News Of The World – April 10, 1941 – NBC Red Network – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
News for this day centered around the German Army advances in Yugoslavia and Greece which were swift and prompted celebrating in the streets of Berlin. The celebration was short-lived as British bombers staged a dramatic night raid on the city, inflicting damage (light according to Berlin – Heavy according to London) and prompting vocal reaction over Radio Berlin. The celebrated Berlin Staatsoper was heavily damaged as was the famous Prussian Library. Berlin Radio claimed the British were bombing indiscriminately, inflicting damage (though minor, according to them) to hospitals and other civilian targets with several dead and numerous injured. For its part, Berlin Radio remarked British losses were “extraordinarily heavy”.
Berlin Radio went on to say that, now that the initial objectives of the German army had been reached, they were continuing to advance. A wedge had been driven into the Yugoslavian town of Skopje on the way to the Albania frontier. If the Germans reached Albania and united with Italian forces, they will have completely cut Yugoslavia off from Greece. The Greek Army in eastern Greece were said to have surrendered after the Germans blasted their way through to Salonika. That meant practically all of Greece, through to the Turkish frontier was now in German hands. Meanwhile, the German Northern Army had taken Marburg. The fall of Salonika and the advance of the German Armies into Yugoslavia was naturally played up big in the German Press and Radio. The Greeks were complimented on putting up a stiff fight, but in spite of what was called a “gallant defense” they finally had to give way. The German press went on to say the spirit that smashed the French Maginot Line has now broken the Greek Mataxas Line.
And the Berlin papers disclosed that two out of five persons accused of looting houses damaged in recent air raids were sentenced to death by a special court. The other three persons were given prison sentences.
And that’s a small slice of what was going on in the world and in the German press for this April 10, 1941 from NBC’s News Of The World.
