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June 17, 1942: Front page of the News and Chronicle, London, England. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
Note the headline: Convoys Win 4-Day Fight To Malta and Tobruk" |
(This headline was pure propaganda. There are only two words I can think of that describes what happened to the convoys, complete disaster. There were two convoys, Harpoon, from Gibraltar to Malta and Vigorous, from Alexandria to Malta. The British were desperate to resupply the island, which had been under German and Italian attack for some time. Without going to deeply into this, here are the raw numbers. Convoy Harpoon consisted of 6 merchantmen, an escort of 1 anti-aircraft cruiser, 10 destroyers, 4 minesweepers and 6 motor gunboats. There was also a covering force of 1 battleship, 2 aircraft carriers, 3 cruisers and 8 destroyers. Of this, 4 merchantmen were sunk, 1 was damaged and had to be towed to Malta, only 1 made it undamaged. The escort lost 3 destroyers and a further 2 destroyers and 1 minesweeper were damaged. Convoy Vigorous consisted of 11merchantmen with an escort of 8 cruisers, 22 destroyers, a dummy battleship for AA support, 2 rescue ships, 4 corvettes, 3 minesweepers and several towed motor torpedo boats. The British also had a screen of no less than 13 submarines hunting for enemy warships. Of this convoy, 2 merchantmen were sunk, 2 were damaged, none made it to Malta, the convoy was turned around due to heavy enemy attacks. Two merchantmen diverted to Tobruk. [The references to a Tobruk convoy in the press reports are incorrect, there was no Tobruk convoy, only the two ships that diverted from Vigorous went to Tobruk out of necessity. The escort and covering force lost 4 destroyers and one MTB. Two cruisers and one corvette were damaged. Of all the losses, only one was due to a U-boat, and one due to surface forces, the remaining losses were caused by Italian torpedo aircraft and German dive bombers. Italian losses were one cruiser sunk, Trento [damaged by an air attack, torpedoed and sunk by HM submarine Umbra] and one battleship, Littorio, slightly damaged. Two other ships, a cruiser and destroyer may have also received slight damage. The British public would not be made aware of the fate of these convoys for some time. While reports hinted at the fact that there were heavy losses, many statements from the Admiralty claimed that Malta had been resupplied, which was false.) |
June 17, 1942: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England. |
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June 17, 1942: Front page of The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury, Leeds, England. |
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June 17, 1942: Front page of the Western Mail and South Wales News, Cardiff, Wales. |
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June 17, 1942: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland. |
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June 17, 1942: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. |
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June 17, 1942: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. |
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June 17, 1942: Front page of The Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. |
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June 17, 1942: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. |
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June 17, 1942: Front page of The Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. |
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Note the report at top right: "Call-Up For 35-Year-Olds Ordered - Only Single Men This Time; Married Men Next" |
Also note the photo at top center: "H.R.H. The Colonel" |
(Princess Elizabeth seen in her roll as Commander-in-Chief of the Grenadier Guards.) |
June 17, 1942: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine. |
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June 17, 1942: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C. |
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June 17, 1942: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio. |
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June 17, 1942: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas. |
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Note the report in column 5: "41 Lost In Two More Attacks In Caribbean" |
(Captain Davis Kerr's ship was the 3,910-ton freighter Castilla and Captain Martin Strandly's ship was the 4,536 ton freighter Bushranger. Both were sunk by U-107.) |
June 17, 1942: Front page of the Tucson Daily Citizen, Tucson, Arizona. |
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June 17, 1942: Front page of The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, California. |
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June 17, 1942: Front page of the Teltower Kreisblatt, Kreis Teltow, Brandenburg, Germany. |
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1. England verlor 55 Schiffe im Mittelmeer. |
(England lost 55 ships in the Mediterranean.) |
[As usual the German state press over stated the success against the convoys.] |
June 17, 1942: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP. |
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1. Großer Erfolg deutscher Luft- und Seestreitkräfte - Der zweite Mittelmeer Geleitzug zerschlagen - Vier Kreuzer und Zerstörer sowie 56.000 BRT. versenkt. |
(Great success of German air and sea forces - the second Mediterranean convoy smashed -
Four cruisers and destroyers and 56,000 GRT. sunk.
) |
Page published June 17, 2023 |