Knights of the Sky

     On the beach of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright brothers built the first airplane. Or to be more specific, they built the first airplane that would remain airborne for a significant amount of time. Their first flight lasted only 12 seconds, but it was a far cry from the first record of 0 seconds. Their "aeroplane" had propellers in the back to propel it through the air.  The U.S. government asked for them to build an army model. They agreed to build it, but abruptly the government changed their mind. Why would there be a use for an airplane? As the war raged on, they realized why. It could be used for reconnaissance, bombing powder depots, and shooting down opposing airplanes. They decided that there was a use and they in to turn, put it to good use. That resulted in the formation of  the U.S. Air Force.

     There were several planes invented in WWI. The French Sopwith Camel (Above to the left), the German Albatross D.V. (Above to the right), and the Red Falcons. These all were made for war. All with a similar design, the planes were either biplanes or triplanes and they all had machine guns at the front. And similarly they also experienced many different problems. If they had a machine gun firing behind a set of propellers, the machine gun would hit the rotating blades. It was quite a struggle to figure out. Two methods were used. The first was very dangerous. You would put steel wedges on the propeller so that any bullet that hit it would ricochet off. Why this was dangerous was because it could hit the pilot or the plane itself.
      The second one was very smart. The Germans copied the design from a downed French airplane. They called it the Fokker Scourge. If the blade came around, a rod would push up the gun out of the way.
     There were many fights in the air. These fights were known as dogfights. Many people lost their lives as a result.
     The people that flew the planes were called aces. In order to be an ace, you had to shoot down a certain amount of planes. Here are some aces:

     Name:                                    Record:
     Manfred Von Richthofen       80                        German
     Rene Fonck                               75                         French
     Edward Mannock                    73                         British
     William Bishop                        72                         Canadian

 
As you can see, Manfred Richthofen had the highest score of all. He was an evil and horrible pilot, and he was feared by all. In order to taunt his enemies and to make sure everybody knew who he was, he had his plane painted bright red. He was known by all as the Red Baron. He was known for chasing his victims to the ground to make sure that they went down.  One time as he was doing that, he also started to go down. He crashed in no man's land. Fortunately or unfortunately, what ever you want to think, he was found by the Australians with a single bullet in his chest. That was the end of the Red Baron, The terror of the skies.                        

The gas mask of WWI

      The gas mask looks quite tame from pictures, but to really wear it, you might think differently.

     Before soldiers went out to battle they would have to shave their beards. If their beards weren't shaved, and they got into a gas attack, then their gas mask would not fully fit on their face, and they would be exposed to the chemical.

     At the beginning of the war, gas masks were not very good at all. They did not have filters, so it would not keep the gas out. As the war dragged on, and gas attacks became more frequent. More and better gas masks were made. These masks had glass eye-pieces, a hose connected to a oxygen tank, a built-in filter, and they were fully enclosed.

   
     There were also gas masks that could fit dogs and horses. In fact, if there was a gas attack the gas masks were to be put on the dog and the horse before they were put on the soldiers. The animals were considered helpless, so they were put before the needs of human life.

     The gas mask was a very hard thing to deal with. It would suction over your face, in a sense, and would cause a lot of sweating. As a result, the mask would keep sliding down. It was also very claustrophobic. The person would have to keep from pulling the mask off to get fresh air. If they did, the gas would get into their mask and not be of any affect.



           This shows the aerial view of a gas attack.  

 

Mustard Gas the horrible agent

     In order to understand Mustard Gas or Sulfur Mustard, you must understand what a gas or agent is. A gas is a chemical weapon used in World War I and. There were certain levels of gas. Tear gas would blind its victims, and gases like Zyklon-B and Mustard gas were meant to destroy.

     When people were under a chemical gas attack, they might not notice it at first, it might take a few hours or even a day to affect them. When it finally did effect them they would get rashes all over their bodies, in their nose and in their throats. They would start to swell and close up breathing passage. The person would slowly suffocate.



People would have to wear gas masks which were big and bulky and were hard to add to there kit. The first versions of the gas mask was not very helpful, But as they progressed, they were made with built-in filters.



Why it was called Mustard Gas was because of the smell it made. It smelled of strong mustard.


A gas mask consisted of a breathing tank, a built-in filter, and glass eye-pieces. Men would have to shave their beards, so that it would be fully enclosed.





                                            
Gas was horrible and killed many during both wars.






In World War II it was banned, although sometimes the rule was disobeyed and used.

The Horrors of the Holocaust

 

The Holocaust was one of the many major attacks against the people of God, the Jews. Hitler became a dictator on August 2, 1934 and eventually wiped out an estimate of 11 million people (Six million of which were Jews) It was definitely Satan attempting to use Hitler to wipe out God's people, but like it says in Revelation, there will be 144,000 Jews that will be saved. So, Satan will never ever be able to completely destroy the Jews. I would like to cover what life was like in the Prison Camps.

I can't imagine how hard it would have been for those children to be separated from their parents. In the book Hanna's Suitcase, the children are taken in by their aunt and uncle after both parents had been taken away. They are soon called to report to the deportation center. Their uncle hires a taxi to drive them there because he knew where they would be going. Hannah and George stay in a ghetto for some time. The whole time, George's goal is to get his family back together again. Later he is taken to Auschwitz and then his sister follows, only to be led into one of the horrible gas chambers. He is released from Auschwitz and finds out that his Father and Mother were murdered. After searching and searching a girl comes up to him saying that Hanna was gassed. You can see through that one story how the Holocaust messed up so many families.
The prison camps were where Hitler put Jews and then they were later taken and gassed. They are also known as death camps which better fits the description. The Jews were taken from their homes, or from a deportation center, stuffed into cattle cars, sometimes with no more then a bucket as a toilet. They would travel for days and people would die on the way to the prison camps. They were treated like they were animals. It was so awful. The stench was horrific. One girl said that she was nauseated when she was in there and that it took her some getting used to.
The prison camps were worse. People described them as "hell." The stories that are told are so eye opening to what it was like. The food portions were so dinky and their "vegetable soup" was basically water with maybe a little chunk of meat floating around.

The Line up was a miserable part of the day. They would have to stand outside for long periods of time no matter what the weather was like.
The bunk rooms in which they slept were infested with lice. The bedding was filled with sawdust, and they were unworthy to even be called bedding. The bunks were so unstable. There was an instance in which one of the bunk beds crashed down, breaking the nose of the person underneath it.
There was one situation in the camp when women were all in a tent and the bucket of waste spilled all over. It was totally disgusting.  I don't think that they were able to change their clothing after that. The people had to work so hard, it was impossible to do everything, especially surviving off of their meager rations. If they didn't meet the standards of the Nazis or they didn't obey the rules, they were beaten; sometimes, they even died.

Auschwitz was one of the worst death camps. When people arrived there, the ones that weren't useful  would be sent to the "showers" (disguised gas chambers) When the gas was put into the chambers, the people would pile up on top of each other to get the last breath of air. It was a slow and awful death of suffocation. One lady told the children to breath in deeply when they went to be gassed so that they could see their mommies sooner. She didn't want them to have to suffer much. It is so sad to think that a lot of these people died without Christ.

There are two ways you can react to the Holocaust:

1. In anger towards God. In a documentary a man said that his mother told him that God was simply taking a long nap during the Holocaust; he became bitter towards God and claimed that his religion was now "survival".
2. Or you could look at it and recognize that God had a reason for what happened and was sovereign in every area of the Holocaust. (Deuteronomy 29:29)

We, as Christians, know that God had a purpose in it and will keep His the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to never completely destroy the Jewish people.

The Horror of the Civil War

 The Civil war was the bloodiest war in American history. About 1,264,000 people were killed.

 
      At the beginning of the war, the boys began eagerly signing up for battle. They thought it would be so cool to wear their uniforms, carry guns and bayonets and be able to set ambushes on the enemy. All the people thought there would be a couple minor skirmishes and then the war would be over. At the first battle, people came to watch the "Victory." But it was quite different from what they had expected. Instead, the war lasted for four long dreaded years.
The Civil War was a turning point in American history. Many new war weapons were invented. Some of the most dreaded weapons were the land mines, water mines and the Gatling gun. The most dreaded was the Ironclad.
     The first weapons that I will talk about is the land mines and the water mines. These were one in the same thing. If you stepped on a land mine or floated your boat into one of the water mines, it would automatically explode.
     The Gatling gun was a very dreaded weapon that would totally cut off the first line of soldiers. People were terrified to be on the wrong side of it. It was like a small machine gun.
The Iron Clad was the worst of all. It was the very first submarine. It had canons on it and some had turrets at the top that you could twist around to get a good shot at the enemy. If it rammed into a ship it would sink the ship. If it was shot at, the shell would ricochet off.
     Another one of the horrors of the Civil War were the prison camps, the worst camp being Camp Douglas. It treated its southern prisoners terribly. They were not fed well at all. When they went into the camp there was a very small chance that they could escape.
     The war had both good and bad on both sides, which I will not talk about today. But you can come back next time to hear a little bit more about that.

Liberté, égalité, fraternité ou la mort

You are Marie Davanche, an aristocrat in disguise. You are in danger of being found out and led to the guillotine. You have experience much difficulty with playing the part of a peasant. You really can't get down their accent, even though you have heard it over and over again and you don't know how to walk like the peasants.

     You finally get used to your clothes, and enjoy walking around Paris. You get up early in the morning to get in line for a loaf of bread. You take out a leather bag from a hiding place in your house, and then grab 5 sous. You will use that amount to go and buy a loaf of bread. When you get in line, you are at the very back. It seems like the whole city of Paris is there. You are very disappointed that you didn't get up earlier.

     When it is your turn, you ask for a big loaf of bread, but to your dismay, all that there is left is a very tiny loaf.

     "Can't you make a bigger loaf for me and save it? I will pay for it right now and then get it tomorrow," you plead like every other peasant does. See, you have observed them in the streets and picked up on the way they bargain.

     "No, if I did that to everyone, then I wouldn't be being fair," he said in a rather sympathetic tone. You walk away sad and frustrated. Bread is the staple you need to stay alive. Instead, you decide that you would rather starve to death then waste your money on a dinky loaf of bread.

      You decide to go and watch the guillotining. You walk over and push yourself to the front of the crowd. A man is walking up the steps; you watch as he is strapped to the plank and pushed in. After he is guillotined, his head is held up high and then tossed into a basket along with the rest of his body. That was it for you, and you walk away disgusted with what has happened.

     You get the shocking news that Jean Paul Marat was murdered by Charlotte Corday. The people view him as their "god", and now, he is seen as their martyr.

     You receive the news that Charlotte Corday has now been guillotined for the murder of Marat. You feel sad. She was one of your friends, and yet she got killed. You wish that you could have done something for her, but then what is there that you could have done? You would have probably been blamed for conspiring with her, and then you would have been guillotined yourself.

She was the only friend that you trusted with your secret. Now who could you trust?

     When Catholicism and Christianity are banished from France, you are not surprised. The French Republic calendar is the "new thing." One week now consists of ten days so that the French people forget to observe Sunday. You think that this has gone too far.

     Finally, Georges Danton raises a cry against the guillotine. He says that the Revolutionaries have had enough blood shed. Robespierre does not agree. When you hear that Danton is killed, all you have left is to follow Robespierre or give up your identity.

     You hate all this bloodshed. You’ve even seen some of your

friends killed. You’ve had to betray others in order to mask your identity. It’s getting harder to star concealed. You decide to take action and flee Paris. You can’t trust anybody, so you tell no one about your secret,

     You take your leather pouch out of its hiding place and stuff it into a flour sack. You then take an extra change of clothes and shove them into a hiding place till tomorrow when you escape Paris.

     You wake up early in the morning, and start for the bakery. With your 20 sous, you purchase 4 loaves of bread. When you arrive, there is just a short line. When it's your turn, you ask for four loaves of bread. You put down the money and you receive 4 of the biggest loaves. 

     As you walk to your house, you look behind you making sure that nobody is following you. When you arrive at your house, you walk in and hurriedly shut and bolt your door. You walk over to your hiding place, and take out the sack. Upon opening it, you wrap the bread in a white cloth and stuff it into the sack. 

     Now you are all ready to move. You walk out the back door, and rush to the dock looking very carefully around at your settings.

     At the end of the dock, you find a steady looking rowboat tied to stake and decide to take. This might lead you to finding a ship headed for England. You toss your bag into the boat and then carefully climb in. After untying the knot that is on the boat, you use your legs to kick the dock and give your boat a running start. Rowing is not nearly as difficult as the work you've done in the past. All of the sudden you see a ship. You hold up one of the lanterns that you’ve brought along with you and look. It doesn't have a British flag, but it doesn't have a French flag; so you decide to row towards it. You row faster and harder.

     When you reach the ship, you hear faint whispers. "What is it Jacques?"

     "I don't know. It looks like a rowboat, but I'm not sure."

     "Let's pull it in. Maybe it's one of those people who are trying to escape France."

     "Let's just let this one escape, Pierre."

     "No, you know we were put on this duty for a reason. If we let this one escape we could get guillotined. You know how fierce Robespierre is about these kinds of things. He would be so angry. Pull her in or I will report you as a friend of the aristocrats."

     After hearing the conversation, you try to row away but it is impossible. You are stuck. You don't know how, but you just want to get away. Grabbing your sack, you prepare to jump. Just as you get ready to, something comes flying at you and knocks you out.

     After that, Jacques throws a rope with a hook, and it digs into your boat. "Did you get it?"

     Yes, I did."

     "Haul her in then," Pierre commands. Jacques pulls the rope and the boat comes closer. When it comes as close as it will, Jacques ties it to a pole on the ship, and jumps onto the boat. He looks very closely you and then yells up to Pierre, "You can cast the rope down. This time, Pierre casts down a rope without a hook. Jacques grabs it and ties it around you, and then ties the remaining rope around himself. "You can pull now," he yelled. Pierre pulls in and Jacques climbs up the steep side of the ship.

When he arrives on the deck he carefully lays you down onto the deck of the ship. Pierre kneels down and carefully examines you. He searches for anything that would be proof of her aristocracy. "Was there anything in the boat when you went down?"

    "Yes, there was a flour sack."

     "Well, that must have the proof that we need. Go down and get it," Pierre commands in an annoyed voice. Jacques goes through the same process again, and when he arrives on the ship for a second time, he tosses the sack to Pierre.

     Pierre hurriedly opens up your bag and rummages through it. He sets down the loaves of bread, and then finds the leather pouch. After carefully dumping out its contents onto the deck, he starts counting the pieces. "Forty sous; No poor person could ever earn that much money. I am sure of it," Pierre said in a wicked tone. He stuffs everything back into the sack and makes the command to start the way back to Paris.

     When you wake up, you are in a French prison bound with chains around your feet and hands. You also have fetters around your neck. You try to twist your head, but all you can do is look ahead. The prison is full of other convicts. Worst of all, the prison is infested with rats. You try the best you can to scoot away from them before they craw all over you.

     Finally, after a few days of being in prison, you are called up with several other prisoners. The fetters on your neck and feet are unlocked and you are led away to your unknown destination.

     The guards open the door to a building and you are led into the room first. Two guards stand by you and you walk down a long hallway. When you come to the end of the hall, there is a man dressed very richly.

     “Hmhm,”  he clears his throat and then precedes. "You have been found to have been identified as Marie Davanche, an aristocrat in disguise. Do you have anything to say against the accusation? If not, I will proceed." You remain silent.

"You were found in a rowboat trying to escape from Paris. If all this is found to be true, you are sentenced to death by the guillotine. Do you have anything to say in your defense?"

"Yes."

"Then proceed."

     "I have a right to escape. Paris was not made to be a prison. It was made for people to live freely in, and I think that it is unfair that you are killing innocent children. I am finished."

     "Treason! Treason! Lead her to the guillotine! Liberté, égalité, fraternité!" the people cry in their anger. One man comes up with a knife and cuts your hair. Then two of the people grab you before the judge can say anything. You are led down the streets to the guillotine with the angry mob following close behind you, shouting, "Liberté, égalité, fraternité!"  

    Your only option is to walk up the steps of the guillotine to your death. When you arrive at the top, you are bound with a rope and shoved onto the plank. Then, a man pushes the plank until your head is locked into a stock. You wait nervously for the blade to slam down upon your head. The last thing you hear is the crowd shouting, "Down with the blade! Down with the blade!" The Slam, the blade comes down upon your head, and you never ever again see the     light of day.

The Slaughter of the Noble

As you read in our intro-post, we are studying about the French Revolution, the Napoleonic War and the War of 1812. Today, I am going to talk about the French Revolution.
There was a certain man named Maximilian Robespierre. He was the leader of the Jacobin's, as well as the cause for all of the deaths caused by the National Razor (Guillotine). There was also another man named Georges Danton, who at first supported Robespierre in these riots. But after much bloodshed, he tried to stop the killing. When Robespierre discovered this, he tried to put a stop to Danton, knowing that if he were to succeed, the noble class would arrest those in charge of the killing. He ended up killing Danton. Robespierre now had full power and went berserk with killing. This time of mass murderer was known as the Reign of Terror. All of that said, here is a speech that I wrote pertaining to Maximilian Robespierre.


Beware: PG:13 for violence :)

Notice: I do not agree with Robespierre on this :)

I, Maximilian Robespierre, stand strongly against the greed of the Aristocracy. 

They disregard the rights of the people. 

We are invisible to their royal eyes; we are as dirt under their royal feet. 
This act can only be washed out with blood, 
the blood of the National Razor.
Transform the minds of  the people: 'A revolution is unavoidable.'

Make them hunger for more bloodshed; don't stop 'till this cruelty is crushed.
Let your anger boil over into action.

Down with the king and queen! down with the aristocracy!
Feed their heads to the National Razor!

     A wash of silence poured across the crowd as Maximilian Robespierre mounted the stage. The people gazed at the ambitious, arrogant man. He began with a low tone, but raised his voice to a passionate tone at the mention of the National Razor. When he started he didn't stop 'till he had spoken his peace. At the mention of "Down with the king and queen down with the Aristocracy!!! Feed their heads to the National Razor!!!" A great applause shook the whole room as the peasants took up arms and rushed to the prison where they kept the Noblemen. A great deal of death was dealt that day as they stormed into the prison and slaughtered the men there, leaving the survivors forsaken. Robespierre looked at the scenery with a smile spread across his face, not knowing that he himself would one day be sent to the Guillotine, on June 28, 1794.    

Written by: Austin B. Spafford

Your First Glimpse Into A-Team Trouble

     Hello and welcome to the A-Team Trouble Blog. This blog will be for your knowledge and to answer your curiosity. This is the year 2015 and we are learning about the French Revolution, the Napoleonic War, and the War of 1812 all at once.
     This blog is meant to give you a sneak peak into what it's like in the A-Team school room. In our cabinet is a pile of library books where we get a lot of the information we have. The computer is another great way to gain knowledge, and has greatly benefited us in our studies
     Lynnae (our teacher/sister), gave us the assignment to start a blog. Therefore, this is where we find ourselves, fingers flying across the keyboard and ideas popping into little heads as they now appear on your screen.
     I am not kidding you when I say that we are young. Annalise = 13. Austin =11. Ania = 8. So, with all of this said, please bear with us as we try to explain the knowledge that is in our heads.