World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Tuesday March 18, 1941
Day 565

March 18, 1941: Front page of the Manchester Evening News, Manchester, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the headline report: "U-Boats Menace U.S. Coast"
(The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, claimed that a German U-boat was en route to the U.S. east coast. This story will become embellished as it moves west.)
Also note the report in column 3: "Big Bombers On Way"
(22 Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses en route to England.)


March 18, 1941: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report at top right: "Three German U-Boats Sunk - The Premier"
(Churchill was told by the Admiralty that three had been sunk, but in fact, only two had been sunk. These two boats were big losses for the Germans. U-99, Kapitänleutnant Otto Kretschmer, the top scoring U-boat commander of the Second World War, whose record was 47 ships for over 274,000 tons and U-100 under the command of Kapitänleutnant Joachim Schepke, another of the top U-boat commanders, who sank 37 ships for over 155,000 tons. In March of 1941 the Germans lost three of their best U-boat commanders, those mentioned above and also Günther Prien of U-47 fame. His boat was lost on or about Mar. 7th.)


March 18, 1941: Front page of the Birmingham Gazette, Birmingham, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 4: "James Stewart Injured"
(Actor Jimmy Stewart slightly injured after making a forced landing in his private plane.)


March 18, 1941: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report at top right: "Cheese To Be Rationed - Less Milk For Households"


March 18, 1941: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


March 18, 1941: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report at bottom left: "200,000 Young Girls For War Work"


March 18, 1941: Front page of The News, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 5: "Czech Blames Gestapo For 4,000 Deaths"
Also note the report in column 3: "Germans Reprieve Englishwomen - Life Sentence Instead"
(Two women, Winifred Harle and Florence Frickard, who had been sentenced to death are not only sentenced to life in prison.)


March 18, 1941: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in columns 1-2: "Hear German Sub EnRoute U.S. Waters"

(Acting Secretary of State Sumner Wells tells reporters that the British Ambassador, Lord Halifax, told him that the Admiralty told him that they have been told, that a German submarine was reported in North Atlantic waters. A revelation, a German U-boat in the North Atlantic in World War II, who would have thought. Wells is quoted in the next paragraph as saying the submarine was off the north Atlantic coast. Wells then said that he had no info on German battlecruisers. Churchill is quoted as saying that the battlecruisers were on the American side of the ocean. In fact, on this day, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were in the North Atlantic, about mid-ocean, on a very successful cruise at the time.)

 
Also note the report in columns 7-8: "Text Churchill Speech To The Pilgrims Club"
Also note the report in column 5: "Boeing Bomber Takes Off Again"
(The first of the twenty-two B-17 bombers being flown to England, had to turn back due to fog.)


March 18, 1941: Front page of The Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


March 18, 1941: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the headline: Nazi Battle Cruisers In U.S. Waters, Churchill Warns; Reported U-boat Menace Spurs Congressional Action"
(Churchill's propaganda now being reported in the U.S. media, and the headlines will get more alarming as the day goes on.)
Also note the report in column 6: "New York to Oust Fascists, Communists"
(The New York board of higher education making moves to oust communists/fascists from area universities. The move was apparently a failure, because today there are more communist/socialist/fascist college teachers than ever. And today, they have infiltrated the entire government education system in the United States.)


March 18, 1941: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 4: "5 British Ships In Convoy Sunk, Germans Claim"
(The attack was made against convoy HX-112, which did lose five ships, with two others damaged. Two of the attacking U-boats, U-99 and U-100 were sunk the following day.)
Also note the report in column 5: "Fighting Fund Sought To Liberate Browder"
(New York communists trying to raise money to free Earl Browder, the former general-secretary of the communist party in the U.S.A. who was serving a 2-4 year prison term for fraud.)


March 18, 1941: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


March 18, 1941: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the headline: "Nazi Subs, Battleships On U.S. Side Of Ocean"


March 18, 1941: Front page of The Nevada State Journal, Reno, Nevada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report at top right: "Germany May Start Submarine Warfare Off New York City"
(The report states that Nazi officials denied the claim. For once the Germans were telling the truth. There was no German U-boat operations off the U.S. east coast at this time. It would happen, but not until Jan. 1942.)


March 18, 1941: Front page of the San Mateo Times, San Mateo, California.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the headline: "German Fleet Said To Be In U.S. Waters"
(We went from a German submarine, to submarines, to submarines and battleships to the entire German fleet being off the U.S. east coast. It is almost like the editors were playing telephone.)


March 18, 1941: Front page of the Hamburger Neueste Zeitung, Altona, Hamburg, Germany.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
1. Roosevelt ließ letzte Maske fallen.
(Roosevelt drops the mask at last.)


March 18, 1941: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Die Blutschuld des jüdisch-angelsächsischen Kapitalismus.
(The Blood Guilt of Anglo-Jewish Capitalism.)



   
Page published March 18, 2022