World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Saturday November 2, 1940
Day 429

November 2, 1940: Front page of the Manchester Evening News, Manchester, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 5: "Toys Going..Going..Gone - For Spitfire"
(14-Year-old Derek Brown of Rickmansworth and his sister Sheila organized their fellow students to donate their toys and books for an auction to raise money to help buy a Spitfire for the war effort.)
Also note the report in column 5: "Communists Under Foreign Control"
(Today it is hard to believe that at one time California was anti-communist. It was so in 1940, back then there had not been decades of left-wing propaganda taught to the children so the adults recognized the threat posed by communism. They even went so far as to ban the communist party in the state.)


November 2, 1940: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the report in column 1: "Kensington Palace Bombed"
Also note the report in columns 4-6: "Nazis Have Lost 6,000 Airmen"
(Clearly German losses were significant, I doubt the number was this high.)


November 2, 1940: Front page of the Birmingham Gazette, Birmingham, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 8: "Swine Fever: Hint To Farmers"
(Farmers in England experiencing another outbreak of Swine Fever.)


November 2, 1940: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 2, 1940: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 2, 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 4-5: "U.S. Bans New Cars In Switch To Great Plane Drive"


November 2, 1940: Front page of The Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 8: "93.8 Degrees Worst Day Since Last Heat Wave"
(I only point this one out because of the odd headline, which says, more or less, worst day since the last worst day.)


November 2, 1940: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in columns 3-6: "Margaree Survivors Tell of Disaster"
[The report is concluded here.]


November 2, 1940: Front page of the Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the photo at bottom right: "Men Against The Sea"
(Photo of Wilbert Roy Widdecombe and Robert George Tapscott, the only two survivors from the SS Anglo Saxon.)
[See reports in yesterday's newspapers here.]


November 2, 1940: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 2, 1940: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 2: "Nazis Reported Captured On Greenland Expedition"


November 2, 1940: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 2, 1940: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 2, 1940: Front page of The Helena Independent, Helena, Montana.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report at bottom right: "Germany Asserts 13 British Ships Sunk By Big Bombers"
(The number of ships sunk by German aircraft on Nov. 1st was only 3, not 13. There was one freighter, Letchworth and two HM auxiliary craft, HM Trawler Tilbury Ness and HM Drifter Torbay II. The other 10 ships lost were just another one of Herr Goebbels' fantasies.)


November 2, 1940: Front page of The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, California.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 2, 1940: Front page of the Hamburger Neueste Zeitung, Altona, Hamburg, Germany.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
1. Großer Schlag der deutschen Luftwaffe gegen das britische Geleitzugssystem.
(Another huge blow against the British convoy system.)
[This is the German report mentioned in The Helena Independent above "Germany Asserts 13 British Ships Sunk By Big Bombers." The number of ships sunk by German aircraft on Nov. 1st was only 3, not 13. There was one freighter, Letchworth and two HM auxiliary craft, HM Trawler Tilbury Ness and HM Drifter Torbay II. The other 10 ships lost were just one of Herr Goebbels' fantasies.]
 
2. Großkraftwerk Portsmouth schwer getroffen.
(Large power station in Portsmouth badly hit.)
 
[Note the photo at bottom right, reported to be the tanker British Fame sinking. The ship had been sunk on Aug. 12 by the Italian submarine Alessandro Malaspina. Three men of the crew were lost, there were forty-six survivors.]


November 2, 1940: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Erschütterte britische Seemacht.
(British naval power shaken.)
2. Englischer Großadmiral sieht schwarz.
(British Grand Admiral sees black.)
(Note the photo at top right of Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien, commanding officer of U-47 receiving the Eichenlaub (Oak Leaves) for the Knight's Cross.)



   
Page published November 2, 2021