1910s AD

Air Force Journal of Logistics, Fall, 2004 by Roger G. Miller

In summary, starting from almost nothing in April 1917, the United States had developed a modem, by contemporary standards, air force capable of providing minimum support to the field army operating on the Western Front. Within the United States, as has been discussed, the Air Service operated a training air force that provided itself with instructor pilots and the AEF in France pilots with basic flying skills. One part of the original program was never completed: the failure of American industry to produce suitable aircraft prevented establishing a complete training program at home and shifted the main burden of advanced flying training to France. The buildup of the Air Service in Europe had begun slowly but accelerated dramatically during the last 4 months of the war. The final numbers cannot be reconciled totally with confidence, but as of the last day of the war, the Air Service in France had received 6,364 aircraft: 19 from Italy, 258 from England, 4,874 from France, and 1,213 from the United States. (44) Some 2,698 service aircraft had been sent to the Zone of Advance, while 714 service aircraft remained at the main depots and acceptance parks. Of those sent to the Zone of Advance, the operational flying squadrons had received 2,495 aircraft, while 203 remained in the advance air depots. Attrition had been high, and 1,627 service aircraft had been lost through accident or combat. (45)

At the armistice, the 45 squadrons of the Air Service, AEF at the Front were capable of providing reasonable reconnaissance and bombing support for the ground troops and aerial defense for itself. On the other hand, the size and strength of the AEF at that time actually justified a much larger air force, more than 100 squadrons. Further, the 45 squadrons at the Front were terribly under strength, fielding only 457 operational aircraft out of an authorization for more than 700. (46) In part, this was a result of the heavy losses during the Meuse Argonne fighting. In part, it resulted from difficulties with the type of equipment available like, for example, the complex and delicate, Hispano-Suiza-geared 220 hp engine that powered the Spad XIII. In part, it reflected a shortage of replacement aircraft, spares, and parts from the hardpressed French. But in part, it also was a result of the weaknesses in the maintenance training program that had taken so long to develop. World War I, in short, presented the US Air Service and its successor organizations with mixed results. Thanks to the assistance from the European allies, especially the Royal Flying Corps, it had come an incredibly long distance in an extremely short time. Yet, at the armistice, many weaknesses remained, and much more needed to be accomplished. Perhaps, it is most accurate to say in summary that a foundation for the future had been established, but little more.

Notes

(1.) Quoted in Edward M. Coffman, The War to End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1986, 11. Coffman remains, perhaps, the best single-volume study of the US experience during World War I.