Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Today -100: March 22, 1916: One of our airplanes is missing


Blackjack Pershing’s expeditionary force into Mexico seems to have lost two of its airplanes. They’ll show up, eventually. One, piloted by Edgar “Snap” Gorrell, had to land because he ran out of gas while flying around after he got lost. This is a pretty funny story given Gorrell’s importance in developing the US air force’s wrong-headed strategic bombing policy, which rather assumed the ability to identify and hit targets, not fly around randomly, run out of fuel, land in the middle of nowhere, and mope around your plane 84 hours waiting for rescue.

Most of the US army is now either in Mexico or guarding the border, and Gen. Funston wants still more troops as the supply lines into Mexico get longer and longer (they’ve asked Mexico to be allowed to use its railroads, but there’s been no answer yet).

Sinn Feiners shoot 3 cops in Tullamore, King’s County during a protest against military recruitment.

France and Germany are arguing about who is in possession of Dead Man’s Hill (hill 265) at Verdun. The Germans claim that after the French lost the hill, they renamed hill 295, which they still control, as Dead Man’s Hill.


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