World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Sunday August 31, 1941
Day 731

August 31, 1941: Front page of The People, London, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the report in column 5: "Trawler Lost"
(HM Whaler Thorbryn, was a hired Norwegian whaler converted into an Anti-Submarine vessel. It was sunk off Tobruk, Libya on Aug. 19, 1941 by enemy aircraft. Nine men were lost with the ship.)
Also note the report in column 6: "Goering's Brother And Family Quit"
(The report from Radio Moscow, claims that Albert Göring, Hermann Göring's younger brother, left Germany with his family. This, like most radio Moscow reports, was a lie. Albert Göring was an anti-Nazi and helped many Jews escape. He spent much of the war in Czechoslovakia, working as export director at the Skoda Works. He died in obscurity in 1966.)
Also note the report at bottom left: "Another Ghost Voice To Worry Them On The Radio"
(It's not clear if this is a new voice or the same one that has been harassing the Germans for the last week.)


August 31, 1941: Front page of the Sunday Pictorial, London, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


August 31, 1941: Front page of The Sunday Post, Glasgow, Scotland.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 2: "The Anti-Hitler Voice Again"


August 31, 1941: Front page of The Sunday Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in columns 5-6: "Former Blacksmith (Ivan The Terrible) Has Voice Nazis Fear"
(The voice that has been interrupting Nazi radio broadcasts is identified as a former Russian Blacksmith named Alexander Lozovsky. Presumably not the Russian General of the same name. I have no idea if this was true or not.)


August 31, 1941: Front page of The Sunday Star, Washington, D.C.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


August 31, 1941: Front page of The Sunday Star-News, Wilmington, North Carolina.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


August 31, 1941: Front page of the Detroit Times, Detroit, Michigan.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


August 31, 1941: Front page of The Kingsport Times, Kingsport, Tennessee.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


August 31, 1941: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


August 31, 1941: Front page of the Nevada State Journal, Reno, Nevada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 6: "Killed, Says Moscow"
(Radio Moscow's daily lie today claims that Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt had been killed on the eastern front. But they did not stop there, not only had he been killed, he was murdered by a German officer and that arrests had already been made. This was another of Moscow's extraordinary claims, which of course, was not true. Rundstedt survived the war, and remarkably was not charged with war crimes, but was held in custody for some time. Even though he did not go to prison, his life after the war was not good. His family homes taken by the Americans and Russians, his finances frozen by the Allies, he was impoverished and living on hand-outs for the most part until his death in 1953.

It is interesting that the western press ran these reports, then later, when it was obvious they were lies, made no corrections. I truly wonder if the public really believed what they were reading? I suppose there are people nowadays who still believe CNN, MSNBC and the networks like ABC, NBC, CBS, NPR and the left-wing newspapers like the NY Times and Washington Post, so it is entirely possible they did believe it back then.


August 31, 1941: Front page of the Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


August 31, 1941: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Die Gewißheit des Endsieges.
(The certainty of final victory.)
2. 17 Kriegsschiffe - 43 Transporter versenkt.
(17 warships - 43 transports sunk.)



   
Page published August 31, 2022