The U.S. Air Service in World War I - Volume Four - Postwar Review, Lessons Learned, U.S. Bombing Survey, General Foulois, Fokker Triplane, Aerial View of the Trenches

Following the Armistice in 1918, Maj. Gen. Mason M. Patrick, Chief of Air Service, American Expeditionary Forces, directed that a record be made of lessons learned during the war. This information, he believed, was needed for planning the Air Service of the future. The reports prepared by commanders, pilots, observers, and other members of the various Air Service units in response to General Patrick’s directive are of considerable historical interest for the information they contain about the Air Service and its employment at the front. A select group of the reports on lessons learned make up Part I of this volume of World War I documents on U. S. military aviation. Part II is devoted to a report on the effects of Allied bombing in World War I. This long-forgotten document, the result of a post-war investigation by the Air Intelligence Section of General Headquarters, American Expeditionary Forces, is the counterpart of the well-known United States Strategic Bombing Survey of World War II. This volume is the last in a series that the Office of Air Force History is publishing on the U. S. Air Service in World War I.

On the morning of 11 November 1918, Air Service units at the front stood by waiting for the fog to lift so they could take to the air. The orders for the day called for offensive operations to destroy the German air service, protect friendly air and ground forces, and harass enemy troops with machinegun fire and bombs at every opportunity. The purchasing, shipping, and receiving of supplies and equipment, construction of new facilities, training of additional pilots and observers, and other business necessary to support plans for defeating the Germans continued as if the war would be of indefinite duration. But all of this was suddenly changed at 1100 hours.

With the Armistice in effect, combat units resumed training. An air service was formed for duty in Germany with the army of occupation. Work was quickly begun to terminate contracts, stop construction, dispose of excess supplies and facilities, phase out training programs, and return personnel and units to the United States where most of the men would be discharged and the units disbanded.

In the same period, at the end of 1918 and during the first part of 1919, the Air Service, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), was reviewing World War I to see what had been learned that might be of value to the postwar, peacetime Air Service. Documentary materials relating to this review—reports of lessons learned and a survey of the effects of bombing—are presented in this volume