Britain tried to kill Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1918 with secret RAF bombing raid, reveals archives

[Wednesdays]

Remarkable unpublished evidence has revealed that in the final year of the First World War Britain attempted to kill Germany’s leader, Kaiser Wilhelm II.

The secret mission failed – but only just.

The evidence – largely unpublished documentation in the RAF Museum’s archives and documents in a private archive in France – show that exactly 100 years ago this Saturday, a squadron of 12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

(snip)

Certainly there is no evidence that Britain ever tried to assassinate a major enemy’s head of state in the many wars of the 18th century, in the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century or even in the Second World War. Indeed, the only British plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler was, in the end, vetoed by Britain’s prime minister, Winston Churchill. The raid on Trelon in 1918 is therefore potentially unique – and an aberration from normal political and military convention.

More:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/first-world-war-kaiser-wilhelm-uk-raf-bombing-kill-germany-emperor-boulogne-a8375996.html

[Matthew28]

1. Kaiser Wilhelm II

Was probably Hitlers role model. Both evil monsters leading the world into world war.

[MFM008]

2. They should have

Gotten him when he came to visit granny Queen Victoria.

[gordianot]

3. The Kaiser may have had more military value than Hitler.

Hitler had much more to fear from his own people than the Allies (including Russia). Hitler’s massive incompetence at war was a prime reason Germany lost besides being a war of aggression.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. No, Wilhelm was incompetent too, but sidelined

Hindenburg and Ludendorff were, by that stage, running the war, and more or less the whole of Germany.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Ludendorff#Military_duumvirate_with_Hindenburg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_II,_German_Emperor#Shadow-Kaiser

"His leading generals, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff, dictated policy during the First World War with little regard for the civilian government. An ineffective war-time leader, he lost the support of the army, abdicated in November 1918, and fled to exile in the Netherlands."