We return today to the Casper newspaper.
The headline was correct, actually. The Germans were stalling out massively in the second stage of the 1918 spring offensive. And they were making a massive effort, commencing on May 1, to move large numbers of troops to the West.
Not that this didn't pose its challenges. Only yesterday the Germans had help Ukraine take Sevastopol from the putative Crimean soviet republic. This was accompanied by the Ukrainian navy moving its ships out of harms way for the time being, although the Germans occupied those that were left. Lenin ordered their commander to scuttle them, and he refused, showing a Ukrainian navy that proved more loyal to Ukraine in 1918 than it did a couple of years back when it basically defected to Russia. And the Germans were fighting in Finland against the Red Finns for the White Finns.
Nonetheless, they were moving troops west now, which they should have done months ago. Having taken massive casualties in the spring offensive, they had little choice.
Eddie Rickenbacker, who really was a race car driver, made his appearance in the paper as a fighter pilot on this day, at least in the local paper, for the first time, thereby achieving the role for which he is remembered.
And Mother's Day was coming up.
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