World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Wednesday November 1, 1939
Day 62

November 1, 1939: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the Blackout time in the center of the paper.
Also note the report at bottom right: "Silence Follows "Submarine" SOS from British Ship"
(This is about SS Coulmore. More about that in the papers below.)


November 1, 1939: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 1, 1939: Front page of The Mercury, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the story at top right: "Nazi Brutality"
(This is the report about the White Paper released by the British government the previous day. Due to the time difference many stories do not appear until the next day in the Australian press.)


November 1, 1939: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the story about the White Paper on Nazi concentration camps is also in this paper.


November 1, 1939: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the story in column 8: "U.S. Vessels Rush To Aid Of G.B. Ship"
(The story is about the SS Coulmore. I have no idea if Coulmore sent such a signal, but Coulmore left Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Oct. 28 and arrived at Southend, England on Nov. 16th. There were no German submarines operating off the U.S. coast in Oct. 1939, so there is no possibility that this ship was attacked by a German U-boat, however there is one interesting fact about the story. USCGC Bibb WPG-31 is sighted as one of the ships which responded to the distress signal, and when Coulmore was torpedoed on Mar. 10, 1943, Bibb was one of the ships which picked up survivors.)


November 1, 1939: Front page of the Butte Montana Standard, Butte, Montana.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the story in column 6 at bottom: "Jews Leave Vienna For Reservation In Former Polish Area"
(Notice how in the story it says "local authorities have told the Jewish community there that Vienna must be Jew Free by March 1. In the Nazi vernacular it was called Judenfrei. Also note that the Butte Montana Standard did not carry any story about the British White Paper.)


November 1, 1939: Front page of The Hammond Times, Hammond, Indiana.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the headline: "U-Boat Attack Near U.S."
(As stated above this was just not true.)


November 1, 1939: Front page of the Biddeford Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
(They also have the U-Boat attack as a top story. This must have frightened a number of sailors and their families. I would like to point out that this was not "fake news" as we know it today, it was inaccurate news based on the information given to the press, who would have had no reason to disbelieve the story.)


November 1, 1939: Front page of The Telegraph-Herald, Dubuque, Iowa.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 1, 1939: Front page of the Hamburger Neueste Zeitung, Altona, Hamburg, Germany.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Molotow hält ein starkes. Deutschland für unerläßlich.
(Molotov holds strong. Germany is indispensable.)



   
Page published Nov. 1, 2020