World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Thursday, July 17, 1941
Day 686

July 17, 1941: Front page of the Nottingham Evening Post, Nottingham, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 7: "Beer Shortage - Only Temporary Says Home Secretary"


July 17, 1941: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


July 17, 1941: Front page of the Evening Despatch, Birmingham, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


July 17, 1941: Front page of The Evening News And Southern Daily Mail, Portsmouth and Southsea, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 4: "Warship Lost"
(HMS Lady Somers, a former Canadian passenger liner and former Armed Merchant Cruiser, now an ocean boarding vessel, was sunk by the Italian submarine Morosini on July 15. All 175 on board were rescued.)


July 17, 1941: Front page of the Western Mail and South Wales News, Cardiff, Wales.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


July 17, 1941: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 4: "Harry Hopkins Missing"
(The report claims that Hopkins was en route to England, but has not been heard of since leaving the USA. The Washington paper (below) clearly states that Hopkins, on July 17, visited with the Prime Minister and the British cabinet. The Aberdeen paper seems to have a more than expected number of reports claiming that this or that high level person is missing, dead, arrested or in a concentration camp. Reports that later turn out to be false rumors.)
Also note the report in column 5: "Goering Mystery"
(The false report about Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring still being published.)


July 17, 1941: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 7: "Evacuation Of Children - Scheme Not Suspended"


July 17, 1941: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


July 17, 1941: Front page of The Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 5: "No Discharge From U.S. Navy During Emergency"
(Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox announces that the 37,647 navy enlisted men will be held in service for the duration of the "national emergency." )
Also note the report in column 5: "Berlin Says Goering Has Official Task"
(The Germans responding to the reports of Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring's absence from the press.)
Also note the report in column 3: "Germans Claim Nazi Pilot Has 115 Victories"
(The exploits of Werner Mölders in the Allied press.)
Also note the report in column 6: "Sea Of Japan Mined"
(The Russians notifying the Japanese that areas of the Sea of Japan have been mined.)


July 17, 1941: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 2: "Lindbergh Asks Apology"
[The report is concluded here.]
(Lindy wants an apology from Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes for comments he (Ickes) made about Lindbergh having connections with a foreign government. Reading the report, Lindbergh may have a point.)


July 17, 1941: Front page of The Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in columns 6-7: "Gas Restriction Rules Go Into Effect Monday"
[The report is concluded here.]
Also note the report in column 5: "Swedish Paper Hints Nazis May Take Portugal"
 
Also note the report in column 5: "One New Paralysis Case Is Reported"
(Infantile paralysis, also known as Polio, was on the rise. There were now 23 cases in the area.)


July 17, 1941: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the photo at bottom center: "A Kennedy Wants Wings"
(Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., son of former Ambassador to England, Joseph Kennedy Sr. and brother of future president John F. Kennedy, starting his career as a U.S. Navy pilot. Kennedy sadly lost his life in service on Aug. 12, 1944 when the B-24 Liberator bomber he was piloting exploded in mid-air. The aircraft was filled with explosives and was to be crashed into a target by remote-control, Lt. Kennedy and his co-pilot, Lt. Wilford J. Willy, were to fly the plane to a designated location, then bail out. However, a malfunction caused the explosives to detonate over England killing both men.)


July 17, 1941: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


July 17, 1941: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 3: "Nazis Release 4 U.S. Newsmen In Trade For Agents"
(Correspondent Richard C. Hottelet and three others, who were arrested in March, are released.)
[See "American journalist held for espionage" in the Biddeford Daily Journal of Mar. 15, 1941.]


July 17, 1941: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


July 17, 1941: Front page of The Nevada State Journal, Reno, Nevada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


July 17, 1941: Front page of the San Mateo Times, San Mateo, California.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


July 17, 1941: Front page of the Teltower Kreisblatt, Kreis Teltow, Brandenburg, Germany.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
1. Schamloser Rockefeller-Plan und das Spionage-Netz des Piraten Roosevelt in Südamerika.
(Shameless Rockefeller plan and pirate Roosevelt's spy network in South America.)
2. Mölders der erfolgreichste Jagdflieger der Welt.
(Mölders the most successful fighter pilot in the world.)


July 17, 1941: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Bolschewistischer Heeresbericht: "Keine wesentlichen Veränderungen"
(Bolshevik Army Report: "No significant changes.")
2. Auf der Straße totaler Vernichtung.
(On the road to total annihilation.)
3. Moskau fordert Einfall in Spanien und Portugal. Der Operationsplan des jüdischen Weltimperialismus enthüllt.
(Moscow demands invasion of Spain and Portugal. World Jewish Imperialism's Operational Plan Revealed.)
[Perhaps this is where the Swedish report in the Winnipeg Tribune and General George C. Marshall's remarks published in the San Mateo Times were derived from.]
 
Also note the report at bottom left: "Mölders errang seinen 115. Luftsieg" (Mölders achieved his 115th aerial victory.)
[Adolf Hitler awarded Oberst Werner Mölders the diamonds to his Knight's Cross. Mölders thus became the first man to be awarded the Eichenlaub mit Schwertern und Brillanten zum Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuz [Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds] in the Second World War. Only 26 others would receive this award. He had recently been in the news for besting the record of Manfred von Richthofen, "The Red Baron," from the Great War. However, his glory would last only a short time, Mölders, while flying as a passenger to the funeral of his friend Ernst Udet, was killed on Nov. 22, 1941 in a plane crash. They were buried side by side next to Manfred von Richthofen in the Invalidenfriedhof Cemetery in Berlin.

In 1969 the new German navy, the Deutsche Marine, named a destroyer in his honor. Mölders D-186, is one of only three German ships named after former Nazi officers. The others, Lütjens D-185, named after Vizeadmiral Günther Lütjens, who died in the battleship Bismarck on May 24, 1941 and Rommel D-187, named after Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel, "The Desert Fox", who committed suicide on Oct. 14, 1944 after being accused of complicity in the July 20, 1944 plot to kill Adolf Hitler, (Operation Valkyrie.) This accusation has never been fully proven or fully disproved.]



   
Page published July 17, 2022