Reading the paper on Sept. 14, 1940.
The Luftwaffe mounted its heaviest bombing raid over Britain to date, striking Buckingham Palace, Downing Street, Whitehall and the House of Lords in an overnight raid which lasted more than eight hours.
The bombing reflects a new Nazi policy, instituted a week ago, which will result in the bombing of London for 56 of the following 57 days and nights.
The Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII, sent a telegram to his brother, King George VI, from the Bahamas congratulating him on surviving the Palace bombing.
An appeal is made for American hospitals and doctors to send surplus medical instruments to Britain to aid in the treatment of the injured.
A reporter visited the daily prayer service in Westminster Abbey, where windows have been blown out, and notes ‘the choir still sings,’ while a ‘red-coated band’ marches down Pall Mall playing “pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile.”
German newspapers printed the speech of a Nazi official who declared the Nazi objective is to destroy the RAF, cut off Britain from the rest of the world, and then mount a land invasion, though a spokesman warned that ‘Hitler will not be rushed.’
Three days before, Prime Minister Winston Churchill had addressed the House of Commons, warning that “a heavy, full-scale invasion of this island is being prepared with all the usual German thoroughness and method,” saying the present moment “ranks with the days when the Spanish Armada was approaching the Channel.”
In two days’ time, FDR will sign legislation which creates America’s first peace time draft, requiring all men ages 21 to 45 to register with the US Selective Service System.
[Although the US has not had a military draft since 1973, federal law still obligates most men ages 18 to 25, including undocumented immigrants, to register with the US Selective Service System.]
British aerial scouts report that more than a quarter million Italian troops are massed at the Libyan-Egyptian border awaiting an order to invade Egypt.
Twenty thousand British troops are then stationed in Egypt to defend the Suez Canal and protect Britain's oil supplies from the Persian Gulf; and the imminent invasion threat prompts Britain to send in thousands of troop reinforcements.
Republican presidential nominee Wendell Wilkie was in Chicago yesterday, where he received a warm reception from the city’s ‘well-to-do class and financial workers’ while ‘receiving indifference’ from stockyard and factory workers.
In speeches, Wilkie said FDR had failed to bring economic recovery and end unemployment, claiming Hitler had attacked France and Britain ‘because they were weak economically.’
Wilkie promised that, if elected, there would be ‘good wages for all’ and a national defense which would deter European dictators from attacking America; adding, “if elected, I shall not send one American boy into the shambles of a European war.”
Wilkie later claimed that a million people turned out for his ten Chicago events, although reporters on the scene said that his largest audiences, in the city’s financial district, had numbered in the low thousands.
The superintendent of New York City’s public schools announced there would be no more purchase of European or Asian maps, since ‘they are changing almost every five minutes,’ rendering purchased maps obsolete.
Classroom teachers are instead encouraged to refer to maps printed in the newspaper for up-to-date national boundaries.
The New York Yankees’ hopes for a fifth straight American League pennant were dashed yesterday, as the Detroit Tigers beat them 8 — 0 in front of a crowd exceeding 25,000.
Yankee Joe DiMaggio failed to get a hit in four at bats, while Tiger Hank Greenberg scored his 33rd home run of the season.
Regious leaders are expected to preach sermons on Sunday addressing the comments Albert Einstein made recently to a conference of 500 leaders in science, philosophy and religion.
There, Einstein had urged the abandonment of the ‘concept of a personal God,’ arguing ‘the path to true religiosity lies not in fear and blind faith but through striving for rational knowledge.’
Two red cap porters testified at an Interstate Commerce Committee hearing that Eleanor Roosevelt paid them only 50 cents for carrying her luggage when the required payment was 75 cents.
Commissioners are weighing a revision in the way porters’ pay is handled.
And finally, a public notice printed in the New York Times:
“Evelyn Finkeldey —
“It is only for you, the children, and me.
“There are things that you must know.
“I won’t tell anyone.
“Write immediately.
“Your loving sister, Gertrude.”
*******************************
I’ll see you on Monday.
— Brenda
Stories adapted from the New York Times.
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