MaritimeQuest - Daily Event for July 20, 1940

World War II As It Happened

A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation

Saturday July 20, 1940
Day 324

July 20, 1940: Front page of the Manchester Evening News, Manchester, England.

(Click on the image for a readable version.)

Note the report in columns 4-5: "Menzies Gives in to Press Demand"

(The Australian government's new rules about the press now being reconsidered. The most interesting sentence in this report is this; Sir Keith Murdoch, Minister of Information (actually Director-General of Information) stresses that the powers asked for would not be abused. I cannot think of a single instance, in 5,000 years of human history, of a government that had such powers not abusing them. As Lord Acton said "Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts, absolutely.")

July 20, 1940: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.

(Click on the image for a readable version.)

July 20, 1940: Front page of the Nottingham Evening Post, Nottingham, England.

(Click on the image for a readable version.)

Note the headline: "Hitler Banned On U.S. Radio Chain"

(The media at one time banned Adolf Hitler. Now the Digital Nazis (twitter, facebook, google, apple and amazon) allow terrorists like the Ayatollah Khomeini to have a platform, but ban former President Donald Trump. One wonders who the Digital Nazis would have banned in World War II.)

(The next day Hitler would ban the Mutual Broadcasting System from broadcasting from Germany or German-controlled areas.)

[See "Hitler Bars Mutual Radio Because Coast Cut Speech" in The Sunday Star of July 21, 1940.]

July 20, 1940: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.

(Click on the image for a readable version.)

July 20, 1940: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.

(Click on the image for a readable version.)

Note the report in columns 2-3: "Redrafting Press Control Laws"

(More on this below.)

July 20, 1940: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

(Click on the image for a readable version.)

Note the report in columns 6-7: "H.M.A.S. Sydney Scored Unique Sinking"

[The report is concluded here.]

[More about HMAS Sydney here.]

Also note: "Sorry For The Victims" in columns 2-3, which is part of the report of Hitler's speech.

[The report is concluded here.]

(It was the following quote which I thought should be highlighted. The absurdity of Hitler's statement is truly breathtaking.

"Only the obstinacy of bloody-handed Jewish warmongers in Britain and France was responsible for Poland's opposition to Germany's reasonable proposals. Jews, Freemasons, arms manufacturers, war profiteers, international businessmen and stock exchange pirates used desperado political hirelings to launch the war.

Germany showed superhuman self-control, but France and Britain wanted war. Then these stony-hearted politicians sought to extend the war."

I wonder if the German people really believed what he was saying.)

July 20, 1940: Front page of the Daily Telegraph, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.

(Click on the image for a readable version.)

Note half of the front page is devoted to the press control scheme.

[The reports are concluded here.]

[See "Move To Stifle Free Expression" in the Daily Telegraph of July 18, 1940.]

[See "Control Of Press Greatly Modified" in The Examiner of Sept. 2, 1940.]

July 20, 1940: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.

(Click on the image for a readable version.)

Note the report in column 6: "Hitler to Give Canada to U.S. Prove Sincerity"

(Mighty generous of the Führer.)

July 20, 1940: Front page of the Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

(Click on the image for a readable version.)

July 20, 1940: Front page of Haarlem's Dagblad, Haarlem, Netherlands.

(Click on the image for a readable version.)

July 20, 1940: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.

(Click on the image for a readable version.)

Note the report in columns 7-8: "Sow Distrust Of Leaders"

[The report is concluded here.]

(This report states that Hitler's invasion of England is "near." This is from the same Associated Press that reported on July 16th that the Nazi invasion of England would happen on Friday, July 19th.)

[See "Force 600,000 Men Hundreds Of Ships Awaiting Signal" in The Lethbridge Herald of July 16, 1940.]

July 20, 1940: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.

(Click on the image for a readable version.)

Note the report in column 2: "British Warship Sunk In 3-Hour Battle, Italians Claim"

(The Italian propaganda was far less sophisticated than that of the Nazi regime. The Italians admitted to the loss of their cruiser, Bartolomeo Colleoni, so they just claimed that they had sunk a British ship in return. This was completely false.)

Also not the report at bottom right: "Father Kills Baby in Nightmare About Mad Dog Attacking Her"

July 20, 1940: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.

(Click on the image for a readable version.)

Note the report in column 5: "Claims U.S. Not Safe"

(A U.S. Army Major telling the public that the United States is vulnerable to attack by enemy bombers and should take precautions. I am not exactly sure how he came to this conclusion. Perhaps he was reading reports like the one linked below.)

[See "Guns Wanted For Detroit's Air Defenses" in The Escanaba Daily Press of June 19, 1940.]