Complete Surrender (1945)

The Star dated Monday 7th May 1945

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Adolf Hitler had commited suicide in Berlin on April 30th 1945 and had been succeeded by Admiral Karl Donitz who negociated Germany's surrender to the Allies which was signed on May 7th in Reims by General Alfred Jodl and endorsed by Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel in Berlin on the 9th.

The 8th May was indeed to be Victory in Europe (VE) Day. Victory over Japan (VJ) Day was to follow on August 15th.

Zeebrugge and Bruge Captured

The Star (London) dated Friday October 18th 1918

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Zeebrugge in Belgium was the port serving Bruge and had been used by the Germans as a U-Boat base. An attempt to blockade it in April 1918, by sinking old British ships in the harbour entrance, failed. The attacks in October 1918 were part of the final hundred days offensive to push the German Army out of the occupied countries and end the War.

Lille is in northeastern France very close to the Belgian border and was occupied by the Germans from October 1914 until General Sir William Birdwood and his troops liberated it on October 17^th 1918.

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By the end of September 1918 the German Supreme Command had informed Kaiser Wilhelm II that the situation facing the German forces was quite hopeless and recommended the acceptance of US President Woodrow Wilson’s terms for peace as laid out the previous January in his Fourteen Points speech. Negotiations continued from October 5^th until early November until finally an armistice was agreed for 11:00 on November 11^th 1918. 

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I can find nothing more about M Strojanoff, except that, in a New Zealand paper, he is referred to as Commissary of Police rather than Army. The cutting above could be the inspiration for a novel set during the Russian Revolution that some budding author is looking for.

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The reference here to Leinster is to the sinking of RMS Leinster by a U-Boat on October 10^th 1918 with the loss of 501 lives. See also this post.

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Not exactly Old Bailey material but shows that War or no War petty crime goes on.

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The Influenza outbreak of January 1918 to December 1920 was a true pandemic affecting every part of the World. An estimated 20 - 50 million people died of which 228,000 were in Britain. There had been a lull in cases since the spring but by October the second and most lethal wave of the pandemic had struck.

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I wonder what the owner’s Insurance Company had to say about ‘leaving the vehicle in the hands of a stranger for a few minutes’? 

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The average weekly wage in 1918 was £1 10s 6d. Using The National Archives currency converter that’s equivalent to about £65. 1s 2d is equivalent to £2.51.

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Air Raid Insurance became popular during 1915 when the Zeppelin airships began a bombing campaign. 2s 6d (12.5p) would get you £100 compensation.

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Better safe than sorry.

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You don’t see a lot of bunny rabbit recipes these days, boiled or scrambled.

Plot to Kill President Wilson

The Star dated Monday February 24th 1919

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Even Wikipedia, that fount of all knowledge both true and imaginary, has little or nothing to say about this plot by Spanish anarchists to blow up US President Woodrow Wilson during his brief visit to Boston.  Were they ever tried?  Convicted?  What had they got against him?

President Wilson suffered a stroke later in 1919 and his health continued to deteriorate until he died in February 1924.

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In September 1916, the German Zeppelin L-33 was brought down at Great Wigborough, Essex. It was virtually intact and her motors were undamaged. In one stroke the British had been handed a near perfect airship full of the latest German technology.  A crew of investigators recorded every feature of the ship in detail, taking five months to complete the task.  With this information the British designers adapted the plans of the R33 and R34 airships.

Jazz dancing!!  Whatever next?  Hold on for 35 years and you'll get Rock'n'Roll!!

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Should have gone to Specsavers

The genesis of the jet engine? Auguste Rateau (1863 – 1930) invented the turbo-charger and applied it to an aircraft engine as early as 1917.  Also among his invention were (according to Wikipedia among others) electric shutter glasses for watching 3D films in 1896!

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Well if the upper classes that ran England in 1914 hadn't sent all the lower classes off to be butchered in the trenches of France and Belgium, there might have been enough still around in 1919 to do their dirty work for them.  That or the servant class, having been through the War, decided to tell their so called betters where to stuff their apple dumplings.

Film acting?  Mark my words ladies and gents, there's no future in the film business - they'll be inventing Television soon and all the cinemas will become Bingo Halls.

Roosevelt Responsible for the War

The Star (Guernsey) dated Wednesday May 21st 1941

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The inhabited islands of the Channel Islands are Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Herm, Jethou, Brecqhou and Lihou, and they were all occupied by the German Army from the summer of 1940 to May 1945.

Guernsey was occupied from 30^th June 1940 to 9^th May 1945.  Some 17000 people (mostly women and children) evacuated before the invasion leaving about 25000.

This single sheet (folded to give 4 pages) edition is from just over a year later and rather than try to pick things out I thought I might as well post the whole issue.

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Goering Commits Suicide

The Star dated 16th October 1946

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Days when so little of interest happened that newspapers were forced to feature headlines such as ‘Boy Plays Sax With Ear” were known as ‘Slow News Days’. October 16^th 1946 was definitely not a Slow News Day – Hermann Goering commits suicide, 10 Nazi War criminals hang and the hanging of convicted murderer Neville Heath.

Goering had been Hitler’s number 2 and head of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) during WWII, but, after Hitler’s suicide, he surrendered to The US Army. He was found guilty at the Nuremburg War Crimes Trial and sentenced to death by hanging. On the morning of his execution he was found dead of potassium cyanide poisoning. The third member of the Nazi triumvirate, Heinrich Himmler had committed suicide by the same method in May 1945.

Neville Heath had a chequered history of petty crimes including fraud and posing as military officers for personal gain before he turned to murder. His sadism tainted his relationships with women and it was this proclivity that led to the deaths for which he was tried, convicted and sentence to hang.  On the Wikipedia site it claims that he was hung by Albert Pierrepoint, but, according to the film starring Timothy Spall, Pierrepoint was very busy hanging Nazi war criminals on the same day???

To take your mind off all this morbidity you could turn to the radio or, if you were one of the few hundred people who owned a set and lived near London, the television. The Home Service if you preferred symphony music and World Affairs or the Light programme if Wilfred Pickles was more your cup of tea. Personally I would have listened to the two half hour murder mysteries at 9pm on the Light. Maybe I’m morbid by nature.

Or even spend the evening at the flicks. 1 shilling and 9 pence (8,75p) would buy you 2 films, a cartoon, a newsreel and about three hours breathing an atmosphere that was 90% cigarette smoke. Before the invention of Multi-screen cinemas most districts had one or more of the three major cinema chains, Odeon, ABC and Gaumont, to choose from, each showing a different pair of films.