Today In History

March 25, 1944




Home Run

Sergeant Per Bergsland, RAF (Norwegian)
Second Lieutenant Jens Müller, RAF (Norwegian)
Flight Lieutenant Bram “Bob” van der Stok, RAF (Dutch)


Executed

Flying Officer Henry "Hank" Birkland, RCAF
Flight Lieutenant Edward Gordon Brettell, RAF
Flight Lieutenant Leslie George "Johnny" Bull, RAF
Squadron Leader Roger Joyce Bushell, RAF
Flight Lieutenant Michael James Casey, RAF
Squadron Leader James Catanach, RAAF
Flight Lieutenant Arnold George Christensen, RNZAF
Flying Officer Dennis Herbert Cochran, RAF
Squadron Leader Ian Kingston Pembroke Cross, RAF
Sergeant Haldor Espelid, Royal Norwegian Air Force
Flight Lieutenant Brian Herbert Evans, RAF
Lieutenant Nils Fuglesang, Royal Norwegian Air Force
Lieutenant Johannes Gouws, SAAF
Flight Lieutenant William Jack Grisman, RAF
Flight Lieutenant Alistair Donald Mackintosh Gunn, RAF
Warrant Officer Albert Horace Hake, RAAF
Flight Lieutenant Charles Piers Hall, RAF
Flight Lieutenant Anthony Ross Henzell Hayter, RAF
Flight Lieutenant Edgar Spottiswoode Humphreys, RAF
Flying Officer Gordon Arthur Kidder, RCAF
Flight Lieutenant Reginald "Rusty" Kierath RAAF
Flight Lieutenant Antoni Kiewnarski, RAF (Polish)
Squadron Leader Thomas Gresham Kirby-Green, RAF
Flying Officer Wlodzimierz A Kolanowski, PAF (Polish)
Flying Officer Stanislaw Z. "Danny" Krol, RAF (Polish)
Flight Lieutenant Patrick Wilson Langford, RCAF
Flight Lieutenant Thomas Barker Leigh, RAF
Flight Lieutenant James Leslie Robert "Cookie" Long, RAF
Flight Lieutenant Romas "René" Marcinkus, RAF
Lieutenant Clement Aldwyn Neville McGarr, SAAF
Flight Lieutenant George Edward McGill, RCAF
Flight Lieutenant Harold John Milford, RAF
Flying Officer Jerzy T. Mondschein, RAF (Polish)
Flying Officer Kazimierz Pawluk, RAF (Polish)
Flying Officer Porokoru Patapu "Johnny" Pohe, RNZAF
Pilot Officer Sotiris "Nick" Skanzikas, Royal Hellenic Air Force (Greek)
Lieutenant Rupert J. Stevens, SAAF
Flying Officer Robert Campbell Stewart, RAF
Flying Officer John Gifford Stower, RAF
Flying Officer Denys Oliver Street, RAF
Flight Lieutenant Cyril Douglas Swain, RAF
Flight Lieutenant Henri Albert Picard, RAF (Belgian)
Lieutenant Bernard W. M. Scheidhauer, Free French Air Force
Flying Officer Pawel "Peter" Tobolski, Polish Air Force (Polish)
Flight Lieutenant Arnost "Wally" Valenta, RAF (Czechoslovakian)
Flight Lieutenant Gilbert William "Tim" Walenn, RAF
Flight Lieutenant James Chrystall Wernham, RCAF
Flight Lieutenant George William Wiley, RCAF
Squadron Leader John Edwin Ashley Williams, RAAF
Flight Lieutenant John Francis Williams, RAF


Returned to Stalag Luft III

Flight Lieutenant R. Anthony Bethell, RAF
Flight Lieutenant Bill Cameron, RCAF
Flight Lieutenant Richard S. A. "Dick" Churchill, RAF
Wing Commander Harry Melville Arbuthnot "Wings" Day, RAF
Major Johnnie Dodge, British Army
Flight Lieutenant Sydney Dowse, RAF
Flight Lieutenant Bedrich "Freddie" Dvorak, RAF
Flight Lieutenant Bernard "Pop" Green, RAF
Pilot Officer Bertram "Jimmy" James, RAF
Flight Lieutenant Roy B. Langlois RAF
Flight Lieutenant H. C. "Johnny" Marshall, RAF
Flight Lieutenant Alistair T. McDonald, RAF
Lieutenant Alastair D. Neely, Royal Navy
Flight Lieutenant T.R. Nelson, RAF
Flight Lieutenant A. Keith Ogilvie, RAF
Flight Lieutenant Desmond Lancelot Plunkett, RAF
Lieutenant Douglas A. Poynter, Royal Navy
Pilot Officer Paul G. Royle, RAF
Flight Lieutenant Michael Shand, RAF
Flight Lieutenant Alfred B. Thompson, RCAF
Flight Lieutenant Ivo P. Tonder, RAF
Squadron Leader Leonard Henry Trent, RNZAF
Flight Lieutenant Raymond L. N. van Wymeersch, RAF (French)






Source : Government of Canada - Royal Canadian Air force

April 1, 1918



By merging the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service , United Kingdom creates the Royal Air Force .

22 years after, who knows, maybe Göring had also thought that it was a joke...

April 7, 1945


End of Japanese battleship Yamato

April 17, 1961


The CIA flunks itself miserably at the Bay of Pigs .





Even more than the humiliation for the United States, this fiasco will result to push Castro into the lap of Moscow and is considered as the primary cause of the Cuban missile crisis which will put, one year after, the world on the edge of nuclear abyss.


EDIT : Frankly, with such a name, if i had been the US president i would have ordered to land somewhere else. That would doubtless have changed nothing but at least the Yankees would have look a bit less stupid ...

April 22, 1915


The first large-scale use of a deadly poison gas, chlorine, takes place during the Second Battle of Ypres . At 17:30, in front of Langemark–Poelkapelle, the German army released 168 tons of chlorine on the French colonial troops.

Here, Ypres is remembered as a time when Canadian soldiers made their first mark on history. Early in the 20th century, Canada was striving to create its own identity, and to set itself apart from Britain. With Canadian soldiers helping to hold the lines after the French retreated, this battle helped to show the courageousness of Canadian soldiers and tell the rest of the world who we were as a country.


It was also during this battle that John McCrae wrote his famous poem, In Flanders Fields .

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.