World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Tuesday, December 2, 1941
Day 824

December 2, 1941: Front page of the News and Chronicle, London, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the report and photo at top: "End of The Ark Royal"
Historical note: On this day the the Combined Fleet of the Imperial Japanese Empire, which was at sea en route to Pearl Harbor, received the message "Climb Mt. Niitaka" which was the code giving the final order to carry out the attack on Pearl Harbor. There was now no turning back.


December 2, 1941: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
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Note the photo at top right: "H.M.A.S. Sydney, the cruiser lost after sinking a 9,400-ton German merchant raider"
[The report is concluded here.]


December 2, 1941: Front page of The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury, Leeds, England.
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December 2, 1941: Front page of the Western Mail and South Wales News, Cardiff, Wales.
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December 2, 1941: Front page of the Evening Telegraph and Post, Dundee, Scotland.
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December 2, 1941: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
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December 2, 1941: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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December 2, 1941: Front page of The Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
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December 2, 1941: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
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Note the report in column 5: "British Liner Reported Sunk"
(It was true that the 7,684-ton freighter Meriones had been sunk by German aircraft, but this happened on Jan. 26th.)


December 2, 1941: Front page of The Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
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Note the report in column 4: "Pocket-Battleship Victor Over Sydney?"
(The unidentified writer for the Associated Press, displaying his ignorance or just attempting to take up empty column space. He writes ".was known to have been accompanied by a German pocket battleship." He is referring to the German Hilfskreuzer [auxiliary cruiser] Kormoran, which sank HMAS Sydney and was sunk by HMAS Sydney. Kormoran was never in company with a pocket battleship, or any other battleship. The Allies, especially the press, referred to the German Panzerschiffe [armored ships or heavy cruisers] Admiral Graf Spee, Admiral Scheer and Deutschland [later Lützow] as "pocket battleships." None of these ships sailed with the raiders, so it is not clear who "knew" they did. Whoever the writer was talking to could not accept that a modern cruiser like HMAS Sydney could fall to a converted freighter, and therefore they suggest that there must have been a bigger ship involved.)


December 2, 1941: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
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December 2, 1941: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
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Note the report in column 8: "Missing U.S. Freighter Believed Torpedoed"
(The freighter MacBeth had been sunk by German aircraft off Murmansk, Russia on Sept. 13th while sailing in convoy PQ-18.)
Also note the report in column 4: "Battleship Leads British Flotilla Into Singapore"


December 2, 1941: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
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December 2, 1941: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
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December 2, 1941: Front page of The Nevada State Journal, Reno, Nevada.
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December 2, 1941: Front page of the San Mateo Times, San Mateo, California.
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December 2, 1941: Front page of the Teltower Kreisblatt, Kreis Teltow, Brandenburg, Germany.
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1. Dr. Goebbels über unseren Freiheitskampf.
(Dr. Goebbels on our fight for freedom.)


December 2, 1941: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
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1. Karelien mit Finnland wiedervereint - Der finnische Reichstag hinter der Regierung.
(Karelien reunited with Finland - The Finnish Reichstag behind the government.)



   
Page published December 2, 2022