– News from BBC World Service – Paris Radio English service – September 4, 1939 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
With War in Europe officially declared, this day in September 1939, the first official casualties reported wound up being civilians, innocent bystanders, caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. The SS Athenia had been sunk, killing 117. And the news via shortwave listening posts, was all about that.
Amid conflicting reports (and there were many), the Passenger ship was bound for Montreal from Glasgow when it was torpedoed 200 miles off the Canadian coast. With some 1400 passengers on board, including 300 Americans, the ship was struck by one torpedo.
Ambassador Joseph P. Kennedy notified the State Department in Washington at 5.40 A. M. (E.D. T.) that he expected soon to be able to list the casualties. (Reports in Stockholm said the Norwegian ship Knud Nelson had taken aboard 800 survivors and the Swedish yacht Southern Cross had picked up 200.) Ambassador Kennedy had announced that 246 United States citizens were listed as having boarded the Athenia, 101 of them at Liverpool and 145 at Glasgow.
The Germans denied firing on the ship, even though the German submarine U-30 was seen following the Athenia. And the German passenger ship SS Bremen, en route from New York to Murmansk refused to pick up survivors, despite receiving distress signals.
All told, some 981 passengers and crew were eventually rescued.
The World War 1 practice of torpedoing passenger ships at sea was renewed soon after the declaration of war. Anxiety spread over the breadth of the Atlantic, where thousands of Americans are fleeing the war zone. The attack on the British liner Athenia, operated by the Cunard White Star out of Glasgow, recalled the heavy loss of merchant ships in the World War, and to Americans the sinking of the Lusitania, which precipitated America’s entrance into the great conflict 22 years ago.
But any indication this was going to be a civilized war was quickly abandoned as preparations continued for what was going to be a long and costly conflict.
And that’s what was going on this September 4th in 1939 as reported by The BBC World Service and the English service of Paris Radio.
