Historical conspiracies - The car kicking of WWI

[abaris]

OK, some serious nuttery ahead.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife were shot, as everyone knows, in a certain car, count Harrach lended out for their visit to the Bosnian city of Sarajewo. And now it gets weird, but only by Anglosaxon standards. 



As you can see, the plate reads AIII 118. That's where the nuttery starts.

He and his wife Sophia travelled in a car bearing the number plate "AIII 118", which some have read as the date the eventual Armistice was signed.

Sky's royal commentator Alistair Bruce tweeted: "Thinking of irony that car in which Archduke Frank Ferdinand was shot in #Sarajevo (catalyst to #1WW) bore number plate 'A111118' - Armistice 11 11 18 #spooky."

https://news.sky.com/story/a-ii-ii-18-fr...e-11551176

Total Bullshit. The A simply stands for Austria. There haven't been that many cars in 1914, so you had to hand out regional plates. But there's another conspiracy nuttery involving the famous car, which I read some years ago, but couldn't find any refference to.

It's supposed to be an unlucky car. Supposedly any owner, after Franz Ferdinand was shot, died a violent death.



See that tiny bullethole in the back. That's the round that killed Franz Ferdinands wife.

Here's a closeup



See that?



That's damage done by a bomb detonating some hours before the assassination.

Both have never been repaired. Truth is, count Harrach never reclaimed the vehicle. He donated it to the emperor, who in turn donated it to the museum of military history in Vienna. It rests there for the last 108 years and never drove another mile, after forensics were done with it. The real miracle is, it survived two world wars and heavy fighting and bombing in 1945, as a time capsule, in the state it was in on june 28th 1914.

[Dom]

That's a cool looking car.

I bet there is no historical event that hasn't had some conspiracy theory or other woven around it at some time.