US Aviation in World War One Trivia Quiz

Answer: Signals

For the first year after the USA's entry into WW1, its military aviation continued to be organized as part of the US Army Signals Corps. Because the USA had been hitherto neutral, it had missed out on many of the technological and organizational advances experienced by the combatant nations of the First World War. Consequently few of its aircraft were modern, none were combat types, and none of its units had been trained for air warfare. It had a full complement of 1,218 soldiers, of which 131 were officers who were mainly aviator students under training. The US Army had only 26 fully trained military pilots.

In May 1918, the US Army Air Service was formally established as an independent unit in its own right within the US Army.

Answer: Lafayette Escadrille

The first Americans to see action in the First World War were volunteers who joined the French army in the early months of the war. As non-French citizens, they had to enlist with the French Foreign Legion and many saw action in the trenches on the Western Front. Based on the numbers of Americans who had already transferred to the French Aéronautique Militaire and were serving as aviators in French squadrons, in 1915 a special squadron of American volunteers was established, as part of the Aéronautique Militaire and under French command. Flying Nieuport scouts, it scored its first aerial victory in May 1916 and soon became famous as the Lafayette Escadrille.

This grew into a whole corps of several squadrons and many of its pilots went on to form the combat-experienced core in units of the US Army Air Service.

The Lafayette Escadrille was formally transferred to the US Army in February 1918, as the 103rd Aero Squadron. Initially it continued as an active component of the French Groupe de Chasse 21 until the summer, however, after which it came under the command of the newly formed US 3rd Pursuit Group under American command.

Answer: Texas

The School of Military Aeronautics was established in Austin, Texas, so it made sense that the US Army's nascent air service was in the same area, since most of its officers would be its students.

In addition, as a training area, Texas had several other advantages. It was served by good transport and communication links with the eastern and southern ports. It also enjoyed dry weather, clear skies and lots of space.

Answer: Issoudon

Issoudon was the main Aviation Instruction Centre for the Americans throughout their time in France. Other bases were also used for specific aspects of their training. These were Avord (basic), Tours (preliminary), Pau (advanced/aerobatic) and Cazaux (gunnery). These names crop up with some regularity in many biographies of WW1 American pilots.

Answer: Structural weaknesses

The Nieuport 28 was a very elegant machine to look at, with a slim, tapered rear fuselage and a streamlined engine cowling. Its performance was generally on a par with the latest fighter types in early 1918: with a maximum speed of 123 mph it was faster than many, and its armament of two 7.7mm machine guns was standard for the time.

It had not been adopted by the French Aéronautique Militaire, largely because of its protracted development as a much more radical revision of the successful series of Nieuport scouts, which meant that other types had since come into service and so it was not needed by the time it was ready for production. For the US Army Air Service, however, eager to build up its inventory, it represented a ready supply of modern fighters for which they would not be competing for orders with other air forces.

In the stress of combat flying, however, the aircraft proved to have a structural flaw in that its wing would shed fabric in a steep dive. Several incidents of this caused the pursuit squadrons to lose confidence in it, although some pilots remained faithful to it and persisted with it for as long as they could, happy to be last in line when replacement types came into service. Steps were taken by the manufacturers to remedy the problem, but by the time it was rectified, the Army Air Service had already begun to re-equip with new types.

Answer: an aerial victory

Flying a Nieuport 28 over Gengault, Campbell's flight met a similar-sized force of German aircraft. He shot down a Pfalz D.III scout, in the dogfight that ensued, at 08.53. Lt. Alan Winslow also dispatched an enemy aircraft, but a minute or so later. Both pilots were of the 94th Aero Squadron, part of the 1st Pursuit Group. Although American pilots had achieved victories before, several becoming aces, this had been while serving with French or British units. Two months earlier, a US Army Lieutenant, Stephen Thompson, while seconded as a gunner to a French unit, had shot down an aircraft. But Campbell was the first American-trained pilot flying under the auspices of the United States Army to achieve an aerial victory.

Born in 1896, Doug Campbell was a Californian, who attended both Harvard and Cornell Universities. It was at the latter that he began aviation training, but he became a fully trained pilot at Issoudon AIC before being assigned to the 94th Squadron. He became an ace, with six confirmed victories before he was wounded on 5th June, 1918. He was awarded several decorations, including the Distinguished Service Cross. He went on to have a successful career in civil aviation, becoming General Manager of Pan-American Airways. He died in Connecticut in 1990.

Answer: SPAD XIII

The French-built SPAD XIII was a very robust fighter aircraft, certainly when compared to the fragile Nieuport 28, and it had been the standard equipment for the French Groupes de Chasse since the winter of 1917-18. It had been designed as a replacement for the successful SPAD VII, which by late 1917 was struggling to compete with the newer German fighters. The upgunned and more powerful XIII, with its squat, pugnacious lines, was to become emblematic of the US Army Air Service and its history. It equipped thirteen pursuit squadrons in total.

The earlier SPAD VII was on the inventory of the Lafayette Escadrille when it was transferred to the US Army as the 103rd Pursuit Squadron, but it had re-equipped with the XIII by the summer of 1918. The British-built Sopwith Pup was used for training purposes by some American squadrons, but it was obsolete and had been replaced with the Nieuport 28 by the time the US Pursuit Squadrons took their places on the front line. The French-designed Hanriot HD.1 did not see any service with American squadrons; it was a major type for the Belgian and Italian air services, however.

Answer: Auto racing

Nicknamed 'Fast Eddie', Ohio-born Rickenbacker was famous as a racing car driver before the war, driving for Frayer, Duesenberg, Peugeot and Maxwell from 1910 until he joined up in 1916. He had raced as relief driver for Lee Frayer in the first Indianapolis 500. In fact, when he first joined the military, his celebrity status afforded him the rank of sergeant and a position as a chauffeur on the staff of General Pershing.

He transferred to the Aviation Section while in France. He learned to fly at Issoudon, was commissioned upon completing his pilot training, and joined 94th Aero Squadron in March 1918. He scored his first success on 29th April, a Pfalz D.III, and was to end the war with 26 victories, making him the highest-scoring American ace. This was made all the more remarkable by the fact that he spent three months grounded by an ear infection. Fourteen of these 'kills' were in October, many of them the Fokker D.VII, probably the best German fighter of the end-war period.

Postwar, Rickenbacker remained in the public eye, being associated with cars and aviation. He died in 1973 in Switzerland, at the age of 82.

Answer: False

The Toul sector was in Lorraine, northeastern France. The first two squadrons allocated to it were the 94th and 95th, both pursuit squadrons equipped with Nieuport 28s. It was bounded by the river Meuse to the west and the Metz-Nancy road to the east.

It was a quiet area of the front - both the French and the Germans would send battle-weary units there for rest and re-equipment. It was deemed an ideal sector for the Americans to gain experience. German fighter units in the area were equipped with obsolescent Albatros and Pfalz types, again in response to the less demanding nature of the fighting there.

Meanwhile, however, the experienced 103rd Squadron (until recently the Lafayette Escadrille) continued to fight under French command in the Champagne and Aisne sectors, both of which were a lot less quiet!

Answer: Curtiss JN-4

The Curtiss JN-4 'Jenny' was a stalwart of the US Army Air Service - as a training aircraft. It was the main equipment of the Aviation Section of the US Army Signals Corps, entering service in July 1915.

Although some were used with some success as observation aircraft as part of the Pancho Villa Expedition, a nascent air force needs training aircraft and, for this reason, it was only intended as a dual-control pilot trainer. In this role it was ubiquitous, its numbers growing in parallel with the development of US Army aviation during 1917-18. It is estimated that 95% of American-trained pilots learned to fly in a Curtiss JN-4.

The other types mentioned were all used in some numbers by the US Army Air Service.

Answer: William 'Billy' Mitchell

The 1st Air Brigade was formed as an Allied force under the command of Colonel William Mitchell in the summer of 1918. The American contribution consisted of the four squadrons of the 1st Pursuit Group and three squadrons of I Corps Observation Group. Initially it was employed to support the ground forces along the Marne River and Chateau Thierry. By September 1918, it consisted of 1,500 aircraft from all the major Allied combatants in support of the Saint-Mihiel Offensive. It was one of the first coordinated air-ground offensives in history.

Although intended as a diversionary attack in support of their main offensive to the north-west, the Germans found that the stubborn resistance and counter-attacking verve from the French and American forces meant that they had to commit more and more troops and materiel, and it became a much fiercer and drawn-out campaign than expected.

Billy Mitchell is regarded as the father of the US Army Air Corps and a pioneer in aviation warfare strategy. He died in 1936.

Answer: Many of his victories were unconfirmed

Putnam's total included 13 unconfirmed victories. He often flew deep and alone into German-held territory and it was therefore difficult to prove his claims if the aircraft he shot down was not witnessed by his colleagues or by Allied ground forces. Such claims relied on German confirmation, and, of course, that was rather difficult to come by!

The Americans adopted the French system of scoring aerial victories, which made sense since they flew in the French sector of the Front, were largely trained in France, mainly flew French-built aircraft, and were initially under French strategic command. Plus, many of their experienced pilots had flown in the Lafayette Escadrille or with other French units before transferring to the US Army. By these rules, enemy aircraft shot down had to be seen and confirmed by independent observers to be classed as destroyed. It had to be seen to be: falling in flames, or fall and crash into the ground, or disintegrate in the air, or be forced to land on the Allied side of the lines and be captured. Probable victories, where the aircraft was seen spinning down apparently out of control, or the crash or mortal damage was not corroborated by at least one other person, would be noted but not added to the pilot's personal victory score. The British system differed slightly in that enemy aircraft seen descending 'out of control' due to a British pilot's actions were credited to that pilot, although noted as 'OC'. It mattered less to the British because, officially, they did not encourage an 'ace' system and they were therefore less fastidious than the French who had formalised a system to facilitate this.

David Putnam was descended from General Isaac Putnam from the American War of Independence. He was born and raised in Massachusetts, attended Harvard and, in 1917, joined the French Air Service. By December 1917 he was a pilot in a French fighter squadron. He flew with three different French units, claiming 24 victories (13 unconfirmed) before transferring to the 139th Pursuit Squadron of the USAS on 10th June. Flying as a US Army Lieutenant with this unit, he gained five more confirmed kills before falling in combat against several enemy machines on 12th September over the Limey area. Although he was credited officially with 16 victories, some historians include his unconfirmed tally to increase this to 29, or even 34.

Answer: He was the only American naval ace

A bit of a trick question: Lieutenant David Sinton Ingalls was actually a US Navy aviator who flew with the RAF. In 1916, he had left Yale to join the US Navy and was sent to France in late 1917 as part of a US Navy Patrol Squadron. Craving more action, he secured a secondment to No.13 Squadron of the British Royal Naval Air Service (which became No.213 Squadron of the newly formed RAF in April 1918). With this unit, he flew Sopwith Camels and earned six aerial victories between August and September 1918.

As such, therefore, he was the only US Naval aviator to become a fighter ace during the First World War. He was recalled to sea duty in WW2, and retired as a Rear Admiral in the US Naval Reserve. Ohio born and bred, he died in his home state in 1985, at the age of 86.

Answer: 'Hat in the Ring'

Formed in August 1917, the 94th 'Hat in the Ring' Squadron entered the front line in March 1918, equipped with Nieuport 28s and with Major Raoul Lufbery (the 'ace' from the Lafayette Escadrille) as its commander. Its badge represented Uncle Sam's distinctive 'star spangled' top hat being thrown 'into the ring' as a symbol of its commitment to the fight. Along with the 95th Squadron, it was the first US Aero Squadron to enter the fighting, learning its trade in the Toul Sector (see Q.9). As part of Mitchell's 1st Air Brigade (see Q.11), it was engaged in almost continuous action from June until the end of the war.

Its first victories came on 14th April, and by the end of the war, it was the highest-scoring American Pursuit Squadron, with 67 victories (including 13 balloons). 26 of these were scored by Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker, who was its commander from September, but the squadron boasted some eight 'ace' pilots on its roster at various times, and these accounted for a further 37 kills between them. It re-equipped with SPAD XIIIs in the summer of 1918 and it was a key unit within the 1st Pursuit Group.

Answer: 10th November 1918

This last victory was a Fokker D.VII, shot down at 10.50 a.m. on the penultimate day of the fighting, by Major Maxwell Kirby of the 94th Aero Squadron, flying a SPAD XIII. Ironically, the US Army Air Service's first victory of the war was also scored by a member of the 94th (see Q.6).