World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Friday April 11, 1941
Day 589

April 11, 1941: Front page of the Evening Telegraph and Post, Dundee, Scotland.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report at bottom right: "Enemy Bases Bombed - Another Attack On The Scharnhorst"
(The Scharnhorst was not damaged, but Gneisenau took four hits and had 78 men killed, ten others died of wounds. This effectively put Gneisenau out of the war, the ship would sail only one more time. In Feb. 1942 Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen along with an escort of five destroyers, sailed from Brest, France for Germany in the famed "Channel Dash." The ships sailed right through the Straits of Dover and up the English Channel catching the British . Gneisenau hit a mine and was drydocked in Kiel on arrival. On the night of Feb. 26-27, 1942 Gneisenau was bombed by the R.A.F., the ship had not offloaded its ammunition before it went into drydock and much of it exploded. The extensive damage could not be repaired at Kiel, because of the constant air raids, so the ship sailed to Gotenhafen (Gdynia) Poland where it was decommissioned on July 1. In Jan. 1943 Hitler ordered the ship stripped of all remaining armaments and it was used as a stores ship and air raid shelter. It was sunk as a blockship in 1945. The wreck was scrapped after the war. The two remaining 11" (28cm) triple turrets were moved to Norway and used as coastal artillery, one of these still exists. At least two of the 5.9" (15cm) twin turrets were mounted in Denmark and Norway for the same use.)


April 11, 1941: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in columns 2-3: "Nazi Wolf Of Atlantic Taken Prisoner In Sea Fight"
(The Admiralty releases the news that Otto Kretschmer, commanding officer of U-99 and the top scoring U-boat commander of World War II had been captured when his U-boat was sunk.)


April 11, 1941: Front page of the Daily Telegraph, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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April 11, 1941: Front page of The Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
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April 11, 1941: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
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April 11, 1941: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
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April 11, 1941: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
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April 11, 1941: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
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April 11, 1941: Front page of The Nevada State Journal, Reno, Nevada.
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April 11, 1941: Front page of The Southern Jewish Weekly, Jacksonville, Florida.
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Note the report at top right: "Nazis Threaten Jews In Yugoslavia, Greece"
Also note the report in column 3: "New Ghetto Set Up In Lublin; Jews To Move In April 15th"
(34,000 Jews from the Lublin Ghetto would be exterminated the following year. About 30,000 were taken to the death camp at Belzic and gassed while another 4,000 were sent to Majdanek where they were worked to death, starved to death, tortured to death, executed or died of disease.)


April 11, 1941: Front page of the San Mateo Times, San Mateo, California.
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April 11, 1941: Front page of the Hamburger Neueste Zeitung, Altona, Hamburg, Germany.
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1. Britenschiffe liegen schon zur Flucht bereit.
(British ships are prepared to evacuate.)


April 11, 1941: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Die Insel wird nicht vergessen.
(The island will not be forgotten.)
2. Schwerer Angriffe auf britische Häfen und Rüstungszentren - 49.000 BRT. von der Luftwaffe versenkt.
(Heavy attacks on British ports and armament centers - 49,000 GRT sunk by the Luftwaffe.)



   
Page published April 11, 2022