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Maybe a better story than Kelly's Heroes

Marvin the Martian

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This story is true, and is about some American soldiers who sort of went on a mission of their own. There is an interesting hook at the end. I could not get the photo to copy on my phone. This is from Facebook's The Great War 1914-1918 The Rage Of Men:


5th January 1918: Americans Attempt to Kidnap the Kaiser
Pictured:
The group that attempted to kidnap the Kaiser at Fort Oglethorpe in Georgia in 1919. Front row: Capt. Leland S. MacPhail, Col. Luke Lea, Cap. Thomas P. Henderson, 1st Lt. Ellsworth Brown. Back row: Sgt. Dan Reilly, Sgt. Egbert O. Hail, Sgt. Owen Johnston, Cpl. Marmaduke P. Clokey

On the night of January 5th 1919, U.S. Army Colonel Luke Lea and six American soldiers made a brazen visit to a 17th century Dutch castle where Kaiser Wilhelm II lived in exiled comfort with his wife and entourage.
Fearing capture by the Allies, Wilhelm, the last German emperor and King of Prussia, fled Germany two days before the armistice on November 11, 1918. The Netherlands, a neutral nation during the war, reluctantly provided the kaiser a safe haven.

That night, Colonel Lea and the other men entered Holland illegally under false pretenses: Lea demanded an audience with the deposed German ruler. Lea’s intention, he claimed, was to kidnap “Kaiser Bill,” and deliver him to face war-crime charges in Paris, where the allies were holding peace talks.

The colonel’s ill-conceived exploit would have been ignored if one of his cohorts had not stolen an ashtray. A dramatic investigation prompted the Army’s Judge Advocate General to call this incident “An act of grave indiscretion.”

After America declared war in April 1917, Lea joined the Tennessee National Guard. Born into a wealthy Tennessee family, Lea briefly practiced law, became the publisher of the Nashville Tennessean and, at age 31, had won a seat in the U.S. Senate. He lasted just one term in office.

During World War One, Lea’s Tennessee Guardsmen, federalised as the 114th Field Artillery Regiment, saw action at St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne in France. After the war, Lea’s unit was assigned occupation duty in Luxembourg.It was then that Lea hatched a plan to kidnap the Kaiser.

According to Lea, the idea to kidnap the Kaiser originated at a tea with the Duke of Connaught in June 1918. During the tea, the Duke boasted of being uncle to both King George V of England and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. Lea would later write, "We realised that all of the force of the British crown . . . would be exerted to the utmost to protect the royal kinsman," but Lea believed ". . . that the Kaiser should be made to suffer in some small measure the orgy of torture he had inflicted upon more than half of mankind."

On December 31, 1918, Lea convinced Brigadier General Oliver Spaulding to grant a five-day leave to him, three other officers and three enlisted men. Lea told his commander they had no interest in the usual places American soldiers visited, but wanted to see as many other countries as possible without violating orders. Spaulding signed the leave orders and authorised the use of a government automobile.

On January 1, Lea gathered his men into a seven-passenger Winton. Among them was Captain Larry MacPhail, who Lea knew from Nashville. Lea didn’t say where they were going, only that “the trip might be dangerous,” but “would certainly be exciting.”
On January 3rd, the convoy arrived at the American Consular office in Maastricht to get passports for Holland, a neutral country during the war but still off-limits for American soldiers. Still, no one in Lea’s group questioned his intentions. When Lea learned the passports were delayed, he convinced Belgium’s U.S. minister to issue them documents in the name of Holland’s queen. They let Lea and his men pass into Holland for a “journalist investigation.”
When on January 5th the Americans reached the Dutch border, a guard told them “No American officers are wanted or permitted in Holland.” Lea flashed the queen’s letter. The Dutch guard saluted, and Lea’s convoy drove across the border.
Then Lea told the men of the trip’s true purpose. Lea said that anyone who was uncomfortable with their kidnapping mission could return to brigade headquarters or wait at the Dutch border.

Not one of the men left.

When they at Amerongen Castle at 8 p.m, Lea jumped from his car, rattled the castle’s heavy gates and drew a German sentry’s attention. Lea gruffly insisted, in broken German, on seeing the officer in charge. Instead, the Americans were led into a large library where the castle’s owner, Count Bentinck, appeared wearing a full evening coat and tails. He demanded to know why Lea and his men were in his castle.
When Lea refused to answer, Bentinck stormed from the library and was heard talking to the kaiser in an adjoining room.
As Lea’s party waited, they noticed some of the kaiser’s ashtrays on a table. Each bore the German coat of arms and initials W.I. — Wilhelm Imperator.

Bentinck returned and warned Lea and his men he would not receive them unless they had official business with the kaiser. Before the situation grew ugly, Lea decided to leave — but not before Capt. MacPhail slipped one of the kaiser’s ashtrays into his coat pocket.

As the Americans left the castle, they encountered a frightening scene. Hundreds of civilians had gathered by the gates. Lea nervously ordered his unarmed men into their car. As Dutch troops surrounded them, the Americans gunned their vehicle’s engine and allowed them to pass.

Sitting next to Lea in the Winton’s back seat, Captain MacPhail reached into his pocket and said, “Colonel, I have secured a souvenir for you and the other members of the party.” Without looking down, Lea replied, “I don’t want to hear nor know what I think you have done.”

Two days later, the men returned to brigade headquarters where Lea told General Spaulding little about the trip. Lea never mentioned Holland, the kaiser or the ashtray.

Meanwhile, The Hague’s American military attaché alerted the Military Intelligence Division in Washington that Kaiser Wilhelm had filed a formal complaint against an uninvited group of Americans and had stolen a precious ashtray. MID believed Lea was involved.

General Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, ordered his inspector general to investigate the complaint. Fearing an embarrassing international incident, Pershing urged his IG to “speed this up and let me hear about it.”

For weeks, Brigadier General Andre W. Brewster and his IG investigators grilled every known participant and witness to the trip. A no-nonsense combat veteran, Brewster wanted to know if Lea and his men had violated neutrality rules by visiting Holland, had violated Army regulations by using Army vehicles, and if they had stolen the Kaiser’s ashtray. Lea’s testimony was crucial. He gave the IG nothing. He answered questions with limited responses and denied violating orders.

After testifying, Lea had lunch with MacPhail. As they ate, MacPhail received a message to report immediately for questioning by the IG. Lea told MacPhail, “I’ll serve as your legal counsel.”

During his grilling by the IG, MacPhail’s responses about the kaiser’s missing ashtray were less than truthful: “I saw the ashtray and took temporary possession of it,” admitted MacPhail. “I have not got the ashtray now, and I don’t know where it is.” When asked who took the ashtray, MacPhail replied, “I do not know.”

After reviewing the evidence, IG Brewster wanted Lea court-martialed for illegally entering Holland under false pretenses and attempting to communicate with the enemy. Later, Army Judge Advocate General Colonel Walter A. Bethel agreed but argued against a court-martial. He wrote, “I do not believe that Colonel Lea would be found guilty of anything more in substance than an act of grave indiscretion,” Pershing had the final say and let Lea and the others off with only letters of reprimand placed in their service records.

After the war, Lea found himself in more serious trouble. He owned several Tennessee newspapers financed by a North Carolina bank. When the bank crashed, investigators found that Lea and his eldest son had committed fraud.

What became of the Kaiser’s ashtray?

Captain Leland S. MacPhail, thief of His Imperial German Majesty's ashtray, is better known to the world as Larry MacPhail, General Manager of the Cincinnati Reds (1933-1937), President of the Brooklyn Dodgers (1938-1942), and General Manager/President/Owner of the New York Yankees (1945-1947). MacPhail kept the ashtray and proudly displayed it on his desk for many years.

Today, a century after it was stolen, the ashtray is said to be stored in a safe-deposit box at an undisclosed bank somewhere in the United States.
Footnote:
To the baseball enthusiast, Hall-of-Fame executive Larry MacPhail is best known as the innovative architect of some great Reds, Dodgers and Yankees teams in 1930s and 1940s and as a zealous and abiding consumer of wholesome, nutritious alcohol.
Sources:
https://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/tsla/exhibits/veterans/ww1.htm
"The bizarre tale of a kidnapping attempt, the German kaiser and a beloved ashtray". Washington Post. 2018-08-14.
The Attempt to Capture the Kaiser. By Luke Lea and William T. Alderson - Tennessee Historical Quarterly. Vol. 20, No. 3 (SEPTEMBER, 1961), pp. 222-261
Further Reading.
The Trial of the Kaiser by William A. Schabas (2018)
What to do with the Kaiser?. By Stephen Sedley (2018).
 
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