Daily Sketch dated Friday March 18th
1938
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Adolf Hitler was born in Austria but like many Austrians of
the time regarded himself as German. When he came to power in 1933 he intended
to make Austria a part of Germany once and for all, but Italy led by Benito
Mussolini had vowed to defend Austria’s right to independence. By 1938
relations between Mussolini and Hitler had become so friendly that the Italian
leader let it be known that he would no longer stand in the way of a German
invasion. Hitler threatened the Austrian government with all out war if they
didn’t capitulate and agree to Austria becoming part of Germany. The Austrian
chancellor, Kurt Schuschnigg, and his entire government, except the one Nazi
Party member, resigned. The remaining man, Arthur Seyss-Inquart as de-facto
head of government, invited the German army to enter Vienna on March 15th
1938.
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The bombing of Barcelona on the 16th, 17th
and 18th March 1938 followed France’s decision to re-open their
border with Spain and allow supplies through to the Republicans fighting
against General Franco. It was carried out by the Italian air force in planes
disguised as Spanish.
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Poland had taken over the Vilnius border region
with Lithuania in 1920 and since then there had been no diplomatic relations
between the two countries. With an eye on Germany expansion into Austria,
Poland decided that it was a good time to have an ally on it’s northern border
so issued this ultimatum to Lithuania. On March 19th the Lithuanian
government agreed to the demands.
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The Australian aviator Harry Frank (the ‘E’ initial in the
article is a mistake) Broadbent was trying to beat the record of Miss Jean
Batten in a flight from England to Australia. A Qantas mail plane discovered
him on Torren Island, fifty miles from Wangipo (wherever that is).
Broadbent
went on to pilot flying-boats for Quantas and then for a small Southampton
based airline serving Lisbon, Madeira and Las Palmas. In 1958 he was an
instructor to a Portuguese airline and was forced into an emergency landing in
the Atlantic, west of Portugal. The aircraft and occupants were never found.
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The use of the cat-o-nine-tails was officially abolished in
UK prisons in 1967 although it hadn’t been used since 1962 and only rarely
since 1948.
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Despite the Mayor's incredulity, Greta Garbo never married and according to some contemporary
sources, such as writer Mercedes de Acosta, was of a sapphic bent.
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‘Her return to the screen’ refers to the break that Norma
Shearer took after the death if her first husband Irving Thalberg. She retired
from the business in 1942 and died in 1983.
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“Ouch!”
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‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length
animated feature from the Disney Studios, was released in the UK on March 12th
1938.
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This is the committal hearing of the men arrested in this post.
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Hitler invades Austria? Spanish civil war? Don’t worry! The
toffs are having a good time so all must right with the World. The only name I recognize is Cecil Beaton. I must move in the wrong circles.
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Any excuse to include an example of my favourite comic
strip. Simple and elegantly drawn.
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One channel and 3 hours of TV a day for those few people who
had sets. No fighting over the remote, then.
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This is the very same HMS Belfast that is now moored in the
Thames by the Embankment and can be visited as part of the Imperial War Museum.
Having been launched as shown above by Prime Minister Chamberlain’s wife on
March 17th 1938, she, the ship not Mrs C, was commissioned for
service in August 1939 just in time for the War and was involved in the Artic
Convoys and the sinking of the German battleship Scharnhorst.
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The Welshman Tommy Farr had won his first fight in 1926 at
the age of 12 and fought his last in 1953. He’d beaten the American Max Baer in
1937 in England, but lost this fight at Madison Square Gardens.
Baer’s son Max Baer Jr. found fame on TV as Jethro Bodine in
‘The Beverly Hillbillies’.
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