The first gun to be sent landed in France in the latter part of June but did not go into action against the enemy until mid-September, when, placed near Soissons, it fired on the railroads entering Laon. It had been intended for use against the German “Big Bertha” that had been dropping shells upon Paris from a distance of over seventy miles, but on the day in August when the American gun was ready to begin action “Big Bertha” retired and was heard of no more.
The German long range guns which bombarded Paris and Dunkirk and other places were set on permanent steel and concrete foundations, and therefore were immobile, and the military efficiency of their shells was reduced by the fact that they were small and made for long flight. The enormous shells of the American guns had a range of thirty miles, weighed 400 pounds each, seven times as much as the German, and could penetrate eight feet of solid concrete. Each gun, without its mount, weighed more than a hundred tons. They fired heavier projectiles and had a greater range than any mobile land artillery that had previously been used. Their chief usefulness was in the destruction of ammunition dumps and of railroad yards and rolling stock and the consequent demoralization of the enemy’s transportation system. When the shells from one of the guns were directed upon the railroad stations and yards of Montmedy and Longuyon they stopped all traffic there and one which struck the German headquarters killed twenty-eight members of the general’s staff.
Cruising through France like battleships on wheels, demonstrating their perfect mobility and proving their usefulness by cutting the enemy’s lines of communication and seriously obstructing his transportation, these big naval guns on railway mounts proved their value so triumphantly that the Navy had been requested, when the end came, to provide as many more as it could rush quickly to the front.
The Navy also removed a number of 7-inch guns from battleships, the changed conditions of warfare demanding a lighter and quicker firing gun, and devised for them, at General Pershing’s request, a new type of mount, utilizing the principle of the caterpillar belt and thus making it possible for them to travel directly over any kind of ground. So satisfactory were the first tests that the Army asked the Navy to furnish 36 such guns and mounts as quickly as possible and these were being rushed to completion when the armistice was signed.
The Navy maintained a large personnel and carried on considerable operations on shore both in Great Britain and France. On the coast of each of these countries was a series of bases for the repair and upkeep of escorting and patrolling ships, from cruisers to converted yachts. In many cases it was necessary to construct complete repair plants. At every naval base overseas there was a fully equipped hospital. In Scotland the Navy took over an entire watering place whose hotels, bath-houses and other structures were converted into large hospital buildings wherein were cared for many British as well as our own sick and wounded.
CHAPTER XIII
THE WINGS OF THE NAVY
The wings of the Navy, that had barely begun to sprout when the United States became a belligerent, grew in a year and a half as if under a conjurer’s wand. Previous to that time the appropriations that had been granted for the development of naval aeronautics had been so small that little could be done. Upon our declaration of war the Navy had 22 low powered seaplanes of no value except for training purposes, five kite and two free balloons and one dirigible balloon, and the Naval Aviation Service had three stations, but no adequate training field, while its personnel consisted of 45 naval aviators and less than 200 enlisted men.
When the armistice was signed the Aviation Service of the American Navy had 1,656 trained airplane pilots, of whom half were in service over European waters; 1,349 ground, or executive, officers; 3,912 student officers at training fields at home or abroad who would soon have been ready for service; an enlisted personnel numbering almost 37,000; approximately 8,000 trained mechanics and 6,000 more in training; in France, sixteen naval aviation stations besides others for training and supply work; two stations in England and four in Ireland; three stations in Italy and the Azores; two stations in Canada; one station in the Canal Zone; eleven stations in the United States; 759 seaplanes and flying boats in service for patrol and bombing work and 140 airplanes or land machines for land service, with 491 seaplanes and 100 land airplanes for training purposes, while a dozen planes of new and experimental types were being tried out; 282 kite and seven free balloons and 11 dirigible balloons. Many hundreds of seaplanes, flying boats and balloons of various kinds were on order for early delivery. All this development of material and personnel, of systems of training for pilots, ground officers and mechanics, of stations and service, and of the big and smoothly working organization that produced important results in the work of the naval aviators was the growth of but eighteen months.
To ensure the rapid production of planes a naval aircraft factory was erected at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The contract for its construction was signed in August, 1917, and in the following March, 228 days after the breaking of the ground, the first machine had been completed and was given its trial flight. And a few days later this machine and another which had followed it to completion and trial were on their way to Europe. In the meantime, in order to meet the expansion which was foreseen to be necessary in naval aviation plans, the naval aircraft building was greatly enlarged. Included in the extension was a huge assembly plant for the assembling of airplane parts separately built in a large number and variety of private manufacturing plants whose work for the aircraft factory was directed by its management. By this means team work was secured, resulting in quick deliveries and an ample supply of craft for both service and training purposes. By September of 1918 enough naval aircraft had been shipped overseas to meet the needs of its assembly bases there for several months. The big rubber plants which had almost ceased the manufacturing of balloons renewed and expanded that phase of their activities and balloon fields and schools were created or enlarged and newly equipped. The completion of the Liberty motor brought the later development of the flying boat, used especially for coastal patrol work.
