[PART 27]
CHAPTER 5
1915-1920
The Great Earth War and the ‘Spanish’ Flu
“If we are to survive we must not create conflicts on our world stage, but mediation at the highest levels of government, for surely if we do not we shall have no hope of securing this planet from interplanetary destruction.”
Anonymous letter to the Executive Committee of Twelve, 4 February 1915
The Great Earth War-1915 – Terrorist/serial killer H-Pancho Villa – The Great Earth War continues-1916 – The investigation of the Mount Katmai eruption – The Tunguska project – The rocket men continue their work – The Great Earth War-1917/18 – The Martian plague rocket – 1918 ‘Spanish’ flu – Alcock and Brown fly the Atlantic – Barbarians attack across the United States border – The Mars watch program – The Earth’s moon – Accessing the situation – Reconnaissance of the Central African Lawless Zone (CLZ) – New tabulating devices – A League of Nations – Upper-New York City bombing – The Haiyuan earthquake – The Egyptian team’s discoveries – Meeting notes.
The Great Earth War-1915
“C’est ici l’empire de la Mort”
Generally the history of the Great Earth War, begun in August of 1914 and taught in schools, is mostly correct. H. G. would call it “…the war to end all wars” at least by earthmen on themselves. After the Martian inspired assassination of Francis Ferdinand there was no active participation in that semi-global conflict by the Martians or their hybrids (as far as we were able to ascertain) on either side as far as any actual fighting for world dominance was concerned. The Martians it would seem were not yet in a position to take full advantage of the situation. Nevertheless, it must be said the Martians were keeping a very close eye on these human events from both perspectives of on orbit reconnaissance and ground level operations. War and the deaths of millions of humans at the hands of other humans were of great interest to our enemies on Mars. The fact was the Martians were simply not yet ready to return in force to attack the Earth. That did not mean they stopped sending scout ships to keep close watch upon their Earth bound targets and would do what they could to ‘enhance’ the situation. In point of fact, the Martians never completely left the Earth after the First Martian War, a fact well known now, but we did not know that with certainty until we sent teams to the Poles. A number of their craft never left Earth orbit either.
The Martians were not only interested in the methods and tools of war being used by primitive humans, they wished to learn if the humans had changed any of their techniques of war since they last did battle with their enemies on Earth. What they saw perhaps surprised them. It was not the weapons or the methods used by humans of which they took little note. No, as far as they could discern, the humans had so far not developed any new devices, which would cause any great concern to them. Certainly there were improvements, but they did not amount to much on the Martian scale of technological abilities. All of our devices for war were still pretty primitive. Our only real advance to note was our aerial craft which must have seemed almost childish to the powerful Martians. Rather, it was the shear brutality of humans when it came to killing each other which caused them a good deal of concern (Ref: Martian Electric Document 114X42).
As far as we knew at the time the Martians had not yet experienced a truly long protracted war on a close personal level with brutal humans because our forces had been destroyed well before large scale close combat could be joined. Any other smaller engagements they had personally undertaken throughout their long investigation and interference on Earth did not allow much data to be gathered. What they saw during the fighting of the Great Earth War however, disturbed even the normally unemotional Martians on at least an intellectual level (Martian B Interrogation 1921-B4). We were proving to these off-world beings that humans truly were savages ready to kill at any time. They would learn that in the endgame, when they were once again to face humans in close combat, either no humans or no Martians would survive. Each battle would be fought to the death with no quarter given. They saw these humans could be as brutal as or worse even to their own species than the Martians and the Great Earth War would prove it. The Martians would need to plan for that. They needed to acquire humans from this war as soon as possible and find out all they could about this brutal species they were planning on attacking a second time.
One thing the Martians were very aware of, even as humans seemed to have forgotten; this war would set back plans to develop ways to protect Earth from interplanetary war (specifically manpower and general resources). For four years humans forgot who the enemy really was. This war against ourselves was a Martian win at all levels! If it had been allowed to continue much longer than it did we may not have had the time, resources or manpower to not only recover from its devastation, but we may very well have not been able to defend ourselves from off-world attack. It may very well have been a close thing that the Martians did not choose to attack after the guns went silent on the battle fields of Europe. We took this at the time as an indication they were not ready. Or did it simply mean they needed to reevaluate their suspected invasion plans? Despite the bloodletting we still had time.
MAGIC – MOST SECRET CoT
Magic Order MO-190
Immediate: European Committee operations and resources are to be moved as soon as possible to Lower-New York City until hostilities in Europe are concluded. Move is to be conducted without warning to any European government. ‘Prime Location’ is to be re-enforced immediately with guard forces doubled. Prime Location records are to be moved to Lower-New York.
MAGIC FIVE-LONDON
MAGIC – MOST SECRET CoT
THE RMS LUSITANIA IS SUNK
“Vessels flying the flag of Great Britain or any of her allies are liable to destruction in those waters and that travelers sailing in the war zone on the ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their risk.”
German Embassy in New Washington Center, 22 April 1915
The RMS Lusitania built in 1907 was one of several new transatlantic passenger ships built by the British Cunard Line as part of the world-wide shipping recovery program supported by the Committee. Despite the widening conflict focused mostly in Europe it had been hoped civilian shipping would be left out of the war. The sinking of the Lusitania dashed those heartfelt hopes. The Lusitania had been one of many ships bringing immigrants to America away from the war in Europe. This voyage would send her to Great Britain and her doom. This was a great shock to everyone who heard the news.
Reports were grim from The New York Times wire service.
– Lusitania sunk by a submarine, probably 1,260 dead.
– Twice torpedoed off Irish coast, sinks in 15 minutes.
– Captain Turner saved, Frohman and Vanderbilt missing.
– New Washington Center believes that a grave crisis is at hand.
– Never since that April day three years ago when word came that the Titanic had gone down has New Washington Center been so stirred as it is tonight over the sinking of the Lusitania.
One American newspaper reported, “Germany surely must have gone mad with its reckless disregard of the opinions of the world in general and this country in particular.” The Committee made it very clear that no matter which side wins this terrible conflict those responsible for the Lusitania would be brought to justice at its conclusion.
Later, more detailed wireless reports indicated the ship, which had left Upper-New York City on 2 May 1915 bound for Liverpool, was approaching the coast of Ireland at 21 knots on 7 May. Warned of German U-boat activity in the area the ship was instructed to steer clear of the headlands and reduce speed. This was the forth such warning to the Captain, William Thomad Turner. With this warning the ship reduced speed to 18 knots to adjust its arrival time in port and passed off of Old Head of Kinsale Ireland at 12:40 p.m.
At 2:15 p.m. the Lusitania was hit amidships on its starboard side by a torpedo fired by U-boat 20. The explosion caused the engines to stop and the ship began to list heavily to one side. Within 45 minutes the Lusitania slipped beneath the waves taking with her 1198 passengers (including 138 Americans) and crew with only 708 survivors. Well known to the Germans this had been the fifth Atlantic crossing made by the Lusitania during the early months of the Great Earth War and she still carried only passengers and no bombs or explosives that could be used by the allies during the war. The panic on board was later reported to the Committee by Able Seaman Leslie Moreton. “The turmoil of passengers lifebelts, many people losing their hold on the deck and slipping down and over the side, and a gradual crescendo of noise building up as hundreds of people began to realize that, not only was she going down very fast, but in all probability too fast for them all to get away.” American Secretary of State Robert Lansing reported to the Committee, “In no event should we take a course that would seriously damage our friendly relations with Great Britain, France, or Russia, for, as you say, our friendship with Germany is a thing of the past.”
This action, strongly condemned by the Committee (the Americans nearly declared war on Germany) which had lost several staff members on board, convinced the Magic Twelve to find all means possible to end the war including ending all material contacts with Germany until an armistice was reached. This also meant any German representative in the Committee would now be required to have an armed escort whenever they entered any Committee facility. This order would stay in place until the end of hostilities. It was at this time all Committee ships combat or otherwise were painted white. Messages were hand delivered to all combatants that any nation which attacked any Committee ship would be attacked by the full military force of the Committee of Twelve and the leadership of such an aggressive nation would also be targeted. In simple terms: sink a Committee ship and that crew would be executed and your leadership would be assassinated during the war or put on trial and executed after the war! Brutality would be fully matched on the high seas. There would be no exceptions – none.
I remember reading newspaper reports but the most informative were internal reports complied by the Committee. “A sharp lookout for submarines was kept aboard the Lusitania as she approached the Irish coast according to Ernest Cowper, a Toronto newspaper man, who was among the survivors landed at Queenstown. He said after the ship was torpedoed there was no panic among the crew, but they went about the work of getting passengers into the boats in a prompt and efficient manner. From interviews with passengers it appears that when the torpedoes burst they sent forth suffocating fumes which had their effect on the passengers, causing some of them to lose consciousness. The submarine gave no notice and fired two torpedoes.”
There was one additional footnote radioed to authorities by the wireless operator before the ship went down. Along with his distress call and general report of the attack the operator reported that high over the ship passengers had reported seeing a large aerial craft stationed over the stricken ship seemingly watching the entire disaster. Survivors would note that after the Lusitania disappeared beneath the waves the aerial craft simply flew away at high speed heading north.
As for the crew of U-boat 20; the captain and two members of the crew were in fact executed by firing squad after the war ended for mass murder on the high seas. Their defense of “I was just following orders” held no weight in the International Court. The German naval officer who ordered the attack had died during the war, but had he lived he would certainly have been brought to the same courtroom as the others and would have also faced a firing squad!
When news of the attack reached Dr. Einstein he would remark, “I cannot help being constantly terribly depressed over the immeasurably sad things which burden our lives. It no longer even helps, as it used to, to escape into one’s work in physics.” “Wahnsinnige Gegenwartsrummel.” Nevertheless, Dr. Einstein was able, during the war years, to produce some 50 papers and one large book on physics, which, as it turned out, were some of his most productive years, including work on gravitational waves and cosmology.
Former German Colonial Secretaries and European Council Committee members saw things a bit differently. “The American people cannot visualize the spectacle of a hundred thousand German children starving by slow degrees as a result of the British blockade, but they can visualize the pitiful face of a little child drowning amidst the wreckage caused by a German torpedo.” Ending the war and thus stopping the blockade and thus being able to feed “a hundred thousand German children starving” did not seem to cross the minds of the Germans.
It was becoming difficult for the Americans to stay on the sidelines as Europeans pushed hard to once again create a war upon our planet. President Wilson reported to the American public.
“I knew that you are depending upon me to keep this recovering nation out of the war. So far I have done so and I pledge you my word that I will – if it is possible. But you have laid another duty upon me. You have burdened me to see to it that nothing stains or impairs the honor of the United States, and that is a matter not within my control; that depends upon what others do, not upon what the government of the United States does.”
Despite the war a German firm was licensed in 1915 to build a radio station for the United States Naval Radio Service at their facility on Mystic Island near Tuckerton, New Jersey. It would be one of the last German projects built in America until after the war had ended. Nevertheless, the new facility was equipped with a powerful Goldschmidt high-frequency alternator which allowed Dr. Tesla to receive royalties of nearly $1000 a month for the next two years.
In January 18,000 poisonous gas artillery shells, developed under chemist Fritz Haber, were delivered to German regiments. It was going to be a long and deadly war.
THE SECOND BATTLE OF YPRES
22 April – 25 May 1915
In April of 1915 deadly gas was used in the Great Earth War for the first time by German forces. Upon first contact with this ‘Mustard Gas’ allied forces thought there was a possibility the Germans had somehow managed to ally themselves with hybrids or perhaps even Martians in their fight. It was soon shown however, that these lethal gas attacks had come solely from the deadly hand of man.
To the north the British and French forces held the line at Ypres some 20 miles south of the port of Dunkerque on the coast of France. It was at this point the Germans under General Falkenhayn countered with their poison gas. As the gas spread the Algerian troops (Tirailleurs) attached to the French Army began to fall back many pointing to their threats and choking out the word gaz. The German secret weapon had been unleashed. One American newspaper headlined, “GERMANS ACT LIKE MARTIANS!” “Deadly Gas Used on the Western Front.” “Are Martians working with the Germans?” “Will America enter the European War?”
Once again the skies over the battle fields of Europe found unidentified aerial craft in close contact. Not all of them could be identified as Martian in origin.
Filling the gap the commander of the British Second Army, General Horace Dorrien, ordered his forces to “fill the gap and re-establish the front line at Ypres,” but the only troops available were a single Canadian brigade being held in reserve. Nevertheless, the Canadians filled the hole in the line only to come under fierce German attack on the 24th which included several gas attacks. Despite heavy casualties against a far larger force the Canadians held the line. Martians – take close note!
Despite this valiant effort it was clear to General Dorrien that his slight forces could not continue to hold, thus he ordered a fighting withdrawal. His order however, was rescinded by a French command at their headquarters and Dorrien was replaced by Lt. General Herbert Plumer. It did not take long for Plumer to fully understand the situation and he issued the same order to withdraw on 1 May. The French had no choice but to accept the situation as it stood.
Falling back to more defensible positions forced the Germans to attack the allies at a much more strongly held section west of Ypres. After a final futile series of attacks on this new allied position the Germans ended their attacks along this portion of the line. They had been unable to punch a hole and wrap the far northern end of the line around itself. The losses inflicted on the Germans numbered 35,000 dead, but the British/Canadian losses were some 60,000 dead.
Fighting would continue along most of the front for the next few months as both sides took the other’s measure attempting to find weak points along the trenches. During this lowering of the conflict both sides took the time to rest, restock their forces and dig in even deeper than ever. This strengthening of defensive positions would eventually lead to heavy losses on all sides as they hammered upon each other’s fortified trenches.
As the trenches were extended British General Headquarters released a secret UFO Intelligence Circular. The circular addressed the “false reports” of so-called “phantom airships” along the coast of England. It stated there was “no evidence of which to base a suspicion that this class of German enemy activity ever existed.” “The groundless rumors regarding the presence of hostile airships over Great Britain which of late have become very frequent.”
Under the new Defense of the Realm regulations the British government decided that any ‘irresponsible persons” who reported so-called “false reports’ of enemy lights off the coast could be jailed for the duration of the war. This was no way to encourage cooperation from the general public. Stepping in Committee operatives made it clear the Committee would take any and all reports from anyone at any time. In point of fact this method devised by Mr. Churchill and his staff, made it possible to control all reports of unidentified aerial craft while keeping the general public mostly in the dark.
THE BATTALION THAT ‘VANISHED’ AT GALLIPOLI
28 August 1915
“And he said to me, ‘What do you see?’ I answered, ‘I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits, and its breadth ten cubits.”
Zechariah 5: 1-2
Since 19 February 1915 the British had been bombarding Turkish forts in the Dardanelles and by 25 April they were landing at Gallipoli. “War fever” was spreading! Frustrated by the stalemate developing along the front lines of France and Belgium and by the massive casualties during the Flanders battles of 1914, First Lord of the British Admiral and Magic Twelve Director Winston Churchill sent the British fleet to Gallipoli. “We shall give them a good drubbing.” History would prove to be unkind.
This would prove to be the only major effort by the allies to completely outflank the German forces on the Western Front. By sending a large army and strong naval force into the Mediterranean he had hoped they could break through German and Turkish forces blocking the Black Sea. In the end this attempt would fail to push the Germans and their allies off Gallipoli and would cause Winston to resign from his cabinet position in the British government. He did however remain a Director in the Committee. Failure in ones “other lower level job” did not as such require resignation from ones primary occupation within the Committee.
Knowing the Martians were closely watching war related events, the men of Earth continued to do the bloody work on ourselves recently left to the Martians. They need not interfere as long as human guns tore up the Earth along the trenches and ditches of the Great Earth War. However, being Martians we also knew they would not watch for long before some type of actively would be forthcoming. That first major, and later confirmed, Martian war related activity occurred on 28 August 1915, during the bloody Gallipoli Campaign. Unidentified aerial craft had been seen for days around the Gallipoli area so we suspected something was going to happen. We just didn’t know what.
On the morning of 28 August the witnesses who were later willing to sign statements were in combat positions with New Zealand Expeditionary Forces. The men in the trenches saw from 6 to 8 (depending on the witness) “loaf of bread shaped clouds” identical in size and shape, all light gray, hovering low in the sky around a small rise named Hill 60. The hill was thought at the time to be held by Turkish forces. The New Zealand trenches held fast by around 1000 hot and tired men were dug in on Rhododendrum Spur some 300 feet above Hill 60. Keeping one eye on the Turks and another on the strange ‘clouds’ the men soon discovered despite a rather well-developed wind these strange clouds did not change their positions or even move with the wind. This of course caught the attention of the men who had grown up in the rubble of battle and reading about the First Martian War and all of the later stories of unidentified craft thought, but not confirmed, to be of Martian origin. They would soon have their own stories to tell.
From their position at around 2000 yards from the hill the entrenched ‘Dough Boys’ saw a British regiment from Norfolk numbering around 266 officers and men moving along a sunken road across the valley directly towards the supposedly Turkish held position of Hill 60. They were unaware the Turks had recently left the hill. There were no other enemy forces on that hill (at least none of an Earthly nature). As they moved forward the clouds covered much of the hill and surrounding areas as did what looked like an 800 foot long cloud lower than the rest which also seemed to be “more dense and solid-looking” than the others. A green appearing mist seemed to surround the entire area. The men marched on. The witnesses reported:
When they arrived at this cloud, they marched straight into it, with no hesitation, but no one ever came out to deploy and fight at ‘Hill 60.’ About an hour later, after the last of the file had disappeared into it, this ‘cloud’ very unobtrusively lifted off the ground and, like any fog or cloud would, rose slowly until it joined the other similar clouds. On viewing them again, they all looked alike “as peas in a pod.” All this time, the group of clouds had been hovering in the same place, but as soon as the singular ‘ground’ cloud had risen to their level, they all moved away northwards. In a matter of about three quarters of an hour they had all disappeared from view.
The First of the Fourth Norfolk Regiment was – to a man – gone! No one on either side reported any gunfire coming from the area at the time or any smoke to indicate any type of a battle had occurred. Silence was the only response. Continuing the report made to the Committee in 1919 researchers from the Central Aerial Investigations Group (CAIG) added the following information.
Upon Turkey surrendering in 1918, the first thing Britain demanded of Turkey was the return of this lost regiment. Turkey replied that she had neither captured this Regiment nor made contact with it, and did not know that it existed. A British Regiment in 1914-18 consisted of any number between 400 and 800 men. Those who observed this incident vouch for the fact that Turkey never captured that Regiment, or any part of it, nor made contact with it. They were however, able to supply several military reports of strange clouds in the area on the date in question. An additional report attached to documents sent by the Turkish government confirmed that they had also lost several scout patrols during the same time period. The British were also able to confirm that they had not captured any of the lost Turkish patrols.
The only logical explanation appeared to be that the Martians had abducted a full Regiment of men fully armed to do battle without firing a single shot! If this were truly the case the implications were extremely disturbing. This was something completely new. How does one fight this type of weapon? Did the enemy truly control this type of power or were we dealing with some strange new force? Or even more disturbing was the possibility that “others” may have been responsible.
Adding to the hopelessness of the Gallipoli situation we later realized that of the 34,000 Empire and British troops who died there are counted 27,000 who have in fact no grave. They have become lost to histories battles. Or is it possible we lost many more men than a single battalion of 266 men? The fog of war hides many things.
As with other missing person cases, thought to be related to Martian abduction, not one individual from the Regiment was ever seen again, which to the investigators from CAIG clearly showed these men had not been lost to battle – they had been lost to an interplanetary enemy still selecting large numbers of humans for experimentation and probably as an occasional source of food! The warring nations would later come together at a meeting with members of the Committee where it was decided to publicize this incident as an unfortunate wartime atrocity, which would be investigated as suggested by the CAIG. The incident was later publicly blamed on a rough group of Turkish officers who had been killed during the war. Their unfortunate deaths in battle were re-written to reflect a military trial, which never occurred, followed by firing squads, which never happened. Fact and fiction were becoming a blur on the altar of “the public good!” Their personal histories were sacrificed to keep the incident classified and out of the public record, of which I now hope to correct.
From: Committee Notes: The Martians and the Martian War (1907. r. 1914)
It has also been established that the Martians are at this time continuing their experiments on humans on their home planet. Humans are being subjected to amputations, biological testing, vivisection and other brutal experiments all without any form of anesthesia. One witness (Hybrid 133) reported on an experimental series he had witnessed focusing on human adaptation to cold weather. “To determine the human response to frostbite, human subjects were taken outside in freezing weather and left with exposed arms, periodically drenched with water until frozen solid. The arm was later amputated: the Martian would repeat the process on the human’s upper arm to the shoulder. After both arms were gone, the Martian moved on to the legs until only a head and torso remained. The human was then used for plaque and pathogens experiments.” Humans were thus murdered by cholera, anthrax, bubonic plaque as well as many other diseases. There is a body of information that suggests that some of these experiments are being conducted on Earth by the Martians in polar or other northern regions. However, no solid or conclusive evidence has yet been verified at this time even though both polar areas have been explored by Committee personnel.
Autopsies on humans on Mars are being conducted on LIVE humans by Martian Bs under the direction of Martian As. This ‘work’ is being conducted for reasons not yet fully understood other than a suspected general scientific interest in humans.
Among those who were also sacrificed to the gods of this particular useless war was a brilliant young chemist named Harry Moseley. The twenty-seven year old researcher had been working in Dr. Rutherford’s’ laboratory since 1913 helping to confirm Niels Bohr’s theory of quantum physics when he was called to active duty in the British Army. During one of a number of useless British attacks at Gallipoli in 1915 he lost his life and the world lost a brilliant chemist who could very well have made numerous discoveries which would have pushed our knowledge even faster and perhaps farther than we were able to go without his efforts. This was a waste of a brilliant human life and a great talent the world could ill afford to lose. The new war had lowered the value of all human life at a time when it should have been highly valued.
By 19 December the British and their allies began the evacuation of Gallipoli having wasted thousands of lives in the futile effort to outflank the Germans and their allies. Neither side had gained anything in the effort! The only victors were the Martians who were continuing to gather military intelligence about their enemies on Earth.
Despite the war fought largely in Europe at the moment, but certainly spreading, the general public was beginning to wonder what we could do about abductions, but this was no time to panic with people reporting Martians around every corner even though we did understand their scout craft were closely watching every move humans were making. For the most part the world’s population was now focused on the bloody fields of Europe and away from Mars the ‘god of war!’ And at the time we still did not have a great deal of information about where their bases might be located. Some members thought they may even have a base on the moon, but we had no way of checking this theory out, especially if it were on the back side. Even if they were on the moon exactly what could we do about it? – which was nothing at the time, so that made the exercise meaningless.
My later notes indicate, “If we could rocket a camera to the back side of the moon we may be able to spot any large Martian facilities. At this time of course we have no such device. Committee informed of the idea”
There was one other point the Committee needed to keep in mind concerning this abduction event. Some of these men had been temporarily stationed on Upolu Island in Samoa. Would the Martians learn from any of them that a new underground facility was being planned on Upolu, and if they did, what would that mean to the defense of planet Earth? In 1915 there was no way we could possibly know the answer to that question. We decided to keep working on the Upolu Island Project.
By the end of the year events in Central Africa, a section of French Equatorial Africa had become entirely unacceptable. Murders, abductions and cross border raids of extreme brutality had become the norm. With far too many examples of uncivilized behavior on going the Executive Committee of Twelve met in closed session to discuss and vote on the situation. In the end, a vote of 10 to 2 was rendered and the area became the second official Lawless Zone. Designated the Central African Lawless Zone (CLZ) the borders were patrolled by Committee, French, British and Dutch forces. It did not seem to impress upon the minds of top Committee members that while we created the CLZ thousands were dying in Europe’s blood bath! Such were the high discourse of Committee politics.
Despite the war clouds gathered over much of Europe, and bloody battles already fought, the government in Lower-London was able to announce the opening of the first Lower-London University. The University of Lower-London at St. Johns was now accepting students in law, geography, political science, and as one would expect, Martian studies. Other colleges within the university were expected to open in the next year or so. At first classes were small, but being the first did have its advantages. Underground universities would not pay any tuition tax – an incentive to “go underground” for one’s education was quite a pull.
It was also at this time that new reports came in of several aerial craft hovering over water sources at night. In upper New York State, craft were spotted putting large hoses into a small lake and pumping “a great deal of water on board their ship.” At the same time in Italy a group of fisherman spotted another craft “hovering over a lake west of Naples for 20 minutes pumping water into their craft.” The Martians were still desperate to obtain as much water as they could and there was very little we could do about it – for now! It was however, still costing the Martians ships and possibly crews.
A report also came in from Brazil of an unidentified flying machine having difficulty maintaining altitude and in fact was first spotted very low to the ground. Witnesses reported the craft “disintegrated into thousands of fragments in a bright flash, but not explosively.” Later, investigators from CAIG found little other than burned pieces of magnesium over a large area. This could have been a small unmanned craft. We were beginning to believe the Martians were sending unmanned craft to Earth for the sole purpose of obtaining water as many of these “water craft” made no hostile moves and did not seem to notice people watching at safe distances. The craft seemed to defend themselves only upon close approach. This of course represented a technology far and beyond anything we could hope to develop in the near future.
After 9 years of work thinking about gravity Dr. Einstein published his General Theory of Relativity in 1915 once again proving that Earth based science continued even in the face of a brutal war. During a private dinner Dr. Einstein made a few remarks on his latest work. “The views of space and time which I wish to lay before you have sprung from the soil of experimental physics and therein lays their strength. They are radical. Henceforth space by itself and time by itself are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent reality.”
With this paper Dr. Einstein finished the work of Newton’s theory of gravity. He also included the inspiration of Dr. Ernst Mach on the relativity of all things in motion. We now had a working model for how stars and planets moved in space and time. Proof of his theory that light rays from distant stars would bend towards the gravitational field of our local star due to the distortion caused by the gravitational field of the Sun had to wait until the madness of the Great Earth War was completed. In May of 1919 teams would be sent to Brazil and the west coast of Africa by the British Royal Society to observe the total solar eclipse on 29 May. Led by Arthur Eddington the African team’s photograph of the star field during the eclipse would prove that Einstein had been correct. “Einstein’s theory is completely confirmed.” Mass did indeed warp space and time! I for one was amazed at the work he had done.
Interestingly, Dr. Tesla …was not so certain. He felt the theory was all wrong and would state as much. “The relativity theory, by the way, is much older than its present proponents. It was advanced over 200 years ago by my illustrious countryman Ruggiero Giuseppe Boskovich (1711-1787), the great philosopher, who, notwithstanding other and multifold obligations, wrote a thousand volumes of excellent literature on a vast variety of subjects. Boskovich dealt with relativity, including the so-called time-space continuum.” Needless to say, Dr. Tesla was rightly very proud of his countryman. My thoughts went to a possible debate between Tesla and Einstein. Oh, to be a fly on that wall!
This scientific debate showed healthy scientific discourse continued despite our troubles on and off the Earth. As for Dr. Einstein – when confirmation finally arrived he did what any mature, eminent, well-known, world class scientist would do. He wrote his mother. “Dear Mother, Good news today…”
That same year Stanford University in California awarded the first advanced degrees in Martianology to Dr. James R. Smith and Dr. William Edwards. Both would soon be on their way to Lower-New York City to work for Directorate L. Eight years earlier Stanford University had set up the Center for Martian Studies under a grant from the Committee. Eventually the staff and students would become an unofficial advising board for the Executive Committee of Twelve and one member would become one of our later Directors. He would become the first and would remain the only Director with a university degree in Martianology.
Dr. Smith’s doctorial dissertation focused on possible peaceful communication with the inhabitants of Mars.
In what language the Martians intend to converse no one has yet undertaken to discover, however, the suggestion has recently been made that mathematical facts being invariable, the eternal equality of two plus two with four might serve as a basis of understanding, and that a statement of truth sent by electronic taps across the ocean of ether would be a convincing assurance that the inhabitants of the planet from which the message came at least enjoyed the advantages of a common-school education. Science could easily become a starting point of common interest.
Dr. Edwards also looked towards wireless attempts as the key to communicating with and reaching an understanding with a greater number of inhabitants of Mars as well as looking at further possibilities of contacting other inhabited worlds.
But, while speculation upon this subject rests on unverified, and at present unverifiable, assumptions, of course everybody would rejoice if such a thing were possible, for consider what zest and charm would be added to human life if messages, even of the simplest description, could be sent to and received from intelligent beings inhabiting other planets beyond Mars.
Dr. Edwards would later publish a paper on “Martian City States” of which one is considered the “Primary City”, and commanded by a Martian A. (Later found to be a Martian A Prime.) He would write on the military style political organization which included a highly structured society where movement up to a higher level is prohibited. A Martian is born (or rather budded) to its level and it will stay there for its entire life.
Continuing Great War efforts on 31 January 1916 found British Military forces facing not only the possibility of German Zeppelins bombing British cities but unidentified aerial craft menacing allied and German fighter planes over English skies. On that evening as Royal Flying Corps fighters patrolled the skies over Upper-London several German Zeppelins flew out of their sheds to bomb London. Industrial targets were to be attacked, but freezing rain, accompanied by low thick ground fog and snow made it all but impossible for any of the Zeppelins to navigate to their intended targets. Nevertheless, bombs were dropped on Birminham, Scunthorpe and Burton-on-Trent. These raids left 71 dead and 113 wounded. As the Zeppelin attacks continued on scattered targets Royal Flying Corps pilots were engaging “a mysterious light in the sky over London.”
With all the confusion as to where the nine Zeppelins had gone, they were finally tracked, all of whom had missed London by a large margin. The London sightings were not part of the German attack. At 8:25 p.m. one of the fighters from Hainault Airdrome based four miles north of London made contact with the abject in his BEZC fighter. Lieutenant R.S. Maxwell would later report:
My engine was missing irregularly and it was only by keeping the speed of the machine down to 50 mph that I was able to stay at 10,000 feet. It was at this time when I distinctly saw an artificial light to the north of me, and at about the same height. I followed this light northeast for nearly 20 minutes, but it seemed to go slightly higher, and just as quickly as myself, and eventually I lost it completely in the clouds.
There was a slightly different view of the same incident made when BEZC fighter pilot Lieutenant Claude Ridley made his report. He had followed the same mysterious light in the sky but was able to also see Lieutenant Maxwell’s craft in pursuit. Ridley would report that Maxwell had “seemed to merge with the darkness near the light at which time I lost sight of both Maxwell’s plane and the light.” Ridley reported the loss of Maxwell to authorities only to later find that Maxwell had landed safely. The only problem was that Lt. Maxwell had landed safely on 2 February, 48 hours after he had taken off. Maxwell was unable to explain his two day absence in a craft able to stay in the air for no longer than four hours! Maxwell could only explain he had in fact never landed during his mission and felt he had only been flying for no more than a couple of hours prior to returning to his base. He had no recall of any of the missing time yet he had in fact been gone for two full days!
Despite Lt. Maxwell’s ‘difficulties’ The Great Earth War was to become the first Earth conflict where large air forces played a major role in its outcome. Aces (five aerial kills) were soon to become popular hero’s written off as modern knights of the skies. By the end of 1917 the average life expectancy of one of these modern knights was a little more than 93 flying hours!
On 29 June 1916 Dr. Einstein could be found addressing the Committee in commemoration of Dr. Karl Schwarzschild’s work on a particular solution of one of Einstein’s gravitational field theories. Schwarzschild could not address the group himself as he had died on 11 May having succumbed to his injuries incurred while fighting on the Russian front of the Great Earth War. Once again the war had taken a great theorist and experimentalist of science. We would lose a great many more before this war had run its course.
In America even though much of their defense preparation focused on possible war with the Martians they had for a while been required to look much closer to home at their own southern border with the Mexican territory as the violence which had by now become a way of life south of the border began to violently spill over into the United States. It would not be long before they were forced to take a very hard look at ending these cross-border attacks with whatever lethal means was required. The Americans would find a good deal of support from the Committee as ending any type of cross-border conflicts took center stage on that side of the Atlantic.
There was another aspect of the border problem which caused just as much concern in Committee circles. We were receiving a good many reports of unidentified aerial craft over flying many of the more populated areas in the Mexican territory. If these reports could be confirmed it could mean the area south of the U.S./Mexican border held special interest to the Martians. The Committee needed to find out why.
[END PART 27]
Copyright © R. Michael Gordon, 2020
