Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Airship Mystery

August 16, Sun.
Pacific
Submarine S-39 (SS-144), irreparably damaged by striking reef off Rossel Island, on 14 August, is abandoned.
Airship L-8 (ZP-32) is damaged upon return from patrol off California coast, landing at Dale [sic] City, California.
The airship, however, is unmanned; the fate of its two-man crew remains a mystery.
The blimp finally came to rest atop Richard Johnston's freshly waxed car in Daly City, Calif.,
just South of San Francisco. (National Archives)
[Complete mystery to your humble editor as well. Indeed, I'd never heard of it.]

Atlantic
Surviving 38 merchant seamen and the 13-man Armed Guard of U.S. freighter Cripple Creek, sunk by German submarine U-171 on 13 August, are rescued by British armed trawler HMS St. Wistan and transported to Sierra Leone. [Told you. No damn Nazi U-Boat can be off Sierra Leone & in the Gulf Of Mexico on the same day!]
Obligatory:

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - "The Blimp"

How blimps are built, at (3:00), preceded by the build up for Guadalcanal, as if that were news. Also segregated, honky-commanded "grim, determined" Pinoy regiment (6:05).

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