We had stations all along the coast of France—at Dunkirk, St. Ingelvert and Autingues, headquarters of the Northern Bombing Group; L'Aber Vrach, Brest, Ile Tudy, Le Croisic, Fromentine, St. Trojan, Treguier, Arcachon, La Trinite, La Pallice, Le Fresne, Oye, Guipavas, Paimboeuf, Pauillac, Rochefort, St. Ingelvert, and Gujan, with a training school at Moutchic.
ASSEMBLING NAVAL AIRPLANES AT BREST
NAVAL AVIATION HANGARS AT GUIPAVAS
A NAVY "BLIMP" LEAVING HANGAR AT GUIPAVAS, FRANCE
In Ireland we had stations at Queenstown, Berehaven, Lough Foyle, Whiddy Island and Wexford; in England at Eastleigh and Killingholme. We aided Italy in fighting the Austrians, with our training school at Lake Bolsena and an operating station at Porto Corsini, on the Adriatic, across from the Austrian naval base at Pola. Our aviators flew across the Alps and the Adriatic sea; they patrolled the waters along the French coast, protecting the vast Allied shipping going into and out of the French ports, and guarding the convoys of American troops, munitions and supplies. Our Northern Bombing Group bombed the German submarine bases and ammunition and supply depots in Belgium. Operating with their British comrades, our aviators flew over the North Sea and battled with German aircraft over Heligoland Bight, almost within sight of the home bases of the German fleet. They took part in the North Sea patrol in connection with the movements of the British Grand Fleet, and those assigned to the British stations at Felixstowe and Portsmouth had a part in the famous Dover Patrol that kept clear the road from England to France.
The United States Navy had 44 aviation stations and units in Europe, with a record of 5,691 war flights, covering a distance of 791,398 miles. This does not include 18,000 flights that were made in training. Forty-three submarines were attacked from the air, our aircraft being credited, according to the records of Naval Aviation, with sinking two U-boats, with probably sending down two more, and damaging others. An even more striking evidence of efficiency was the fact that during the last ten months of the war no surface craft convoy protected by American naval aircraft in the war zone was successfully attacked by an enemy submarine.
Attacking the German U-boat bases, Bruges, Zeebrugge, Ostend, and the airdromes and air stations and other enemy establishments in Flanders, the Northern Bombing Group, which operated in connection with the British Royal Air Force, dropped more than 155,000 pounds of bombs, destroying hangars and other structures, blowing up ammunition dumps and now and then bringing down a kite balloon, spreading such havoc that it shook the nerve of the German crews that handled the Teuton aircraft in western Belgium.