Sunday, August 4, 2019

August 4, 1919. The Motor Transport Convoy goes nowhere at all, Romanians take Budapest.

For its entire journey, the Motor Transport Convoy had taken Sunday off.  It didn't due that for Sunday, August 3.


That may be because its progress had been cut in half by muddy roads.  At any rate, things caught up with it on Monday, August 4, when it was forced to take the day off due to mechanical problems that had to be addressed.

A Cheyenne newspaper noted the convoy on the front page for the first time due to the delay.


Cheyenne reported the delay was due to the need of a gasket for a Model B Liberty truck, which it also noted as being nonexistent at Ft. D. A. Russel and, moreover, being a mystery. But the convoy's diary make sit plain that the cause of the delay was more than that.

An Army that was advancing was that of Romania's, which entered Budapest.

Romania Army, wearing French Adrian helmets, entering Budapest in 1919.

People like to cynically cite the phrase about World War One being the war to end war, and then cite to World War Two, but World War One's fighting didn't even stop on November 11, 1918, like people like to imagine.  All sorts of ancillary wars sprung up or kept on.

Romanian cavalry in Budapest.  Romanian cavalry was very good.

Romania and Hungary had gone to war on November 13, 1918, just two days after the Armistice on the Western front, and the war came to a conclusion on this day in 1919.  The war had really begun in earnest, however, after a period of armistice, in April when Romania determined to strike against the Communist Hungarian government of Kun, and he determined to strike first.  The preemptive strike was a failure and Kun's government became a failure, falling under opposition on August 2.  Romania had the backing of the Allies and occupied Hungary for a time, withdrawing in 1920.

On this day a Jersey cow by the name of Oxford Mesembryanthemum sold in the east for the price of $15,000, an absolutely phenomenal price in the money of the time.

Also making money was a film entitled, Easy To Make Money, which was released on this day in 1919.



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