Lex Anteinternet: Friday, August 14, 1914. First bombing raid.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday, August 14, 1914. First bombing raid.: 

Friday, August 14, 1914. First bombing raid.

The French First Army advanced on German forces near Sarrebourg, Lorraine, France.

Albanian rebels attacked Durrës, the capital of Albania, but were driven back by Romanian volunteer forces, showing how confusing the Great War already was.

The first real bomber, the the French Voisin III, made its first combat run. An attack on German airship hangars at Metz-Frescaty Air Base in Germany.

The Austro Hungarian steamer SS Baron Gautsch struck a mine off of Croatia and sank, killing 150 passengers.

Lex Anteinternet: May 11, 1941. Things airborne

Lex Anteinternet: May 11, 1941. Things airborne: 

May 11, 1941. Things airborne

On this day in 1941 France brokered a deal with Germany for the release of POWs who were World War One veterans, save for professional soldiers, in exchange for German use of Syrian airfields in the German effort to aid Iraq.

Martin 167F bomber at Aleppo after being captured by the British.

Many of those French soldiers would only have been in their late 30s and 40s, well within military age, but not young men either.

German aircraft flew in Iraq for the first time on this day as well, although the Iraqis were already losing ground.

Hitler received the news that his second in the Nazi Party, Rudolph Hess had flown to the United Kingdom.  It came in the form of a letter from Hess.  Hitler was shocked.

The Blitz, as we noted yesterday, was over.

Some Gave All: Henri Guillaumet, Pilot from Ligne

Some Gave All: Henri Guillaumet, Pilot from Ligne:

Henri Guillaumet, Pilot from Ligne

A memorial in Ligne, France, to Henri Guillaumet, a pilot who lost his life in World War Two.

The memorial was placed on the 50th anniversary of his death.



MKTH photograph.