Isebrand

First use of Mustard Gas, July 1917

100 years ago, 12–13 July, 1917, mustard gas was first used. Chemical warfare is prohibited by the Geneva Protocol of 1925 and the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993. It was designed to render ground uninhabitable.

Read more at the Simon Jones Historian blog, "Yellow Cross: the advent of mustard Gas in 1917."

Image (click to enlarge), words of "Nurse S. Millard". Van Bergen, Leo. Before My Helpless Sight: Suffering, Dying and Military Medicine on the Western Front, 1914–1918. 2009. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-7546-5853-5; citing Winter, Denis. Death's Men: Soldiers Of The Great War. 1985. Penguin Books. ISBN-13: 978-0140168228.

Image (click to enlarge), "The first mustard gas bombardment reported in the War Diary of the 45th Infantry Brigade, 12 July 1917. (The National Archives, WO95/1943)"; Simon Jones.

Doolittle Raid

Seventy-five years ago today, 16 B-25s made the first-ever US bombing run against the Japanese mainland—a one-way-flight mission, as all those involved understood. It came to be known as the Doolittle Raid, named after Lt. Col. "Jimmy" Doolittle (AAF) who planned and led the raid.

The raid did little physical damage but as intended it considerably shook Japanese morale while raising US morale.

Fifteen of the 16 B-25s crashed or were ditched after the bombing run. One made it to the USSR. Of the 80 personnel, two died off the coast of China, one in China; eight become POWs: three were executed, one died in captivity, and four were repatriated at the war's end.

Image: Wikipedia, "A B-25 taking off from USS Hornet (CV-8) for the raid"; via the National Archives and Records Administration; see here.

April 15, 1942: Malta—the entire island—was awarded the George Cross for gallantry

From The London Gazette online:

King George VI awarded the people of Malta the George Cross [on 15 April 1942] in recognition of their continuing and heroic struggle against repeated and continuous attacks during World War 2.
.....
Malta holds the record for suffering the heaviest, sustained bombing attack of WW2—154 days and nights and 6,700 tons of bombs. During the entire time, the island’s population of 270,000 were unerring in their refusal to capitulate.

On April 7, 1942, Malta had sounded its 2,000th air-raid alert of the war.

At the time, Malta was a Crown Colony of Britain. Today, it is a republic and member of the Commonwealth.

Malta's lag bears in its canton a representation of the George Cross.

The online version of The London Gazette, an official "journal of record" of the British government, provides further context:

The George Cross was instituted by King George VI in September 1940 as a replacement for the Empire Gallantry Medal, and as a civilian equivalent of the Victoria Cross (Royal Warrant, Gazette issue 35060). It was awarded for ‘acts of the greatest heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger’ and ‘which we desired should be highly prized and eagerly sought after’.

King George VI conferred the award by way of a letter in his own hand:

The Governor

Malta

To honour her brave people I award the George Cross to the Island Fortress of Malta to bear witness to a heroism and devotion that will long be famous in history.

George R.I.

April 15th 1942^[3][10]

The Governor, Lieutenant-General Sir William Dobbie answered:

By God's help Malta will not weaken but will endure until victory is won.^[11]

It was once Mesopotamia Day—100 years ago when Britannia ruled the waves...and Baghdad

I recently saw a framed original of this poster in a private residence.

It advertises a fundraiser, held 100 years ago today at the no doubt tony address of 26 Regent Street, London, for The Mesopotamia Comforts Fund for British troops. The money raised went toward the support of British troops in Mesopotamia.

Many people's reaction today to the names of some of the event's headliners might understandably be, "Sounds like something from Downton Abbey!".... The Countess Dowager of Carnarvon, The Countess of Minto, and Lady Mildred Allsopp.*

During World War One (a.k.a. the Great War, the First World War, often abbreviated WWI), British General Sir Frederick Maude led a series of successful operations in the Mideast that culminated with the capture of Baghdad on March 11, 1917. General Maude died in November 1917 in Mesopotamia from cholera while leading the next phases of successful British operations in the region.

More details about the poster are on the website of the Imperial War Museum (IWM).

*The Carnarvon's estate, Highclere Castle in Hampshire, England, was used as Downton Abbey. The Dowager Countness mentioned in the poster would have been Elizabeth Catherine Howard (1856-1929), Fourth Countess of Carnarvon, who would have become the Dowager Countess upon the death of her husband Henry, Colonel Secretary and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in 1890. (See the current Lady Carnarvon's website at LadyCarnarvon.com. As my mother might say, "It's a hoot.")

 

15 April 1915: The Titanic Sinks — the SS Birma's record of received distress message

One-hundred-five years ago, RMS Titantic, a British passenger liner on its maiden voyage and the largest ship afloat at the time it entered service, struck an iceberg and sank. As noted on Wikipedia:

Distress signals were sent by wireless, rockets, and lamp, but none of the ships that responded was near enough to reach Titanic before she sank.

One vessel receiving the wireless distress message was the S.S. Birma, part of the Russian American Line of the Danish commercial motorship company East Asiatic Company (EAC).

Below: (Click image to enlarge); telegram received from RMS Titanic by the Danish liner Birma.*

Wikipedia summarizes:

RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early morning of 15 April 1912, after colliding with an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York City. Of the 2,224 passengers and crew aboard, more than 1,500 died, making it one of the deadliest commercial peacetime maritime disasters in modern history. [It] was...built by the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast. Thomas Andrews, her architect, died in the disaster.
.....
Titanic carried some of the wealthiest people in the world, as well as hundreds of emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland, Scandinavia and elsewhere throughout Europe seeking a new life in North America.... [D]ue to outdated maritime safety regulations, [it] only carried enough lifeboats for 1,178 people—slightly more than half of the number on board, and one third of her total capacity.
.....
The wreck of Titanic, first discovered over 70 years after the sinking, remains on the seabed, split in two and gradually disintegrating at a depth of 12,415 feet (3,784 m). Since her discovery in 1985, thousands of artifacts have been recovered and put on display at museums around the world.

Transcript:

The Russian East Asiatic S.S. Co. Radio-Telegram S.S. "Birma" ______________________________________________________________________ ____________ No Words Origin Station. Time handed in. Via. Remarks bg to 6. Titanic 11 H.45M.April 14/15 1912. Distress Call Ligs Loud Cgd - SOS. from M. G. Y. We have struck iceberg sinking fast come to our assistance. Position Lat. 41.46 n. Lon. 50.14. W. M. G. Y. (MGY was the codename for the TITANIC) 

RMS Titanic:

SS Birma:

*RMS stands for Royal Mail Ship.

Happy Saint David's Day, heraldically

Blessed Saint David's Day (Welsh: Dydd Gŵyl Dewi). Today's the feast day of Saint David, Wales' patron saint, who's said to have died on 1 March 601.

As part of the historic kingdom of England, Wales hasn't a coat of arms but a badge, and is unrepresented in the Royal Arms of the United Kingdom. It's badge is the Royal Badge of the National Assembly of Wales. It was designed in 2008.

At its heart is an escutcheon (in heraldry, a shield or emblem bearing a coat of arms) with the arms of Welsh prince Llywelyn the Great (c. 1172 – 1240), Wales' de facto ruler for a time.

The description of a heraldic display is called a blazon and follows a traditional style, the Anglo-Norman terminology of which reflects the Norman-French origins of English heraldry; e.g., Or for gold, gules for red, passant, which in modern French means busy but in heraldry means charging, which is indicated by showing a heraldic beast's right forepaw raised, guardant meaning face turned toward the viewer (from the Old French guarder, to protect or to look at), et cetera.

The blazon of Wales' royal arms is:

Within a circular riband vert fimbriated Or bearing the motto Pleidiol Wyf i'm Gwlad (Welsh for "I am true to my country") in letters the same and ensigned with a representation of the Crown proper, an escutcheon quarterly Or and gules four lions passant guardant counterchanged armed and langued azure, encircled by a wreath alternating of leek, thistle, clover, leek and rose.

The Bombardment of Ellwood, California, February 23, 1941

On 23 February, Japanese submarine I-17 shelled Ellwood, California, (a.k.a. the Bombardment of Ellwood).

As summarized on Wikipedia:

A few minutes after 7 pm, she surfaced a few hundred yards off a beach 10 miles (16 km) west of Santa Barbara, California, within the Ellwood Oil Field. Over 20 minutes, she fired about 17 shells from her 14 cm gun at the giant Richfield aviation fuel storage tanks on the blufftop behind the beach.

According to a history of the Richfield Oil Company by Charles S. Jones, as cited in Robert Goralski’s World War II Almanac: 1931-1945, (1981, Bonanza Books) the shelling did about $500 in damage and was an act of revenge by the sub's captain, Kizo Nishino.

While Nishino was commanding a Japanese oil tanker picking up crude at Ellwood in the late 1930s, he slipped on a path up from the beach, fell into a cluster of cactus, and while his American hosts were suitably embarrassed for him, a group of workers at a nearby rig couldn't contain their laughter.

Apparently, he never quite got over that.

The shots were mostly wild, one landing more than a mile inland. Nonetheless news of the shelling triggered an invasion scare along the West Coast.

Wikipedia:

The following night, the anti-aircraft defenses in Los Angeles exploded into action in response to an imagined invasion (later to be known as the Battle of Los Angeles, against a supposed UFO). During a 30-minute fusillade, guns hurled 1,440 rounds of 3-inch (76 mm) and 37 mm ammunition into the night sky, and about ten tons of shrapnel and unexploded ammunition fell back on the city.

More at MilitaryMuseum.org.

Image: Japanese propaganda post depicting the submarine I-17 shelling Ellwood. Japanese captions: “Our Submarine bombarding the coast of California” “Artwork by Chuichi Mikuriya, Navy Battlefield Artist"

Image: El Capitán Wild Bill Kelso having a time of it in the cockpit of his P-40 Warhawk in Steven Spielberg's comedy 1941 (1979). The movie depicts hilarity in the wake of a Japanese invasion scare along the California coast.

February 17, 1500, Wulf Isebrand and the Battle of Hemmingstedt

Here's a nod to the only Isebrand written history knows. On this day in 1500, Wulf Isebrand, a Dutch transplant to the proto-republic and effectively autonomous district of Dithmarschen, Germany, led the district's militia in a successful defense against superior numbers of Danish and Kalmar Union royal forces, as well as mercenaries, at the Battle of Hemmingstedt.

And that's about the whole story. It can be told in one long sentence.

To be sure, there are additional details about the battle in several sources, mostly German ones, so I can't obtain them easily and if I did, I couldn't read them.

Below are some details I've gleaned from online secondary sources and one email exchange with a very patient historian. There's this article about the Battle of Hemmingstedt, but it's woefully bereft of citations or even proper attribution. Another article in German is available on the Dithmarschen Wiki website.

By opening the sluices of at least one dike, the Dithmarschers flooded the fields either side of a main road across which they also built up a barricaded mound as the focus of their defense.

By denying the Danes, nearly half of whom where mounted and in full armor, the ability to form a broad line of attack or to outflank them, the Dithmarschers negated not only the Danes’ numerical superiority but the offensive advantage mounted cavalry can bring to a battle.

This defense meant the Danes were forced to advance in a sort of funneling approach, making them a much easier target and, with deadly consequences, eliminating any route for effective retreat. If there were areas of exposed land amid the flooded fields, heights between the fields' flooded ditches, I presume they were not in a means of effective approach for the attackers, though they may have been means for maneuverability during counterattack by the Dithmarschers, for sources tell of the defenders using long poles to vault over the waters!

A large number of invaders died by drowning. Even if the water was only a couple of feet keep, it could be a death sentence for armored soldiers and cavalrymen. The weight of a Dane’s armor and the way it compromises maneuverability would have disadvantaged him and made him vulnerable while fighting in the water, but it would have destined him to drowning if he actually fell into any water that was deep enough—and apparently much of it was.

When it came time to retreat, mostly if not entirely back along the same road on which they'd approached and which was congested with others trying to advance toward the engagement, the Danes and mercenaries, would have been basically trapped. (Depending on the source one reads, the mercenaries were Dutch or German and were called the Great Guard or the Black Guard.) 

The retreat quickly became a humiliating rout, and Wulf Isebrand a local hero.

Thousands of attackers died, and the Dithmarschers captured the Dannebrog, the flag of the Danish kings—its famous design dating back to at least the mid-1300s and which is used as the flag of Denmark to this day.

Wulf married a local woman and lived out his days in Dithmarschen.

Image, top: A 1910 painting by Max Friedrich Koch depicting the battle. The painting is in the assembly hall of the former District Building in Meldorf, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Image, middle: The logo of the Wulf Isebrand Schule, a primary school in Albersdorf, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.

Image, bottom: A brick-relief stylized likeness of Wulf Isebrand on a northeast-facing exterior wall of the Wulf Isebrand Schule in Albersdorf.

The Combined Chiefs of Staff established, February 6, 1942

Seventy-five years ago today, February 6, 1942, Britain and the U.S.A. established the Combined Chiefs of Staff, the highest level of Allied joint command in World War II, to ensure "complete coordination of the war effort of Great Britain and the United States, including the production and distribution of war supplies, and to provide for full British and American collaboration with the United Nations."

The official name of the Allied powers of the Second World War was the United Nations.

Photo: Combined Chiefs of Staff in Quebec—August 23, 1943. Seated around the table from left foreground: Vice Adm. Lord Louis Mountbatten, Sir Dudley Pound, Sir Alan Brooke, Sir Charles Portal, Sir John Dill, Lt. Gen. Sir Hastings L. Ismay, Brigadier Harold Redman, Comdr. R.D. Coleridge, Brig. Gen. John R. Deane, General Henry Arnold, General George Marshall, Admiral William D. Leahy, Admiral Ernest King, and Capt. F.B. Royal.

January 31st, 1822: George Stephenson's patent application, the dawn of the modern railroad and a global transportation revolution.

January 31st, 1822: The dawn of the modern railroad and a global transportation revolution. 195 years ago today, George Stephenson (1781–1848) submitted his original patent application for the engine that powered the first locomotive railway in history.

Document signed, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, January 31, 1822 — click the image below to enlarge it. It reads:

To the Kings most Excellent Majesty, The humble petition of George Stephenson…Sheweth that your petitioner hath invented certain improvements in steam engines which invention he believes will be of general benefit and advantage; That your petitioner is the true and first inventor thereof, and that the same hath not been made or used by any other person or persons whatsoever to his knowledge or belief; Your petitioner therefore most humbly prays your Majesty will be graciously pleased to grant unto your petitioner, his executors, administrators and assigns, your Majesty's Royal Letters Patent under the great seal of Great Britain for the sole use, benefit and advantage of his said invention within England, Wales and the town of Berwick upon Tweed, for the term of 14 years, according to the statute in that case made and provided. And your petitioner will ever pray etc. George Stephenson.

As British historian and broadcaster Peter Snow summarized:

Seven years later, the ‘Rocket’ locomotive Stephenson designed with his son Robert began carrying passengers on the world’s first inter-city line between Liverpool and Manchester.... There was not a mile of passenger railway in the world before Stephenson, and yet by the end of the 19th century there were half a million miles of track.

The Wikipedia entry on Stephenson notes: "His rail gauge of 4 feet 8 1⁄2 inches (1,435 mm), sometimes called 'Stephenson gauge', is the standard gauge by name and by convention for most of the world's railways."

Image from the The Raab Collection, LLC.