– News of The World- Blue Network – September 2, 1941 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
Despite the announcers breathless proclamation that it was “Tuesday September 3rd” it was actually Tuesday September 2nd in 1941. No matter, it was still a day where reports of German raids over England, and British raids over Germany and occupied France were a daily occurrence, no matter who said which day it was.
President Roosevelt delivered a stirring Labor Day Address the previous day, and it was eagerly absorbed in England by nervous and somewhat pessimistic Londoners who were afraid the U.S. wasn’t going to get involved anytime soon. It was reassuring, but it didn’t detract from the fact that many were feeling a sense of complacency, now that Russia was busy fending off a German invasion. There were many who felt it was Britain who was complacent when the war started – and it wasn’t until France fell in 1940 that reality came crashing in.
Hopeful signs from Ankara was the Iranian government in Tehran signed armistice terms with Britain and Russia. The reports were unconfirmed in London though. As far as was certain, the broad terms of the armistice were agreed to, but the details had yet to be worked out. Still, something positive.
But the big news was one of food, and the lack of it. Reports that Poles, to the tune of some 600 a day were dying of starvation. In Greece which was under occupation by the Germans, the food rations were so meager that workers couldn’t sustain any productivity, instead fainting on the job. The German occupation force was getting the reputation of stopping people on the street and fleecing them of their jewelry and money, saying Greece was now a conquered country and everything now belonged to Germany.
News from the Eastern front was the German advance towards Leningrad was continuing, but slowed. Reports from Moscow claimed Red Army forces were holding and that it had been the worst fighting of the war so far.
And that’s a little of what went on, this September 2nd in 1941 as reported by News Of The World from The Blue Network.
