World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Friday June 12, 1942
Day 1,016

June 12, 1942: Front page of the News and Chronicle, London, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 7: "The Terror Goes On - 34 More Deaths for Heydrich"
(More reprisal killings for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich.)


June 12, 1942: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
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June 12, 1942: Front page of The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury, Leeds, England.
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June 12, 1942: Front page of the Western Mail and South Wales News, Cardiff, Wales.
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Note the report in column 7: "Goering Peace Feelers to U.S."
(I can only assume this was a propaganda piece designed to sow descent in the Nazi hierarchy. Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring and his men, were not seeking a peace deal with the U.S. However, due to the suspicious nature of the Nazi regime [or any other regime] the mere suggestion that a high officer in the regime was committing treason, would cause considerable friction between this person and those who may be plotting against him. Ultimately, this did not work, but at the end of the Third Reich, Göring and Himmler both made attempts to secure a separate peace with General Eisenhower. Hitler learned of this and stripped both of their ranks and titles. The only words of truth in the piece were; ".an eventual conflict between Russian and American interests is inevitable.")


June 12, 1942: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
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June 12, 1942: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
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Note the report at top right: "Another Japanese Sub. Probably Sunk"
(They are including the four midget submarines sunk in the Sydney Harbour attack, which makes the total of Japanese submarines sunk off Australia, four. Not a single fleet submarine had been sunk off the Australian coast, in fact, the Japanese did not lose a single fleet submarine, for any reason, in June of 1942.)


June 12, 1942: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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Note the report in column 9: "Ghastly Crimes Of Nazis"
(Reports out of Russia of Nazi brutality.)


June 12, 1942: Front page of The Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
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June 12, 1942: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
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June 12, 1942: Front page of The Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
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June 12, 1942: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
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Note the report in column 7: "General Tinker Reported Missing"
(Sadly the report was true. General Tinker was lost on June 7 in the Pacific. Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma is named in his honor.)


June 12, 1942: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
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Note the headline report: "15 Or 17 Jap Ships Sunk In Coral Sea, Lexington Among 3 Vessels Lost By U.S."
[The report is concluded here.]
(The Navy announces the loss of USS Lexington CV-2 more than a month after the loss of the ship. Perhaps to lessen the sting of the loss of an aircraft carrier, a destroyer and a tanker, the Navy claims to have sunk 15+ Japanese ships, which of course, was not true.

During the Battle of the Coral Sea the Japanese lost only one small aircraft carrier, Shoho, which was the first Japanese aircraft carrier sunk in World War II. An air attack against the Japanese invasion force bound for Tulagi in the Solomon Islands by aircraft from USS Yorktown CV-5, resulted in the loss of one destroyer and two small minesweepers. One cruiser-minelayer was damaged and it was sunk on May 11 by USS S-42 SS-153. The Japanese admit to the loss of 5 merchant ships between May 6 and May 8, but none lost to aircraft.)
[More photos on page 3.]


June 12, 1942: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
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June 12, 1942: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
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June 12, 1942: Front page of the Tucson Daily Citizen, Tucson, Arizona.
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June 12, 1942: Front page of The Southern Jewish Weekly, Jacksonville, Florida.
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June 12, 1942: Front page of the San Mateo Times, San Mateo, California.
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June 12, 1942: Front page of the Teltower Kreisblatt, Kreis Teltow, Brandenburg, Germany.
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1. Reuter gibt Verlust von Bir Hacheim zu.
(Reuter admits loss of Bir Hacheim.)


June 12, 1942: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Die Katastrophe des Murmansk-Geleitzuges - Fünf Tage im deutschen Bombenhagel - Einzelheiten zum größten Versenkungserfolg unserer Luftwaffe.
(The catastrophe of the Murmansk convoy - Five days in the German hail of bombs - Details of our Luftwaffe's greatest sinking success.)
[The report is describing the attack against convoy PQ-16, which took place between May 26 and 29, 1942. The German claim of 13 ships for 88,000 tons being sunk was overstated by half. In all 7 ships were sunk totaling 43,540 GRT. Only one, the 6,191-ton U.S. freighter Syros, was sunk by U-boat, the rest were sunk by aircraft from I./KG26 and KG 30. Those were the 5,689-ton U.S. freighter Alamar, which was damaged and had to be scuttled by HM Submarine Trident, the 6,502-ton U.S. freighter City of Joliet, the 7,457-ton British freighter Empire Lawrence, the 7,049-ton British freighter Empire Purcell, the 5,171-ton British freighter Lowther Castle, and the 5,481-ton U.S. freighter Mormacsul. In total twenty-nine men lost their lives in these ships.]



   
Page published June 12, 2023