The woman whose weather report changed the date of D-Day

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 5 June 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1944, a young Irishwoman called Maureen Flavin drew up a weather report that helped change the course of World War Two.

Maureen was working at a post office in Blacksod on the far west coast of Ireland. Her duties included recording rainfall, wind speeds, temperature and air pressure.

On 3 June, she sent one of her hourly reports to Dublin, unaware that the figures were being passed on to the Allied headquarters in England. It was the first indication of bad weather heading towards the coast of France - and it was a huge blow.

Hundreds of thousands of British, American and Canadian servicemen had already gathered for the most ambitious operation of the war, the assault of the Normandy beaches on 5 June.

But after reading Maureen’s report, chief meteorologist Group Captain James Stagg advised a delay of 24 hours.

US General, Dwight Eisenhower, gave the order, and D-Day was finally launched on 6 June, 1944. A date that went down in history.

Maureen's son Edward Sweeney tells Jane Wilkinson about the family's pride in their mother.

(Photo: Maureen Sweeney. Credit: Sweeney family photo)

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and maybe it's when I had a hand in.
0:04.0	I'm Tammy Walker and I produce podcasts for the BBC.
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0:16.2	But then you have the space to see where it goes.
0:18.4	And doing that at the BBC means we can really run with the best stories
0:21.8	while developing the most unique audio talent.
0:24.3	So if you like what you hear, why not check out the huge range of podcast we've got on BBC
0:29.1	Sounds. Hello, welcome to the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Jane
0:41.8	Wilkinson. This is a story about a young Irish
0:45.1	woman whose weather report helped secure the success of the most pivotal battle of
0:50.0	World War II, the operation to push the Nazis out of France.
0:55.0	The dawn of June the 6th comes up like thunder over the invasion coast.
0:59.0	As Allied bombers send down their share of the 20,000 tons of bombs dropped in the 24 hours preceding the landings.
1:06.0	The softening up of the German defences along a broad stretch of coast.
1:12.0	That's British Pathie, on the start of D-Day in 1944. The date, June the 6th, is now fixed in the history books.
1:21.0	But Operation Overlord should have taken place 24 hours earlier.
1:27.8	And it was forecasts of an Atlantic storm that changed the date.
1:32.0	Maureen Flavin sent in the crucial weather report.
1:37.0	I felt very happy, because we did give the right readings.
1:42.0	Oh, God, I felt proud.
	...

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