The Pittsburgh Press (January 19, 1941)
While Crowd Cheers –
U.S. SAILOR RIPS NAZI FLAG FROM GENERAL CONSULATE
San Francisco, Jan. 18 (UP) –
Five youths led by two U.S. Navy sailors ripped the Nazi flag from the German consulate here today in a daring feat of acrobatics nine floors above the pavement.
The flag was displayed outside the consulate window on the 9th floor of an office building in downtown San Francisco to commemorate a German national holiday.
A crowd quickly assembled under the emblem, booing and shouting protests. For two hours, the flag remained unmolested and the crowd grew bigger and more vociferous.
Finally the five men climbed a fire escape to the roof of the 10-story building.
Captain Fritz Wiedemann, German consul general, said he had reported the incident by telephone to his embassy in Washington.
State Department officials in Washington said tonight that “appropriate measures” would be taken to discipline the two U.S. Navy seamen. The Department spokesman did not explain what the “appropriate measures” would be.
Harold James Sturtevant, 22, who identified himself as a fireman from the destroyer Craven, climbed out on the flagpole nine stories over a cheering crowd in the street, slashed the flag to pieces and cut it away. He was aided by his friend, E. J. Lackey, 23, of Charlotte, N.C., who said he was a seaman first class.
Their feat was cheered by a large crowd gathered outside the consulate in the center of San Francisco, just off Market St. on O’Farrell St.
The five young men, eluding police, reached the top of the 10-story building by a fire escape, and lowered Sturtevant down to the flagpole which extended from the consulate windows in the 9th floor.
Sturtevant climbed out on the pole and tried to yank the flag free. Falling in this he took out his knife while the crowd below cheered.
Cutting the flag loose, he waved it, and then turned to shake his fist at someone in the consulate window.
A man in the consulate succeeded in grasping one end of the tattered Nazi emblem. For five minutes, the two staged a tug of war, with the youth clinging to the shaky pole nine stories over the street.