Wednesday, June 27, 2018

Today -100: June 27, 1918: Of train crashes, flu, and the fall of New York


A troop train (empty) crashes into a circus train (quite full) near Gary, Indiana, killing 85 people, because the engineer fell asleep. Naturally, the feds are investigating whether he was drugged by a German agent. The engineer is being charged with involuntary manslaughter.

German Foreign Minister Richard von Kühlmann told the Reichstag a couple of days ago that Russia was most responsible for starting the war, followed by France, followed by England (I don’t believe Germany and Austria, or Serbia if it comes to that, even made his list). This has pissed off the Pan-Germans no end, because it’s obvious that perfidious Albion is the most responsible, that’s just science. Also, Kühlmann suggested that the war would end with negotiations, not a triumphant military victory.

“Spanish influenza” is “raging” in the German army. This may be the first reference to Spanish Flu in the NYT.

German POWs say they were told that Germany had landed troops in the US and captured New York City.

Just to be clear, that didn’t happen.


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