Quote:I have been asked why do I think the song touched a nerve? Answer: I don't know exactly. It released some major concerns for myself and maybe because it was coming from a genuine concern for the well-being of America and the world. I remember in 1965 the civil rights movement had begun, Vietnam was in the background, the cold war had heated up so drastically that we're just finding out today how close the world came to the brink of a nuclear war. This was in the air, fear and hypocrisy... the unthinkable could be happening. A total annihilation of all life on Earth. Really? "Well, looks like they really did it this time Martha! We better not plant those begonias this spring with all that nuclear fallout and all! Oh, now George don't be so pessimistic! Within a hundred years or so the Nuclear winter will be over and we can replant the corn crop!"
P. F. Sloan: In His Own Words

Quote:LONDON, May 30-Capt. Franz von Rintelen, German master spy and chief of German naval intelligence in the United States during the first World War, died today. [30 May 1949] His age was 72. Captain von Rintelen, whose mission was to prevent United States munitions from reaching the Allies, was “recalled” to Berlin by a fake message and captured by the British. He spent eighteen months as a prisoner here and then was returned to the United States, where he was sentenced to four years imprisonment for sabotage.

Later, Captain von Rintelen settled in England and became friend of Sir Reginald Hall, who as chief of British naval intelligence had outwitted him. Sir Reginald spoke on the German's behalf when he was arrested on the outbreak of the second World War. But the former spy was interned again. He had always expressed strong anti-Nazi views. He was, he said, “a Prussian with nostalgia for the days of the Kaiser." He became a lecturer and novelist. Two of his books were "The Dark Invader" and "The Return of the Dark Invader.”

Master Saboteur Here

Captain von Rintelen is best remembered in this country for his exploits as master saboteur and head of the German spy system in the United States during the first World War. The super-plotter of Prussian wiles, supposed to be of Hohenzollern blood, a multimillionaire in his own name, fell into Uncle Sam's net when caught putting in ships "fountain pen" bombs which caused explosions and started fires along the New York waterfront. Tall, bald and described as an elegant gentleman, he came to the United States as a German Navy lieutenant commander in April, 1915, ostensibly in the Kaiser Wilhelm's diplomatic service. He was assigned to Washington to the German Embassy, and later admitted that his mission in the United States was to prevent American munitions from reaching the Allies. The Kaiser's secret Ambassador-de-Luxe worked but a short time in the United States as a plotter and saboteur. He was trapped in August, 1915, by British Naval Intelligence. It sent him a fake message ordering him to return from the United States to Germany. He complied. He boarded a Dutch ship under a Swiss name and carried a forged passport. The ship was intercepted off Margate, England, by the British and von Rintelen was taken ashore.

Sent to Penitentiary

In 1917, the British sent von Rintelen back to the United States, where he was put on trial for his acts of sabotage in this country. He was found guilty of charges of being chief of the German spy ring and was held responsible for the damage or destruction of thirty-two British ships. He was sent to the Federal Penitentiary at Atlanta for four years. Captain von Rintelen was chagrined to learn that he had been unmasked by a young woman working for the British intelligence in Washington. She obtained the secret codes which he had brought to the United States from a secretary of the German Embassy staff. President Wilson pardoned him in 1920 but Franz von Papen, then a power in the German Government, prevented his return to Germany. Captain von Rintelen found a haven and his social position in England. Later, he described his operations with David Lamar, the Wolf of Wall Street. He said that when he arrived here from Germany in 1915 he had $500,000 in a suitcase with instructions to use it for the utmost possible damage. He fell in with Lamar and reported later that the Wolf got it all before he had a chance even to blow up a bridge

FRANZ VON RINTELEN

Associated Press, 1939

VON RINTELEN, 72, GERMAN SPY IN 1916; Master Saboteur Here in First World War Dies in England Trapped by Fake Message

(08-01-2025, 02:44 AM)sailorsam Wrote: what are X-Files episode titles?



three of the four at least

Quote:The prospect of an unlimited supply of free beer might, at first, seem appealing. Yet, when it is a tidal wave at least 15 metres high and over one million litres in volume, it is considerably less tempting. On Monday 17 October 1814 a bizarre industrial accident in St Giles, London claimed at least eight lives when a three-storey high vat of beer exploded inside a brewery and unleashed a tsunami of porter onto the streets around Tottenham Court Road.

The London Beer Flood

Quote:The Barbers Point plane flew a cross country training mission to Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.

IT WAS RETURNING to San Diego for a night flight to Barbers Point when the crash occurred. The antisubmarine warfare plane apparently was struck by lightning.

The Navy said the Barbers Point plane, which is specially built to track submarines, was flown to Nevada to give the crew cross-country navigational training.

Such training is not available in the Islands.

Antisubmarine aircraft from Barbers Point are deployed continually to the Aleutians, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Southeast Asia for coastal operations near mountainous terrain.

ANOTHER REASON for the trip to San Diego, a spokesman said, was to drop off naval personnel planning to attend special schools located in the San Diego area.

Quote:A US Air Force Boeing B-29-85-BW Superfortress, 44-87651, of the 99th Bomb Squadron, 9th Bomb Group, 9th Bomb Wing, carrying a Mark 4 nuclear bomb, suffered two runaway propellers and landing gear problems on takeoff at Fairfield-Suisun Air Force Base, Fairfield, California.  The crew attempted an emergency landing but crashed, causing a huge explosion that killed 19 aboard the plane and on the ground, including mission commander Brigadier General Robert F. Travis. The airfield was later renamed Travis Air Force Base in his honor.

Numerous nearby mobile homes were severely damaged and many civilians, firefighters, and USAF ground crew were injured.  Of the 49 military personnel, 47 required hospitalization.  A Civil Service assistant fire chief was injured and three civilian dependents were injured (two while attempting to remove effects from trailers and one when a fire extinguisher fell through the roof of quarters). In addition to the 53 major and minor injuries, there were 78 who were injured and treated but not admitted to a hospital, and an estimated 50 who were treated but not recorded.

The Air Force attributed the explosion to ten or twelve conventional 500-pound HE bombs aboard the B-29 and claimed that the nuclear bomb's fuel capsule was aboard a different aircraft, but admitted that the bomb casing contained depleted uranium used as ballast. A public health assessment of the crash site was later ordered.

About twenty minutes after the crash occurred, the high explosives in the bomb casing ignited. The blast, felt and heard over 30 miles away, caused severe damage to the nearby trailer park on base.

Boeing Superfortress 44-87651, Fairfield, California- August 5, 1950

Quote:In July 1950, President Truman ordered Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command, to send B-29s to Great Britain, putting the bombers within easy striking distance of the western Soviet Union. “The order grew out of General [Hoyt] Vandenberg’s desire to do something to counter the impression of ineffectiveness conveyed by the meager results of American bombing in Korea,” writes Dingman in a 1988 issue of International Security. He points out that this was not the first occasion of Superfortress statesmanship. In 1948, after the Soviet Union blockaded Berlin, two squadrons of B-29s were deployed to Western Europe. During the Berlin crisis, it was a bluff. The B-29s were not configured to handle nuclear weapons.
How the Korean War Almost Went Nuclear

Quote:While the U.S. Strategic Air Command was well prepared to launch an all-out attack against the Soviet Union, it was less clear how it could use atomic weapons in a limited conflict like Korea. On August 1, 1950, the "decision was made to send the 9th Bomb Wing to Guam as an atomic task force immediately." Ten B-29s, loaded with unarmed atomic bombs, set out for the Pacific. On August 5, one of the planes crashed during take off from Fairfield-Suisun Air Force base near San Francisco, killing a dozen people and scattering the mildly radioactive uranium of the bomb's tamper around the airfield. The other planes reached Guam where they went on standby duty.
The Korean War