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using the link in the description. May 21, 1911. More than two hundred thousand
people gathered at the Issy-les-Moulineaux airfield in the south of Paris, to
celebrate the start of the big air race. Some of the best aviators of the time
were invited to compete for the prize of 200 000 francs. It was a big event and that
is why among the crowds on the airfield were not only ordinary French citizens but
high-ranking government officials as well. The race began early in the morning, with
the first airplane lifting into the air, but in less than an hour after the start, the
event was overshadowed by a tragedy - right after takeoff one of the planes crashed into
the crowd, killing one of the spectators. Although tragic, just like the loss of any
human life, the death of a single person, at first, didn't seem to be that much of
an extraordinary occurrence. After all, various fatal accidents happen quite often.
In fact, that very same day an airplane in Russia also crashed into a crowd, killing
5 and injuring around a hundred spectators. But with the airplane crash in Paris, it
was not HOW MANY victims that was important, but rather WHO had died and what the CONSEQUENCES
of the accident were. This one crash of a tiny airplane in 1911 cost France not just the
life of a single spectator but, arguably, the deaths and injuries of tens of thousands
of French soldiers on the battlefields of WWI. When learning history it is surprising how often
you find that a small event or detail that may seem insignificant at the time may have had such
a huge influence on the future. And at some point, it is almost inevitable that you start
asking yourself the question: what if? What if the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna had
accepted a young painter named Adolf? What if the judgement of the Soviet Colonel, who received
a false signal of an American nuclear attack, had been different that day? What if the
guy from Paper Skies didn't have an accent? And while getting the answer to the
last question is quite easy, finding the answer regarding the events of historical
importance will most often be simply impossible. That doesn't make those questions any less
interesting, though. Quite the opposite. They were and always will be a reason for multiple
historical debates. One such historical event was the crash of a small airplane in France on
May 21, 1911. I m sure most of my viewers here are big aviation fans but, I bet, not many
of you remember a French aviator named Louis Emil Train, even though in the early days
of aviation his name became world famous. This, however, was not primarily due to his
accomplishments as a pilot, but because Louis Emil accidentally could have beheaded, in this case
literally, the government of the French republic. One of the pioneers of aviation, Louis Emile Train
was born in Saint-Etienne, France on October 22, 1877. From an early age Louis Emile found
an interest in mechanics and engineering. He worked in his father s repair shop,
fixing bicycles, sewing machines, and automobiles, but his main passion was motorcycles. Not being able to fulfil his passion for
engineering at home, he left Saint-Etienne and moved to Paris. He tried his skills in
various areas, but financial success came to Louis-Emil with designing vending machines.
The revenue he started to receive now was enough not only for a comfortable living but also to
financially support his new passion - airplanes. He soon received a pilot s license and
starting in 1910 built several airplane models of his own design, which, for the
time, were quite advanced. The French Army even placed an order for a dozen of Train s
airplanes. But despite this promising future, the aviation career of Louis Train appeared
to be short lived. The main reason was the huge shock that Louis-Emile suffered
after his accident on May 21, 1911. That day he was among 20 aviators invited to
compete in the air race from Paris to Madrid. The race was sponsored by the French millioner
Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe who offered an impressive prize of 200 000 francs for the winner.
The event brought together some of the most famous aviators of the time, like Rolland Garros, Jules
Vedrines , Andre Beaumont and others, among whom was also Louis-Emile Train. For Louis-Emile this
wasn't his first such event, and unlike other aviators, he always flew airplanes of his own
design. That day he was to fly in his 3rd model, which Train had already used in previous
races and considered to be quite reliable. The first pilot took off at ten after five
am, followed by other pilots at short time intervals. Everything went smoothly until
the turn of Jules Vedrines, whose airplane, due to mechanical issues, crashed on take
off. There were no casualties and the airplane suffered only minor damage, but the
accident attracted the attention of the crowd and dozens of curious spectators rushed onto the
airfield, leaving the designated viewing area. To drive them back to safety, a squadron
of cuirassiers was sent immediately, and it was exactly at this moment when Louis-Emile
Train took off in his airplane. But just a few moments after he became airborne Louis Emile
suddenly found his engine quickly losing power. Tragic, Comical, Unfortunate it s really hard to
choose just one word when describing the crazy sequence of events that happened moments after
Louis-Emile s airplane lifted into the air. There were even some rumors that the famous
bomb scene from the classic 1966 Batman movie was actually inspired by the events that occurred
at the Issy-les-Moulineaux airfield in 1911. Anyways, right after takeoff Louis Emile noticed
that his engine all of a sudden started to lose power and the airplane s speed was rapidly
decreasing. Train quickly understood that he wouldn t be able to continue the flight
and an emergency landing was inevitable. But the problem was that ahead of him, just
beyond the edge of the airfield, were the houses of a Parisian neighborhood. Trying to avoid
a crash and casualties, Louis-Emile made probably the only correct decision possible - to turn his
airplane around and land back on the airfield. Not wasting a second, he immediately turned his plane
but to his horror he saw a squadron of cuirassiers who were now crossing the airfield where he had
taken off a moment ago. Trying to save people and horsies, he turned the plane more to the right,
but here he found a crowd of spectators who had scattered out of their designated area. Pulling
the yoke desperately he tried to fly over the crowd but the airplane, which by that moment had
lost power completely, crashed into the ground. Louis Emile, who was not injured even
the slightest, later recalled that until the very last moment he thought that he had
managed to fly over the crowd. Unfortunately, the reality was different. While avoiding the
cuirassier squadron and the crowd of spectators, Train s airplane crashed into a small group
of people. And it happened that out of two hundred thousand spectators present on the
airfield that day, this small group appeared to be a bunch of high government officials. Buried
under the crashed airplane was the Prime Minister of France Ernest Monis . He was found unconscious,
suffering from multiple internal injuries, two fractured bones in his right leg, a broken
nose, and a frightfully torn scalp. His condition was so bad that at the time there were serious
doubts whether he would be able to survive at all. The Prime-minister s son was also injured,
as well as Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe, who probably at the moment deeply regretted
his decision to sponsor this event. But the least fortunate appeared to be
the French Minister of War Henri Berteaux. The rotating propeller killed
the minister instantly. Just to remind you, it was 1911 - a time when
most people, despite their poor understanding of aviation, nevertheless saw it as a symbol of
their bright and technologically advanced future soon to come. Thus, they were forgiving of current
airplanes lack of practical use, poor reliability, and many other problems, but the aircraft falling
down from the skies, killing a high government official, was a little bit too much. The tragedy
at Issy-les-Moulineaux airfield deeply shocked not only France but the whole world, making the
accident in Paris one of the main news topics. Almost immediately a special government commission
started the investigation of the accident. A few days later the commission concluded that,
given his situation, Louis Emile Train did his utmost to avoid casualties and there was no way
he could have predicted the engine malfunction, thus the accident and the casualties
that occurred were not his fault. But despite being officially exonerated
from killing the Minister, and despite having a promising future career building
aircraft, Louis Train eventually decided to leave aviation. The shock of the tragedy
appeared to be too heavy for him. And soon Louis Emile sold his aircraft business and, until his death in 1939, focused solely on
the biggest passion of his youth motorcycles. And that may look like the end of the story of yet
another tragic, though unremarkable accident, but with the outbreak of World War One, 3 years after
the accident in Paris, it appeared that Louis Train s crash may have become the reason, although
indirectly, for the enormous human casualties that France suffered in the first months of the war.
Including the French Army s deadliest day ever. Out of all wars that humanity has suffered
through all of its history, World War One was arguably the most shocking. Of course,
the level of atrocities and human casualties during World War Two are unmatched by anything
in history and, let s hope, they never will be, but in some way World War Two was just an
upscaled projection of the preceding war. Meanwhile the outbreak of the Great War
caused a profound and horrible shock due to the massive human casualties and tremendous
scale of violence unknown in any previous war. One of the main reasons for such enormous losses,
in particular, was the discrepancy between the outdated battle tactics and the existing modern
weaponry, such as artillery and machine guns. But when speaking about France, which was among the
countries that suffered the highest losses during World War One, there was yet another, quite unique
factor. It s difficult to notice it if you watch French soldiers in old black and white videos,
but when you add accurate colors to the historical images, you will see that the soldiers of one of
the biggest and most powerful armies in the world, were dressed in blue jackets and red trousers.
It s hard to believe that but at the time when battlefields were now expanding into the heights
of the skies and depths of the seas, the French Army with its brightly colored uniform seems to
still be stuck in the age of the Napoleonic Wars. Of course, not everyone in the French government
was indifferently accepting of the existing military uniform. Quite to the contrary, the army
uniform in France had for years been a topic of multiple political debates. But sadly,
those politicians had prevailed who claimed that the camouflaged uniform was a symbol of
weakness and cowardice, and that the Army should keep the patriotic colors in its uniform since
it better represented the French battle spirit. Unfortunately, it was not the politicians but
regular soldiers who would have to pay the price for such cheap patriotic statements. And
the final price appeared to be extremely high. Three weeks after the outbreak of World War 1,
during the Battle of the Frontiers the French Army lost 27 thousand killed in just a single day. Not
counting missing, wounded or captured. August 22, 1914, even until today remains the French Army s
deadliest day, and not only in World War One but in its entire history. None of the belligerent
countries in any battle of World War One suffered greater single day losses than
France did during the Battle of the Frontiers. It is believed that one of the reasons for the
French Army's enormous losses was, in particular, the bright military uniform that made
French soldiers perfectly visible and easy targets for the German machine
gunners. It would take about a year before the whole French Army would switch
to the so-called horizon blue - a new blue-grey uniform that made French
soldiers less visible to the enemy. But interestingly enough, way before the horizon blue the French Army had
started to learn about another color: reseda . 3 years before the outbreak of World War One, the
French Minister of War at the time devoted himself to drastically reforming the French Army to
better respond to modern warfare. Despite massive political opposition, the Minister, in particular,
managed to start the so-called la tenue reseda project, whose goal was for the French Army
to adopt a new gray-green military uniform. The first examples of the new uniform had already
been manufactured and sent to the Army for testing, and eventually the uniform would probably
have been accepted by the French Army if not for the sudden death of the Minister, which eventually
led to the abandonment of the reseda project, leaving the French army to enter World War I
still wearing blue jackets and bright red trousers The name of that Minister was Henri
Berteaux - the one and only victim of the small airplane crash at the
Issy-les-Moulineaux airfield in 1911. And here it s really hard not to ask
the question: What would the history of France in World War One be, if one
young and talented engineer had stuck to his passion of building motorcycles and
never became interested in flying airplanes? SPONSOR PART The little-known 1911 crash of Louis Emile Train,
although mind-blowing, is just one of hundreds of other astonishing historical "what if" moments.
What if the last Iranian Shah hadn't thrown the largest and the most expensive party in the
world? What if the USSR hadn't collapsed? What if the temperature at the launch of the
Space Shuttle Challenger had been different? If you want to know the answers to these
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