Meanwhile overseas, work of organization was similarly going on. Hardly six weeks after the United States entered the war, namely, on May 27, the first cadets sailed for France for training in the highly developed French flying schools, till by the end of the year nearly 2,500 men were under instruction in France, England, Italy, and Canada. The collapse of Russia, Italy’s serious defeat, and the weight thrown on the allied services made it impossible, unfortunately, for the Allies to meet the schedule of training planes necessary, so that many of these cadets, the most promising of America’s material, were in idleness for months. Nevertheless, what facilities were available greatly advanced America’s aerial preparation and helped relieve the shortage of equipment here. It was early in May, 1918, however, over a year after America’s entry into the war, that the first German plane fell victim to an aviator in the American service. About the same time 468 fully trained American aviators organized into 13 complete American squadrons or brigades with British and French squadrons were actually on the front, taking increasing toll of the enemy.
During the same time an enlisted force of 46,667 men had also been sent overseas. The first to go were sent to France to lay the foundations for the great organization soon to be built up, including training fields, assembly depots for American-built planes, and aerodromes near the front. Others were formed into service squadrons in England and France to be ready as soon as American pilots were trained into their own organizations. Still others went to relieve French skilled labor of unskilled work so that they could go back into aeroplane factories, while others went to England for the construction work necessary to carry out the night bombing program.
Consequently, by June 30, 1918, two large training organizations were in operation, the source of supply in this country training and organizing thousands of pilots and men in all sorts of tasks and the operation end overseas giving the final training in France, England, and Italy the fast moving of fully trained squadrons to the front.
Where, at the outbreak of the war, there had been but 65 officers in the Air Service, there were now 14,230; the enlisted strength, similarly, had jumped from 1,120 to 124,767; the number of men in or awaiting training for flyers from less than 100 to over 18,000. There were 4,872 officers and 46,667 enlisted men overseas. Indeed, the Air Service alone was by June 30, 1918, larger than the American Army at the outbreak of the war. While its development had been infinitely more complicated and much less rapid than expected, there is reason to believe that it is essentially sound.
William L. Kenly,
Major-General, U. S. A.,
Director of Military Aeronautics.
The Secretary of War.
APPENDIX II
RECORDS OF ALLIED AND ENEMY ACES WITH
NUMBER OF PLANES BROUGHT DOWN
K—Killed. D—Dead. C—Captured. W—Wounded.
BRITISH ACES