|
June 19, 1942: Front page of the News and Chronicle, London, England. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
Note the report in columns 5-6: "M.P.'s Want Ship Losses To Be Published" |
June 19, 1942: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
Note the report in columns 8-9: "Destroyer Sunk" |
(HMS Wild Swan was sunk by German aircraft on June 17th. Thirty-one men were lost with the ship.) |
June 19, 1942: Front page of The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury, Leeds, England. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
Note the report in column 5: "Assailants Of Heydrich Found in a Church and Shot" |
(After being betrayed for money, the two men who killed Heydrich, Jozef Gabcík and Jan Kubis, were found by the Gestapo hiding in a church in Prague. Over 700 men were put around the church and both men and several others who had assisted them, were killed or committed suicide.) |
June 19, 1942: Front page of the Western Mail and South Wales News, Cardiff, Wales. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
June 19, 1942: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
June 19, 1942: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
Note the report at top left: "Four Main Engagements In Great Convoy Battle" |
(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.) |
Also note the report in column 4: "Torpedoed Off East African Coast" |
(The Yugoslavian freighter Supetar was sunk by the Japanese submarine I-16. The report claims seven crewmen were killed, which was incorrect. All thirty-three men survived.) |
June 19, 1942: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
June 19, 1942: Front page of The News, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
Note the report in column 4: "Minesweeper Sunk" |
(The Admiralty announcing the loss of HMS Fitzroy. The ship was sunk on May 27, possibly by a British mine. 12 men were lost in the ship.) |
June 19, 1942: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
June 19, 1942: Front page of The Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
Note the report in columns 5-6: "Lion's Den Raid Brings Posthumous Victoria Cross" |
June 19, 1942: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
June 19, 1942: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
Note the report at top left: "Roosevelt and Churchill Discuss War Tasks at Secret Rendezvous: |
Also note the report in column 6: "Chennault in Chungking, Presented With Sword" |
Also note the report in columns 3-4: "Clark Gable Takes Examination For Commission in Air Force" |
Also note the report at bottom right: "Will Rogers, Jr. Goes In as Army Private" |
June 19, 1942: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
June 19, 1942: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
Note the report in column 7: "New Sinking Made Public" |
(The unidentified ship was the 3,451-ton freighter Beatrice, which was sunk on May 24 by U-558. One man, Steward Nathaniel B. Wright, was lost with the ship.) |
June 19, 1942: Front page of The Southern Jewish Weekly, Jacksonville, Florida. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
Note the report in column 2: "Nazis Threaten Extermination of Jews In Reprisal" |
(Apparently Goebbels thought he might be able to dissuade the Allies from bombing German cities by making a threat against the Jews. The Nazis were already in the process of the extermination of the Jews of Europe. The phony threat did not work, German cities were bombed.) |
June 19, 1942: Front page of the Tucson Daily Citizen, Tucson, Arizona. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
June 19, 1942: Front page of The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, California. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
Note the report in columns 2-3: "Fly Denies Plan to Censor Radio, Hits Broadcasters" |
June 19, 1942: Front page of the Teltower Kreisblatt, Kreis Teltow, Brandenburg, Germany. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
1. Churchill überraschend in USA. eingetroffen. |
(Surprise visit to the U.S. by Churchill.) |
June 19, 1942: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP. |
(Click on the image for a readable version.) |
1. Im Juni schon weit über eine halbe Million BRT. - Wieder 129.000 BRT. versenkt. |
(In June already well over half a million GRT. - Another 129,000 GRT. sunk.) |
Page published June 19, 2023 |