Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, February 9, 1916.

Lex Anteinternet: Wednesday, February 9, 1916.: It was the first flight of the Sopwith Pup. The HMS Mimi and HMS Toutou sank the Hedwig von Wissmann on Lake Tanganyika.  From Punch: Office...

Wednesday, February 9, 1916.

It was the first flight of the Sopwith Pup.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday January 14, 1916. The Royal Flying Corps requires escorts.

Lex Anteinternet: Friday January 14, 1916. Collins resigns British ...: Michael Collins resigned from his employment in London at the Guaranty Trust Company n order to return to Ireland.  He was already a clandes...

Friday January 14, 1916. Collins resigns British employment.

Michael Collins resigned from his employment in London at the Guaranty Trust Company n order to return to Ireland.  He was already a clandestine Irish revolutionary.

Severe flooding caused dikes to burst at Zuiderzee, Netherlands.

The Royal Flying Corps ordered that reconnaissance planes have an escort of at least three fighters flying in close formation with them, and that a reconnaissance aircraft must abort its flight if even one of the three fighters becomes detached from the formation for any reason, due to highly losses from Fokker Eindeckers.

Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, August 1, 1915. Max Immelmann shot down h...

Lex Anteinternet: Sunday, August 1, 1915. Max Immelmann shot down h...: 

Sunday, August 1, 1915. Max Immelmann shot down his first aircraft.

Max Immelmann shot down his first aircraft.

Like most of the famous aces, he didn't survive the war.

Irish nationalist Jeremiah O'Donovan Rossa was buried at Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin.  Patrick Pearse delivered a graveside speech including the phrase "Ireland unfree shall never be at peace".

The Endurance broke up.

Last edition:

Saturday, July 31, 1915. The Russians.

Labels: 1910s, 1915, Art, Battle of Jastków, Battle of Kara Kilisse, Central Powers, Imperial Russian Army, Ottoman Empire, Polish Legion, Russia, World War One

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, July 1, 1915. Synchronization Gear.

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, July 1, 1915. Synchronization Gear.: 

Thursday, July 1, 1915. Synchronization Gear.

South African forces under Louis Botha defeated German colonial forces at the Battle of Otavi in German South West Africa with assistance from Canada, Great Britain, Portugal and Portuguese Angola. 

The Battle of Gully Ravine started at Gallipoli.  Two Victoria Cross awards would occur due to today's actions.

German fighter pilot Kurt Wintgens became the first person to shoot down a plane using a machine gun equipped with synchronization gear, starting the "Fokker Scourge".

Of the event, he wrote:

Dear Karl:

Unfortunately I gave you the wrong address last time, for during my voyage to Mühlhausen I got a different destination and for the time being I am with the Bavarian (unit) Abteilung 6b. Up to now nothing of real interest happened. In Mannheim I had tested the machine and then from Strasbourg by air to the Front, where lately a (Morane) Parasol fighter monoplane à la Garros had made its presence felt.

I had flown to the Front a couple of times without seeing an opponent, until yesterday evening when the big moment came. Time: 6:00 o'clock. Place: east of Lunéville. Altitude: between 2,000 and 2,500 m. Suddenly I notice a monoplane in front of me, about 300 m higher. And at the same moment he had already dived in front of me, fiercely firing his machine gun decently. But as I, at once, dived in an opposite direction under him, he missed wildly. After four attacks I reached his altitude in a large turn, and now my machine gun did some talking. I attacked at such a close distance that we looked each other into the face.

After my third attack he did the most stupid thing that he could do – he fled. I turned the crate on the spot and had him at once, beautifully, in my (gun)sight. Rapid fire for about four seconds, and down went his nose. I could follow him until 500 meters, then, unfortunately, I was fired upon from the ground too hotly; the fight (now) being far over the French lines. Hopefully, I'll soon meet a biplane.

Cordial greetings and so long,

Your friend,

— Kurt"

He'd be killed in action in September, 1916.

The US Navy started the Office of Naval Aeronautics.

The United States Forest Service combined the Jemez National Forest and Pecos National Forest in northern New Mexico to establish the Santa Fe National Forest, which luckily for us today was not hacked up to be sold by Sen. Mike Lee.

The Moapa National Forest was absorbed into the Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada, which fortunately Mike Lee has to keep his hands off of for the time being.

New York City established in the Child Welfare Board.

Blues great Willie Dixon was born.

Last edition:

Wednesday, June 30, 1915. Armenian massacre.

Labels: Armenia, Armenian Genocide, boats and ships, French Army, Gallipoli, Mexican Revolution, Ottoman Army, Ottoman Empire, Shabin-Karahisar uprising, Texas (El Paso), Victoriano Huerta

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: Monday, May 1, 1944. Piper Cub over Italy.

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, May 1, 1944. Unmet expectations.: 

Monday, May 1, 1944. Unmet expectations.

The wounded German beast must be pursued and finished off in its lair.

Stalin, May 1, 1944.

Piper Cub over Italy, May 1, 1944.

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, March 6, 1944. "Black Monday"

Lex Anteinternet: Monday, March 6, 1944. "Black Monday": 

Monday, March 6, 1944. "Black Monday"

The first large scale daylight bombing raid on Berlin occured.  The raid, remembered as Black Monday, involved 814 bombers and 944 fighters from bases in southern England.  69 bombers were lost.

Miss Donna Mae II sustaining damage after the B-17 drifted under another B-17 dropping its bomb load. The plane would go down with all eleven crewmen.

P-51 pilot Donald Blakeslee would fly the first such aircraft over the city.  An early American fighter pilot, he first joined the RCAF in 1941, he served in the USAF until 1965 and passed away in 2008 at age 80.

For those watching Masters of the Air, it is depicted in Episode 7.

Lex Anteinternet: February 1, 1920 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the South African Air Force formed

Lex Anteinternet: February 1, 1920 The Royal Canadian Mounted Polic...:

February 1, 1920 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the South African Air Force formed.

On this day in 1920 the recently merged Royal North West Mounted Police and the Dominion Police Force officially became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Mountie of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, circa 1930s.

This is undoubtedly confusing for people who associate the Mounties, as they are called, with the 19th Century, but the RCMP celebrates its 100th anniversary today.

The confusion is no doubt created by the fact that the well known prior police force, whose troopers were also called Mounties, the North West Mounted Police, dated back to 1873. The NWMP was formed to patrol the Canadian West and adopted the famous scarlet color as the Indian population associated it with authority due to the British Army.  The NWMP came to ultimately wear a uniform that for all practical purposes is the one we associate with the RCMP today.

Troopers of the NWMP  at Fort Walsh, 1878 in early uniforms with British style "pill box" caps.

It was the NWMP that established the reputation of the Mounties for "always getting their man" and brave, risky, solitary action.  They also established the Mounties appearance, adopting, unofficially at first, the Stetson hat that still prominently features in the RCMP uniform.

Mountie of the North West Mounted Police in the Yukon, 1917. This Mountie is carrying a Ross rifle, formerly the rifle of the Canadian Army, and is riding a stock saddle. Stock saddles were the norm for Mounties for much of their mounted history.  His Stratchcona boots, adopted by Canadain volunteers during the Boer War and still used by the RCMP today, are also easily identifiable in the photo.

In later years the North West Mounted Police was renamed the Royal North West Mounted Police in 1904, bringing the name close to that of the RCMP. During the Boer War it contributed men to volunteer forces that served in South Africa and in 1918 it contributed two units directly to the Empire forces in Europe, and then in Russia, over the objection of the Canadian military which felt that there was no need for cavalry to be sent at that time.  The sending of Mounties in fact blurred their purpose somewhat as it caused a force which was military in organization but a police force to actually take on a military role for a time while also putting a strain on police functions in Canada itself, as the war had so depleted the number of men serving in the RNWMP.

Dawson, Yukon Territory.

While the North West Mounted Police covered the vast Canadian west, in the east the Canadian federal police force was the Dominion Police Force, which had been formed in 1868.  We hear a great deal less about it, no doubt because its role was less dramatic.  During World War One it was folded into the Canadian Army for a time. Following the war the decreased need for a force of the type of the North West Mounted Police and the increased need for a central Canadian police force caused the merger of the two, which officially became the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on this day in 1920.

Royal Canadian Musical Ride at the Wyoming State Fair, 2012.

The RCMP has existed ever since, although its no longer a mounted service and its famous scarlet uniform is now only a dress uniform.  It's final existence in its original frontier form was waning even at the time of its creation. Even so, all Mounties were required to learn to ride until 1966, a fact which reflects Canada's vast wild nature.  At the same time, following its creation, it took on many of the same duties that the Federal Bureau of Investigation occupies in the United States while also retaining provincial policing duties, often by contract with local entities.

Purely coincidentally, today is also the date that marks the formation of the South African Air Force which holds the status as the world's second independent air force.  I.e., it was a service separate from the Army.  The Royal Air Force holds the status of being the world's first independent air force, acquiring that status on April 1, 1918.

Airco D.H.9, several of which were given by the United Kingdom to the Dominion of South Africa.

The date cold legitimately be debated as in reality it marks the date on which Col Pierre van Ryneveld was appointed the South African Director Air Service with the task of creating the South African Air Force.  South African had been given several military aircraft for the purpose of creating an air arm, and his task was to do that.  Interestingly, Van Ryneveld was not in South Africa at the time and had just been recalled from the UK to assume his new duties.  He returned at the controls of a Vickers Vimy, which he flew all the way from the UK with co-pilot Quintin Brand. Both Van Ryneveld and Brand were knighted for the feat.

Van Ryneveld left, and Brand right, February 1920.

Van Ryneveld commanded the new South African Air Force officially until 1933 and then unofficially until 1937 after which time he was the head of the South African General Staff, a position he occupied until 1949.  The dual role existed as no replacement was chosen for his air force role until 1937.  He died at age 81 in 1972.  Brand, who as also South African, remained in the RAF and returned to the UK to resume his duties with it.  He played an important and successful role as an RAF commander during the Battle of Britain but was on the wrong side of the internal British tactical debate on the "Big Wing" theory and was sidelined and retired in 1943, during the midst of the Second World War.  Following his retirement he married for the second time at age 50, marrying the sister of his first wife who had died in 1941.  The couple retired to what was then Rhodesia in 1950 and he died at age 74 in 1968.

Lex Anteinternet: November 23, 1918. Marching into turmoil

November 23, 1918. Marching into turmoil

Army Air Service School, Rockwell Field, San Diego.  Trained pilots who wouldn't be going to Europe.

A milestone in aviation history: Aviators parachute from from moving aircraft in France. . . .and Texas.

It was reported that on this day, in 1918, a French aviator, and an American one, both experimented with parachuting from moving aircraft.

Like all things aviation,  parachutes were advancing fairly rapidly under the pressure of World War One. They'd already been introduced for balloon crewmen, who could parachute out of balloons in combat scenarios.  Indeed, they typically did so when it became apparent a balloon was about to be attacked, as they had to put the parachute harness on in order to get out. They did not simply routinely wear it.  But up until this point in the war, it had not been the case that aviators wore parachutes or even could.

Indeed, it would not become standard until after the war.  While these experiments proved it could be done, it remained the case that wearing an early parachute in an early airplane was not easy to do, and indeed, was largely impractical for the most part.

A larger view of the same newspaper can be seen on our Today In Wyoming's History site for this date.

Lex Anteinternet: Airmail! Lt. Torrey Webb gets a watch and New York and Philadelphia get air mail service (and meanwhile on the Western Front). May 15, 1918.

Airmail! Lt. Torrey Webb gets a watch and New York and Philadelphia get air mail service (and meanwhile on the Western Front). May 15, 1918.

Lt. Torrey Webb on the day of the inauguration of air mail between New York City and Philadelphia.  They gave him a Hamilton watch.  Dignitaries showed up. . . including ones from France.

The plane was a Curtis JN-4, a "Jenny".  The Jenny had, fwiw, just been commemorated by way of a postage stamp a few days prior.

Torrey Webb was was in the Army 's air service during the war, but he was studying engineering prior to it and would return to it.  He ended up the vice president of Texas Oil Company (Texaco).

Meanwhile, on the Western Front, these two RAF crewmen were were taking off in their RE8.

All of these air missions, we would note, were incredibly dangerous.

Lex Anteinternet: Changing times. The centennial of the 94th Aero Squadron. August 20, 1917-2017

Lex Anteinternet: Changing times. The centennial of the 94th Aero Squadron. August 20, 1917-2017.

Pilots of the 94th, including 1LT Reed Chambers, Capt James Meissner, 1LT Eddie Rickenbacker, 1LT T C Taylor and 1LT J H Eastman, in France with a Spad XVIII.

While this blog, now that the Punitive Expedition has concluded, no longer does that many daily anniversaries (save for photographs) here's one worth noting.

On this date, in 1917, the 94th Aero Squadron, the Hat In The Ring Squadron, was formed at Kelly Airfield in San Antonio, Texas.  The squadron, now the 94th Fighter Squadron, is the second oldest formation in the United States Air Force.   The unit chose a red, white and blue top hat going through a ring as its symbol, signifying the Uncle Sam throwing his "hat in the ring" of World War One. That is, the unit symbol commemorated the United States' decision to enter the war.

The way it was at first, Curtis Jennys being used in training at Kelly Air Field.

The unit being formed might not seem particularly remarkable, but the U.S. Army. . . and all aircraft were in the Army at the time (prior to the war they were in the Signal Corps and the official establishment of a separate Air Force was decades and one major war away) had only had one single squadron, all equipped with the already obsolescent JN4, just months prior to that. As we've seen on this site before, that unit, the 1st Aero Squadron, would cut its teeth and prove its worth in Punitive Expedition of 1916, at which those Jennys constantly operated at the upper limit of their service ceiling, showing just how inadequate they really were.  Now, the Army was rapidly expanding its air arm.

The 94th in fact would make the crossing to France in October and November.  In France training continued and the unit was equipped with
Nieuport 28s.  

Eddie Rickenbacker, a pre war automobile racer, with a Nieuport 28.  Rickenbacker transferred into the unit in France.  He actually got into  the unit by making a deal with a commanding officer for whom he was a  driver, concerning an on the spot emergency repair of an automobile.

It would first see action on April 14, 1918.  It would go on from there to have a famous combat record and, of course, served to give the US some  of its first pilot heroes.  While in France it would under go a degree  of consolidation with the 103th Aero Squadron, although that unit would  remain a a separate unit throughout the war.

Pilots of the 94th, November, 1918.

The unit continued to serve in post war Europe up until the spring of 1919, and then was returned to the United States and demobilized in June 1919 but the unit shortly continued on as a regular Army aviation unit,  changing its designation to the 94th Pursuit Squadron in July 1923.  At  that time, the 103d was folded into it so that the ongoing 94th would  retain both units' lineages.  The unit received constant aircraft  upgrades prior to World War Two, which was a feature of all air forces  at the time as aviation was progressing at a blistering pace.  Prior to  World War Two the unit was equipped with P-38 Lightnings.

 German aircraft shot down by Capt. E. Rickenbackerand Lt. Reed Chambers, 94th Aero Squadron, Oct. 2. 1918.

As with all other fighter squadrons in the United States Army Air Corps,  the unit was re designated as a fighter squadron in 1942, during which  time it served in North Africa and then later in the Mediterranean and Southern Europe, flying out of Italy.  The unit was one of the very  first to receive what would become P80s, actually receiving the jets in  April, 1945, and flying two missions (without encountering German  aircraft) with them prior to the war's end.

It continues on in its existence to this very day, making it one of the  oldest formations in the United States Air Force.  It's currently  equipped with F22 Raptors.

F22s of the 94th Fighter Squadron.