The U.S. Air Service In the Great War: 1917-1919

by James J. Cooke

Overview

When the United States went to war in April 1917 the Army's Air Service had one squadron of obsolete aircraft. By November 1918 the Air Service had aero squadrons which were specialized in air combat, observation, bombing, and photography. Each combat division habitually had an air observation squadron and a balloon company attached. This work also details the efforts of the Air Service to construct a massive system of supply, repair, and maintenance. Questions such as the training of flyers, observers, and balloonists are also explored.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780275948627
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/20/1996
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

JAMES J. COOKE is Professor of History at the University of Mississippi. He spent the academic year 1992-1993 as a Visiting Professor of History at the U.S. Air War College. His latest book was The Rainbow Division in The Great War, 1917-1919 (Praeger, 1994).

Table of Contents

Building Something from Nothing
Getting into the Air
The Gathering
Quiet Sectors No Longer
Bloody Spring and Summer
The Marne Counter-Offensive
The St. Mihiel Offensive, Preparation
The St. Mihiel Offensive, Execution
Meuse-Argonne, The First Day
Meuse-Argonne and Armistice
Demobilization and Occupation
I've Been through the Mill
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Cooke (history, U. of Mississippi) offers a corrective overview of US Air Service during World War I, based on military records he kept running across while researching The Rainbow Division in the Great War (1994). Turning on several specific battles or offensives in western France, he shows that airmen's main contribution was providing observations from balloons for artillery, and that though some pursuit pilots did fit the romantic stereotype, they acted within the constraints and goals the larger war effort. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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