World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Tuesday, October 7, 1941
Day 768

October 7, 1941: Front page of the News and Chronicle, London, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


October 7, 1941: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


October 7, 1941: Front page of The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury, Leeds, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the report in column 6: "French Liner Sunk in Italian Convoy"
(Theophile Gautier was sunk by the British Submarine HMS Talisman.)


October 7, 1941: Front page of the Western Mail and South Wales News, Cardiff, Wales.
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October 7, 1941: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
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Note the report in column 7: "Ark Royal Again"
(Not true, but an Italian submarine, Diaspro, which were seen, but failed to hit any ships.)


October 7, 1941: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the report in columns 6-7: "Reported Warning To Heydrich - High Germans Intervene"
(I am reasonably sure that this report is false. SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich was one of the most feared men the Third Reich and nobody but Hitler and Himmler were in a position to give him orders.)
Also note the report in column 2: "Freighter Shoots Down Bomber"
(The 873-ton cargo ship Sturdee Rose credited with shooting down a German bomber. This ship survived the war, but capsized and sank on Nov. 16, 1945 off Trevose Head.)


October 7, 1941: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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October 7, 1941: Front page of The Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
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Note the photos at top: "U-Boat Forced To Surrender"
(The unidentified U-boat was U-570. It was on its first war patrol, was forced to the surface and surrendered. It was towed into port and commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Graph. Used by the RN for testing, it was wrecked Mar. 20, 1944 and abandoned.)


October 7, 1941: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
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Note the report in column 4: "Hun Cruelty Likely to Be Punished"
(Maybe the first report about possible war crimes trials after the war. This report may have been referring to a memorandum from the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Anthony Eden, M.P. dated Oct. 5, 1941.)
 
Also note the report in column 2: "Death Sentence On Premier Alias Is Suspended"
(General Alois Eliás was the Nazi puppet Prime Minister of Bohemia and Moravia. He was arrested for anti-Nazi activity on Sept. 27, 1941. He was convicted and sentenced to death by the Germans. He was executed on June 19, 1942.)
 
Also note the report in column 3: "Price Control Of Eggs Seen As Early Possibility"


October 7, 1941: Front page of The Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
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October 7, 1941: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
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Note the report in columns 4-5: "Parachutist Crowd-Shy After 6 Nights Atop Devil's Tower"
(George Hopkins finally rescued from Devil's Tower.)


October 7, 1941: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
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October 7, 1941: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
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Note the photo at bottom right: "Tail Lights On Horses Now!"
(As the late, great Paul Harvey would say; "Here is a strange." The State of Colorado decrees that all horses on highways at night must have tail lights. Maybe not as strange as one would think, the British tried this as early as 1939.)


October 7, 1941: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
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October 7, 1941: Front page of The Nevada State Journal, Reno, Nevada.
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Note the report in column 5: "Ban on Communist Members Attacked"
(Harry Bridges, regional leader of the California CIO union, went on the record against the national CIO union policy of banning communists, Nazis and Fascists from holding union office. The California CIA union, apparently in favor of totalitarians of all stripes holding office in their union.)


October 7, 1941: Front page of the San Mateo Times, San Mateo, California.
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October 7, 1941: Front page of the Teltower Kreisblatt, Kreis Teltow, Brandenburg, Germany.
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1. Hoffnungslose Lage Leningrads.
(Leningrad's hopeless situation.)


October 7, 1941: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Die Führerrede traf ins Schwarze.
(The leader's speech hit the mark.)
2. Sie rütteln vergeblich an der Wahrheit.
(You push the truth in vain.)
3. Ratlosigkeit und Wut im feindlichen Lager.
(Helplessness and anger in the enemy camp.)
 
 
Historical note: On this day a memo was sent by Generaloberst Alfred Jodl, on behalf of Adolf Hitler to the Army High Command.

The Führer has again decided that a capitulation of Leningrad or later Moscow is not to be accepted even if offered by the enemy.

The moral justification for this measure is clear to the whole world. Just as in Kiev our troops were subject to extreme danger through explosions with time-fuses, the same must be expected to a still greater degree in Moscow and Leningrad. The Soviet radio itself has broadcast that the foundations of Leningrad are mines and the city armed to the last man.

Extreme danger of epidemics is to be expected.

Therefore no German soldier is to enter these cities. Anyone who tries to leave the city through our lines is to b e forced to return under fire.

The exodus of the population through the smaller, unguarded gaps towards the interior of Russia is to be allowed. Before all other cities are taken, they are to be softened up by artillery fire and air raids and their population forced to flee.

We cannot take the responsibility of endangering out soldiers' lives by fire in order to save Russian cities, nor that of feeding the population of these cities at the expense of the German homeland.

The chaos in Russia will be all the greater, our administration and utilization of the occupied Eastern territories all the simpler the more the population of the cities of Soviet Russia flees to the interior of the country.

All commanding officers must be acquainted with this desire of the Führer.
-Signed Alfred Jodl
By direction
 



   
Page published October 7, 2022