Chicago Tribune, December 5, 1939

Seventy-five years ago today, December 4, 1939, the Canadian Government announced that U.S. Citizens would be permitted to enlist in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Recruits were required to be of “European descent and resident in Canada.” However, the Canadian government, eager to recruit American aviators, was quite lax on the “residency” requirement. Residency meant only that the applicant must be in Canada at the time he filed his papers.

This, of course, would have been a violation of American law and American neutrality. But even though 9000 Americans eventually enlisted, I’m not aware of a single case of an American being prosecuted for service with the Allies.

The Canadians had even been quietly recruiting in the United States, even though this was clearly a violation of U.S. law. Americans were initially required to pledge his allegiance to the British monarch, which could potentially lead to loss of U.S. citizenship. At some point, however, this was relaxed, and American recruits were required to merely obey RCAF rules and discipline for the duration of the war.

Some Americans had already enlisted. For example, De Peyster Brown, an American pilot who served in the Battle of Britain, had enlisted in the RCAF on September 9, by claiming to be Canadian.

References

The Americans in the RCAF

A hundred years ago today, October 10, 1914, the Arizona Republican carried this aerial photo of Paris, taken from a German aeroplane. The paper notes that the pilot and photographer, one Lieutenant Thin, had received the Iron Cross. Undoubtedly the intended audience for this photo was the French: If the Germans can take a photograph from the air, then they can drop a bomb from the air, which is exactly what they had been doing.

In other war news, the papers were reporting that Antwerp had fallen, and that the Belgian government had reconstituted itself inside France.

A hundred years ago today, German zeppelins bombed Paris, Warsaw, and other cities.  The map above, from the September 28, 1914 issue of the New York Sun, shows the locations of the Paris bombs, near the Eiffel Tower.  In Paris, three were killed by bombs, one of which landed at a spot the American ambassador had passed only minutes earlier.

In Calais, bombs were dropped but failed to explode.  And the Poles managed to shoot down the zeppelin bombing Warsaw, taking the crew prisoners.

See also:  Fall of Paris, 1940

This photo, from the August 30, 1914 issue of the New York Sun, shows a French airship and British warships guarding shipping in the English channel. The paper also reports that German troops are now only 87 miles from Paris.

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