journalist | Radio Personality Born Aug. 26, 1905 in Tacoma, WA

Radio reporter George Hicks made history with his broadcast from the deck of the USS Ancon at the start of the D-Day invasion, describing the events around him as sirens and the sounds of heavy bombardment brought listeners to the front line.

"You see the ships lying in all directions, just like black shadows on the gray sky," he described in his 1944 pool report. “Heavy firing now just behind us... bombs bursting on the shore and along in the convoys of the German planes that are beginning their first attack on the night of June 6. Now the darkness has come on us."

The American-born Hicks was the London-based bureau chief for the Blue Network, which later became ABC. His famed broadcast of the Allied invasion of Normandy is featured on Edward R. Murrow’s album “I Can Hear It Now, Vol. II (1933-45).” The track is titled “Broadcast From Invasion Flagship Ancon on D-Day by George Hicks.”

— Tracy Boucher for the Los Angeles Times July 6, 2010