At the moment, I am traveling and gathering material for preparing fresh Musings … so I will again share with you another encore Musings which first appeared on this page exactly five years and one day ago – I hope you enjoy reading the news from 80 years ago, even if for a second time!
Here’s the text of what those who listened to XM Radio’s 1940’s Channel — known as the Savoy Express — during its early years heard in news reports, which were delivered by Savoy Express news reporter, Ed Baxter, on two different days in this week of September. As is obvious, for us who lived in the 1940’s period, the “War Years” mean what became known as The Second World War.
(Big Ben – One gong) In the news today … September 7th … 19-40 … This night has seen three hundred German bombers drop tons and tons of bombs directly on London … marking a change in strategy by Adolf Hitler and his German commanders. Up to this time, British vessels in the English Channel as well as radar stations along the English Coast have been attacked, and aerial battles have been fought between the German Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force … but Germany has not taken aim at Great Britain’s cities and industrial centers until now.
After completing the occupation of France, it was just a matter of time until the German military turned its attention toward England. However, with the failure of the Germans to cripple Britain’s air power … it appears Hitler is changing his strategies.
While there’s no count on civilian casualties as of yet, the R-A-F reports that fifty-one German aircraft were shot down during the bombing raid. This attack comes just as President Roosevelt announces that the United States is giving fifty “old” destroyers to Great Britain in exchange for ninety-nine year leases on naval and air bases in Newfoundland and the West Indies. These warships are badly needed, as the British continue to prepare for an anticipated German ground invasion across the English Channel.
There’s also evidence that oppression upon the Jewish population within Nazi controlled territory is increasing … as the Vichy French government has rescinded France’s law forbidding racial hatred. And … registration of all Jewish property has been made mandatory in Slovakia.
And … militarily speaking, here at home … General George C. Marshall has been sworn in as Chief of Staff of the U-S Army.
In golf … the twenty-third P-G-A Championship at the Hershey Country Club in Hershey, Pennsylvania, has been won by Byron Nelson.
Finally … President Franklin Roosevelt has dedicated the Great Smoky Mountains National Park … occupying some three hundred thousand acres of land in Tennessee and North Carolina. The idea to create a national park in the mountainous region dates to the late 18-90’s … when a few farsighted people began to talk about a public land preserve in the cool, healthful air of the southern Appalachians. The drive did not become successful until May of 19-26, when President Calvin Coolidge signed a bill creating the Great Smoky Mountains Park, as well as the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Exactly eight years later and six years ago, the states of Tennessee and North Carolina transferred deeds for all the land to the federal government and development of the public facilities began.
This … is Ed Baxter. And … that’s our report for September 7th … 19…40.
Then, three days later … those listening heard what was headlining the national news four years later, when Allied forces were now on the European mainland, with Paris having been liberated just two weeks earlier … with full victory in Europe now less than a year away, although much hard fighting remained.
(Big Ben – One gong) In the news today … September 10th … 19-44 … On Friday evening, just as Londoners were ending their work-week and reading newspaper headlines that proclaimed there would be no more German V-One Cruise Missile attacks on the British Empire’s capital city … there occurred in West London a great explosion.
Residents of the area reported that all was quiet … there were no air-raid sirens giving warning, no sound of an aircraft, nor the all-too-familiar drone of the V-One flying bomb that the Nazis had been sending their way for the past year.
It’s now been learned that the explosion marked the arrival of Germany’s new V-Two ballistic missile. Reports state that the V-Two travels faster than the speed of sound … the reason there’s no warning of a V-Two strike. Because of the speed, mounting any effective defense is just about impossible. We’re told the V-Two’s are being launched from Holland.
On the Western Front … in the past ten days, British, Canadian and Polish forces have rapidly crossed northern France and into Belgium. Liberation of the capital city of Brussels is now complete, and the vital port of Antwerp has been captured.
Allied forces are making dramatic advances elsewhere as well. The U. S. First Army now occupies Luxemburg, while other U-S troops have crossed the Dutch border … and spearheads of General Patton’s U. S. Third Army are poised to cross the German border on the southern front. And, in Bulgaria, the Fatherland Front resistance group has staged a coup and deposed the pro-German government. The new Bulgarian government, following the lead of neighboring Romania and … with the Soviet army invading its territory, has already declared war on Germany and all its remaining allies. It’s reported that the Red Army met no resistance as it crossed into Bulgaria in the past 48 hours. Further south, German forces have begun withdrawing from Greece … and the Allies continue to force the Nazi exit from the Italian boot, as they steadily push further and further north.
In Liberated France … General de Gaulle has appointed a new Cabinet, with Georges Bidault being named Foreign Minister. And, with General Dwight Eisenhower assuming direct command of the Allied forces in Europe … the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, has been moved across the English Channel from southern England to France.
This … is Ed Baxter. And … that’s our report for September 10th … 19…44.
Even with the arrival of the Internet and its storehouse of information, in the early 2000’s it still was not easy to gather meaningful data on newsworthy events and when they occurred. While we reported on happenings in the 15 years between the mid-1930’s and the end of 1949, the years of 1939 through 1945 received the greatest attention. And, creating these latter reports became so much easier in 2005 when, while visiting the National Archives Annex in College Park, Maryland, I spotted a copy of this book.
Released in 2004, it’s an English publication and the massive contents are presented as newspaper stories along with many photographs, beginning on September 1, 1939 and continuing daily through August 31, 1945 … with the official signing of surrender by the Japanese to take place the next day on the USS Missouri in Tokyo Harbor. I could not have found a better resource. If you are a history buff with a deep interest in The Second World War, this is a book to dive into!
