World War II Chronicle: February 9, 1941
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Lend-Lease to Britain and China is now a month away from being signed (here is the actual law). Remember that just a few months ago, the British Expeditionary Force left behind enough artillery pieces, machineguns, vehicles, tanks, supplies, and ammunition to equip nearly ten divisions at Dunkirk. They were so strapped for trucks and personnel carriers afterwards that mechanics had to restore vehicles from the junkyard to equip their soldiers…
Page two features a photograph of the Bell’s new P-39 Airacobra fighter. Compared to other fighters like the P-26 or P-35 when the XP-39 first flew in 1938, the Airacobra was a fairly revolutionary aircraft: it had tricycle landing gear and its Allison V-12 V-1710-E2 engine (liquid-cooled, turbosupercharged, and supercharged) was mounted behind the pilot. In less than a year, P-39 pilots will be among the first Americans in aerial combat…
On page three, new Curtiss P-40D Warhawk fighters, battle-tested by British pilots over Europe, will soon be joining the Army Air Corps’ arsenal… George Fielding Eliot column on page seven… Page nine reports that Curtiss-Wright is adding two new factories and some 80,000 workers for aircraft production. One factory will be at St. Louis’ Lambert–St. Louis Municipal Airport, which becomes home to Naval Air Station St. Louis in 1943…
The sports section begins on page 26, and we see that the Tigers have let go of former superstar Earl “Rock” Averill outfielder to make room for 19-year-old Walter “Hoot” Evers. The Boston Braves sign Averill on Feb. 26, and he plays in just eight games before retiring, and is voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1975. Legendary Red Sox pitcher Lefty Grove — who hangs up his cleats after this season — said this of Averill: “I thank the good Lord he wasn’t twins. One more like him probably would have kept me out of the Hall of Fame.”
Evers plays just one game in 1941, striking out twice, grounding into a double play, and flying out before spending the next three years in the military. Evers serves at Waco, Texas, coached by Detroit teammate Birdie Tebbetts. Evers and Tebbetts appear in two all-star games apiece following their uniformed service…
Another rising star that loses time to the military is former University of Alabama lineman Fred Davis (see page 27), who will also serve in the Army Air Force. It’s incredible how much the game has changed when you consider Davis, the 25th overall pick of the 1941 NFL draft, was hoping to score a construction job during the off season. Contrast that with Brandon Aiyuk, the 25th overall pick of the 2021 NFL Draft: The San Francisco 49ers signed him to a 4 year, $12.5 million contract with a $6.6 million signing bonus so Aiyuk probably isn’t going anywhere near a hammer or a drill sergeant…
The war’s 75th week is summarized on page 34
Evening star. (Washington, D.C.), 9 February 1941. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Lib. of Congress.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045462/1941-02-09/ed-1/