World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Saturday, June 14, 1941
Day 653

June 14, 1941: Front page of the Manchester Evening News, Manchester, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 5: "Egg Rationing Not Cancelled - Official"
(Apparently a rumor was circulated that egg rationing would be cancelled, but the Ministry of Food says no.)


June 14, 1941: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report at top right: "R.A.F. Torpedo Pocket Battleship"
(No battleship was hit, but the cruiser Lützow [ex-Deutschland] was. Lützow had just come out of the Deutsche Werke at Kiel following repairs to the ship from damage suffered during the invasion of Norway in Apr. 1940, including being torpedoed by the British submarine HMS Spearfish. Only 12 days after being recommissioned, Lützow was hit by one torpedo from the attacking aircraft. The damage was enough to put the ship out of service until May of 1942.)


June 14, 1941: Front page of the Birmingham Gazette, Birmingham, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


June 14, 1941: Front page of the Western Mail and South Wales News, Cardiff, Wales.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in columns 4-5: "Nazis Cancel Army Leave, Call Up More Men"
Also note the report in column 5: "Invasion Threat by Goebbels"
(The article written by the German propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, was a ruse to divert the British. He wanted the British to be distracted by thinking that an invasion of Britain was imminent by stating that the invasion of Crete was a "practice run" on the British invasion. The idea may have come from reading the British press, who had made that argument themselves. Here is what Goebbels wrote in his personal diary on June 11, 1941;

"In consultation with the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht and with the Führer's agreement, I draft my 'invasion' article. Title: Crete as an example. Pretty clear. It is to appear in the Völkischer Beobachter and then to be seized. London will learn of this fact within twenty-four hours from the U.S. Embassy. This is the point of the exercise. All of it will be calculated cover-up the activity in the east."

The "activity in the east" of course, means the up-coming invasion of Russia. His calculation was correct and the British reacted exactly as Goebbels' thought they would. To be fair, the British press could not have known that Goebbels had created this trap for them.)
[See "July 9 Is New Blitzkrieg Date" in the Manchester Evening News of July 4, 1940.]
 
Also note the report in column 5: "Communists Make Trouble at Docks"
(Everywhere communists exist, trouble follows. This has always been true and is still true today.)


June 14, 1941: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


June 14, 1941: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


June 14, 1941: Front page of the Daily Telegraph, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report at top right: "British Air-Raid Deaths 39,678"
(The figure includes all killed since Sept. 1940. British civilian casualties in May 1941 were 5,394, with 5,081 injured.)


June 14, 1941: Front page of The News, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 5: "Japanese Envoy Hints At Resort to Force"
(This threat was aimed at the Dutch.)


June 14, 1941: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the photo at top left: "Ex-Kaiser Is Buried"


June 14, 1941: Front page of the Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


June 14, 1941: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the photo at bottom: "British Navy's Terror Sent To Bottom"
(The report is a little late, HMS Terror was sunk on Feb. 21 off Tobruk, Libya.)


June 14, 1941: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 6: "Schmeling Promoted And Gets Iron Cross"
(Max Schmeling, former heavyweight boxing world champion, who was reported killed in Crete, but later found alive, now promoted to Sergeant getting the Iron Cross 2nd Class.)


June 14, 1941: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the report in columns 4-5: "Drastic Anti-Jew Statute Imposed"
(French Jews will now be treated the same as Jews in any other Nazi-occupied countries. No longer protected, now persecuted, arrested, deported and executed.)


June 14, 1941: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


June 14, 1941: Front page of The Nevada State Journal, Reno, Nevada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


June 14, 1941: Front page of The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, California.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


June 14, 1941: Front page of the Briesetal-Bote, Kreis Niederbarnim, Brandenburg, Germany.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
1. Deutschlands überlegene Rüstung.
(Germany's Superior Armor.)
2. Panzer schwimmen nach Kreta.
(Tanks swim to Crete.)


June 14, 1941: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Gespensteraufmarsch gegen die Neuordnung Europas.
(March of ghosts against the reorganization of Europe.)



   
Page published June 14, 2022