World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Saturday, July 12, 1941
Day 681

July 12, 1941: Front page of the Nottingham Evening Post, Nottingham, England.
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July 12, 1941: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
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Note the report in column 6: "Million Nazi Casualties"
Mr. Lozovsky, Vice-Chief of Soviet information Bureau and Assistant Commissar for Foreign Affairs claims that in only 19 days the Germans have lost over one million men. Only days ago, the figure was 700,000. According to Wikipedia, the total figures for Operation Barbarossa from June 22, 1941 until Dec. 5, 1941 were;

German casualties;
186,542 killed
40,157 missing
655,179 wounded.

Russian casualties;
566852 killed
235,339 died of non-combat causes.
1,336,147 sick or wounded in combat and non-combat.
2,335,482 missing or captured.

Add to that;
Romanian casualties: 39,000 dead and missing, 75,000 wounded.
Italian casualties: 8,700 killed and wounded.
Finnish casualties: 5,000 Killed and wounded.
Hungarian casualties: 4,420 Killed and wounded.

Material losses were;
Germany: 2,827 aircraft and 2,735 tanks.
Russia: 21,200 aircraft and 20,500 tanks.


July 12, 1941: Front page of the Evening Despatch, Birmingham, England.
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Note the report in columns 2-3: "Nazis Using Poison - Says Moscow"
(Mr. Lozovsky, Vice-Chief of Soviet information Bureau and Assistant Commissar for Foreign Affairs claims that the German have been using "poisonous substances" but gives no details as to what kind of substances were used, how they were deployed or what the results were.)
Also note the report in column 8: "Submarine Sunk"
(The Germans claim that their aircraft had sunk a British submarine southwest of Plymouth. This claim was false, no British submarines had been sunk up to this date in July of 1941.)


July 12, 1941: Front page of The Evening News And Southern Daily Mail, Portsmouth and Southsea, England.
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July 12, 1941: Front page of the Western Mail and South Wales News, Cardiff, Wales.
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July 12, 1941: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
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Note the report in column 7: "3 Nazi Transports Blown Up"
(It was true that three German ships had been sunk by mines, but the Russian claim that their warships drove the three on to the minefield is probably false. There is no mention of this in a post war German assessment. The three ships were the minelayers Hansestadt Danzig, Preussen and Tannenberg. They were returning from Finland to Swinemünde after a mine transport voyage. The ships apparently sailed into a Swedish minefield, that had been laid at the request of the Germans, without knowing that the mines were there.)
Also note the report in column 2: "New ME 109F Captured Intact"
(The Pilot, Hauptmann Rolf Pingel, of Jg 26, had shot down 27 or 28 aircraft during his career. He was brought down after combat with a British Short Stirling and several Spitfire's on July 10 near Dover. He remained in a POW camp until 1947. His aircraft was repaired by the British and test flown to learn its performance characteristics, but was destroyed in a crash on Oct. 20, 1941. The pilot, Flight Officer Marian J. Skalski, a Polish volunteer, was killed in the crash.)


July 12, 1941: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
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July 12, 1941: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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Note the report in column 6: "Denies U.S. Navy In Shooting"
(Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox and the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Harold Stark, both deny that a U.S. Navy destroyer dropped depth charges on a German submarine and that other U.S. Navy ships had been in action against German warships. They said that the destroyer had dropped depth charges only as a warning to the submarine. That was somewhat true, on Apr.11 USS Niblack DD-424 had dropped three depth charges on what they thought was a German submarine. However, it was later determined that there was no submarine in the area. This was the only known action that was taken by the U.S. Navy against a suspected German target. The first confirmed action between the U.S. Navy and the German Navy took place on Sept. 4, 1941 when U-652 fired two torpedoes at USS Greer DD-145. Greer dropped a pattern of depth charges, but did not damage the boat.)


July 12, 1941: Front page of The Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
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July 12, 1941: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
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July 12, 1941: Front page of the Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
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Note the report in column 3: "Campaign On U-Boats Gratifies"
(First Lord of the Admiralty Albert Victor Alexander, said that Britain "had particularly successful operations against German submarines in the past few weeks." He refused to state how many U-boats had been sunk, citing secrecy from the enemy, which is a perfectly valid reason. However, we know now that only four U-boats had been sunk by the British since June 1, 1941.)


July 12, 1941: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
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July 12, 1941: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
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July 12, 1941: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
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July 12, 1941: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
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July 12, 1941: Front page of The Nevada State Journal, Reno, Nevada.
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July 12, 1941: Front page of the San Mateo Times, San Mateo, California.
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July 12, 1941: Front page of the Teltower Kreisblatt, Kreis Teltow, Brandenburg, Germany.
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1. Zu Untaten gesellt sich die Greuelhetze. Die Moskauer verbrecher wollen den deutschen Soldaten verleumden.
(Incitement to atrocity is associated with misdeeds. The Moscow criminals want to slander the German soldier.)
2. Roosevelts Herausforderungen.
(Roosevelt's challenges.)


July 12, 1941: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
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1. Der Gipfelpunkt jüdischer Schamlosigkeit.
(The pinnacle of Jewish shamelessness.)
2. Stalins Parole: Haltet den Dieb!
(Stalin's slogan: stop the thief!)
3. Die Schlachtfeldhyänen jetzt in der Rolle der Befreier.
(The battlefield hyenas now in the role of liberators.)



   
Page published July 12, 2022