World War II As It Happened
A MaritimeQuest Daily Event Special Presentation
Saturday, October 21, 1939
Day 51

October 21, 1939: Front page of the Grimsby Evening Telegraph, Grimsby, England.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the report in column 4: "German Armed Raider Sunk"
(The claim is that the Schwabenland was captured and sunk by an unnamed British cruiser. The story also claims that this was the "Raider" that sank SS Clement. I would really like to know where the reporter got his information from, since not one detail of this story is true. The raider that sank SS Clement was the German cruiser Admiral Graf Spee, the captain and first officer were taken prisoner, but transferred to the Greek steamship Papalemos later the same day Clement was sunk (Sept. 30) and landed in the Cape Verde Islands on Oct. 9th. They were never on the Schwabenland.

There was a German ship named Schwabenland which was a seaplane tender. Since I don't have the details of the ship's movements I can not say with authority that it was not in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, but I find it very difficult to believe that this ship was anywhere near the central Atlantic Ocean. Schwabenland was torpedoed on Mar. 24, 1944 by HMS Terrapin P-323, but was not sunk. It was scuttled after the war with a load of gas munitions in the Skagerrak. It was not sunk in the Atlantic Ocean in October of 1939.)


October 21, 1939: Front page of the Press and Journal, Aberdeen, Scotland.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the report in column 7: "Fairy Tales of U-boats from Denmark"
(Nothing in the story is true, except the headline.)


October 21, 1939: Front page of The Telegraph, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
(Note the "Fairy Tale" story from the Aberdeen paper appears in the Australian paper, but their headline writer did not choose to mock the story and allowed the reader to believe the story could be true. Below that story appears a story claiming that Soviet submarines were using the Kiel Canal, another fairy tale.)


October 21, 1939: Front page of The Sydney Sun, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the "fairy tale" story in this paper is titled "Dodges of U-boats Revealed."


October 21, 1939: Front page of The Lethbridge Herald, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


October 21, 1939: Front page of Het Volksdagblad, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


October 21, 1939: Front page of The Bakersfield Californian, Bakersfield, California.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the sub-headline: "Senator Accuses Russia of Torpedoing Athenia"
(North Carolina democrat Senator Robert R. Reynolds, attempted to blame Russia to bolster his argument against the repeal of the arms embargo. In the article Reynolds even states there is no evidence that Russia did it, therefore, in his mind, Russia is the most likely culprit. The fact that everyone knew that German U-Boats were operating in the North Atlantic apparently holds no water to Sen. Reynolds. The parallel to the democrats of today is stunning and almost needs no explanation. Enough to say that today several democrats and their operatives in the media blamed Russia for the Hunter Biden laptop scandal. There should be no need to remind everyone of the three year long Russia hoax perpetrated by democrats, their operatives in the media and inside government agencies against the current President, Donald J. Trump. Apparently the democrats have been using Russia as a foil for decades.)


October 21, 1939: Front page of The Butte Montana Standard, Butte, Montana.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
Note the story in column 1: "Nazis Declare Briton Ordered Athenia Sinking"
(In the last paper it was the Russians, in this paper, it was Britain who sank the Athenia.)


October 21, 1939: Front page of The Ogden Standard Examiner, Ogden City, Utah.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)


October 21, 1939: Front page of the Rheinsberger Zeitung, Rheinsberg, Germany.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Britische Zerströrer versenkten die Athenia.
(British destroyers sank the Athenia.)
[This whole story was created by Dr. Josef Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda.]


October 21, 1939: Front page of the Hamburger Neueste Zeitung, Altona, Hamburg, Germany.
(Click on the image for a readable version.)
1. Churchill ist entlarvt!
(Churchill is exposed.)
2. Amerikaner schildert Untergang der Athenia.
(American describes the sinking of the Athenia.)
3. Auch der Warndt-Wald von dem Franzosen geräumt.
(The French are pushed out of the Warndt Forest.)



   
Page published Oct. 21, 2020