World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Thursday April 3, 1941
Day 581

April 3, 1941: Front page of the Manchester Evening News, Manchester, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the headline report: "Hungary Premier And Wife Death Riddle"
(The report in column 2 "Suicide Story is Denied" However, Pál Teleki, did commit suicide. His suicide note tends to indicate he did this out of honor, because he felt that he had let down the Hungarian people. This may have been the case, however, while he may have felt that he let the Hungarian people down, he had no compassion for Hungarian Jews, who suffered died in the tens of thousands due to his laws and with his approval.)
Also note the report at top right: "American Ship Torpedoed"
(A Berlin radio report claims the tanker, Western Chief, was torpedoed and sunk. The ship was sunk by the Italian submarine Emo, but it was not a tanker, it was a freighter. The British reporter adds that the ship is shown in Lloyd's as registered in the U.S.A. He must have been using the 1940 Lloyd's Register, which shows the ship as U.S. registered, but it was transferred to the Britain that year and therefore was no longer a U.S. ship. You will notice that The Lowell Sun has the same report, but uses a very large font for the headline, which is there forte.)
Also note the report in column 5: "Two German Ships Seen On Fire At Sea"
(There are four ships mentioned in the report, three of them, Muenchen [München], Hermonthis, Leipzig and Monserrate. München was scuttled when approached by HMCS Prince Henry, Hermonthis was set afire and abandoned, found by HMCS Prince Henry and scuttled by the Peruvian cruiser Almirante Grau. Leipzig, which was set on fire at Callao was a total loss. The only ship to survive was Monserrate, which was salvaged by the Peruvians and repaired.)
 
[Historical note: On this day the British Ambassador to Moscow, Sir Stafford Cripps, personally told Josef Stalin that Germany was massing troops along the Russian eastern frontier in preparation for an attack on the Soviet Union. This was at least the second warning Stalin was given by Western diplomats, the first being on Mar. 20 when U.S. Under Secretary of State, Sumner Wells, informed the Soviet Ambassador, Constantine Oumansky, of the planned invasion.]


April 3, 1941: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the photo: "Bombers For Britain"
(The photo shows British pilots in Seattle, Washington, awaiting the delivery of their new B-17 Flying Fortresses, which the United States was providing for England. The report does not mention if the United States' delivery of heavy bombers to England might cause Hitler to escalate the war or not.)


April 3, 1941: Front page of the Western Mail and South Wales News, Cardiff, Wales.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the headline report: "More Smashing Sea and Land Blows at Axis"
(The report also claims that a destroyer, submarine and tanker had also been sunk. The only Italian destroyer sunk since the Battle of Cape Matapan was the Leone, which sank after hitting a rock. The submarine sunk was Pier Capponi, which was torpedoed by HMS Rorqual. It was lost with all hands. Rorqual also sank the tanker, Laura Corrado. The R.A.F. would sink four Italian ships on this day, but it is unlikely that this could have been known by the press before this newspaper was published. )
Also note the report in column 4: "Haw Haw Admits It"
(American born, raised in Ireland, William Joyce, known to the world as Lord Haw-Haw, admits his real name. There were several such broadcasters, and the nickname haw-haw was applied to all of them, but he was the most prominent of them. Perhaps he should have kept his name a secret, he was executed by the British for high treason on Jan. 3, 1946.)


April 3, 1941: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 7: "Virginia Woolf Missing"
(Their fears were well founded. She had committed suicide by drowning herself on Mar. 28th.)


April 3, 1941: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


April 3, 1941: Front page of the Daily Telegraph, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 4: "Nazis Die In Invasion Test"
(The genesis of this report seems to have been a rumor started by William L. Shirer, a CBS news correspondent. It does not seem to be an outright lie, but propaganda designed to demoralize the Germans. The incident happened in mid Sept. of 1940 when Shirer saw a number of badly injured and burned Germans being unloaded from trains in Berlin. He surmised that there had been some great tragedy. From this, it appears that some British newspapermen embellished the rumor and thus this report. There were other reports from that time that claimed large numbers of Germans had been killed in the invasion ports from an air attack.)
[See newspaper reports of Sept. 24, 1940 and Oct. 18, 1940.]


April 3, 1941: Front page of The Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


April 3, 1941: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


April 3, 1941: Front page of The Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 4: "Britons Told Shortage Of Food Serious"


April 3, 1941: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 7: "Roosevelt's Son Begins Service On Destroyer"


April 3, 1941: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report at bottom left: "British Steamer Sunk; Scores Are Reported Devoured by Sharks"
(The Britannia was sunk by the German Hilfskreuzer (auxiliary cruiser) Thor on Mar. 24th. After being fired on and hit several times the ship came to a stop, the over 500 people on board were allowed to abandon the ship. Soon after they were in the lifeboats, the ship was sunk by Thor's guns. Before rescue operations could begin, a signal from a British ship was picked up and Thor's commanding officer, Kapitän zur See Otto Kähler, decided to leave the area, believing that the survivors would be picked up by the British ship. They were not, and over 200 died from exposure, thirst, hunger and sharks. About 300 were either picked up by passing ships or made land in the lifeboats. We only have Kähler's word that he believed the people would be rescued and that they ever received such a signal. It should be pointed out that on Apr. 4 he sank the British auxiliary cruiser HMS Voltaire, and Kähler picked up 197 survivors from that ship.)


April 3, 1941: Front page of The Lowell Sun, Lowell, Massachusetts.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


April 3, 1941: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


April 3, 1941: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


April 3, 1941: Front page of The Nevada State Journal, Reno, Nevada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 5: "Moscow Grip On Communist Party Charged"


April 3, 1941: Front page of the San Mateo Times, San Mateo, California.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


April 3, 1941: Front page of the Hamburger Neueste Zeitung, Altona, Hamburg, Germany.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
1. Serbischer Größenwahn: In Zwei Tagen sind wir in Wien!
(Serbian megalomania: We'll be in Vienna in two days!)
2. Panzer-Erfolg in Nordafrika erweitert.
(Tank success in North Africa.)


April 3, 1941: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Der April fängt gut an! - 11 Schiffe mit 77.300 BRT. versenkt.
(April off to a good start! - 11 ships for 77,300 GRT sunk.)



   
Page published April 3, 2022