World War I: an air war of consequence.

On December 17, 1903, the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright flew the world's first successful airplane, following this with the first military airplane in 1908. (The 1908 Flyer was built by the brothers in response to a 1907 requirements specification for a 2-place aircraft capable of flying at 40 mph and able to be broken down and transported in a horse-drawn wagon. Technically, since it crashed during its demonstration program and was not formally delivered to the Army, it never became Army property. But the trials had been so impressive that the Army ordered a second, delivered in 1909.) Just six years later, Europe erupted in a general war. Often portrayed as a sideshow to the war on land and sea, the air war heralded the advent of mechanized warfare, the airplane being one of four great technological advances--the submarine, the tank, and radio communication--that, together, revolutionized military affairs. Aircraft reconnaissance influenced the conduct of military operations from the war's earliest days, and airborne observers routinely governed the fall of artillery barrages, crucially important in an artillery-dominant war.

[IMMUNE OR SOFT TARGET? THE BOMBING OF OTTOMAN HOSPITALS].

World War I was one of the worst wars in terms of human rights violations. The then valid Geneva and La Haye Conventions were ignored by most of the involved states, and serious war crimes were committed. The most serious human rights violations included the following: confiscating, bombing or impeding in their function the hospitals of the Red Cross and Red Crescent, as well as their hospital ships, healthcare workers, vehicles and supplies; mistreating prisoners of war; using prohibited weapons or poison gas; and directly or indirectly killing or violating the right to life of uninvolved civilians. Throughout the entire war, Red Cross and Red Crescent hospitals were bombed in an attempt to prevent the healthcare workers' activities, even though both the Geneva and La Haye Conventions had granted them "immunity" and accepted them as "neutral." The motivation behind these actions was to damage and destroy the enemy's logistic channels and to inflict psychological harm. The enemy wanted to create the worst possible shock and fear by bombing hospitals and clinics considered "soft targets"; by doing so, it attempted to break the other army's morale and break its determination to continue the war. These crimes-which today are openly accepted as war crimes-were greatly assisted by the facts that the conventions lacked any binding statutes concerning breaches and that their enforcement remained very limited. Although at the end of the war a commission was brought to life with the aim to punish was crimes, Germany was held responsible for the war, leading to war crime convictions being limited to this state only. No international court was established to adjudicate and punish war crimes in general. This article examines the correspondence between the Ottoman state and the Red Crescent concerning the Entente Powers' attacks on Ottoman hospitals during World War I and the ensuing human rights violations, in the light of records from the Prime Ministry's Ottoman Archives and Red Crescent Archive.

[ATTACKS ON OTTOMAN HOSPITAL SHIPS IN WORLD WAR I].

During World War I, hospital ships were used in order to efficiently treat wounded and sick soldiers and to transport them to hospitals on land. With the La Haye Conventions of 1899 and 1907, hospital ships were accepted as immune, and on an international level it was guaranteed that they could serve wounded and sick soldiers throughout the entire war. Although most of the involved states had signed the conventions before the war, after the battles began the -conventions were repeatedly violated and thus rendered ineffectual. Regardless of being painted in the colors specified by the convention and/or carrying the Red Cross or Red Crescent emblem and flag, many ships were bombed, confiscated or damaged with the intent to harass, or they were misused for military purposes that did n6t conform to their actual mission. This article discusses the Entente Powers' attacks on Ottoman hospital ships, examining the protests and warnings of the Ottoman state against them, as recorded in documents kept in the Prime Ministry's Ottoman Archives and the Turkish Red Crescent Archive. The relevant sources show that accusations concerning the attacks on or misuse of hospital ships were mutual. However, both sides generally either dismissed these accusations, or claimed that the incident could not be verified, or indirectly admitted to the attacks being made by mistake. The Ottoman state generally sent its correspondence about the Entente Powers' attacks on its hospital ships with the International Red Cross Committee and the neutral US embassy. The documents under study are particularly important for understanding the reasons behind the breaches to the convention, as well as for investigating the diplomatic language used in.this context. When examining from a human rights perspective the violations concerning the hospital ships and the terminology used in the protests and warning against these violations, these sources carry even greater significance.

The psychologist and the bombardier: the Army Air Forces' aircrew classification program in WWII.

During World War II, psychologists in the Army Air Forces were given an unprecedented opportunity to showcase their discipline by developing examinations to test the aptitude of aviation cadets as pilots, navigators, or bombardiers. These psychologists enjoyed success in classifying pilots and navigators, but became quickly frustrated by their results for bombardiers. The trouble lay not in their choice of tests but in their performance measures for bombardiering, a difficulty that came to be known as 'the problem of the criterion.' This episode in the history of military mental testing exemplifies the challenges faced by psychologists at the moment they were poised to gain the support of the armed services, and highlights how these new hazards shaped postwar military psychology.

'The city of our dreams'? The political and economic realities of rebuilding Britain's blitzed cities, 1945-54.

This essay examines the political and economic factors affecting the rebuilding of Britain's provincial blitzed cities following the Second World War. Historians of planning have been prolific in their research on this period, but only from the perspective of planning visions and their reality, not the detailed steps that had to be followed towards implementation. This essay argues that, beyond the exigencies of an austere economic situation, both the Investment Programmes Committee--a Cabinet-level committee--and the planning legislation in the 1940s deeply affected the progress of rebuilding. Cities had to deal with constraints both obvious and hidden. After the Second World War, Britons lived in a world built not only by the visions of architects and planners, but also by developers, builders, and the desires of local authorities all working within a national political and economic framework.

[The medical treatment of Kim Phúc at the BG Unfallklinik Ludwigshafen]. / Die Behandlung von Kim Phúc an der BG Unfallklinik Ludwigshafen.

The Vietnam War was a military conflict in Vietnam during the Cold War that followed the First Indochina War. This war was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of South Vietnam, supported by the USA and other anti-communist countries. Kim Phúc is the child depicted in the Pulitzer Prize winning photograph taken on June 8, 1972 by AP photographer Nick Út. The iconic photo shows her at about nine years of age running naked on a road amid the chaos after being severely burned by a napalm attack. After 14 months of hospital stay and 17 surgical procedures Kim Phúc was able to return home. Since then, she was used as a propaganda symbol by the communist government of Vietnam. To continue her studies, Kim was granted permission to move to Cuba where she met her future husband. However, the sequelae of her burn wounds affected her everyday life enormously. In 1984, with the support of the international aid organization "terre des hommes" and the German magazine "STERN", Kim Phúc got the opportunity to meet and get treated by Professor Zellner. Professor Peter Rudolph Zellner was the first chief of the Department of Hand, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Burn Center, BG Trauma Center Ludwigshafen, and one of the founder members of the German Society of Plastic Surgeons. The reconstructive surgeries provide Kim Phúc an almost normal life. Later on, she was involved in international aid organizations; she was named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and she was awarded several honorary Doctorates of Law. Kim Phúc became a Canadian citizen. Today, she lives with her husband and two children in Ontario, Canada.

Books vs bombs? Humanitarian development and the narrative of terror in Northern Pakistan.

This article examines the role of humanitarian discourse and development in reconfiguring the contemporary culture of empire and its war on terror. It takes as its point of entry the immensely popular biographical tale, Three Cups of Tea, which details how the American mountaineer Greg Mortenson has struggled to counter terrorism in Northern Pakistan through the creation of schools. Even as this text appears to provide a self-critical and humane perspective on terrorism, the article argues that it constructs a misleading narrative of terror in which the realities of Northern Pakistan and Muslim life-worlds are distorted through simplistic tropes of ignorance, backwardness and extremism, while histories of US geopolitics and violence are erased. The text has further facilitated the emergence of a participatory militarism, whereby humanitarian work helps to reinvent the military as a culturally sensitive and caring institution in order to justify and service the project of empire.

[Mustard gas bombs found astray in the Faxaflói bay. Mustard gas: usage and poisonings]. / Sinnepsgassprengjur á afvegum í Faxaflóa. Sinnepsgas: notkun thess og eitranir.

The finding in 1972 of two World War II mustard gas artillery shells in crushed shell sediment dredged in the Faxaflói Bay and transported as raw material for cement production at Akranes (Western Iceland) is reported. One of the shells was wedged in a stone crusher in the raw material processing line and was ruptured. As a result dark fluid with a garlic like smell seeped out from the metal canister. The attending employees believed the metal object to be inert and tried to cut it out with a blow torch. This resulted in the explosion of the shell charge and in the exposure of four employees to mustard gas. All suffered burns on their hands and two of them in the eyes also. The second shell was detonated in the open at a distance from the factory. Emphasis is given to the fact that instant, or at least as soon as possible, cleansing and washing is the most efficient measure to be taken against the debilitating effects of mustard gas. It is also pointed out that the active principle in mustard gas (dichlorodiethyl sulphide) can easily be synthesized and none of the precursor substances are subjected to any restrictions of use. The authors conclude that mustard gas bombs may still be found in the arsenals of some military powers in spite of an international convention that prohibits the production, stockpiling and the use of chemical weapons. Terrorist groups have also seemingly tried to aquire mustard gas bombs and other chemical weapons. Therefore cases of mustard gas poisoning might still occur.

Preparedness lessons from modern disasters and wars.

Disasters come in all shapes and forms, and in varying magnitudes and intensities. Nevertheless, they offer many of the same lessons for critical care practitioners and responders. Among these, the most important is that well thought out risk assessment and focused planning are vital. Such assessment and planning require proper training for providers to recognize and treat injury from disaster, while maintaining safety for themselves and others. This article discusses risk assessment and planning in the context of disasters. The article also elaborates on the progress toward the creation of portable, credible, sustainable, and sophisticated critical care outside the walls of an intensive care unit. Finally, the article summarizes yields from military-civilian collaboration in disaster planning and response.