Assasination attempt on the German emperor with 2 British planes

[Regulus 1]

Good evening,

 

A spy working for the British Intelligence, Louise de Bettignies, under the name of Alice Dubois was arrested on 20 October 1915 at Froyennes and on 16 March 1916 she was executed as a spy at Brussels.
It is said that she was responsible for the information which lead to an attack by two British planes on the train on which the German emperpr was travelling for a secret visit to the front in the area of Lille,France.  The attempt was a failure it is said.  Does anyone have anymore information on when this happened and which unit did attack the train ?

 

Sincere thanks

 

Best regards,

 

Johan

[Martin Bennitt]

Hi Johan, a quick Internet search finds me no more details of this incident, but just pointing out that although Louise de Bettignies was sentenced to death she was not executed. The sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, perhaps because of the furore surrounding the shooting of Edith Cavell, and she died of illness in a German prison in September 1918. Chantal Antier, who has written a number of books on women in the Great War, published a biography of de Bettignies a couple of years ago. You may be able to contact her.

 

Cheers Martin B

[James A Pratt III]

In OTF 25-4 there is an article' Unfulfiled nightmares of WW I bombing' which discusses the Allied attempts to bomb the Kaiser. See also the book "The Kaiser and his court" which details his travel during WW I.