FALSE FLAG OPERATION (1915): Captain-lieutenant Walther Schwieger, commanding the SM U-20, of the German Imperial Navy, orders a single torpedo fired at the RMS Lusitania, commanded by Captain William T. Turner.  The torpedo strikes the Lusitania in a compartment where munitions had been surreptitiously stored.  Turner had been ordered to sail at reduced speed—without escorts—into waters that were known to be infested with German U-boats.

       NOTES:

• Prior to the departure of the Lusitania the smoke stacks were repainted to match the pattern her sister ship the RMS Mauretania (an armed merchant vessel). To further confuse the identities of the two ships, the name of the Lusitania was painted out.
• A false flag operation is a clandestine action usually carried out by a group with an agenda, done in such a way to mislead a population into believing it is being done by someone else.
• In the opinion of history, and of the editors and writers, we are forced to agree on prima facie evidence alone that this is a False Flag incident at least in the military way.

       [added 6/10/2022] Thanks to Jim Lorenz and Bill Holmes for this entry.