World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Thursday November 7, 1940
Day 434

November 7, 1940: Front page of the Manchester Evening News, Manchester, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 7, 1940: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 3: "Anti-Jewish Measures in Bulgaria"
(Drastic and oppressive actions by the Bulgarian National Assembly. Most freedoms Jews had yesterday, were taken away by the government today. Yesterday, Jews were equal in Bulgarian society, today, they are third class citizens, or worse. All those people in western countries who constantly claim they are oppressed because of the color of their skin (which in itself is absurd) read this to give you an understanding of what real oppression is. Notice in the last paragraph the writer uses the phrase "Jewish question." This phrase would become synonymous with the Nazis and the Holocaust. One wonders where the writer heard this phrase.)


November 7, 1940: Front page of The Midland Daily Telegraph, Coventry, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the photo at top left: "Rescued Kitten as Mascot"
(Horace, a kitten rescued from a recent fire, became the mascot for the department.)


November 7, 1940: Front page of the Birmingham Gazette, Birmingham, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 2: "Big Enemy Tanker Torpedoed"
(HM Submarine Taku did fire torpedoes at the German tanker Gedania, but all apparently missed. The ship was captured June 4, 1941 by HMS Marsdale and renamed Empire Garden, she was scrapped in 1960.)
Also note the report in column 5: "The Sign of Victory"
(Eight people claim to have seen a vision in the sky of Jesus Christ crucified on the cross and six Angels.)


November 7, 1940: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 7, 1940: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 7, 1940: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 7, 1940: Front page of The Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 8: "Famine Fears Cause Panic In Norway"


November 7, 1940: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report at bottom center: "Tacoma's Big Bridge Collapses"
(The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed due to high winds.)


November 7, 1940: Front page of The Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 7, 1940: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
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November 7, 1940: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 7, 1940: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 7, 1940: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 7, 1940: Front page of The Charleston Gazette, Charleston, West Virginia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 2: "Carpathia Said Sunk"
An official broadcast in Rome claimed that the Cunard liner Carpathia had been sunk. This, I am sure, makes people think of the Carpathia that rescued the survivors of the Titanic. If Rome radio was talking about this ship, their reporting was 22 years to late. Carpathia had been sunk July 18, 1918 by SMS U-55. There was no ship named Carpathia sailing in World War II.)


November 7, 1940: Front page of the Nevada State Journal, Reno, Nevada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 5: "Serum 'Chuted to Stricken Child"
(A girl was had food poisoning was sent a serum via a National Guard plane and a parachute.)
Also note the report in column 7: "Iron Lung Rushed To Stricken Man"
(An iron lung shipped on a fast Union Pacific train from Salt Lake City to Nampa, Idaho.)


November 7, 1940: Front page of the San Mateo Times, San Mateo, California.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


November 7, 1940: Front page of the Hamburger Neueste Zeitung, Altona, Hamburg, Germany.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
1. Kalinin über die Rolle der Sowjetunion angesichts der gegenwärtigen Weltlage.
(Kalinin on the roll of the Soviet UNion in the current world situation.)
[This refers to Mikhail Ivanovich Kalinin, who was head of state for the Soviet Union.]


November 7, 1940: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Seit Kriegsbeginn 7,1 Millionen BRT. versenkt.
(Since the beginning of the war, 7.1 million GRT sunk.)
2. Gesamtausfall weit über 10 Mill. BRT.
(Total losses well over 10 million GRT.)
[They claim in the report that in Sept. and Oct. alone 1,308,600 GRT had been sunk, of that 946,000 tons had been sunk by U-boats. In a post-war assessment by the Admiralty the losses for British merchant ships in Sept. and Oct. was 625,922 GRT. That figure does not include warships or merchant ships from other Allied or neutral countries. The report goes on to say claim that makes a total of 7,162,200 GRT sunk since the beginning of the war. Credit for the losses is given as follows; surface ships 1,810,000, U-Boats 3,714,000 and the Luftwaffe 1,638,200 tons.

In a statement by the Admiralty published on Nov. 20, 1940 these figures are given:
Total shipping losses for all nations for the period Sept. 1939 to Oct. 1940 are 4,053,840 tons.
British merchant shipping losses for the same period was 2,092,722.

Those figures do not include Axis or Axis controlled ships that had been captured, which totaled 157 ships at 669,018 tons. In the post-war Admiralty assessment, the total losses for just British merchant ships was 2,246,384. As you can see, the German propaganda figure is over three times the actual figure.]



   
Page published November 7, 2021