Here are summaries of news from the months of the World War Two era beginning in the Fall of 1939, as reported by XM Radio’s Savoy Express reporter, Ed Baxter:
In the news today … October 23rd … 19-39 … Women’s stockings are the subject of our lead story … as a new type hosiery for you ladies is now available for purchase … at the Wilmington Dry Goods Company store in downtown Wilmington, Delaware. They are called “nylons” … and the reason they are first being sold in Wilmington is because that is the home of the DuPont Company … the inventor of the light-weight and more sturdy synthetic fiber that they’ve named nylon. Don’t despair, Ladies, you’ll soon be able to find nylon stockings in the stores in your town.
And … while it’s not likely that you witnessed this historic event … as there are very few receivers available for watching “radio with pictures” … the first television broadcast of a professional football game took place yesterday. It originated from Ebbets Field in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, where the Brooklyn Dodgers met the Philadelphia Eagles. By the way, Brooklyn won … twenty-three to fourteen.
From Europe … as Nazi Germany continues its warring ways … Chancellor Adolf Hitler once again, in a public speech, denies that he has intentions of going to war with France and Great Britain. He did, however, announce that he plans to address what he calls “the Jewish problem” … with Henreich Himmler and his S-S charged with carrying out those orders. Effective tomorrow … Jews in some section of Nazi-controlled Poland will be required to wear a yellow triangle sewn on the arm of their shirt or jacket.
Meanwhile … if you think the war is confined to eastern Europe … you are mistaken. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain has told Parliament that the Royal Air Force has shot down eight Nazi planes in recent days. This comes shortly after German warship commanders were given orders to torpedo Allied merchant shipping without warning.
What with dozens of British army divisions now in France … helping man the Maginot Line … that defensive barrier along France’s border with Germany … and working on building defenses in Belgium and the Netherlands stretching to the English Channel … it won’t be long before the call goes out to “the colonies.” Australian Prime Minister … Robert Menzies … has announced compulsory military training for all of his nation’s able-bodied young men.
This … is Ed Baxter. And … that’s our report for October 23rd … 19…39.
Three days later, Savoy Express listeners heard this report from five years later, where both the battles in Europe and the Pacific were within a year of ending:
In the news today … October 26th … 19-44 … Six days ago, one hundred thousand American soldiers landed on Leyte Island in the Philippines … to take on the well entrenched Japanese garrison there. Three days ago, the sea battle in the Leyte Gulf began. In this time, we’ve witnessed a horrendous loss of ships and sailors on both sides … including the destruction of thirty-six Japanese warships. Three American ships were sunk … with two being aircraft carriers … the Princeton and the Saint Lo. This naval fight in the Leyte Gulf also saw the introduction … in an act of desperation … of a new Japanese weapon … the suicide bomber! These pilots who crash-dive their aircraft into a warship … are called “kamikaze” pilots … meaning “divine wind” in Japanese. Exactly how many of these “suicide attacks” took place, the U. S. Navy is not saying … yet it certainly numbers in the dozens.
On the European front … the German city of Aachen has finally been taken by the Allies … following a ten-day siege and all-out efforts by elite German units, including paratroopers, to reinforce defenses and deliver desperately needed supplies. The city was taken only after intense house-to-house combat and American firepower. The German garrison commander, Colonel Gerhardt Wilck … finally sent two U. S. captives as messengers to negotiate surrender. Speaking from the back of a Jeep after giving up, the Colonel told his men … “I believe further fighting is useless. The American commander says I cannot give you ‘Sieg Heil’ or ‘Heil Hitler’ … but we can say it in our hearts.”
In Paris … pioneer French auto maker Louis Renault has died in a military prison hospital of “unreported” causes. Following the liberation of France, he was arrested as a Nazi collaborator. After serving his nation by building military vehicles during the first War … for some unknown reason … following the German occupation of France in this war, he offered his Renault tank factory and his services to the Nazis.
At the same time … the Allied governments have recognized French General Charles DeGaulle’s cabinet as the provisional government of France.
Finally … British Royal Navy commanders had hoped that the Atlantic sea war would virtually be over when Allied forces captured the heavily-fortified bases on the coast of France, as these have been home to the German U-boat fleet for much of the war. However, German Grand Admiral Karl Donitz was one step ahead of them and moved the main U-boat fleet to bases in Norway. Even so, Allied ships and aircraft did manage to sink nineteen U-boats last month.
This … is Ed Baxter. And … that’s our report for October 26th … 19…44.
Meanwhile, two years earlier, our U. S. military forces are fighting with everything they have, even though still not at full strength in either manpower or materials:
In the news today … October 28th … 19-42 … The major Japanese offensive effort to wrest control of Guadalcanal Island in the Solomons from U-S forces so far has failed. Just under a week ago … supported by four battleships and four aircraft carriers … twenty thousand Japanese troops landed on the island. Even with support of tanks and heavy artillery, the infantry made little progress and the tanks were wiped out.
Now comes late word that … in a battle fought at sea in the vicinity of the Santa Cruz Islands … U. S. naval forces have turned back a superior Japanese fleet, which was on its way to Guadalcanal with troop reinforcements. The battle was fought exclusively by aircraft taking off from carriers of the two nations’ forces. Losses include The Hornet, the last U. S. carrier built prior to America’s entry into the War. Reports indicate the Japanese lost more than one hundred aircraft, including twenty-five bombers.
At the same time … U. S. Army Air Force bombers have carried out raids on the Chinese cities of Hong Kong and Canton … which are under control of the Japanese.
In North Africa … the British have launched a major offensive at El Alamein, Egypt, in an effort to turn back Italian and German forces under the command of German General Erwin Rommel. Doing battle are one hundred and ninety-five thousand Allied troops. Under the command of British General Bernard Montgomery … the offensive began with the firing of one thousand heavy guns and … for the first time … the troops have the support of the new American M-4 Sherman tank.
Finally … first lady Eleanor Roosevelt is in England. She first visited British monarch King George the Sixth and his family at Buckingham Palace. Next was a stop at the Washington Club of the American Red Cross to visit U. S. soldiers. When she arrived, the troops greeted her with shouts of “Hi, Eleanor!” Before returning home, she’s also visiting her son, Lieutenant Colonel Elliott Roosevelt … who is commander of two photo reconnaissance squadrons of the Eighth Air Corps.
This … is Ed Baxter. And … that’s our report for October 28th … 19…42.
Four days later Ed broadcast this news:
In the news today … November first … 19-42 … Just a few days ago, we reported on the sea battle in the Pacific … in the vicinity of Santa Cruz Island … which lies to the east of the Solomons, where the battle for Guadalcanal is raging. Two American naval task forces were given the challenge of stopping a superior Japanese fleet … on its way to Guadalcanal with reinforcements. The encounter was fought exclusively by aircraft taking off from carriers of the two forces. Lost in the battle is the last U. S. carrier built before America entered the war … the Hornet … which suffered multiple explosions, and was abandoned and left to burn. The U. S. S. Enterprise and the battleship South Dakota have both been heavily damaged. While there are no reports of Japanese warships being sunk … they did lose more than one hundred aircraft, including at least twenty-five bombers. Plus … our pilots were able to drop one-thousand pound bombs on the decks of two Japanese carriers … taking them out of the action for at least several months.
The battle for Guadalcanal has been the first American offensive action … fighting to keep the Japanese from taking yet another island in the Solomon chain and, hence, being one step closer to Australia. Our American forces continue to fend off new attacks by the invaders … causing many casualties. Its reported that President Roosevelt has told our military leaders that Guadalcanal must be held “at all costs.”
In related news … U-S Navy cruisers and destroyers have been shelling Japanese positions on Santa Cruz Island … which lies to the east of the Solomons.
And … a group of British clergymen and political figures have denounced the persecution of Jews by Nazi Germany. Prime Minister Winston Churchill has stated … “the systematic cruelties to which the Jewish people have been exposed under the Nazi regime are amongst the most terrible events of history, and place an indelible stain upon all who perpetrate them.”
In the European war … the German offensive towards the Caucasus mountains in southern Russia is grinding to a halt … in the face of strong Soviet resistance and the onset of winter. And … a week after the British Royal Air Force bombed the German industrial city of Milan … the Luftwaffe yesterday attacked the historic English town of Canterbury … dropping more than fifty tons of bombs and causing extensive damage.
Finally … further British rationing is again taking its toll … as cakes will now be even plainer … with only one layer of jam or chocolate being permitted to be added after baking. White sugar icing has been banned in the British Isles for more than two years.
This … is Ed Baxter. And … that’s our report for November 1st … 19…42.
Turning the clock back three years, just 60 days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland … members of our Congress acknowledge that we can no longer be an “isolationist” nation, that we must help our European friends in defending themselves:
In the news today … November 4th … 19-39 … The U. S. Congress has revised the Neutrality Act of 1935. Just six weeks ago President Roosevelt called Congress into special session … with the aim of removing an “arms embargo” amendment that was added to the Act in 1937. The President’s immediate goal is to support Great Britain in its defense against attack by Germany. With the President’s signing of this new Neutrality Act … more than fifty million dollars of arms ordered by Great Britain and France before the embargo went into effect with the Declaration of War two months ago … are being released for shipment. Reportedly, more than three hundred aircraft are already waiting in crates at American ports for delivery to the two nations. The Act was originally passed as a re-action to fears of a forthcoming war in Europe. Through the 1937 amendment, it prohibited both the shipment of arms to “belligerent nations” and the granting of economic credits to those wishing to buy arms in the U. S. President Roosevelt has been opposed to the Neutrality Act legislation all along, but Isolationist members of Congress believed this approach to be the best way of keeping America out of another European war. However … American public opinion on the “isolation” issue is seeing a definite shift … being brought about, apparently, by the increasing reports of Nazi atrocities.
And speaking of “atrocities” … a report coming out of Poland indicates that Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, has visited the city of Lodz … to step up the process being called the “Germanization” of Poland. From statements overheard, the fate awaiting the city’s two-hundred-thousand Jews would appear to be quite bleak.
In Great Britain … with the recent sinking of a British naval ship … the British Royal Navy is stepping up its offensive action against German submarines, known as U-boats. And … Finland and Russia continue their talks on an exchange of territory. One of the stumbling blocks is Russia’s demand that Finland grant them a military base on Finish soil.
Here at home … the 40th National Automobile Show has opened in Chicago. On display for the first time … is a new development in automotive riding comfort. It’s called “air conditioning.” This first is coming from the Packard Corporation … and, for the foreseeable future, however … it’s not going to be an option that the average car buyer will find an affordable luxury … no matter how comfortable it will make travel.
This … is Ed Baxter. And … that’s our report for November 4th … 19…39.
Returning to 1942 … more news from the battlefronts and the loss of a great “patriotic” songwriter and singer:
In the news today … November 5th … 19-42 … Actions on the North Africa front continue to favor the Allies. After it became evident there was no way to win the battle at El Alamein, Egypt, General Field Marshall Erwin Rommel has begun his retreat … apparently disobeying orders from Adolf Hitler to stay and fight to win at any cost. The twelve-day battle has been a grueling one for the Axis powers. Rommel’s panzer army was greatly out-numbered by British General Montgomery’s nearly two-hundred-thousand troops. Intelligence reports tell us that Rommel’s forces were short on both food and gasoline … in addition to being further weakened by constant British air attacks. Another great asset for the British as been its tank force … including a large number of the new American M-Four Sherman tanks. Even after losing more than two hundred tanks during this nearly two-week battle … the Allies still have more than six hundred serviceable tanks left.
In another part of Africa … the Vichy French government of Madagascar has surrendered the island to the Allies. The only significance of taking Madagascar is to forestall its use as a Japanese naval base.
Meanwhile … in London … British Prime Minister has organized a meeting of the best scientific and military minds to deal with how to stop the German U-boats, which continue to target and sink merchant ships in the North Atlantic … as they transport military supplies to Europe.
And … on the Pacific island of Guadalcanal … U. S. forces continue to hold their own on the island … however, Japanese land attacks continue … with no abatement yet in evidence. At the same time … thanks to persistent blockading by the U. S. Navy … few Japanese ships are getting through to deliver reinforcements and supplies.
Finally … America’s “Yankee Doodle Dandy” … George M. Cohan … has died at the age of sixty-four. This prolific and celebrated songwriter and great American song-and-dance man spent fifty-six of those years on the stage. During his lifetime, he wrote forty plays and collaborated with others on dozens more … and composed at least five hundred
songs, including “Give My Regards To Broadway” and “You’re A Grand Old Flag.” Earlier this year Hollywood brought a roughly-biographical “Yankee Doodle Dandy” to the silver screen, with Jimmy Cagney portraying George M. Cohan … who’s star-spangled tunes will be a part of Americana forever!
This … is Ed Baxter. And … that’s our report for November 5th … 19…42.
Thank you, Ed Baxter … for bringing us all the relevant news for this major time in world history!
Even if you don’t remember Ed Baxter, you may remember his son, Ted Baxter … who reported his version of the news on the 1970’s Mary Tyler Moore show!
Image Credits: Jewish Yellow Patch courtesy of TimeToast.com , U.S. Marines landing on Guadalcanal, August 1942 courtesy of Britannica.com, 1940 Pacard courtesy of Hemmings.com, American composer George M. Cohan. Date between circa 1908 and circa 1909
