Aspects of Anglo-US co-operation in the air in the First World War

Air & Space Power Journal, Winter, 2004 by Sebastian Cox

In addition, Squier did not come away from his meetings with Hoare fortified only by promises--far from it. A more obviously mutually beneficial, and thus more sustainable, agreement was also reached between the two men. Hoare had a problem in that the flying programme at many of his RFC Canada schools in Ontario could expect to be badly affected by the severe Canadian winter.

In his visit to Hoare in May 1917, Squier had mentioned that the military flying-training schools which were scheduled to open in the States were, unsurprisingly, very short of instructors and asked whether the RFC in Canada might offer any assistance. The imaginative Hoare immediately saw the possibility of an arrangement which would help both parties with their differing training problems. He told the War Office in London of his plan to train 100 US cadets during the summer of 1917 in exchange for facilities for a Canadian training wing (later increased to two wings) at a southern US training base, complete with machines, during the winter months, when the Canadian schools would be all but closed by the weather. Hoare's entrepreneurial spirit did not stop there, however, and he was soon scheming with American officers over cocktails at the Raleigh Hotel in Washington before appearing before the US Aircraft Production Board with a proposal for a far more ambitious reciprocal-training scheme. Under this scheme, the RFC agreed to train 300 pilots; 2,000 ground-crew members; and 90 equipment officers, all in addition to the original 100 pilots from the first agreement. The trained personnel would then be shipped to the United Kingdom (UK), where they would be issued with aircraft and equipment before proceeding to France, where they would come under the control of the RFC. The original agreement was to lapse in February, but it was extended to April, and the total number to be trained was now to be sufficient for 18 squadrons. (9)