WWI US Army Air Service 376th Aero Service Squadron Patch AEF Mar 1918, France
Original WWI US Army Air Service 376th Aero Service Squadron Patch AEF Mar 1918, France - Good Issued Condition as Photographed with some discoloration as seen; Recent Collection Acquisition & Presented as Acquired, Scarce (Photo 4 Reference: Issoudun Aerodrom Field III 1918)
375th Aero Squadron - 1
January 1918, AEF: 18 March
1918– May 1919
Service Support Squadron
3d Air Instructional Center, Issoudun Aerodrome (see below)
Issoudun Aerodrome was a complex of military airfields in
the vicinity of Issoudun, Centre, France. They were used during World War I as
part of the Third Air Instructional Center, American Expeditionary Forces for
training United States airmen prior to being sent into combat on the Western
Front.
It was at that time the largest air base in the world. Today
the entire complex consists of agricultural fields, the military facility
totally obscured with no trace of its wartime history.
Background
By the summer of 1917, two and a half years of the air war
had begun to take a serious toll on the number of French and British aviators.
While the United States possessed a relatively enormous pool of human
resources, she lacked the well developed training methods and aircraft
production capabilities of the Allies. In order to maximize the resources of
both, the French submitted a memorandum to General George O. Squier, then the
Chief Signal Officer of the U.S. Army, suggesting the establishment of an
American advanced flying school in France.[1]
The site decided upon for this advanced aviation school was
Issoudun, France. Issoudun, located about 100 miles southeast of Paris, was
primarily chosen because the surrounding countryside was extremely level and
relatively sparsely populated with wide-open spaces for flying fields. The site
was also relatively close to a major government-owned railroad line. Probably
just as important was its proximity to the aviation factories and new plane
assembly fields in the south which were to supply the aircraft to be used in
the training at Issoudun. In spite of the advantages of this location,
significant work was required to bring the Third Aviation Instruction Center
(3rd AIC), as it was to be named, to life.[1]
When General John J. Pershing first saw the site it was
nothing but a series of flat fields, with no barracks, hangars, buildings or
classroom facilities. Under the agreement with the French, the United States
was, “…to furnish 200 workman to erect it (3d AIC) and ‘all the tools, nails and
other implements necessary,’ including a narrow-gauge railroad, while France
was to furnish the planes, motors and suitably cleared land.” With this
accomplished, American pilots were to begin training in July of 1917 and be
ready for the front in the fall of the same year.[1]
While this proposal was approved by Pershing, it met some
resistance when it reached the Secretary of War. With an initial price tag of
almost $800,000 just to open the field, the proposal was rejected by the
Secretary of War on 19 May 1917. That same day the proposal was resubmitted
with the additional argument that a facility such as the 3d AIC was critical to
the development of the air forces that would accompany the A.E.F. to Europe.
This time the proposal was accepted and by July 1917 the first Aero
Construction Squadrons began to arrive in France.[1]
By early fall of that same year construction at the field
was in full-swing. While the initial pace of building was hectic in an effort
to make the base operational as quickly as possible, construction at Issodun
was never really completed and continued right up to the 1918 Armistice with
Germany. As a result of this furious pace of construction, Issodun was fully
operational and training was being conducted within a months of Pershing
accepting the base.[1]
Morane rouleur high-speed taxiing trainer on Field 1
The 3d AIC at Issodun was initially to be merely a
“refresher course” for American pursuit pilots arriving in France, prior to
being sent to the front. The intent was for the American pilots, having already
received advance training in the United States, to become acquainted with the
current tactics and aircraft being used at the front.[1]
The advanced aviation schools in the U.S. were slow to
develop and lacked both aircraft of the type being used at the front and pilots
with combat experience to act as instructors. This lack of advance training in
the U.S. dictated the development of a complete course in advanced flying and
aerial tactics at Issodun.[1]
Initially, the school was initially staffed primarily by
French instructors, used French airplanes, and consequently, followed the
French Bleriot system of instruction. At the time, America did not have the
time, resources or pilots to establish its own program in France and therefore
relied totally on the French to prepare American pilots for combat duty.
American pilots with combat experience and flying time in the type of aircraft
being flown at the front were a rare commodity. Many of them were flying with
French units, or the Lafayette Escadrille, and chose to remain with those units
rather than join the A.E.F. Gradually, American pilots, either graduates from
Issodun or from the American front-line units began to replace their French
counterparts. Even with this gradual transition though, the training program at
Issodun remained fundamentally the Bleriot system. The various fields at
Issodun (initially nine, later expanded to 15) each provided a different phase
of instruction, allowing the student to progress in successive stages of
training until adequately prepared to participate at the front.[1]
Field 5 showing Nieuport 15M, 80 HP and 120 HP aircraft
The student's progression through these fields was typically
as follows:[2][3]
Main Aerodrome
Field 1, 46°59′50″N 001°51′58″E[3] Rouleur Field; Primary
instruction, high speed taxiing
Field 2, 47°00′26″N 001°52′27″E[3] Main Field, Dual-control
instruction, first solo flight
Field 3, 47°00′47″N 001°53′02″E[3] Solo Flying, Cross
Country, basic aerobatics
The main aerodrome were also used for new aircraft delivered
to the base and the major hangar repair field, for testing repaired or rebuilt
aircraft[4]
Field 4, 47°00′15″N 001°54′27″E[3] Used for spiral turns
Field 5, 47°00′27″N 001°56′11″E[3] Used for taxiing, taking
off, and landing and wing slips
Field 6, 46°59′12″N 001°55′20″E[3] Aerobatic Field; Used for
advanced acrobatics
Fields #4, #5, #6 were used for basic flight training[4]
Field 8, 46°57′45″N 001°50′22″E[3] Used for aerial combat
training
Field 9, 47°01′50″N 001°49′35″E[3] Introduction to the
Nieuport 18M (Graduates either proceeded to Field 10 for 2-seater training or
to Field 4 for pursuit training)
Field 10, 46°58′10″N 001°54′16″E[3] Used for observation
pilot training (DH 4)
Field 11, 46°56′08″N 001°50′39″E[3] Under Construction 1
October 1918, not used[4]
Field 12, 47°00′51″N 001°48′35″E[3] Under Construction 1
October 1918, not used[4]
Field 13, 47°01′21″N 001°53′03″E[3] Under Construction 1
October 1918, not used (planned for aerial gunnery)[4]
Field 14, 46°57′10″N 001°46′45″E[3] Used for machine gun
training in aerial gunnery[4]
Field 15, 47°02′39″N 001°58′31″E[3] Under Construction 1
October 1918, not used[4]
Operating the 3rd Aviation Instruction Center required a
large number of organizations. Serving at Issoudun were the following U.S. Aero
Squadrons: 10th, 21st, 26th, 30th, 31st, 32nd, 33rd, 35th, 37th, 43rd, 101st,
149th, 158th, 173rd, 257, 369th, 372nd, 374th, 640th, 641st, 642nd, 644th,
801st, 802nd, and 1104th.[2]
When the first students of the school at Issodun reported
for duty to the front they were among the most extensively trained pilots of
the day. The average American pilot received about 60 hours of training at
Issodun and by the time he had completed aerial gunnery school, he averaged
over 100 hours of training, “…nearly triple the number of hours of flying time with
which pilots of the Royal Air Force had been reporting to their combat units
two years earlier.” [1]
When the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918, Issodun
was the largest flying school in the world. More than 1,800 men had attended
advanced training at Issodun, of whom 829 completed the pursuit course, 627
served in combat against the Germans on the Western Front, and 202 became
instructors. The combat record of those who went to the front speaks for
itself—781 enemy planes and 73 balloons destroyed at the cost of 289 aircraft
and 48 balloons lost by the AEF.[1]
Closure
The United States Air Service formally left Issoudun
Airdrome on 28 June 1919 almost eight months after the war ended. The sites of
the former airfields have returned to their previous status as agricultural
fields.
On 28 June 2009, the people of Issoudun had a commemoration
ceremony in honor of the American aviators who had trained, and in many cases,
died while training there. A single monument on Department Route 960 remains to
mark Issoudun's part in the Great War.
Known squadrons assigned
95th Aero Squadron (Pursuit), 16 November 1917 – 18 February
1918
103d Aero Squadron (Pursuit), 24 December 1917 – 18 February
1918
94th Aero Squadron (Pursuit), 24 January - 5 March 1918
13th Aero Squadron (Pursuit), 27 January - 11 May 1918
27th Aero Squadron (Pursuit), 29 March-24 April 1918
139th Aero Squadron (Pursuit), 29 March-28 May 1918
28th Aero Squadron (Pursuit), 24–27 June 1918
22d Aero Squadron (Observation), 26 June-7 July 1918
49th Aero Squadron (Pursuit), 2–28 July 1918
93d Aero Squadron (Pursuit), 7–28 July 1918
135th Aero Squadron (Observation), 2–19 July 1918
1st Aero Squadron (Observation), 29 September-19 October
1918
Demobilized: May 1919
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