[Sailor Steve]

September 8:

In surprise night raid a French cavalry unit attacks a German airfield near La Ferté-Milon and then moves on to von Klucks headquarters. Four years later von Kluck said "All members of the Staff seized rifles, carbines, and revolvers, so as to ward off a possible advance of the French cavalrymen, and extended out and lay down, forming a long firing line. The dusky red and clouded evening sky shed a weird light on this quaint little fighting force. These bold horsemen had missed a goodly prize!"


SMS Leipzig puts into Guaymas, Mexico, in the Gulf of California (or Sea of Cortez), to take on coal. Leipzig has been partrolling off Mexico since the start of the war. A couple of sources say Leipzig sank a British merchant a week or so later, but don't give the name or any other information.


SMS Emden reaches the trade route between Colombo and Rangoon, and again spends the day cruising without sighting an enemy ship. Finally von Müller gives the order to set course for the Colombo-Calcutta route.


Pyotr Nikolayavich Nesterov was the first pilot to perform a loop, on September 9, 1913, in a Nieuport IV monoplane. Almost exactly one year later, on September 8, 1914, Nesterov took off in Morane 'G' number 281 to attack an Austrian Albatros B.II flown by by Franz Malina and commanded by Baron Friedrich von Rosenthal. According to witnesses on the ground Nesterov appeared to fire a pistol at the enemy aircraft, then attempted to ram it by putting his wheels through the fabric of the Albatros's upper wing. The attack was successful, but Nesterov's plane was also damaged and all three men died. It was the first "kill" ever, if somewhat pyrrhic in nature.

Most sources date the incident as either the 25th or 26th of August. I tend to credit the ones citing the 26th, as they are also the only ones which mention that Russia was still using the "Old Style" Julian Calender and that the date for the rest of Europe was September 8th.