World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Wednesday, February 25, 1942
Day 909

February 25, 1942: Front page of the News and Chronicle, London, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 3: "Ship Sinks With 750 Refugees"
(One of the most terrible episodes in he sea war. The Struma was torpedoed and sunk by a Russian submarine. With over 780 Jews fleeing Romania, they were robbed by the Romanians, refused entry into Palestine by the British, denied entry by the Turks and finally abandoned in the Baltic Sea and ultimately killed by a Russian torpedo. Only one person survived the sinking.)
Over the wireless:
On the screen:
(Highlights include: Winter fighting in Russia, Rommel and the Afrika Korps, Korvettenkapitän Richard Zapp and U-66 return from the USA, Kapitänleutnant Reinhard Hardegen and U-123 return from the USA, Hardegen is awarded the Ritterkreuz by Vizeadmiral Karl Dönitz, Kapitänleutnant Erich Topp and U-552. Operation Cerberus, A.K.A. the Channel Dash.)


February 25, 1942: Front page of The Daily Mail, Hull, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the report in columns 3-4: "Hull 's Warship' Sights Objective"


February 25, 1942: Front page of The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury, Leeds, England.
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February 25, 1942: Front page of the Western Mail and South Wales News, Cardiff, Wales.
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February 25, 1942: Front page of the Evening Telegraph and Post, Dundee, Scotland.
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February 25, 1942: Front page of The Examiner, Launceston, Tasmania, Australia.
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February 25, 1942: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
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February 25, 1942: Front page of The Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
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February 25, 1942: Front page of The Winnipeg Tribune, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
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February 25, 1942: Front page of the Biddeford Daily Journal, Biddeford, Maine.
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February 25, 1942: Front page of The Evening Star, Washington, D.C.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in column 1: "Army Guns Shell Mystery Aircraft Sighted Over Los Angeles Area"
[The report is concluded here.]
(In what would become known as the "Battle of Los Angeles" an errant weather balloon caused anti-aircraft batteries in Los Angeles to blaze into action. Over 1,400 rounds were fired at the slow-moving object, but apparently none hit the target. A record that did not bode well for the gun crews. A radio report about this can be heard in the Over the Wireless section above.)
[See "Four Killed In U.S. Raid Scare" in The Sydney Sun of Feb. 26, 1942.]
[Also see "Protest Coastal False Alarm" in The Evening Gazette of Feb. 26, 1942.]
[Also see "Jitters After Spies Raid Los Angeles" in The Sydney Sun of Feb. 27, 1942.]
Also note the report in column 1: "Plane-Carrying Subs Reported Used by Japs"
(It was true that Japan had seaplane carrying submarines, but none were in U.S. waters at this time. The last paragraph states that the French submarine, Surcouf, the largest submarine in the world, carried a small seaplane. This is rather ironic because unknown to the world, Surcouf, had been sunk with all hands on Feb. 18th. This news had not yet been released to the public.)


February 25, 1942: Front page of The Evening Gazette, Xenia, Ohio.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
 
Note the report in columns 3-4: "Jaloppy Census Under Way In auto Graveyards of County"
(The War Production Board about to take junk cars for scrap, voluntarily at first, but the use of a "big stick" if necessary.)


February 25, 1942: Front page of The Port Arthur News, Port Arthur, Texas.
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February 25, 1942: Front page of the Tucson Daily Citizen, Tucson, Arizona.
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Note the report in column 7: "Three Axis Subs Sunk By U.S. In Atlantic Action"
(Secretary of the Navy Col. Frank Knox, announced the following, three U-boats sunk and four damaged in the Atlantic, fifteen Japanese warships, including an aircraft carrier, sunk, three believed sunk and one battleship damaged. Thirty-eight non-combatant (merchant) ships sunk, four more believed sunk.

Secretary Knox was not exactly correct. The facts were; zero U-boats sunk in the Atlantic. I don't have figures on damaged U-boats. The first U-boat sunk by U.S. forces was U-656, which was sunk on Mar. 1, 1942 by a Lockheed Hudson flown by Ens. William Tepuni, USNR of VP-82. This was off Newfoundland. A second, U-503, was sunk off Newfoundland by VP-82 on Mar. 15th. The first U-boat sunk off the U.S. east coast was U-85, which was sunk by USS Roper DD-147 on Apr. 14, 1942.

Since Dec. 7, 1941. fourteen Japanese warships sunk, including five submarines, no aircraft carriers sunk, no battleships damaged. Thirty-eight merchant ships had been sunk since the beginning of the war, nine were lost through accidents, nine by Dutch forces and two through combined U.S., U.K. and Netherlands forces. Only nineteen sunk by U.S. forces.)


February 25, 1942: Front page of The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, California.
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February 25, 1942: Front page of the Teltower Kreisblatt, Kreis Teltow, Brandenburg, Germany.
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1. Adolf Hitler: Damals ein Parteiprogramm, heute die Thesen einer neuen und besser werdenden Welt!
(Adolf HItler: At that time a party program, today the theses of a new and better world!)
2. Vor amerikanischer Küste weitere 8 Schiffe mit zusammen 63 000 BRT. versenkt.
(Another 8 ships with a total of 63,000 GRT off the American coast. sunk.)


February 25, 1942: Front page of the Völkischer Beobachter, the official newspaper of the NSDAP.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Begleitmusik zu Roosevelts Kaminplauderei - Japanische Granaten krepieren erstmals auf USA.-Boden.
(Accompanying music to Roosevelt's fireside chat - Japanese shells burst for the first time on USA soil.)



   
Page published February 25, 2023