RAF tried to kill Kaiser,
Explosive revelation by CyprusToday columnist in his new book
BRITAIN launched a botched bid to kill Germany’s leader Kaiser Wilhelm II in the final year of the First World War exactly a century ago today, a new book by TRNC resident and CyprusToday columnist John Hughes-Wilson has revealed.
Previously unpublished evidence contained in the book showed that Britain launched a secret bombing raid on June 2, 1918.
It was exposed after author, leading military historian and retired colonel HughesWilson said he was handed a “historical treasure trove” by a visitor he took on a battlefield tour, containing details of his great uncle’s air force service — including the “breathtaking claim” of the secret British mission, complete with maps, aerial photographs and even a detailed flight plan. The explosive revelation has been brought out in the open by Mr Hughes-Wilson in his latest publication The Kaiser’sDawn:The Untold StoryofBritain’s SecretMissiontoMurdertheKaiserin1918 , which was released yesterday.
In it, he reveals that a “squadron of 12 bombers took off from an airfield near Boulogne to bomb a French chateau which, intelligence work had revealed, was being used by the Kaiser as his secret Western Front operational residence”.
They reached the Kaiser’s secret Western Front residence at Trélon at 5.25am, dropping up to a dozen 50-kilo bombs and up to 24 11-kilo ones.
“However, unbeknown to British Intelligence, the same German military successes that had probably triggered the bid to kill Kaiser Wilhelm, had also led him to leave the chateau to congratulate his generals at the front. As a result, he had left his Western Front operational residence 19 hours before the RAF struck,” the Independent reported on its website.
“What’s more, the British aircraft chose to attack at an altitude of only 500 feet — and to do so in single file. As a result the smoke from the initial few bombs billowed skywards and prevented many of the succeeding pilots from seeing their target.” The report added: “The attack has remained largely unknown . . . The British and the French obviously did not want to tell the world about a failed mission — and, of course, the Germans did not want to advertise the fact that their emperor was still alive due only to good luck.” Mr HughesWilson commented: “Any attempt to kill the Kaiser could only have been approved at the highest levels . . . By the War Office? Was the King informed that his ‘cousin Willie’ was a prime target . . . ? Was Lloyd George, the prime minister asked? . . . Who approved the mission? “That’s the real secret.”