World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Friday January 3, 1941
Day 491

January 3, 1941: Front page of the Manchester Evening News, Manchester, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in columns 2-3: "Italian U-Boat Sunk by Torpedo"
(True, HMS Thunderbolt sank the Italian submarine Capitano Raffaele Tarantini on Dec. 15, 1940. There were only 5 survivors. Thunderbolt is the Ex HMS Thetis which sank on June 1, 1939. HMS Thunderbolt was lost in March of 1943 for unknown reasons).


January 3, 1941: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
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January 3, 1941: Front page of the Birmingham Gazette, Birmingham, England.
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January 3, 1941: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 6: "Meat Ration Reduced"


January 3, 1941: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
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January 3, 1941: Front page of the Daily Telegraph, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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January 3, 1941: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 2: "German Sea Devil Of 1st Great War Once More Prowling Ocean"
[The report is concluded here.]
(On the word of a Norwegian survivor, the world's press reports that Count Felix von Luckner, the infamous commanding officer of SMS Seeadler, a German Hilfskreuzer [auxiliary cruiser] in the Great War, was at sea in one of the Hilfskreuzer currently operating in the Pacific. The truth was, that he was living in Sweden and had fallen out with the Nazi government.)


January 3, 1941: Front page of The Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
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January 3, 1941: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
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January 3, 1941: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
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Note the report in columns 6-7: "Bombers Ride Out Storm After 'Chute Fails 1 of 5 in Crew"
(The aircraft, a Catalina PBY-5 (BuNo 2291) of VP-14 was en route from San Diego, CA to Pensacola, FL with two other aircraft. Ice built up on the wings over Wink, TX and the pilot, Lt. (j.g.) Murray Hanson, USN ordered five men to bail out. They jumped over Lamesa, Texas. One man, Aviation Machinist's Mate 2nd Class William F. Percich, was killed. The plane landed on a pond 500 miles away on the grounds of the Santa Fe Ranch near Edinburgh, TX. It was flown out by Murray on Jan. 7. A rescue plane sent from San Diego picked up the four survivors, but crashed on approach to San Diego on Jan. 4, 1941, killing all 11 men on board.)


January 3, 1941: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
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January 3, 1941: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
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Note the report in column 4: "Sub, Ship Sunk"
(The French submarine Sfax and French tanker Rhone were both sunk by U-37.)


January 3, 1941: Front page of The Montana Standard, Butte, Montana.
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January 3, 1941: Front page of The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, California.
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January 3, 1941: Front page of the Hamburger Neueste Zeitung, Altona, Hamburg, Germany.
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1. Deutsche Flieger nach Italien.
(German airmen to Italy.)


January 3, 1941: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
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1. OKW.-Bericht über das zweite Halbjahr 1940.
(OKW report for the second half of 1940.)
[OKW= Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, High Command of the Armed Forces.)
2. Über 2000 Angriffsflüge gegen die Insel.
(Over 2,000 air attacks on the island.)



   
Page published January 3, 2022