U.S. Denounce Hitler's Invasion of Austria

Daily Sketch dated Friday March 18^th 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 15^th 1938.

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The bombing of Barcelona on the 16^th, 17^th and 18^th 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 19^th 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 12^th 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 17^th 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’. 

Random Ad - Records (1958)

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Elvis Presley's 'Hard Headed Woman', taken from the soundtrack of his 'King Creole' film, was released in the UK in July 1958 and reached number 2 in the Top 20. The 'B' side was 'Don't Ask Me Why'.

Random Cutting - Tito's bdy arrives in Belgrade

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Josip Broz Tito, the Communist Presdident of Yugoslavia who had led a partisan army against Hitler during WW2 and had defied Stalin after the War, died on May 4th 1980. He was admired internationally for his stance of neutrality during the Cold War and in Yugoslavia as a benevolent dictator.

Balcombe Street Siege

The Sun dated Monday December 8^th 1975

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As part of the 14 month IRA mainland campaign a 4 man active service unit had bombed a Mayfair restaurant and four weeks later returned armed and in a stolen car. They were spotted by plain-clothes police and trailed to Balcombe Street in Marylebone where they took a couple hostage in their council flat. The police sourounded the flats and a siege ensued that lasted from 6^th December until the IRA men surrendered on the 12^th.

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Trouble between Iceland and Britain over fishing off the coast of Iceland had been going on since the 1890’s. In 1972 Iceland extended it’s ‘shove off this is our sea’ policy to 50 miles off their coast and then in November 1975 they declared a 200 mile no fishing zone. British trawlers with Royal Navy protection ignored this limit. I May 1976 Iceland threatened to close the strategic NATO base at Keflavík and the British government gave in and ordered the British fishermen to stay out of the 200 mile zone.

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Kay Webb edited the Puffin Post which encouraged children to read – especially books published under Penguin’s Puffin imprint. She continued as editor up to 1980 so appears to have survived this little faux-pas. 

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The metrification of the UK began in 1965 and is still going on. We may buy sugar by the kilogram but drive miles to get it at so many miles-per-hour. Those of us who are old enough to remember still have an illogical affection for stones, pounds and ounces; pounds, shilling and pence; Fahrenheit temperatures and acre fields.

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Claire Rayner ran the agony-aunt column in the Sun from 1973 to 1980. 

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The Race Relations Act was passed in 1965 to try to stop the rampant anti-Black discrimination that faced many immigrants during the 1950’s and early 60’s. I would have thought that one area in which discrimination was rare was the music industry. The Blues Boom in the clubs of London, Manchester and other cities gave regular employment to black, white and mixed colour groups by the dozen, if not hundreds. 

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This is referring to ‘The New Avengers’ which was first aired in 1976 and starred Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt and ‘girl of the seventies’ Joanna Lumley.

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After 7 or 8 Top 10 hits in the late 1960’s Englebert Humperdink settled into a long career of album releases and numerous stage performances including Las Vegas. In 2012 he represented the UK at the annual farce that is the Eurovision Song Contest. He won 12 points and came in one from last, beating Norway.

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The European leg of the US car manufacturer Chrysler was finally sold to Peugeot for a nominal $1 in 1978.

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Despite regular TV work from 1970 onwards it would be another 14 years before Pauline Quirke really broke through with her role as Sharon Theodopolopodous in ‘Birds of a Feather’. 

And finally, the 3 page ‘Special Pullout’ promised on the front page.  Do you hang terrorists or not? A question still relevant today.

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Random Ad - Casio Magic! (1980's)

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An advert for the Casio CT610G electronic keyboard from, possibly, 1983. The first Casio keyboard was released in 1980.

Random Cutting - Ship Steered by Wireless (1923)

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For those anaraks interested in such things - this was the USS Iowa desigated BB-4 that was commissioned in 1897, served in the Spanish American War and in 1919 was renamed rather unpoetically Coast Battleship No. 4. She was then fitted with radio control equipment and used as a target ship in maneuvers. As described above she was sunk by USS Mississippi in March 1923.

Japs Begin to Give up Arms

Sunday Pictorial dated Sunday August 19^th 1945

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On August 6th 1945 the USAAF dropped an atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in Japan.  On August 9^th a second atomic bomb was dropped, this time on the city of Nagasaki. On the 15th Emperor Hirohito broadcast a radio message to his Empire announcing the surrender of Japan to the Allies, although the formal surrender wasn’t signed until September 2^nd.

Officially a state of war existed between the USA and Japan right up to April 1952.

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A 2 page spread proves that the War is over… for some. That’s Marlene Dietrich on the right doing her bit for peace.

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When Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated in Czechoslovakia in 1942 it was Karl Hermann Frank and Heydrich’s replacement Kurt Daluege that organized the total destruction of the village of Lidice and its people. Both Frank and Daluege were convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death by hanging.

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The civil war between Chiang Kai-Shek and the communists under Mao Tse-Tung went on until 1949 when Mao forced Kai-Shek and his people to evacuate from the mainland to the island of Taiwan.

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Since she (or he) was first sighted in 1871 the Loch Ness Monster has been a staple ‘light relief’ item for newspapers.

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Maria Anna Minges (sometimes written Marianne) was sentenced to death twice in 1949 by a French Military court, but was inexplicably given a free pardon in 1950.

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The War may have been won but the political battles between Labour and Conservative continued. Winston Churchill’s wartime National Government was replaced by Clem Attlee’s Labour Government in the General Election of July 1945.

“… too easy for too long for politicians to evade responsibility for their blunders..” Well I’m glad that sort of thing doesn’t happen these days!

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I wonder if little Colin Dexter is out there now still defying death. He’d be about 75.

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The demobilization of about 5 million men and women began in June 1945, the last wartime conscript being returned to civvy-street in 1949. No wonder there were strikes by disgruntled service men.

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A typical example of the perennial Sunday newspaper exposé of vice. All that is missing is the ‘I was invited up to her room but made my excuses and left’ line.

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The 18-month National Service imposed on most 18 year-old men lasted from the end of the War until 1960. 

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Footballers threatening to go on strike because some were being paid £8 a match and others only £4. Makes you wonder how Gareth Bale will survive on only £250,000 a week.