World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Friday, February 13, 1942
Day 897

February 13, 1942: Front page of the News and Chronicle, London, England.
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February 13, 1942: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
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February 13, 1942: Front page of The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury, Leeds, England.
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February 13, 1942: Front page of the Western Mail and South Wales News, Cardiff, Wales.
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February 13, 1942: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
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Note the report in column 5: "Double Summer Time"
(British Double Summer Time to run from Apr. 4 until Aug. 8.)


February 13, 1942: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
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February 13, 1942: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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February 13, 1942: Front page of The Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
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February 13, 1942: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
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February 13, 1942: Front page of The Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
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Note the report in column 3: "Churchill War Talk On Local Stations"


February 13, 1942: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
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February 13, 1942: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
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Note the report at top left: "3 Nazi Warships Escape British In 600-Plane Battle in Channel"
(Operation Cerberus, better known as the Channel Dash, was when the Germans sailed the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, along with a strong escort force, from France back to Germany. The reason for this was that the ships were under constant attack by the RAF in the French ports. The ships were effectively trapped and since they could not sortie from France as planned and because the German High Command believed, rightly, that the two ships would ultimately be destroyed should they remain tied up in France, it was decided not to let them die on the vine, but to move them back to Germany through the English Channel, which was an almost unbelievable risk.

The operation was a terrible embarrassment to the British, allowing such heavy ships, which were under observation, to make it through the Straits of Dover, should have been impossible. For the Germans the operation was an incredible political and logistical success, but ultimately, it did not help the German naval situation. The entire force made it to port in Germany, but both Scharnhorst and Gneisenau had been mined en route. Scharnhorst was repaired, but Gneisenau, while it was being repaired, was seriously damaged in an air raid at Kiel. The ships bows were replaced and in April Gneisenau was moved to Gotenhafen. Heavier guns were to be fitted, but further German navy failures soured Hitler on the idea of spending so much money, time, and manpower resources on a ship like Gneisenau. The project was abandoned and Gneisenau never sailed again. The heavy gun turrets were removed and used as shore batteries, and the ship was more or less abandoned. When the Soviets neared the city, Gneisenau was towed out and sunk as a blockship. The ship was later raised and scrapped by the Poles.)
 
Also note the report in columns 2-4: "Jap Tried a Suicide Dive on Aircraft Carrier, Missed and Finally Crashed on Edge of Deck"
[The report is concluded here.]
(The after action report tells a different story. Capt. Murray, the commanding officer of the USS Enterprise CV-6, wrote in his official report that a plane from the first attack (Enterprise was attacked twice on Feb. 1 during the U.S. Navy attack against the Gilbert and Marshall Islands,) returned to "apparently to strafe planes on flight deck," but the right wing "scraped the flight deck" and "cut off the tail of a VSB plane" and then "plunged over the side." Not exactly a "suicide dive" as the reported claimed. But the term suicide dive would become part of the lexicon of World War II later in the war when the Japanese unleashed the Kamikaze against the Allies.)
 
[For an update on the Laura Ingalls trial see: "Miss Ingalls Proved Pro-Nazi Attitude, Prosecutor Asserts" on page 2 here.]
[Also see: "Ingalls Case Given To Jury, Warned on Suspicious Evidence" in the evening edition of The Evening Star here.]
(Laura Ingalls, not to be confused with the author Laura Ingalls Wilder of Little House on the Prairie fame, was a famous aviatrix and Nazi agent operating with the Gestapo in the U.S.A. She infiltrated the America First Committee, of which Charles Lindbergh was a member, and gave several pro-Nazi, anti-intervention speeches for the committee. She was arrested in Dec. 1941 for failing to register as a paid foreign agent and served 20 months in prison. After being released she continued to spread pro-Nazi propaganda being arrested again in in July of 1944 while trying to enter Mexico carrying seditious material. She was not prosecuted in this event. She died in 1967.)
[See "Laura Ingalls Pleads To Fly" in the Oakland Tribune of Oct. 8, 1939.]


February 13, 1942: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
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February 13, 1942: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
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February 13, 1942: Front page of the Tucson Daily Citizen, Tucson, Arizona.
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February 13, 1942: Front page of The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, California.
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February 13, 1942: Front page of the Teltower Kreisblatt, Kreis Teltow, Brandenburg, Germany.
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1. Des Führers Ehrung für Dr. Todt - Staatsakt in der Reichskanzlei.
(The Führer's honor for Dr. Todt - State ceremony in the Reich Chancellery.)


February 13, 1942: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
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1. Der Führer nahm Abschied von Fritz Todt - Deutschland trauert um einen seiner größten Söhne.
(The Führer said goodbye to Fritz Todt - Germany mourns the loss of one of its greatest sons.)



   
Page published February 13, 2023