World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Monday May 20, 1940
Day 263

May 20, 1940: Front page of the Nottingham Evening Post, Nottingham, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


May 20, 1940: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
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May 20, 1940: Front page of the Manchester Evening News, Manchester, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


May 20, 1940: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
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May 20, 1940: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
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May 20, 1940: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


May 20, 1940: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 8: "Dutch Claim 100,000 Die In Rotterdam"
(This is the second time this month that the Dutch have claimed 100,000 dead. The first time was May 15, when they claimed 100,000 Dutch troops had died in combat. I would point out that in all of World War II a little over 100,000 Dutch people were killed. Another 100,000 were killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust and about 30,000 were killed in the Netherlands East Indies by the Japanese.)
[See report "100,000 Dutch Soldiers Killed" in The Lethbridge Herald of May 15, 1940.]


May 20, 1940: Front page of the Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
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May 20, 1940: Front page of Haarlem's Dagblad, Haarlem, Netherlands.
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May 20, 1940: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
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Note the photo at bottom: "For Them The War Is Over"
(I am pretty sure that close-up photos of dead bodies is something not shown in U.S. newspapers for many years, but in 1940 it was apparently acceptable. This photo appeared on many front pages in the United States.)


May 20, 1940: Front page of the Syracuse Herald-Journal, Syracuse, New York.
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May 20, 1940: Front page of The Kingsport Times, Kingsport, Tennessee.
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May 20, 1940: Front page of The Brainerd Daily Dispatch, Brainerd, Minnesota.
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Note the report in column 8: "Censorship"
(Perhaps realizing how much information they were allowing the enemy to collect, the small bulletin says "Censors in Europe are getting more careful about revealing secrets that might aid the other side." All I can say is that it was about time.)


May 20, 1940: Front page of the Butte Montana Standard, Butte, Montana.
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May 20, 1940: Front page of The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, California.
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May 20, 1940: Front page of the Hamburger Neueste Zeitung, Altona, Hamburg, Germany.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
1. Schlachtfeld der Somme erreicht.
(Battlefield of the Somme reached.)
2. 95 Flugzeuge im Luftkampf abgeschossen.
(95 aircraft shot down in air battle.)


May 20, 1940: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Stürmische Verfolgung auf der gesamten Front.
(Stormy pursuit across the front.)
2. Eupen und Malmedy mit dem Reich vereinigt.
(Eupen and Malmedy united with the Reich.)



   
Page published May 20, 2021