sateeb wrote: ↑Fri Sep 04, 2020 3:57 pm
First fatality?
Indeed
It is widely believed that John Parr was the first fatality of the First World War on August 21st, 1914 aged just 17.
"On the outbreak of the First World War in early August 1914 the 4th Middlesex was mobilized, and was among the first British Army units of the British Expeditionary Force to cross the English Channel to France. With the Imperial German Army invading Belgium and France at that moment, Parr's unit took up positions near the village of Bettignies, beside the canal running through the town of Mons approximately 8 miles (13 km) away.
On 21 August 1914, Parr and another cyclist were sent to the village of Obourg, just northeast of Mons, and slightly over the border in Belgium, with orders to locate where the Germans were. It is believed that whilst doing this they encountered an Uhlan patrol from the German First Army engaged in the same work, and that Parr remained to hold off the enemy whilst his companion returned to report. He was killed in an exchange of rifle fire."
"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things" - Yma o Hyd.
The bloody eastern bloc communists love to poison, then and now! I'm surprised it's not yet in the Chinese bag of tricks...wait for it I guess.
1978 Bulgarian defector and journalist Georgi Markov is assassinated with a poison-tipped umbrella on Waterloo Bridge - watch the report on the attack.
PeteC wrote: ↑Mon Sep 07, 2020 1:01 pm
1978 Bulgarian defector and journalist Georgi Markov is assassinated with a poison-tipped umbrella on Waterloo Bridge - watch the report on the attack.
I once saw the 'vial' that contained the ricin that killed Markov. It used to be on display in the Black Museum at NSY and was displayed atop a pinhead, as it was so tiny, which was viewed via a huge magnifying glass. It was amazing they found it really.
Incidentally, in the same museum, was the the much earlier contraption designed to inject cyanide into a victim, this time linked to the Krays, where a briefcase had had been adapted for the deadly deed to kill witnesses at their trial. From memory, this was imported along with an American to complete this task, but happy to stand corrected on that.
Not easy for me, as I don't think Sweden has been a real military power for 200 years or so, which would have made it early in US history. Was it against Russia?
I'm surprised it's not yet in the Chinese bag of tricks...wait for it I guess. 
