World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Friday Sept. 20, 1940
Day 386

Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of the Manchester Evening News, Manchester, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the headline: "H.M.S. Sturgeon Sinks Huge German Transport"
(The report says "It can now be stated that H.M. submarine Sturgeon"... sank an enemy transport of 10,000 tons. This story had first been announced by a Swedish source on Sept. 5th, however, the name of the submarine was omitted. The details about the German ship were completely wrong. It was identified as Marion, when in fact, the ship was named Pionier. It was originally reported to have been 12,000 tons, and in today's papers it's reported as 10,000 tons, but it was only 3,285 tons, about one third the reported size. The Admiralty or even a good reporter could have checked Lloyd's register to confirm that no such ship existed, but nobody did. The last detail that was incorrectly reported was the number of casualties. Some papers give a figure as high as 4,000, the actual number was 336.)
[See "German Ship Sunk: 3,000 Soldiers Reported Drowned" in The Daily Mail of Sept. 5, 1940.]


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of the Derby Evening Telegraph, Derby, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of the Daily Telegraph, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of The Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of The Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the photo at top right:" Guns Like These Spoke"
(The photo shows one of the triple 16" turrets of either HMS Rodney or HMS Nelson.)
 
Also note the "Who's News" in column 1.
(One of the people shown is U.S. Attorney General (later Supreme Court Justice) Robert H. Jackson. After the war he was appointed Chief Council at the International Tribunal of German war criminals at Nürnberg.)


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of Haarlem's Dagblad, Haarlem, Netherlands.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
(Click below for part eleven of "Our Country" a twenty-four part series, written by twenty-four different authors, describing what America means to them. Today's piece was written by Robert P. Tristram Coffin.)
[Click here to read Part eleven of "Our Country"]


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of The Escanaba Daily Press, Escanaba, Michigan.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 5: "Aliens Ousted In Canal Zone"
(The announcement of the removal of 230 European-born aliens from the Panama Canal Zone.)
Also note the report in column 7: "St. Lukes Gets 5 More Cases"
(Five new cases of polio at the Michigan hospital.)
Also note the photo at top center: "Largest Bomber Nears Completion"
(This was the only Douglas XB-19 ever built, and it was scrapped in 1949.)


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of The Southern Jewish Weekly, Jacksonville, Florida.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 2: "Army Deports 150 Jewish Workers From Panama"
(This is related to the report from the newspaper above.)


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, California.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the headline: "Fiend Kidnaps Child, 3"
(The first reports of the kidnapping of Marc de Tristan, Jr.)


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of the Hamburger Neueste Zeitung, Altona, Hamburg, Germany.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
1. Die Folge neuer furchtbarer Schäden: Verschärfung der englischen Zensur.
(The consequence of new terrible damage: tightening of the English censorship.)
2. Englands Kanonen Haben keine Zeit, abzukühlen.
(England's guns don't have time to cool off.)
 
3. Noch nie flogen deutsche Bomber so tief über der Stadt
(Never have German bombers flown so low over the city.)


Sept. 20, 1940: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Nach der Ankunft des Reichsaußenministers in Rom.
(After the arival of the Reich Interior Minister in Rome.)
2. Sofortige Unterredung Mussolinis mit Ribbentrop.
(Immediate discussions between Mussolini and Ribbentrop.)



   
Page published Sept. 20, 2021