CBU prof speaks on how Second World War was reported in Cape Breton

Cape Breton’s involvement in the Second World War is apparent in hindsight, but what information were residents privy to when the war was on their newspaper’s front page?

An upcoming lecture from David Johnson, the president of the Old Sydney Society and a political science professor at Cape Breton University, will show precisely what local front-page news headlines of the day said about the war effort. The talk is titled The Sydney Post-Record Goes to War.

“I had an idea of looking at key days in the Second World War,” said Johnson. “To see how those days were reported in the front page of the Sydney Post-Record.”

The Sydney Post-Record is a predecessor of the modern Cape Breton Post, published under that name until Nov. 19, 1947. The Post-Record covered much of the news coming out of the wartime fronts, of particular interest to readers whose lives had been dramatically altered by battles overseas and in the Atlantic.

This extends from the first days of Canada’s involvement, declaring war against Nazi Germany on Sept. 10, 1939, all the way to D-Day, June 6, 1944, when the Allied Forces stormed Normandy, France. The Post-Record also covers preceding events, the end of the war in 1945, and what happened in its wake.

Many of these newspapers are archived at the Beaton Institute at Cape Breton University. In his research for this topic, Johnson perused several years worth of digitized newspapers, investigating their front pages and flipping through to see what each edition covered.

“I have about 18 or so key days during the war that have some interest to people in Cape Breton,” said Johnson. “I’m looking at, you know, what’s the headline? What’s the key headline on that day?”

Johnson will go through the wartime front-pages chronologically, but it won’t all be major events that attendees will know the dates of. Some will be specific to Sydney and the impact it had in the war as an essential port, as well as stories of some of the Cape Bretoners who went overseas.

Even so, the major events are still interesting in the information they reveal — and what information is missing.

Speaking on the front-page paper for D-Day, Johnson said, “It’s the first time people see and hear that the invasion has happened, and it seems successful. News reports are saying the Americans and British, and then people come to find out the Canadians are involved in it. They don’t know exactly how, but the Canadians are mentioned.

“The next day, we find out that the Canadians were actually on a separate beach,” he continued. “Canadians had a beach that they had to take, so this is the first news of Juno Beach.”

Classified information and censorship would also limit what information was known at the time, and what could be published. While Cape Breton would learn that Canadians were in Normandy, they would not know what regiments, or how many Canadians soldiers were involved.

As daily newspapers were often prepared a day in advance, events occurring on the date of publishing may have been reported not on the day they happened, but within the following days. While Johnson wants to keep one specific occasion a secret as a teaser for his talk, he noted that an important event occurred in Sydney while the Post-Record was reporting on the Battle of Britain.

“If you want to know, you’ll just have to come to the talk,” he said.

Johnson will also discuss casualty reports, family histories, the Cape Bretoners on the frontlines, and those who lost their lives during the Second World War.

This is the first of Old Sydney Society’s annual lecture series, extending from October to June on the fourth Thursday of every month. The series has been a staple of the society’s activities since its founding in 1966.

Those interested in The Sydney Post-Record Goes to War can see Johnson give his presentation live on Oct. 22 at the Sydney Museum on 173 Charlotte St., Sydney. The talk will start at 7 p.m. and end around 9 p.m.

Stay up to date on future lectures by visiting the Old Sydney Society’s Facebook page.