Marine Corps Aviation the Early Years 1912-1940

8/7/2019 Marine Corps Aviation the Early Years 1912-1940

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FRONT COVER : Three SU - 2 aircraft of Squadroflying over San Diego in 1933. (Marine Corps Photo 530122) .


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MARINE CORPS AVIATION :

THE EARLY YEARS

1 9 1 2 - 1 9 4 0

by

Lieutenant Colonel Edward C . J oh ns on, USM C

E d i t e d b y

Gr a h a m A . C o s m a s

HISTORY AND MUSEUMS DIVISION

HEADQUARTERS, U. S . MARINE CORPS

WASHINGTON, D . C .

1977

Reprinted 1991

P CN 1 9 0 0 0 3 1 6 8 0 0


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For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing OfficeWashington, D.O. 20402Stock No. 008-055-00102-1 J Catalog No. U 214 .13 :AV5/2


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FOREWORD

This brief history of Marine aviation from 1912 to 1940 describes the efforts of Marines to secur etheir own air arm and recounts the early development of the Marine air-ground team. The story is drawnfrom official reports, documents, and personal correspondence, as well as from published historica lworks . It also draws heavily upon the transcribed reminiscences of notable Marine aviators collected an dpreserved by the Oral History Section of the History and Museums Division .Lieutenant Colonel (now Colonel) Edward C . Johnson, USMC, did the initial research for thi shistory and wrote the first draft . Colonel Johnson received his Bachelor of Arts degree from theUniversity of Wisconsin and is himself an experienced fighter pilot, squadron and group commander. Hecommanded VMFA251 in 1969 when the squadron received the Robert M . Hansen Award foroutstanding performance. Colonel Johnson came to the History and Museums Division in June 1970 fro mVietnam, where he served on the staff of Marine Aircraft Group 13 .Additional research and editing of the manuscript were done by Carolyn A. Tyson and CaptainSteven M. Silver, USMCR. Dr. Graham A. Cosmas extensively revised the manuscript and incorporate din it much primary source material not available when Colonel Johnson prepared the initial draft . Dr .Cosmas, who received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College and his doctorate from Colone lJohnson s alma mater, the University of Wisconsin, completed the editing of the manuscript an dprepared it for publication.The History and Museums Division welcomes any comments on the narrative and additiona linformation or illustrations which might enhance a future edition.

E . H. SIMMONSReviewed and approved Brigadier General, U. S. Marine Corps (Ret . )1 August 1977 Director of Marine Corps History and Museums


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PREFACE

From 1912, when First Lieutenant Alfred A . Cunningham became the first Marine to fly, through1940, a handful of dedicated Marines worked to keep their Corps abreast of the progress of militar yaviation and to create an air arm specifically dedicated to supporting Marines in their amphibiou smissionFrom a few daring men and a handful of primitive aircraft in 1912, Marine aviation grew into a forcewhich met the test of combat in World War I . During the 1920s and 1930s, Marine aviators graduall ydeveloped a permanent organization and acquired aircraft of increasing reliability and improvingperformance. In small wars and expeditions in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and China ,Marine fliers devised new techniques for supporting Marine infantry in combat, and they demonstratedthe value of aviation in reconnaissance and in the movement of men and supplies over rough and usuall yroadless terrain.With the creation of the Fleet Marine Force in 1933, Marine aviation received formal recognition a san element of the amphibious air-ground team, and in the fleet landing exercises of the late 1930s bega ndeveloping the doctrines and tactics which would make close air support a reality in World War II . Thetraditions of excellence and versatility established by these early Marine fliers lived on in the skies o fKorea and Vietnam and remain vital today .This study of the formative years of Marine aviation is based on official reports and documents i nthe archives and holdings of the History and Museums Division and on personal memoirs an dcorrespondence, as well as published historical works. It draws heavily on the writings of such pioneersof Marine aviation history as Robert L . Sherrod and Major Edna Loftus Smith, USMCR, and hasbenefited significantly from the efforts of such organizations as the First Marine Aviation Forc eAssociation and the Marine Corps Aviation Association to preserve the memory and record of earl yMarine aviation.Especially valuable in recalling this era to life were the oral reminiscences of distinguished retire dMarine aviators transcribed and preserved by the Oral History Section of the History and MuseumsDivision . Among others, the recollections of General Christian F . Schilt, Lieutenant Generals Karl S .Day and Francis P. Mulcahy, Major Generals Ford O. Rogers, Lawson H . M. Sanderson, and Louis E .Woods, and Brigadier Generals Edward C . Dyer and Daniel W. Torrey enriched the narrative .The division owes a special debt of gratitude to those persons who furnished assistance, comment ,and criticism on the initial draft of the history . Among them, Master Sergeant Roger M . Emmons,USMC (Ret.), Historian, Marine Corps Aviation Association, commented on the manuscript an dfurnished many valuable documents on World War I Marine aviation ; we have borrowed much from hi searlier writings on the period. Mr. Lee M. Pearson, Historian, Naval Air Systems Command, gave u sextensively of his time and of his knowledge of early naval aviation . General Vernon E . Megee, USMC(Ret .), provided especially useful factual comments, and Master Sergeant Walter F . Gemeinhardt, USMC(Ret .), member of the staff of the Marine Corps Museum at Quantico, gave us the benefit of hisdetailed knowledge of early aircraft and the men who flew themThanks are due also to Mr. Goodyear K. Walker of Sacramento, California, for providing theKirkham photograph albums, selections from which have enriched the illustrations of our history, and t oColonel Houston Stiff, USMC (Ret .) of the Treasure Island Navy/Marine Corps Museum at Sa nFrancisco for bringing these albums to the attention of the Director of History and Museums .This history could not have been written without the generous assistance of many members of th eHistory and Museums Division . The writer and editors owe particular gratitude to Mr . Ralph W.Donnelly and Mr. Charles A. Wood for their aid in locating records and personal papers and to Mr .Benis M. Frank, head of the Oral History Section, for his guidance to these valuable sources . Mr .

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Rowland P . Gill and Mr . Jack B. Hilliard searched out photographs to illustrate the text . Themanuscript was prepared under the editorial supervision of Mr . Henry I . Shaw, Jr ., Chief Historian,History and Museums Division. The manuscript was prepared for publication by Mr. Paul D. Johnston.Unless otherwise indicated, all photographs are from official Marine Corps/DOD holdings .

GRAHAM A . COSMAS E . C. JOHNSON

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TABLE OF CONTENTSPageFOREWORD

PREFACEChapter 1 . THE BEGINNINGS, 19121917Naval Aviators in a Different Uniform, 19121913Slow Steps Forward, 1.9 1 .31917Marine Aviation Begins to Organize, 19170Chapter 2. MARINE AVIATION TN WORLD WAR 1, 191719181Marine Aviators Mobilize1The 1st Aeronautic Company in the Azores3Beginnings of the 1st Marine Aviation Force5Marine Aviation Expands9The 1st Marine Aviation Force in France0Chapter 3. ADVANCE TOWARD MATURITY, 191919297Battle for Survival, 191919207Organization and Mission, 192019290Men and Machines, 192019295Maneuvers, Long-Distance Flights, and Air Races2Operations in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Guam9China and Nicaragua4A Decade of Achievement7Chapter 4. MARINE AVIATION COMES OF AGE, 193019401Impact of the Great Depression1Aviation and the Fleet Marine Force1Men and Machines, 193019402Operations, 193019408Conclusion : Marine Corps Aviation, 191219402

NOTES3APPENDICES7A. Directors of Marine Aviation through Pearl Harbor7B. The First 100 Marine Aviators9C . Marine Corps Aircraft, 191219401D. Awards and Decorations to Marine Corps Officers and Enlisted Men for Aviation Duty ,191219410 1INDEX03

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CHAPTER I .THE B EGINNINGS, 1912191 7

Naval Aviators in a D ifferen tUniformUntil the United States entered World War I ,

Marine Corps aviation had no permanent organi-zation separate from naval aviation, and it shistory is interwoven with that of the rudimen-tary naval air arm. The first recorded NavyDepartment expression of interest in heavier -than-air flying machines dates back to 1898 ,when Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodor eRoosevelt, impressed by reports of the experi-ments of Professor Samuel P. Langley, tried topromote consideration of the military possibilitie sof aeronautics. He met a sharp rebuff from theNavy Department bureaus. For the next 12years, while the Wrights flew at Kitty Hawk an daviation activity slowly increased in America andEurope, the Navy cautiously observed develop-ments.In 1910, a year after the Army bought its firs tplane from the Wright Brothers, the Navy De-partment assigned Captain Washington IrvingChambers, a veteran sea officer long intereste din aircraft, to answer correspondence concerningaviation . Chambers had neither authority nor astaff, but he set out to awaken the Navy' sinterest in flight and to promote aeronauticalresearch. He obtained important allies within theNavy Department, including the venerable Ad-miral George Dewey, and he developed a closeworking relationship with the aircraft builder an dinventor Glenn Curtiss. On 14 November 1910,as a result of Chambers ' and Curtiss' jointefforts, Curtiss ' test pilot Eugene Ely made thefirst recorded takeoff from a ship's deck, flyingfrom a platform erected on board the U.S .S .Birmingham . Two weeks later, Curtiss offered toteach a naval officer to fly at no cost to thegovernment. The Navy Department accepted,and Lieutenant Theodore G. Ellyson, USN,reported for instruction to Curtiss' flying schooland experimental station at San Diego, Califor -

nia . There he soon qualified as the Navy's firstofficer pilot .The following year, naval aviation acquiredmore personnel and its first aircraft . With aCongressional appropriation of $25,000, the Nav yDepartment in 1911 purchased three planes

two from Curtiss and one from the Wrigh tBrothers. The manufacturers trained an officerpilot and an enlisted mechanic for each aircraft ,including Lieutenants John Rogers and John H .Towers, and they in turn began training others .Chambers secured establishment of a primitiv eaviation camp (a field, a few buildings, and abeach for launching sea planes) near the NavyEngineering Experiment Station at Annapolis ,just across the Severn River from the NavalAcademy. Ellyson, Rogers, Towers, and thei renlisted mechanics began flight operations therein the fall of 1911. They combined training withexperimental work. To avoid winter weather ,they moved to San Diego in December an dwrecked all three of their airplanes while flyingfrom the Curtiss field. The following spring theyreturned to Annapolis. At a new site (theprevious year the camp had been in the line offire of the Naval Academy's rifle range), the ybegan rebuilding their aircraft and prepared t otrain the new aviators who soon came to joi nthem.

Among the prospective aviators who reporte dto the Annapolis camp in 1912 were two Marin eofficers . Their presence reflected a slowly grow-ing Marine Corps interest in aviation . Thi sinterest was closely related to the emerging ne wmission of the Corps in the steel battleshi pNavy: occupation and defense of advance base sfor the fleet. Since 1900, the Navy and Marin eCorps had been trying to organize an Advanc eBase Force of Marine infantry and artillery .Shortages of funds and manpower and lack ofagreement on details of its organization ha dhampered the actual formation of the force, butby the end of 1911 an Advance Base School was1


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2 MARINE CORPS AVIATION: THE EARLY YEARS, 1912194 0

Lieutenant A lfred A . Cunningham cranks up "Noisy Nan " for a test flight at Philadelphia in 1911 . The plane's inventor is atthe controls . (Marine Corps Photo 514941) .

in operation at the Philadelphia Navy Yard .During 1912, the Marine Corps staff in Washing-ton concluded that, in the words of Majo rGeneral Commandant William P. Biddle, "greatbenefit to an advanced base force . . . mightresult from trained aviators ." 1 Accordingly, theMarine Corps ordered two officers then assigne dto the Advance Base School, First LieutenantsAlfred A . Cunningham and Bernard L . Smith, toAnnapolis for flight instruction and aviation duty.With this routine order began the epic of MarineCorps aviation.For Alfred A . Cunningham, the first of thetwo Marines to arrive at Annapolis, the assign-ment represented the fulfillment of a dream longpursued . Born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1882 ,Cunningham enlisted in a volunteer infantryregiment during the Spanish-American War. Hewas mustered out of the Army after a tour o foccupation duty in Cuba, returned to Atlanta ,and spent the next 10 years selling real estate .During these years in Atlanta aviation caught hisimagination, probably in 1903 when he made hi sfirst flight of any kinda balloon ascent . In1909, he resumed his military career by accept-ing appointment to the rank of second lieutenan tin the Marine Corps. After two years of routineduty with battleship detachments and at variou sshore stations, he was promoted to first lieuten-ant in September 1911 and in November of tha tyear he reported to the Marine Barracks a tPhiladelphia for duty and instruction at theAdvance Base School. 2

Cunningham had retained his interest in aero-

nautics, and at Philadelphia he found an activeaviation movement among civilians and off-dutymilitary personnel. Cunningham soon joined theunofficial experimenters. With his own money ,he rented an airplane from its builder (wh oneeded the $25 per month to buy food) an dpersuaded the commanding officer of the NavyYard to let him use an open field on the base fortest flights. Even Cunningham's enthusiasm,however, could not overcome the aerodynamicdeficiencies of "Noisy Nan," as he called Hi srented aircraft. The young, aspiring aviato rdescribed his days of frustration: "I called hereverything in God's name to go up. I pleadedwith her. I caressed her, I prayed to her, and Icursed that flighty old maid to lift up her skirt sand hike, but she never would . " a *

Besides struggling with "Noisy Nan," Cun-ningham joined the Aero Club of Philadelphia ,the city's principal organization of aviation en-thusiasts, and he launched a campaign to inter-est the Marine Corps in establishing its ow naviation force. Evidently making good use of hi sexperience selling real estate, he sold the mem-bers of the Aero Club, many of whom werewealthy, influential Philadelphia socialites, onthe idea that their city should have a Marine ai r

* " Noisy Nan" probably was underpowered for itsweight and might well have proved highly unstable ha dCunningham managed to get it into the air . It was anexcellent preliminary trainer, however, giving Cunningha mthe " f e e l " of flying in its takeoff runs and occasional brie fhops off the ground. (Gemeinhardt Comments)


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THE BEGINNINGS, 19121917 3base . The Aero Club members, through thei rpolitical friends in Washington, D .C ., broughtpressure to bear on a number of officials, amon gthem Major General Commandant Biddle, him-self a member of a prominent Philadelphi afamily . 4

What effect, if any, Cunninghams unmilitar ymethods of advocacy had on the decision t odetail Marine officers for pilot training is amatter of conjecture ; but his activities at leas tappear to have assured him first place on the lis tof potential aviators. On 16 May 1912, Cun-ningham received orders detaching him from theMarine Barracks at Philadelphia and instructin ghim to report on 22 May to the U.S . NavalAcademy at Annapolis (which meant the nearb yaviation camp) "for duty in connection wit haviation ."5Cunningham reported at Annapolis on thespecified date, only to be ordered away almos tat once on expeditionary duty. When he re- .turned in July, no aircraft were available for hi mto fly. Eager to begin flight training at once, h eobtained orders to the Burgess Company andCurtiss factory at Marblehead, Massachusetts ,which built the Navy's Wright aircraft an dwhich had airplanes and civilian instructors . 6There, after two hours and 40 minutes ofinstruction, Cunningham soloed on 20 August1912 . He later explained the brevity of histraining and described his solo flight :

There being so few civilian flyers, the factory hadto pay them a huge salary to teach us, and they wer eanxious to make it short and snappy . . . I had onlyattempted to make two landings in rough weathe rwhen one calm day they decided to risk the plan erather than continue to pay any instructors largesalaries. I was asked if I was willing to try it alone ,and said L was. I took off safely and felt confident in

the air until 1 thought of landing and wondered whatwould happen when 1 tried to do it alone . Every timeI decided to land I would think of sonic good excus eto make another circle of the hay. The gas tank wa smounted between the wings in plain view, and a smallstick attached to a float protruded from the top of i tfor a gasoline gage. As the gas was used, this stickgradually disappeared within the tank . . . As thisstick got shorter and shorter, I became more an dmore perturbed at having to land with little idea ofhow to do it . Just as the end of the gasoline gage stic kwas disappearing, I got up my nerve and made a goo dlanding, how I don't know . . . This was my firstsolo. ?

Cunningham eventually was designated NavalAviator No. 5 with the effective date of hi sdesignation arbitrarily set as 17 Septembe r1915 .* Both the date of his solo and the dat ethus fixed for his formal recognition as a navalflier have their advocates as "birthdays" ofMarine Corps aviation, but the date he reportedto the Aviation Camp at Annapolis, 22 Ma y1912, is the officially accepted birthday .

* Because the Navy was slow to establish official per-formance standards for aviation, precedence numbers anddates of designation of the first aviators, including Cun-ningham, are confusing and arbitrary. The Navy set it sfirst official aviation performance standards in April 191 .3 .Almost two years later, the Secretary of the Navy sen tletters to fliers designating them as Navy Air Pilots andsetting precedence dates . This list omitted the names o fEllyson, Rodgers, and CunninghamNaval Aviators 1 an d2 and Marine Corps Aviator Ibecause they were not onaviation duty at the time the letters were issued . In 1918 ,when golden wings were distributed as the aviators 'official badges, this omission was rectified . All navalaviators received new precedence numbers including th eearliest fliers, whose numbers were based on the order i nwhich they reported for flight training. Cunningham thusbecame Naval Aviator Number 5, with his qualificationdate arbitrarily stated as 5 March 1913, and his date o fdesignation as a naval aviator as 17 September 1915 .(Pearson Comments : Caidin, Golden Wings, Appendix A) .

Commonly called the "Bat Boat, " the Wright B1 seaplane was the third aircraft owned by the U .S . Navy and in 1912 wasused to train Marine aviators . (Marine Corps Photo 514903) .


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4 MARINE CORPS AVIATION: THE EARLY YEARS, 1912194 0On 18 September 1912, First Lieutenant Ber-nard L. ("Banney ") Smith, the second Marineassigned to aviation training, arrived at Annapo-

lis . Born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1886, Smit hhad entered the Marine Corps in the same yearas Cunningham and was only a few days junio rto Cunningham in rank based on the dates oftheir promotions to first lieutenant . By the timeSmith reported for training, the Navy ' s threeaircraft had been repaired. Towers, therefore ,taught Smith to fly in one of the Curtissmachines, the A2. Apt and enthusiastic, Smithsoon soloed and flew frequently with 'rowers andEllyson . When naval aviator designations wer esorted out, he went on the list as Number 6 . 8In September, Lieutenant Ellyson, now office rin charge, reorganized the aviation camp, assign-ing particular officers to each of the four aircraft .Cunningham received the B1, the older of thetwo Wright machines, while Smith took chargeof a Curtiss, the A1 . Naval officers flew theother two planes. Cunningham, with Sergean tJames Maguire, the first enlisted Marine as -signed to aviation duty, became known infor-mally as the "Marine Camp," while Smithworked with Lieutenant Towers in what wa scalled the "Curtiss Camp." *

Throughout early 1912 and 1913, the navalaviators continued to conduct training flights andtests of tactics and aircraft capabilities . Theyexperimented during this period with detectionof underwater objects from the air and with air-ground radio communication. In January 1913 ,the aviation camp for the first time joined th efleet in its annual maneuvers off' Guantanamo ,Cuba. The aviators here proved that they coul dlocate submerged submarines and that theycould spot enemy surface vessels without them -selves being sighted . They dropped missile sfrom the air and took photographs. In an effortto increase interest in aviation, they carried over150 Navy and Marine officers on indoctrinationflights. One of these officers, who flew wit hLieutenant Towers, was a future Commandan tof the Marine Corps, Lieutenant Colonel John A .Lejeune. He spent 14 minutes aloft . 9Cunningham and Smith both participated i nthese activities, but Cunningham was hampered* This might be considered the beginning of a diver-

gence in the careers of the first two Marine aviators, adivergence which steadily became more apparent . Cun-ningham from the start was not only an aviator butemphatically a Marine aviator, always promoting a distinc-tive Marine air entity . Smith, on the other hand, identifiedhimself more generally with naval aviation and contribute dmuch to its development .

by the inadequacies of his plane. The B-1, thefirst Wright Brothers aircraft purchased by theNavy, was powered by a single engine whichdrove twin propellers by long chains connectedto sprocket wheels . It had been wrecked andrebuilt several times before Cunningham took itover, and Cunningham rebuilt it again . Theperformance of the aged machine steadily deteri-orated, as Cunningham reported to CaptainChambers:

My machine, as l told you and Mr. Tower sprobably told you, is not in my opinion fit for use . Ibuilt it from parts of the Burgess F and Wright B ,which are not exactly alike and nothing fitted . I hadto cut off and patch up parts and bore additionalholes in beams in order to make them fit . The enginebed, made by Burgess, was not exactly square wit hthe front beam, so the engine had to be mounted alittle out of true (with reference to the engine bed) . Ihave made over 200 flights in this machine an drecently, in spite of unusual care of myself and men ,something seems to vibrate loose or off a majority o fthe flights made. One of the propeller shafts is th esame one used with the Cyro motor in the oldmachine. It is the only left-hand shaft here. While theengine runs smoothly, it does not deliver nearly a smuch power as when it was newer, and even then, i tdid not have enough power to fly safely in any bu tsmooth weather. It is impossible to climb over a fewhundred feet with a passenger. The whole machinehas just about served its usefulness and f would lik every much to have a new machine of the singlepropeller type. Lt. Arnold, of the Army, after seeingthe machine run and examining it, said that none ofthe Army fliers would go up in it. Will you kindly le tme know what the prospects are for my getting a newmachine . 1 ' **

In spite of the B1's faults, Cunninghammanaged to make almost 400 flights in i tbetween October 1912 and July 1913 . On acouple of occasions, his craft stayed airbornelong enough to cover about 80 miles and i treached a maximum altitude of around 800 feet .The more frustrating days were typified by theterse entry on the page of Cunningham's flightlog recording flights number 371 through 383 :"Engine stopped in air on nearly all thes efl ights ." t tIn August 1913, Cunningham requested an dreceived detachment from flight duty. He statedconcisely his reason for requesting this transfer :"My fiance will not consent to marry me unless

**The "Lt Arnold" referred to was the future Genera lHenry H. (" Hap") Arnold, commander of the U .S . ArmyAir Forces in World War II . One of the early Armyaviation stations was located at College Park, Md ., so thatinformal contact between the Army fliers and their Nav ycolleagues at nearby Annapolis was frequent . (Van Deurs,Wings f or the Fleet, p . 51 .)


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THE BEGINNINGS, 19121917 5give up flying." 1 2 * Assigned to ground dut yat the Washington Navy Yard, Cunningha mcontinued to advocate Marine aviation and soonwould make some of his most valuable contri-butions to it .

After Cunningham's departure, Lieutenan tSmith continued flying with the Navy aviators .He was joined in November by the third Marin eto be assigned to aviation, Second LieutenantWilliam M. Mellvain. Mcllvain soloed the follow-ing month and became Naval Aviator Numbe r12 .At the end of 1913, the Navy's air ar mconsisted of 8 aircraft with 13 qualified officerpilots. Of this number two (not counting th egrounded Cunningham) were Marines, and sevenmore enlisted Marines were in training as me-chanics. In October, the Major General Com-mandant recommended that the Marine aviationpersonnel "with the necessary equipment" b emoved to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for dut ywith the advance base regiment then beingassembled there. 1 3 This recommendation soonwould be followed by the first tactical deploy-ment of Marine aviators with Marine groun dforces .

Slow Steps Forward, 1913191 7

During 1913, while the pilots at Annapoli sflew, repaired their planes, and flew again, aseries of Congressional and Navy Departmentactions placed naval aviation, and Marine avia-tion as a part of it, on a more solid organiza-tional foundation. In the Naval Appropriation sAct for fiscal year 1914, passed on 4 Marc h1913, Congress authorized an increase in pay of35 percent for officers actually flying heavier-than-air machines. The same legislation limitedthe total number of Navy and Marine aviators t o30 and provided that none could hold rank abovethat of lieutenant commander or major. In spiteof these limitations, the act constituted the firs tformal recognition of the air service as a sepa-rate specialty for Navy and Marine personnel .On 31 August. the General Board of th e* There is a common belief that Navy regulations i n

this period prevented married men from flying, but no suc hpolicy apparently existed . Ellyson married in November1912 but continued flying . Lieutenant John Rodgers actuallyflew the B1 with Mrs . Rodgers as a passenger, and othermarried officers were ordered to aviation duty. Perhaps thefuture Mrs . Cunningham either flew in the B l like Mrs.Rodgers or simply saw the craft . (Pearson comments)

Navy,** the service ' s planning agency, after amajor study of U.S . and foreign aeronautics ,called for the creation in the Navy of " a nefficient . . . air service" directed in the NavyDepartment by an officer with full authority onquestions of personnel and procurement andwith at least captain's rank. The General Boardurged the Navy Department to ask Congress forfunds for bases, aircraft, and training schools .

In October, Secretary of the Navy Josephu sDaniels appointed a board of officers headed byCaptain Chambers to prepare detailed plans forthe organization of a "Naval Aeronautic Serv-ice " Lieutenant Cunningham, temporarily de-tached from the Washington Navy Yard, repre-sented the Marine Corps on the seven-manpanel which included Navy aviators, sea officers ,and representatives from the Bureaus of Naviga-tion, Steam Engineering, and Ordnance . After 12days of deliberations, the board issued a reportcalling for a force of 50 heavier-than-air craft tobe attached to the fleet, with one plane on boardeach fighting vessel, and special auxiliary ships tocarry fuel, spare parts, and extra aircraft . Theboard also advocated the establishment of anaval air training and experimental station atPensacola, Florida. Following the GeneralBoard ' s lead, the Chambers Board urged crea-tion of an Office of Naval Aeronautics under theSecretary of the Navy to unify the aviation -related functions then scattered among the bur-eaus .Of special interest to Marine aviation were tw opoints in the report . The Chambers Boardrecommended creation of a separate force of sixaircraft "to establish an advanced base ashore, "and it suggested that a Marine officer be amember of the staff of the proposed Director ofNaval Aviation. Beyond this, the board did no taddress the organization of Marine Corps avia-tion or attempt to define its position within navalaviation . 1 4

Efforts soon began to implement the Cham-bers Board's proposals. On 17 December 1913 ,

** The General Board was an advisory panel establishedin 1900 by Secretary of the Navy John D . Long to advisehim on plans, policies, and procedures proposed by thebureau chiefs . There was at that time no Chief of Nava lOperations, and the bureau chiefs reported directly to theSecretary of the Navy. Although the General Board hadonly advisory powers, the prestige of its memberswhoincluded Admiral of the Navy George Dewey, the Presi-dent of the Naval War College, the Chief of the Bureau ofNavigation, and the Chief of the Office of Naval Intelli-gencegave the board considerable influence .


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6 MARINE CORPS AVIATION: THE EARLY YEARS, 19121940

1st lieutenant Bernard L . (Banney) Smith, the secondMarine to qualify as an aviator . (Marine Corps Phot o516375) .

Captain Mark L . Bristol assumed the post ofofficer in charge of aviation, replacing Cham-bers, who retired from the service but remaine din the Navy Department as an advisor o naeronautics. By November 1914, an Office ofAeronautics had come into existence within th eDivision of Operations, with Bristol as its direc-tor. Meanwhile, in January 1914, the nava laviation camp moved from Annapolis to anabandoned navy yard at Pensacola. There theaviators and ground crewmen began cleaning upthe wreckage left by years of neglect an dhurricanes and setting up the hangers and seaplane ramps of what would become the Pensa-cola Naval Air Station . Late in 1914, as thoughinspired by the general flurry of activity, Con-gress included in the annual naval appropriationsact $1,000,000 for aviation, to be spent under th edirect supervision of the Secretary of the Nav yrather than spread among the bureaus .

Early in this year of advance for navalaviation, Marine flyers for the first time brieflyattained their own organization and operate dwith Marine ground units . On 3 January 1914, asthe rest of the Annapolis camp prepared to moveto Pensacola, a "Marine Section of the NavalFlying School," consisting of Lieutenants Smithand Mcllvain with 10 enlisted mechanics, an dequipped with a flying boat and an amphibiandrawn from the aircraft at Annapolis, embarkedat Philadelphia on the transport USS Hancock .They sailed for Culebra, Puerto Rico, to join thenewly created Advance Base Brigade in th eannual Atlantic Fleet exercises .

In the development of the Marine Corps, th eCulebra exercise of January-February 1914 had acrucial place. It provided the first test of th eMarines' ability to occupy and fortify an advancebase and hold it against hostile attack. Landingmen, equipment, and heavy guns on CulebraIsland, the Marines of the Advance Base Brigadequickly set up their defenses. They withstoodsimulated bombardments by the fleet and re-pelled a night amphibious assault . At the end ofthe exercise, the umpires declared the Marin edefenders victorious.The Aviation Section operated with the bri-gade throughout the exercise . The aviators setup a temporary seaplane base on Culebra onland blasted clear of trees and mangrove roots .Using their C3 flying boat because the Ow lamphibian* proved too light to carry two men ,* The C3 was a Curtiss Bout . Like other nava

aircraft of the time, it was a " pusher," with the propelle rmounted on the rear end of the engine and with the pilot


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THE BEGINNINGS, 19121917 7Smith and Mcllvain flew scouting and reconnais-sance missions . On 22 January, during th efleet ' s bombardment of Culebra, the Marineflying boat twice circled over the battleships at5,000 feet altitude, "entirely out of range ofsmall arm fire and (the) high angle of fire makin gships' guns ineffective . " Lieutenant Smith de-clared that this feat " shows the possibility ofaeroplanes for defense using bombs of hig hexplosive . " Almost every day, the aviators tookofficers of the Advance Base Brigade on flight sover Culebra and its defenses " to show the easeand speed of aerial reconnaissance and range ofvision open to the eyes of the aerial scout ." TheAviation Section left for the United States on theHancock on 5 February. By that time, Smith an dMcllvain had made a total of 52 flights, durin gwhich they had spent 19 hours and 48 minute sactually in the air .and passenger sitting side by side in the open air in fron tof the wings. Both occupants had to lean in the desireddirection when they wished to hank and turn the aircraft .The E-1 was an early amphibian, its Owl designatio nmeaning " Over Water or Land . " (Gemeinhardt Com-ments) .

In March 1914, on the basis of his Culebr aexperience, Lieutenant Smith recommended thatthe Marine air unit for advance base work becomposed of five aviators and about 20 enlistedmechanics and ground crewmen. It should beequipped with two flying boats, an amphibian ,and a fast single- or two-seater land plane .Smith stressed the need to equip the flyin gboats, intended primarily for scouting and recon-naissance, with radios, and he urged that canvasshelters for the aircraft and other easily movabl eground equipment be provided . Finally, he sug-gested that the Marine troop transport thenunder construction be equipped to carry andlaunch at least one aircraft . 1 5Smith's recommendations dimly foreshadowedlater elements of the Marine air-ground teambut immediate reality fell far short even of hi smodest vision. The Marine air unit ceased toexist at the end of the Culebra exercise andmerged once again into the main body of navalaviation at Pensacola. Aircraft and pilots fromPensacola, including "Banney" Smith, partici-pated in the operations at Tampico and Ver aCruz during the Mexican intervention of April

A Curtis C-a in launch position on the catapult of the USS North Carolina. The aircraft was assigned to the Marines formaneuvers off Pensacola, Fla ., in July 1916 . (National Archives Photo 80-G11269241 .


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8 MARINE CORPS AVIATION: THE EARLY YEARS, 191219401914, but no separate Marine air unit wa screated. Smith, stationed with the fleet at Tam-pico, had no chance to fly in support of th eMarine brigade at Vera Cruz . ICThe outbreak of World War 1 in the summerof 1914 had little impact on the small band ofMarine aviators beyond the temporary detach-ment from them of "Banney " Smith. The Secre-tary of the Navy sent Smith to the U.S . Embassyin Paris, where he spent the next two yearsfollowing and reporting on the explosively rapi dwartime development of European aviation . Dur-ing this assignment, Smith visited and occasion-ally flew in combat with French air units, and hemade a secret trip to Switzerland to obtai naviation intelligence . 1 7During 1915 and 1916, while the war stimu-lated the growth of European aviation, th eadvance of American naval aviation faltered .Changes in Navy Department organization i nWashington during these years all but abolishe dthe post of Director of Aviation, leaving the ai rprogram without a central coordinator or authori-tative spokesman. High-ranking officers in th ebureaus continued to doubt the military value ofaviation and hence failed to press aggressivel yfor its development. At times, they refused t ospend money appropriated for aircraft supplie sand delayed or prevented the carrying out o flegislation .The continued practical limitations of theavailable aircraft did much to justify this officialskepticism and foot-dragging. The aviators envi-sioned and promised great things, but thei raircraft continually let them down when tested.Cunninghams troubles with his B1 were all tootypical of aircraft performance in this period .Even at their best, early naval airplanes, such a sThe Owl which the Marines took to Culebra i n1914, and which they did not use because th ewings were deemed too weak to carry two men ,had top speeds of no more than 50 miles perhour. Small fuel capacity and mechanical unreli-ability limited their range and endurance . Theaviators' vision simply had outrun their technol-ogy, and until technology caught up, the oppo-nents of aviation would hold strong ground .In spite of administrative and technologicalfrustrations, naval aviation achieved significantadvances. The air station at Pensacola slowl yacquired more men, aircraft, and equipment ,and with these expanded its training and testin gactivities . Navy and Marine pilots practiced anti-submarine patrolling, bombing, and artilleryspotting. Late in 1915, they began launchingplanes from an experimental catapult built on

A Curtiss C3 being recovered by the USS North Carolin aduring maneuvers o f f Pensacola, Fla ., in July 1916 . (Na-t ional Archives Photo 80 C 426917) .

the Pensacola station ship, the cruiser USSNorth Carolina . In 1916, catapult experiment scontinued, and a few aircraft began operating o nboard warships of the fleet .On 9 January 1915, the Marine contingent a tPensacola, now down to one flyer, Mellvain, wa sdesignated the "Marine Section, Navy FlyingSchool . " The section soon acquired two morepilots . Cunningham, who evidently had per-suaded his wife to let him resume flying ,reported to Pensacola in April for refreshe rtraining and flight duty . Early in the summer ,the fourth Marine aviator, First Lieutenant Fran-cis T. ("Cocky") Evans arrived and started flighttraining . The force of Marine enlisted mechanic salso slowly increased, and at a still undeter-mined point in this period the Marines' firs twarrant officer aviator, Walter E . McCaughtry ,learned to fly . *

In August 1915, as the result of an agreement

* McCaughtry was attached to naval aviation as earl yas June 1913 when a corpo r al . Apparently he learned t ofly at some time during his tour of duty as an enlistedman . In June 1917 he was promoted to the temporary ran kof captain and as an officer officially qualified as a nava laviator. lie received permanent captain ' s rank in June1920 . (Pearson Comments)


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THE BEGINNINGS, 19121917 9between Secretary of the Navy Daniels and th eArmy Signal Corps, Navy and Marine pilot sbegan training in land planes at the Signal Corp sAviation School in San Diego . Daniels had madethis arrangement in the belief that defense ofadvance bases and, in the case of the Marines ,possible joint operations with the Army, require dan aviation force able to operate from either landor water. Lieutenant Mcllvain was one of thefirst two naval aviators sent to the Army flightschool . Cunningham followed him there in 1916 .During this training he flew for the first time in acockpit inside a fuselage instead of from a seatin the open in front of the wings of a primitiv epusher. He wrote later that he would "neverforget the feeling of security I felt to have afuselage around me." 1 9 This training patternpersisted throughout the early period of Marin eaviation . Marine pilots received basic flight in-struction from the Navy and were designate dnaval aviators. Then they took land plane train-ing at Army schools and advanced training withthe Army and at their own airfields when the yfinally acquired them .Besides learning to fly land planes, the Marin eaviators participated in the aeronautic experi-ments at Pensacola, sometimes with near disas-trous consequences for themselves . On 8 No-vember 1.916, for example, Cunningham at -tempted a takeoff from the catapult mounted onthe North Carolina . His AB2 seaplane over-turned in the air, plunged into the water, andwas wrecked but was towed to the ship an dhoisted on board . Cunningham, although heseem ed unhurt at the time, received a backinjury which gave him months of pain . 1 9During 1916, with the European war continu-ing on its ever more destructive way, and theUnited States on the brink of war with Mexicoand approaching a final confrontation with theGermans over Uboat depredations, the adminis-tration of President Woodrow Wilson beganlarge-scale expansion of the Army and Navy. Al lbranches of both services benefited, includingNavy and Marine aviation. Urged on by th eGeneral Board, the Navy Department aske dCongress for men, money, and aircraft . Planstook shape for a naval air arm of over 500planes, and a series of interservice boards trie dto define the respective roles and missions ofArmy and Navy aviation and began selectin gsites for coastal airbases .Congress, in the Naval Appropriations Act o f29 August 1916, provided $3,500,000 for aircraf tand equipment . It also authorized the establish-ment of a permanent Naval Flying Corps of 150

officers and 350 enlisted men of the Navy an dMarine Corps. Officers for this force could beappointed from warrant officers, enlisted men, orcivilians, and were to be considered an additionto the legally authorized officer strength of theservice. The act also authorized creation of aNaval Reserve, including a flying corps, re-cruited from former regular personnel or civil-ians, and it provided for a Marine Corps Reserv eorganized in the same branches as the Nava lReserve, thus by implication creating a MarineCorps Aviation Reserve . Opposition from thebureaus prevented creation of the Naval Flyin gCorps, but the reserve would grow rapidly afte rthe American entry into World War I and wouldfurnish most of the Navy and Marine pilots fo rthe conflict .While disagreements within the Navy Depart-ment blocked implementation of most of thepersonnel provisions of the act of August 1916 ,they did not prevent a rapid increase in an dmodernization of naval aviation's aircraft inven-tory . By the end of 1916, 60 new airplanes ha dbeen ordered, including 30 Curtiss N9 sea-planes. In these machines, adapted from the JNor " Jenny," trainer being built for the Army ,naval aviators received their first " tractor" air -craft in which pilot and observer sat in cockpitsin the fuselage with the engine and propeller i nfront of them. By the end of 1916, 25 of thes eairplanes, which were much safer* and moremaneuverable than the old pushers, were i noperation at Pensacola .

Early in 1917, while flying one of the new N9s, "Cocky" Evans made a major contribution t oAmerican aviation safety. He did it largely byaccident. He and other pilots at Pensacola ha dbeen arguing about whether one could loop atractor-type seaplane. Evans and others insistedthey could, while their opponents contended th eheavy, fragile pontoons would make the maneu -ver impossible . On 13 February, at an altitude ofabout 3,500 feet above Pensacola on a routin eflight, Evans decided to try to loop. His initialattempt failed, and his N9 stalled and went int oa spin. No American aviator up to this time ha d

* While the tractor-type biplanes were safer, thei ropen cockpits, placed one behind th e othe r , had thei rh azards for th e man in the rear . Th is was particularly tru eif his pilot in th e front seat enjoyed che wing tobacco, a sm any an early M arine aviator d id . As an authority o nMarine aviation puts it, a rear-cockpit gunner or observe rwith a tobacco-chewing pilot " had but a br ief second t osee the pilot ' s head start to swivel ; then duck! Thed isposal of ` ch a w ' flew past at air speed in a fairly wet an dscattered dispersion . " (Gemeinhardt Continents)


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10 MARINE CORPS AVIATION: THE EARLY YEARS, 19121940worked out a method for recovering from a spin, organizing at the Philadelphia Navy Yard anand several had died in crashes as a result of Aviation Company for the Advance Bas ethis gap in their knowledge. Evans, apparently Force . 2 3 Less than two months later, the Unite dwithout realizing he was in a spin, instinctively States declared war on the German Empire .pushed his control wheel forward to gain speedand controlled the turning motion with hisrudder. Recovering from the spin, he kept tryingto loop, stalling, spinning, and recovering untilfinally he managed to loop. To make sure he hadwitnesses for his feat, he flew over the seaplanehangars and repeated the whole performance .Not until then did he realize that besides provin ga seaplane could loop he had solved a majo rsafety problem. The aviators at Pensacola a tonce incorporated his spin-recovery technique intheir training, and Evans was sent on a tour o fmilitary airfields to teach other pilots hi smethod. Years later, on 10 June 1936, Evansreceived the Distinguished Flying Cross for thislife-saving discovery . 2 0

Marine Aviation Begins to Organize ,1917At the end of 1916, out of a total of 59commissioned officers and 431 enlisted menassigned to naval aviation, five of the officersand 18 of the enlisted men were Marines . 2 1Marine aviation possessed no organization of it sown beyond the amorphous "Marine Section" ofthe Naval Flying School, and it had no directo r

or official spokesman at Headquarters. Its his-tory up to this time had consisted largely of aseries of individual exploits and disconnecte depisodes within the stream of naval aviationdevelopment .Nevertheless, from the sending of Cun-ningham and Smith to Annapolis in 1912, th eMarine Corps clearly had intended to build adistinct unit of its own attached to the AdvanceBase Force. By the end of 1916, the time fo rcreation of such a unit seemed to be approach-ing . The Major General Commandant announcedin his annual report for that year that a "MarineCorps Aviation Company" of 10 officers and 40men would be organized "for duty with theAdvance Base Force" at "as early a date a spracticable." It would be equipped with bothland- and seaplanes 2zThe practicable date soon came . On 26February 1917, Lieutenant Cunningham, soon to Lieutenant Alfred A . Cunningham standing in front of abe promoted to captain, received orders to begin Curtiss Pusher . (Photo from the CunninghamPapers) .


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CHAPTER I IMARINE AVIATION IN WORLD WAR I, 1917191 8

Ma rine Aviation Mobilize sWith the declaration of war against Germany ,the Navy and Marine Corps entered a period ofrapid expansion during which the air arms ofboth services grew in manpower and equipmen tand during which Marine aviation developed it sown units and bases . After consultations withthe Allies, the Navy Department adopted anti -submarine warfare as naval aviation's principamission and began large-scale preparations for it .The office of Director of Naval Aviation quicklyrevived under the leadership of Captain Nobl eE . Irwin and veteran aviator Lieutenant Com-mander John Towers . With support from th eSecretary of the Navy, Irwin and Towers effec-tively coordinated aviation activities in the Nav yDepartment . Towers took charge of enrollingthousands of new officers and men in the NavalAviation Reserve, and he set up training facili-ties for them at Army and Navy bases an duniversities to relieve swamped Pensacola . B ythe end of the war the manpower strength o fnaval aviation had reached over 6,700 officersand 30,000 enlisted men. In October 1917, theNavy Department adopted the "SeventeenHundred Program" for building over 1,700 sea -planes of three different types, and to spee daircraft development and procurement it estab-lished the Naval Aircraft Factory at Philadel-phia.The Marine Corps, which entered the warwith 5].]. officers and 13,214 enlisted men, beganan expansion which would bring its strength t oover 2,400 officers and 70,000 men on 1 1November 1918. Under the energetic direction ofMajor General Commandant George Barnett, theMarines prepared to send a brigade to France tofight alongside the Army.Marine aviation started an aggressive cam-paign to secure first its share of the manpower

of the expanding Corps and then a chance to goto France and fight. In this campaign, Cun-ningham, commander-designate of the Aviation

Company, emerged as the principal leader an ddriving force . Although without a formally recog-nized office or title, he became de facto directo rof aviation for the Marine Corps. In 1917, herepresented both Marine and naval aviation onthe intcrservice board which selected sites fo rcoastal air stations. He recruited men for Marin eair units, sought missions for them to perform ,and negotiated with the Navy, the Army, an deventually with the British for equipment andfacilities. Looking back on this hectic time ,Marine Major General Ford O. ("Tex") Rogers ,whose own distinguished aviation career beganin World War I, justifiably declared : "Cun-ningham was the father of [Marine] aviation, . . .absolutely, completely. Without him, there neverwould have been any aviation . " t *

Marine aviation soon found itself split betweentwo separate missions . The Aviation Company atPhiladelphia, renamed the Marine AeronauticCompany and enlarged with men from th eAviation Section at Pensacola, from other Ma-rine units, and from the recruit depots, wa sdesignated to fly seaplanes on anti-submarinepatrols . During summer 1917, Major Genera lCommandant Barnett secu red Navy Departmentapproval for the formation of a second Marin eair unit of landplanes to provide reconnaissanc eand artillery spotting for the brigade being sent

* "Banney" Smith also distinguished himself in avia-tion at this time, but, following the pattern early estab-lished, he worked in naval aviation in general rather thanMarine aviation. Ordered home from France in 1917, h edirected much of the design and procurement of nava laircraft and then organized the aerial gunnery and bomb-ing school at Miami . In 1918, he returned to Europe toorganize the Intelligence and Planning Section for Nava lAviation at Navy Headquarters in Paris . After the war h ehad charge of assembling material and equipment for th efamous transatlantic flight of the Navy NC-4s. Resigninghis regular Marine commission in 1920, Smith entered theMarine Corps Reserve in 1937 and saw non-flying activeservice in World War II . He died in an automobileaccident in 194.6 . (Biography Files, Reference Section .History and Museums Division) .

11


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12 MARINE CORPS AVIATION TH E EARLY YEARS, 19121940to France. This unit, its organization patterne dafter that of Army aviation squadrons but wit hfewer men and machines, would consist of 1 1officers and 178 men with six fighter planes, sixreconnaissance aircraft, and four kite balloonsfor the artillery observers. Under an arrangementnegotiated by Cunningham at Barnett ' s instruc-tions, the Army Signal Corps would train pilot sand crewmen for this unit and provide most ofits aircraft and equipment . 2Marine aviation began a vigorous search formen for the projected units . As candidates forcommissions flooded into the first wartime Ma-rine officers' school at Quantico during thesummer of 1917, Cunningham met them andpreached the cause of aviation. Karl Day, amember of that first class who later rose to therank of lieutenant general, recalled : "Majo rRixey assembled the battalion and said Captai nCunningham at Headquarters had a message forus, and introduced Captain Cunningham . . . .He told us that we were going to have a naviation section, that we would go to France ,and that he was clown there to talk to anybody

who was interested in becoming a pilot . " 3Cunningham found plenty of volunteers . Theofficer candidates, many of them college ath-letes, responded to the challenge and glamor ofaviation ; as one of them put it, "It was a darin gthing to do . " Others, including Lawson Ff . M .Sanderson, who would become the Marine divebombing pioneer, had other motives: "Well, hell,I thought I can ride better than l can walk . So I .volunteered for aviation. . . . I'd only seen abouttwo airplanes in my life, but I'd rather ride thanwalk ." 'Out of dozens of volunteers from the firs tclass at Quantico, Cunningham selected 18. Si xof them eventually went into the Aeronauti cCompany for seaplane duty and the other sjoined the new landplane squadron . During therest of the year, additional officers graduall yexpanded the ranks of Marine aviation . Few ofthese were regulars. Most were second lieuten-ants newly commissioned from civilian life an dnominally members of the Marine Corps ReserveFlying Corps which had been authorized in theNaval Appropriation Act of 29 August 1916 . The

The Kirkham tri-plane was typical of t he many experimental models tried out by the Marines during aviation ' s early years .The K i rkham w as made by Curtiss . (Marine Corp s Photo 91590) .


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MARINE AVIATION IN WORLD WAR I, 19171918 1 3

A JN-48 "Jenny . " in 1917, Marines of the 1st Aviation Squadron trained in aircraft like this one (circa 1917) . (Nat ArchivesRG 127-C Photo 517543) .

Reserve, however, hardly had begun to organiz ewhen the war swamped it with new manpower ,and in 1917, among the Marine aviators, " No -body gave a damn and few, if any, knew wh owere regulars, temporaries, duration reserves, orwhat have you . " 5By 14 October 1917, the Aeronautic Compan yhad reached a strength of 34 officers and 330enlisted men and had begun flight training, usin gtwo Curtiss R6 seaplanes and a Farman land -plane. On that date, the company was divided toform the two projected aviation units. The 1s tAeronautic Company (10 officers and 93 men)would prepare for seaplane missions while th e1st Aviation Squadron (24 officers and 237 men)would organize to support the Marine brigadebeing sent to France .

The 1st Aeronautic Company in th eAzore sOf the two Marine air units, the 1st Aeronau-tic Company led the way into active service . InOctober, the company, commanded by " Cocky "Evans, now a captain, moved with its Curtiss R 6s to the Naval Air Station at Cape May, NewJersey, where it conducted seaplane trainingand coastal patrols. On 9 January 1918, enlargedto 12 officers and 133 enlisted men, the companyembarked from Philadelphia for the Azores t obegin anti-submarine operations .For its anti-submarine mission, the companyinitially was equipped with 10 Curtiss R6s and

two N9s . These were both single-engine, float-equipped, two-seater biplanes. The N9 wa sthe seaplane trainer with which the Marines hadbecome familiar at Pensacola with a rear cockpi tgun added and a more powerful Hispano-Suiz aengine . The R6, slightly larger than the N9 ,had been purchased in great numbers by theNavy under the "Seventeen Hundred" Program.The company later received six Curtiss HS2Lflying boats. Each of these patrol planes carrie da crew of two and with its single 330-horsepowerLiberty engine could achieve a top speed ofabout 90 miles per hour. With a cruising rangeof about 44)0 miles, the HS2L represented amarked improvement over the R6 and the N9 ,and it greatly enhanced the company's ability tocarry out its mission. 6Throughout 1918, the Aeronautic Compan ymaintained its vigil from its base at Punt aDelgada on the island of San Miguel . Theassignment had its pleasant aspects. "There waswonderful flying weather, people were veryfriendly . . . They took us right into their home sand did everything they could for us, so it wa sgood to be there . " Operating within a 70-mileradius of the islands, the company, the firstAmerican aviation unit of the war to deploy wit ha specific mission, flew regular patrols to denyenemy submarines ready access to the convoyroutes and deprive them of a safe haven in theAzores . An enlisted gunner and ground crewmanof the force summed up the results : "We saw afew out there; in fact we dropped a few bombs ,but as far as we know we didn't damageanything . . . But we kept them submerged, 1think." 7


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14 MARINE CORPS AVIATION: THE EARLY YEARS, 1912-1940

An HS 2L f lying boat of the type Marines used in the Azores during 1918 . (Nat Archives RG 127-C Photo 517536) .

HS-2L in flight in 1918 . These aircraft greatly increased the anti-submarine effectiveness of the 1st Aeronautic Company . (NatArchives RG 127-C Photo 517529) .


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MARINE AVIATION IN WORLD WAR I, 19171918 1 5Beginnings of the 1st MarineAviation Force

The Marine landplane unit, the 1st AviationSquadron under Captain "Mac" Meilvain, fol-lowed a more tortuous road to war . Under anagreement reached on 10 October between Cap-tain Cunningham and Colonel Henry H . Arnoldof the Army Signal Corps, the squadron was toreceive basic flight training at the Army AviationSchool at Hazlehurst (later Roosevelt) Field atMineola, Long Island. Then it would move to theArmy school of advanced flying at Houston, Texas .After this training was completed, "The Squadronwill . . . be r eady for se rv ice inFrance and t he A rm ywill completely equip it with the same technica lequipment furnished their squadrons . " 8Initially, the squadron' s development wen taccording to plan. On 17 October, the uni tmoved from Philadelphia to Mineola to begi ntraining, and early in November the six officer sof its balloon contingent were ordered to For tOmaha, Nebraska, for instruction as aerial ob-servers. The main body of the squadron a tMineola lived in tents near the runways and fle wJN-4B "Jenny" trainers with civilian instructors ,some of whom proved less than satisfactory . Oneof them, a Marine remembered, "was scared t odeath. He wouldn ' t let anybody touch the con-trols . I had four or five rides with him, and henever once let me touch the throttle, the wheel ,or touch the rudder. So we raised hell abouthim, and he got fired. " 9While Mcllvain s squadron trained at Mineola,a third Marine aviation unit began forming a tPhiladelphia. This was the Aeronautic Detach-ment, organized on 15 December under CaptainRoy S. Geiger, Marine Aviator Number 5, whohad qualified early in 1917, with four officer sand 36 enlisted men, most of them drawn fromthe 1st Aviation Squadron. This unit's missionremained uncertain at the time of its formation ,but it apparently was intended for work with theAdvanced Base Force ."While the Marine land-based aviation forcebegan organizing and training, Captain Cun-ningham sought a firmly defined mission for it .During November and December of 1917, h etoured the Allied aviation facilities in France ,visiting French and British air bases and fligh tschools and flying with the Allies on missionsover the German lines."During his trip, Cunningham strove to per-suade the Army to attach the Marine landplan esquadron to the Marine brigade in France as

originally had been intended. However, in Cun-ninghams words, the Army aviation authorities"stated candidly that if the [Marine] squadro never got to France it would be used to furnishpersonnel to run one of their training fields, butthat this was as near the front as it would eve rg e t . " 1 9

With the intended mission of his force thuswiped out, Cunningham turned to enlarging th eNavy's air role in France. Navy planners initiallyhad envisioned conducting only anti-submarin epatrols with seaplanes. Cunningham, however,in conferences with U.S . Navy officers at Dun-kirk and with officers of the British destroye rpatrol, discovered a need for bombers to attackthe German submarines which operated fro mbases at Zeebrugge, Bruges, and Ostend on th eBelgian coast . Such attacks could help to ste mthe submarine onslaught that early in 1918 stillthreatened to cut Britain ' s oceanic supply lines.Cunningham prepared a plan for a land-base dforce of Marine and Navy planes to take ove rthis mission, which the British lacked the air-craft and pilots to perform. On 5 February 1918 ,with strong support from U.S . Navy officers inEurope and from the Allied authorities, h epresented his plan to the General Board of theNavy . The board approved the plan and orderedthe formation of a Northern Bombing Group t ocarry it out. On 11 March, Cunningham receivedorders to organize and take command of a 1stMarine Aviation Force which would be formedby combining Geiger s and Mcllvain's detach-ments at Miami. This force would constitute theMarine element of the new bombardmentgroup . r 3After the initial decision to form it, theNorthern Bombing Group went through severalchanges of mission and equipment . Thesechanges resulted from debates between the NavyDepartment, Rear Admiral William S. Sims inLondon, the War Department, and the Allies .From bombing U-boats in the shallow coasta lwaters, the group's mission changed to bombingthe German submarine pens in the Belgianports . From flying fighters to escort the bomb-ers, the Marine squadrons ' role changed toconducting daylight bombing raids, using theBritish-designed DH4. The Navy wing of theforce, flying large Italian-built Caproni bombers,would carry out night raids . r4While Cunningham was seeking a mission fo rhis Marine aviation force, the units from which itwas to be created had been undergoing adven-tures of their own. McIlvain's 1st AviationSquadron remained at Mineola until 1 January


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16 MARINE CORPS AVIATION: THE EARLY YEARS, 19121940

T w o Curtiss R-6s (foreground) and an N-9 of the 1st A eronautic Company at Punta Delgada, Azores, 1918 . (Nat Archives R C127-C Photo 529925) .1918, by which date temperatures had reached16 degrees below zero, rendering flight trainin galmost impossible, and creating a threat to th ehealth of the Marines, who still were living i ntents. When the squadron medical officer de-clared a change of camp necessary for reason sof health, Captain Mcflvain loaded his men ,equipment, and aircraft on a train and headedsouthward.The aviators left Mineola with little advanceplanning and, according to some accounts, with -out orders specifying their new station.* Thesquadron soon received instructions to report to

* An order exists, dated 31 December 1917, directin gthe squadron to move to its eventual new station, Lak eCh arles , L ouisiana ; but participants recall leaving Mineol awithout orders and stopping in Washington, D.C ., on theway south while officers went into town to HQMC to as kwhat they should do next and received only suggestion sthey keep heading southward. At some time during th etrip the squadron did receive orders to Lake Charles, butpossibly the surviving copies were back-dated ) $

the Army's Gerstner Field at Lake Charles ,Louisiana, but when the Marines arrived ther ethe base commander refused to take them i nbecause he had no authorization to do so fromthe War Department . For a day or so, th eMarine aviators lived on board their train an date in a borrowed Army mess hall. Then thenecessary orders arrived, and the base com-mander allotted the Marines quarters and incor-porated them into the landplane training pro -gram. Even then, the Marines had to uncrate ,assemble, and test fly their own trainers beforethey could take to the air . Gradually the confu-sion sorted itself out and the Marines settle ddown to work, flying stick-controlled JN4 Dtrainers instead of the wheel-controlled JN48sthey had used at Mineola. They also practicedwith the rotary-engine S4C Thomas-MorseScout.* *

** in a rotary engine, the engine rotated around th ecrankshaft, rather than the engine standing still and th ecrankshaft rotating as in the more common radial engine .


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MARINE AVIATION IN WORLD WAR I , 19171918 1 . 7Captain Geiger's Aeronautical Detachment ,the second component of the planned Marinebombing force, also moved early in 1918 . On 4February, Geiger received orders to take hi sdetachment, which now consisted of 11 officersand 41 men, to the Naval Air Station at Miami ,Florida. The unit left Philadelphia three days

later. 1 6 Soon after arriving in Miami, Geiger ,now seeking a base for the entire 1st Aviatio nForce, moved his command from the main Navyfield at Coconut Grove near Miami to a small ,sandy airstrip on the edge of the Everglades ,which was owned at the time by the Curtis sFlying School .To secure Marine training facilities independ-ent of the Army, Geiger absorbed the entireCurtiss Flying School into the Marine Corps ,arranging to commission the instructors in theReserves and to requisition the school ' s Jennies .Cunningham cleared the way for this unorthodoxaction and also obtained for Geiger 20 Jenn yland planes for use as trainers . On 1 April ,Mcllvain's squadron arrived at the Miami fiel dfrom Lake Charles, at last consolidating at on elocation the nucleus of the 1st Aviation Force.

Cunningham, still serving as de facto Directo rof Marine Aviation as well as commanding th e1st Aviation Force, launched a campaign ofimprovisation to bring his squadrons to ful lstrength in men and machines. He again visitedthe officers' school at Quantico and obtained si xmore volunteers whom he sent to Miami. Hecollected other volunteers elsewhere, men whomone Marine pilot referred to as "strays tha tCunningham . . . picked up. I don't know wherehe got them." 1 7 Geiger recruited some of th ecivilian students at the Curtiss Flying School ,promising them commissions if they satisfactorilycompleted pilot training. During March andApril, 18 newly commissioned Marine lieuten-ants arrived in camp. Enlisted ground crewmenalso appeared, some of them skilled mechanics ,electricians, carpenters, and blacksmiths, others"just good Marines who had little more thanbasic military training." 1 8Even with this re-enforcement, Geiger's andMcllvain's detachments combined could not fur-nish enough pilots for the planned four squad-rons . Realizing this, Cunningham toured th eNavy air installations at Pensacola and Key

While the Standard E-1 was basically an A rmy aircraft, several were f lown by Marines while training at A rmy airfields i n1917 1918 . At the controls is "Curley " Newman. while "Red " Weiler looks on . (Photo from the Goodyear Kirkham collection) .


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18 MARINE CORPS AVIATION: THE EARLY YEARS, 1912-1994

DH-4R of the 1st Aviation Force with the force ' s insignia of a Marine Corps Globe and Anchor superimposed on the A llie drondel . A ll DH4Bs of the force had identif ication numbers with a "D " prefix . (Photo from Alfred A . Cunningham Papers . )

Around 1918 tents were used as hangars for Marine aircraft based at the Marine Flying Field near Miami, Fla . The planesare JN-4s . (Photo from the Goodyear Kirkham collection) .


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MARINE AVIATION IN WORLD WAR 1, 19171918 1 9West and recruited naval aviators, most of the myoung reservists who wanted to go to France .These officers, already qualified Navy seaplanepilots, disenrolled from the Navy, enrolled in th eMarine Corps, and reported to the Marine fieldat Miami for landplane training . Of 135 aviator swho eventually flew in France with the Marin ebombing force, 78 were transferred Navy offi-cers . is

The Marines at Miami adopted an intensivetraining schedule, sandwiching into a few weeksbasic flight instruction in seaplanes (necessaryto qualify everyone for Navy wings), elementar ylandplane training, formation flying, aerobatics ,and the rudiments of aerial tactics, gunnery ,bombing, and reconnaissance . Some of the en -listed men were detailed and trained as airgunners and observers . Others took instruction ,usually on the job, as mechanics, armorers, an dground crewmen. Officers and men worked fro mdaylight until dark under less than ideal condi-tions. Drifting sand and dust filtered into en-gines, increasing maintenance difficulties, andthe swamps of the Everglades which borderedthe field made every forced landing into a majo rrescue and recovery problem. Haste and over-work took their inevitable toll . The force los tfour officers and three enlisted men killed inaccidents .On 1.6 June 1918, Cunningham organized aheadquarters detachment and four squadrons ,designated A, B, C, and D. Geiger and MdDvaincommanded A and B respectively ; CaptainDouglas B. Roben commanded C, while FirstLieutenant Russell A . Presley commande dSquadron P. The four squadron commanders atonce left for France, where they selected twoairfield sites and established liaison with th eNorthern Bombing Group. On 10 July, the 1st .

Aviation Force received orders to embark for th efront. At this time, a British aviator sent toappraise the squadrons' state of readiness pro-nounced them fit for combat, but a Marineaviator who was there had a different view :We had flown nothing but Jennies . W.got oneDH-4. [the bombing plane they were to fly in France] .

and all of us in Miami got one flight in the first DH-4.. . . We had one flight . Our gunnery training ha dconsisted of getting into the rear seat and using aLewis gun, shooting the targets on the ground . Noneof us had ever fired a fixed gun in our lives . None ofus had ever dropped a bomb in our lives . . . . 20

Whether ready or not, most of the personne lof the 1st Aviation Force headed for France i nthe expectation that their aircraft and equipmentwould be waiting there for them when theyarrived . On 13 July, the force, less Squadron Dwhich remained behind temporarily, boardedtrains at Miami . On the way to New York, theirport of embarkation, they stopped over at Phila-delphia to receive an official band-accompaniedfarewell from the city which had strong claims t othe title of birthplace of Marine aviation. On 18July, the 107 officers and 654 enlisted men ofthe three squadrons sailed from New York fo rFrance on board the transport USS De Kalb .

Marine Aviation ExpandsThe 1st Aviation Force left behind it a Marin eair arm that was emerging rapidly from confuse dimprovisation into steady, businesslike expan-sion. At Miami, the Marine Flying Field, as th eCurtiss Field had been renamed, had grow n

from a sleepy airstrip bordered by a couple o fwooden-framed hangars into a bustling militar ycomplex of hangars, storehouses, machin e

DH-41 on a flight line in France in 1918 . The planes are taking off for a bombing raid on German lines . (Photo from theGoodyear Kirkham collection) .


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20 MARINE CORPS AVIATION: THE EARLY YEARS, 19121940shops, tent camps, and gunnery and bombin granges. The field continued in operation after the1st Aviation Force left, first to complete th eformation of Squadron D and then to trainadditional aviation personnel and to serve as thebase for Marine air patrols of the Florida coast .In Washington, Captain Harvey B. Mims, whokept in close touch with Cunningham in France ,acted as director of Marine aviation . 2 1

During 1918, the authorized strength of Marineaviation was set at 1,500 officers and 6,000 men .To reach this number of personnel, Marin eaviation, besides recruiting more officer pilots,began training enlisted aviators . The first clas sof 25 candidates entered this program on 1.0 July1918 . 2 2 These Marines, who had to meet specialeducational and physical qualifications,* re-ceived the temporary rank of gunnery sergeant.They first attended a 10-week academic cours eat the Massachusetts Institute of Technology .From there they went to Miami for flighttraining. Candidates who successfully complete dflying school received commissions as secon dlieutenants in the Marine Reserve Flying Corps .At Great Lakes Training Station in Illinois, aMarine section of the Navy Mechanics' Schoo lprepared enlisted Marines for ground duty i naviation, as did a similar school in San Diego . 2 2

The 1st Marine Aviation Force inFrance

While Marine aviation expanded in the UnitedStates, its vanguard in the war zone, the 1stAviation Force, disembarked at Brest on 30 July .Administrative and supply problems dogge dCunningham and his Marine aviators from theday of their landing. These problems wer ecompounded by a lack of co-ordination and fir munderstanding between Cunningham's headquar-ters and that of Captain David Hanrahan, USN,commanding officer of the Northern Bombin gGroup 24Upon landing at Brest, Cunningham foundthat no arrangements had been made to movehis squadrons the 400 miles to their selecte dbase locations near Calais. Cunningham solvedthis problem by requisitioning a French train fo rthe two-day trip. When he sent a working partyto the Navy supply base at Pauillac, 30 mile s* Candidates had to be enlisted Marines, have a "supe-

rior" physique, and weigh between 135 and 16 5 pounds .Age limits were 19 to 39 years . Candidatescompleted at least two years of college .had to have

from Bordeaux, to collect the force ' s moto rvehicles, the officer in charge discovered tha t"All our . . . trucks . . . had gotten mixed u pand gotten into the Army pool, and l had to godown there, drag em out of that pool, and finddrivers, and send those things North." 25After they reached Calais, the Marines, billet-ted temporarily in a British rest camp, beganwork at the landing field sites selected by thei radvance party. Squadrons A and B were locatedat Oye, a town between Calais and Dunkirk .Squadron C occupied a site at LaFresne, 1 2kilometers southwest of Calais, while Cun-ningham established his headquarters at thetown of Bois en Ardres .Cunningham then discovered that he was no tgoing to have any aircraft for a while. Beforeleaving for France, he had secured from th eArmy 72 DH4 bombers. These British-designedmachines, part of a large number being manu-factured in the United States, would be shippe dto France and assembled there for issue to theMarines . The planes duly arrived at Pauiliac atabout the time the 1st Aviation Force disem-barked at Brest, but due to delays in assembly,the first one did not reach the squadrons until 7September, and Cunningham learned that mos tof them by some administrative oversight ha dbeen shipped to England. Cunningham "in des-paration" struck a bargain with the British . Theyhad a surplus of air frames for the DH9A, amodification of the D1-14, but no engines; theAmericans had in Europe a surplus of theLiberty engines for which the DH9A wa sdesigned but few airplanes in which to put them .Cunningham, with the approval of U .S . Navyauthorities, agreed with the Royal Air Force thatfor every three Liberty engines delivered to theBritish, they would return one to the Marine smounted in a completely equipped DH .9A . Bythis means and as the result of the eventua ldelivery of some of his Army machines, Cun-ningham by the time of the Armistice ha dsecured 36 airplanes, about half of his force ' splanned strength. Of these, 20 were DH9A sand 16 were DH4s. 2 6

Unable to get his fliers into the air at once inAmerican machines, Cunningham again turnedto the British.** He knew that the RAF had anabundance of aircraft, but a shortage of pilots a sa result of years of combat losses . Within nine

** The Marines were stationed behind the sector of th efront held by the British armies rather than in th eAmerican sector which was to the south and east of them .


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MARINE AVIATION IN WORLD WAR I, 19171918 2 1

The first aerial resupply mission in Marine aviation history occurred 23 October 1918 when Marine Captain Robert S . Lytl e(right) and Gunnery Sergeant Amil Wiman helped airdrop 2,600 pounds of food and stores to a French infantry regiment . Alsotaking part in the action were Marine Captain Francis P . Mulcahy and Gunnery Sergeant Thomas L . McCullough . (Photo fromthe Goodyear Kirkham collection).days of the 1st Aviation Force's arrival i nFrance, he had arranged for Marine pilots to flybombing missions with RAF Squadrons 217 and218, which operated DH4s and DH9s, thesame types of aircraft the Marines were toreceive . Soon Marine pilots, many of whomadded British overseas caps and canes to theiruniforms, were flying combat missions over theGerman lines . They served with the British inrotation, so that every Marine aviator would goon at least three raids .

The Marines now completed their trainingunder fire and under the tutelage of veteranswhom they came to admire and respect . KarlDay, who flew with Squadron 218, a mixed lot o fmen from all the British dominions, said of theoutfit's commander, Major Bert Wemp, a Cana-dian: "He taught me what it means to be a nofficer and a gentleman . He was a remarkablecommanding officer." The British on their sidewelcomed the American reinforcements bu ttreated them on missions with grim realism .

"They put usalways the newcomers were thelast on the right, in the V', because if you gotshot you hadn't lost anything." 2 7These joint operations with the British pro-duced some notable Marine achievements . On28 September, while flying with Squadron 218,First Lieutenant Everett S. Brewer and GunnerySergeant I-Iarry B. Wersheiner shot down theMarines' first enemy aircraft in a dogfight ove rCourtemarke, Belgium. Both Marines were se-verely wounded in the engagement . On 2 and 3October, Marine airmen, also operating wit hSquadron 218, flew the first aerial resuppl ymission in the history of Marine aviation. Onthose days, Captain Francis P. Mulcahy and hi sobserver, Gunnery Sergeant Thomas L . Mc-Cullough, and Captain Robert S. Lytle and hisobserver, Gunnery Sergeant Amil Wiman, flewthrough heavy German fire to drop over 2,600pounds of food and stores to a French infantryregiment isolated by mud and surrounded b yenemy near Stadenburg


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22 MARINE CORPS AVIATION: THE EARLY YEARS, 19121940While the aircrews flew with the British, th erest of the Aviation Force worked on their flyin gfields. Without engineering equipment, eac hsquadron had to build its own runways, hangars ,living quarters, and other base facilities. TheMarines dug sugar beet plants out of the fla tfields with shovels and then levelled their air-

strips with a borrowed Navy steamroller . Theysecured from the British large amounts of con-struction material, including portable canvas andwood hangars. Housing for pilots and crews wen tthrough three stages: tents with dirt floors, tent swith wooden frames and floors, and finall yportable wooden buildings boasting stoves, cots ,and furniture made from shipping crates . Inspite of his men's efforts, however, Cunninghamin November did not consider them well enoughhoused to stay in their camps through thewinter. 2 8On 5 October, Squadron D arrived at La -Fresne with 42 officers and 183 enlisted men ,raising the strength of the entire Force to 149officers and 842 rank and file. The Marines now

redesignated their squadrons as Numbers 7, 8 ,9, and 10 to conform to the Northern BombingGroup ' s identification systemThe mission of the force also changed at thi stime . Under pressure from the Allied offensive sthen in progress, the Germans evacuated theirsubmarine bases on the Channel coast, eliminat-ing the Marines' planned mission. Attached tothe RAF, the Marine squadrons now shifted togeneral support of the British and Belgia narmies, which were pressing their final assaul tagainst the crumbling German lines .By 12 October, the Marine squadrons ha dreceived enough of their own DI-I4s and DH 9As to begin flying missions independently of th eBritish . 2 9 Their DH4s, similar to those they ha dbeen flying in combat with the RAF, wereversions of one of the more successful Worl dWar I aircraft. First flown in 1916, this British-designed two-seater biplane had a wingspread of42 1 /2 feet and a length of 30 1 /2 f ee t . It was builtof wood and fabric like other aircraft of the time ,but had the front part of its fuselage coveredwith plywood. The model used by the Marines ,which was fitted with a 400-horsepower Ameri-can Liberty engine, could achieve a top speed ofabout 125 miles per hour and had a ceiling of17,500 feet. It had a range of 270 miles an dcould climb to 10,000 feet in 14 minutes . Armedwith four .30-caliber machine guns (two fired b ythe pilot through the propeller and two on a rin gmount fired by the observer) and able to carry

460 pounds of bombs in wing racks, the DH 4had enough speed, maneuverability, and fir epower to hold its own against contemporar yfighters. With its easily ruptured, pressurize dfuel tank located between the pilot and th eobserver, the DH4 received the ominous nick-name of "The Flaming Coffin," less from atendency to burn when hit by enemy lire tha nfrom the likelihood of its catching fire durin gotherwise minor noncombat mishaps.With the British, the Marines had flown theDH9, and as a result of Cunningham's negotia-tions their own squadrons received DH9As aswell as DH4s. The DH9, developed in 191 7by the makers of the DH4, had been intende das an improvement upon the earlier machine . I twas identical in construction and dimensions tothe DH-4, but had its fuel tank located in th efuselage ahead of the pilot's cockpit, which wa splaced further toward the tail and closer to theobserver's position. This allowed the crew t ocommunicate more easily with each other i nf l igh t . However, the early DH9s, underpoweredand plagued by engine trouble, proved muc hinferior in performance and reliability to th eDH-14 . Accordingly, when the American Libert yengine became available late in 1917, the Britishmodified the DH9 for it, producing the DH9A .The new version had a wider wingspread tha n

Second L ieutenant Ralph Talbot and his observer, CorporalRobert G . Robinson, earned the Navy Medal of Honor fo rtheir actions in f ighting off 12 German aircraft on 1 4October 1918 .


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MARINE AVIATION IN WORLD WAR 1, 1917-1918 2 3

The colors of the 1st Marine Aviation Force being presented by Mme . Troaille, wife of the Mayor of Ardres, to 2d Lieutenan tWilliam E. Russell, USCMR, Force Intelligence Officer, 27 November 1918 . (Photo from the A lfred A . Cunningham Papers) .


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24 MARINE CORPS AVIATION: THE EARLY YEARS, 19121940either the DH4 or the DH9, an enlarge dradiator for the 400-horsepower Liberty, and amore strongly framed and braced fuselage . Thiswas the aircraft Cunningham obtained . For allpractical purposes, it was identical in perfor-mance, range, bomb load, and armament to th eDH-4, and like the DH4 it was manufacture dunder license by United States aircraft firms . 3 0On 14 October 1918, Captain Robert S. Lytleof Squadron 9 led the Marines' first missiontheir own aircraft . With a flight of five DH4 sand three DH9As, he struck the German-hel drailroad yards at Thielt, Belgium, dropping 2,218pounds of bombs .The bombings met no serious resistance, buton the way back to base, 1 .2 German fighters(eight Fokker DVIIs and four Pfalz DIlls )intercepted the Marine formation. In the ensuingmelee, the Germans, following their usual tacticswhen fighting bombers, concentrated their attackon one machine, the DH4 piloted by SecondLieutenant Ralph Talbot, one of the Nava lReserve officers who had transferred to Marin eaviation . Talbot's observer, Corporal Robert GRobinson, an expert gunner, quickly shot downone attacker, but two others closed in fro mbelow, spraying the DH4 with bullets, one o fwhich shattered Robinson ' s elbow . After clearinga jammed machine gun, Robinson continued t ofire until hit twice more, while Talbot franticall ymaneuvered for advantage . With Robinson un-conscious in the rear seat, Talbot brought dow na second German with his front guns, then pu tthe plane into a long dive to escape the rest ofthe enemy. Crossing the German lines at analtitude of about 50 feet, he landed safely at aBelgian airfield, from which Robinson was takento a field hospital . He recovered from hi swounds . For this exploit, Talbot and Robinsonboth received the Medal of Honor .Captain Lytle also had a narrow escape .While he was trying to maneuver to aid Talbot ,his engine failed; he glided back to the lines andbrought his plane down immediately in front ofthe Belgian forward positions . Lytle and hi sobserver scrambled out of the plane into therelative security of the trenches, and later thatnight Marine ground crews dismantled the air -craft and brought it back to base. The rest of theMarine formation returned safely to their ow nfields . 3 1Between 14 October and 11 November, theMarines carried out a total of 14 raids . Theybombed railway yards, canals, supply dumps ,and airfields. Always flying without fighter es-cort, they frequently braved German antiaircraft

On 22 October 1918, the first Marine aircraft wasdestroyed as a result of enemy action when seven Germa naircraft attacked and shot down a plane flown by 2 dLieutenant Harvey G . Norman . Norman and his observer, 2 dLieutenant Caleb C . Taylor, were kil led in the crash .

fire and had several more clashes with Germa nplanes . In one of these, on 22 October, seve nenemy fighters separated the craft piloted bySecond Lieutenant Harvey G. Norman from theformation and shot it down, killing both Normanand his observer, Second Lieutenant Caleb W .Taylor . This was the first Marine aircraft lost t oenemy action.During their tour of duty in France between 9August and 11 November, the Marines of the 1stAviation Force took part in 43 missions with th eBritish, besides launching their own 14 raids .According to later estimates, they droppe d15,140 pounds of bombs while flying with th eBritish and 18,792 pounds of bombs on their ownmissions . At a cost of four pilots killed and on epilot and two gunners wounded, they scored fou rconfirmed kills of German fighters and claime deight more. In addition to combat casualties, th eMarines lost Lieutenant Talbot killed on a tes tflight and four other officers and 21 enlisted mendead in an influenza epidemic which for a whil ein October paralyzed operations. During thei rbrief period in combat, the Marines of the 1s tAviation Force won a total of 30 awards anddecorations, including Talbot ' s arid Robinson' sMedals of Honor and four Distinguished ServiceMedals . 3 2Even before the signing of the Armistice,


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MARINE AVIATION IN WORLD WAR I, 19171918 25Cunningham requested the early return of the1st Aviation Force to the United States . He didthis partly to prevent his ill-housed men fro mhaving to spend the winter in Belgium andNorthern France and partly because, in hi swords, "I think we could accomplish much moreat home, getting our Aviation service establishe dunder the new conditions of peace . " a' To thedisappointment of some of his men, who hadhoped to see Paris and Germany bef