World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Friday, September 5, 1941
Day 736

September 5, 1941: Front page of the News and Chronicle, London, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the report in column 6: "Deutschlandsender Gives Up Again"
(The Red Invader overrides the German airwaves again.)
 
Also note the report in column 4: "Childless Nazi Girls are Traitors"
(An article in Der Schwarze Korps (The Black Corps) the newsletter of the SS, is finished with this line; "A girl evading her highest duty is a traitor." The point of the article is to promote births in Germany. This was part of the Lebensborn program. My how times have changed, now to the American left, if you don't abort as many children as possible you are a traitor.)


September 5, 1941: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the report at top right: "23,000 Ton Italian Liner Torpedoed In Convoy - Axis Heavy Cruiser Also Hit"
(This report from the Admiralty seems to be false, I can find no record of a large passenger ship and a cruiser being hit by a British submarine on or near this date.)


September 5, 1941: Front page of The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury, Leeds, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


September 5, 1941: Front page of the Western Mail and South Wales News, Cardiff, Wales.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


September 5, 1941: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the photo at top right: "British Destroyer Rams U-Boat" and report in column 5: "Another U-Boat Gone - Cut In Half By Cruiser"
(Both of these reports are about the same event. The destroyer, HMS Hermione, rammed and sank the Italian submarine Tembien on Aug. 2nd.)
Also note the report in column 2: "Ghost Voice Gets Busy"


September 5, 1941: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


September 5, 1941: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the report at bottom left: "Nazis Intensify Terror To Seething Europe"
(One of the items suggests that Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, is preparing decrees to make all Germans informers to the government. Spies in every corner of the Reich. This would include children informing on their parents. I don't know if an official decree was ever published, but having little Gestapo informers was already something that had been done through the Hitlerjugend. (Hitler Youth.) And many Germans were already more than happy to inform the Gestapo about anti-Nazi or communist activities, and of course, Jews.

This is currently happening in America, children, neighbors, friends, all are informing the FBI, at the request of the FBI, about relatives or neighbors who may have been in Washington, D.C. during the unrest on Jan. 6, 2020. To be sure, this is a one-way street, I have found not a single report about a leftist from the Nazi inspired group antifa or the domestic terrorist/shakedown group black lives matter, being turned in to the FBI or the DOJ, and very few reports of any members of those two leftist terror groups being arrested for the billions of dollars of damage done during the nationwide riots of 2020. The only reports I have heard are of Trump supporters and conservatives or right-wing people being turned in, arrested and jailed, many held without bail while murderers, thieves, rapists and ever other kind of degenerate criminal is being let go, without bail, to commit further crimes. This seems to be very much like what the Nazis did, and just remember how that ended for the world.)


September 5, 1941: Front page of The Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


September 5, 1941: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


September 5, 1941: Front page of the Winnipeg Free Press, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 2: "Epidemics Run Course In Winnipeg"
(Only 2 new polio cases in Winnipeg and no new sleeping sickness cases reported.)


September 5, 1941: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


September 5, 1941: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report at top right: "Naval Patrol Hunts Submarine in Attack On Destroyer Greer"
(This was the first action between a United States warship and a German U-boat in World War II. There had been a report in July of a U.S. destroyer attacking a submerged U-boat, however, no U-boat had been in the area. This incident changed the U.S. attitude, or at least allowed the U.S. openly show that they would not be afraid to fight Germany. However, this incident was not exactly as is seems on the surface, so to speak. It was true that a German U-boat, U-652, had fired a torpedo at a U.S. Navy destroyer, USS Greer DD-145, but it was a misunderstanding that caused U-652 to fire on the ship.

There are many reports about this incident, and I have no need to discuss every detail in every report, especially as most of them were completely wrong, you can read them for yourself. I would like to relate this incident from a different perspective, one which the President and the press had no access to, that of the U-boat's commanding officer, Oberleutnant zur See Georg-Werner Fraatz.

The following information comes directly from the U-boat's war diary. [Note, all times quoted are German time and are a few hours later than the actual time in that zone.] On Sept. 4, 1941 at 0909 a land-based aircraft caused the boat to submerge. At 1230 three bombs were dropped on the boat. Fraatz writes that they "sound like aircraft bombs." Since he had remained submerged since 0909 he wonders if he is leaving a trail of oil on the sea which allowed the aircraft to locate him. He also writes that he wants to get out of the area as soon as possible. He comes to periscope depth and sights a four-funneled destroyer at about 1,200 meters distance, apparently stopped.

At 1322 he notes that the destroyer is of the same type as the 50 destroyers being sent to England by the Americans. [He was absolutely correct about this, it was the same class as the other Lend-Lease destroyers.]

He further writes, "So this is the destroyer that dropped the depth charges at 1230. I can't explain his noiseless approach. I want to get away from this companion as soon as possible." [This was his first real mistake, believing that a ship, rather than an aircraft, had attacked him earlier.]

At 1420 he wrote that the destroyer must have him on their sound gear and is keeping astern of him to keep out of range of his own listening gear. He also notes that he cannot hear any sound from the enemy ship. He notices an aircraft over the destroyer and writes "I assume now that the plane saw me this morning and directed the destroyer to me." [Another error, but he really had no way to know.] He continues to wonder why the ship has not attacked him again and writes that "I have to assume he is slowly starving me, because the bright visibility at night I cannot expect to appear unnoticed at such a distance." He finally decides in order to avoid further attacks, that he must attack the ship. He prepares for an underwater attack and notes that he "could clearly see the enemy, no flag, no designation, caps on the 4 funnels. Otherwise old tin box." In his remarks to the press, President Roosevelt said; "the ship was clearly marked as an American ship by its identification number and flag." I have no idea who is telling the truth, we know that the British used false flags and markings to lure U-boats close so they could be attacked, but did the American ship have the hull number painted over and remove her flag in the hopes of causing an incident? Or is the U-boat commander lying to cover-up the fact that he attacked an American ship?

At 1439 he fired two G7a torpedoes at Greer, which missed. At 1447 he reports that five depth charges were dropped on his boat. This caused some damage, including a leak in one of the stern torpedo tube bushings. The boat took on a lot of water, but ultimately it was pumped out and made watertight by the end of the day. He remained submerged and the enemy continued to track him, but the impulses became "weak and irregular" indicating that Greer had lost contact with the boat. Four more depth charges were dropped at 1710, but they were some distance from the boat.

At 2030 he writes "exit the Denmark Strait" and came to periscope depth, nothing in view. Another check at 2050 and he can see the destroyer about 6-8,000 meters distant on a northwest course. He can also see two flying boats, one, he says "comes uncomfortably close to me." The last entry at 2324 states one depth charge dropped far away. So ends the German captain's version of the incident.

The big question is, was Fraatz lying about knowing the nationality of the destroyer or not? Since Fraatz was killed in U-529 on Feb. 15, 1943, he could not be interviewed post war, so all we have to go on is his war diary. To say that U-boat commanders never lie or their war diaries were never altered would be false. We know for instance, that after the sinking of the Athenia on Sept. 3, 1939 by U-30, when the boat arrived back at its base, it was met by Dönitz himself. He, personally, removed the page concerning the attack on Athena and replaced it with a page that shows the boat to have been over one hundred miles away. In this instance, looking at scans of the original war diary of U-652, I can see that these pages have not been altered, they were all made on the same typewriter, because they all have the same distortion to the lower case s. So, if he lied, he made that decision on the spot, at that exact moment.

He had a good reason to lie, Hitler's orders prohibited U-boats from attacking American ships, especially warships, and Fraatz knew this. So, if he knowingly attacked an American destroyer, he would want to cover this up. It does not seem likely however, that a U-boat commander would break such an order, knowing the ramifications, but I can't say for sure.

What then did Fraatz see in his periscope? Could he have seen the hull number or the flag on a ship that never got closer than 1,200 meters [almost 4,000 feet] from him? The President thinks he could. Roosevelt told the press that "If a submarine is operating with its periscope above the surface, there would be no excuse for inaccurate identification." However, with his physical condition, I doubt that he had even been inside a submarine, let alone one at sea. I am reasonably sure that he never looked through a periscope, but I have. Not just a periscope, but a German periscope similar to, or exactly the same type used in U-652. You might be able to see the hull number, if it still had the large numbers, but the tiny flag on the stern, unlikely.

It did not take long for the Kriegsmarine High Command to sort out which U-boat had fired the torpedoes, and contact the boat to confirm. What they wrote in their war diary matches what Fraatz wrote in his, so if he lied in his war diary, he also lied to them. This is how a war starts, perhaps a misunderstanding or misinterpreting a situation. Nevertheless, because neither side knew what the other was thinking at that time, they both make judgements without full knowledge of the facts. Of course, this is always the case, enemies don't telegraph to each other what they are really doing, that would be absurd. Sadly, this will continue to happen, it's happening right now with Russia, and there is nothing we can do about it.)


September 5, 1941: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


September 5, 1941: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


September 5, 1941: Front page of The Nevada State Journal, Reno, Nevada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


September 5, 1941: Front page of The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, California.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


September 5, 1941: Front page of the Teltower Kreisblatt, Kreis Teltow, Brandenburg, Germany.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
1. Weiter vorwärts im Nordabschnitt.
(Continue forward in the north section.)


September 5, 1941: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. England verlor im August 537.200 BRT.
(England lost 537,200 GRT in August.)
[When you are going to lie, lie big. The actual figure for British losses in August of 1941, including all causes, was only 96,196 tons, less than one fifth of the figure in the German paper.]
 
2. Handschreiben des Führers an den Generalfeldmarschall Ritter von Leeb 65 Jahre alt.
(Hand letter from the Führer to Field Marshal Ritter von Leeb 65 years old.)
3. Im Auftrage des Führers durch General Jodl Ritterkreuz an Mannerheim überreicht.
(Knight's Cross presented to Mannerheim by General Jodl on behalf of the Führer.)
[Carl Mannerheim was a Finnish Field Marshal and was later President of Finland.]



   
Page published September 5, 2022