At the time of our entrance into the war, there were only thirty-seven steel shipyards in America and probably less than fifty thousand men were employed in them. By the fall of 1918 there were 171 shipyards, of which seventy-six are steel, eighty-six wood, seven concrete and two composite. Instead of fifty thousand shipworkers, there was an army of nearly four hundred thousand, with another two hundred and fifty thousand in training. The program of the Shipping Board, which was never completed, because of the unexpected ending of the war, was an enormous one. Contracts had been made for the construction of 2,249 passenger, cargo, refrigerator and tanker ships, ranging from 3,500 to 12,000 tons each, with an aggregate deadweight tonnage of 13,212,712. It had contracted for forty-two concrete ships, with a deadweight tonnage of 381,500, 170 wooden barges, 279 steel, wood and concrete tugs, of one thousand horse-power for ocean and harbor service, one hundred trawlers, and twentyfive harbor oil barges of a deadweight tonnage of fifty thousand. "The men who built the ships," said Secretary of Navy Daniels, "as truly did their part in winning the war as did the men who were on the ships and in the trenches." CHAPTER XXVIII DEATH FROM THE SKY MERICA'S share of the thrilling war in the air A naturally fell under two heads. The amazing work of our industrial army in aircraft production was not less wonderful than the work of the American government in enlisting and training American aviators for aviation service. When war was declared in April, 1917, the United States could hardly have been worse off than it was either in aircraft production or the training of aviators. She had then two aviation fields and 224 airplanes, of which only fifty-five were considered serviceable. The national Advisory Committee on Aeronautics advised that fifty-one of these airplanes were obsolete and the other four obsolescent. Some of these airplanes had been used during General Pershing's expedition into Mexico in his pursuit of Villa, and had shown serious defects. The American air service, which at that time was part of the signal corps, had been given in 1914 an appropriation of $250,000 for the purchase of new airplanes and equipment. Five officers had been sent to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a course in aeronautics. When the war broke out in Europe in 1914 these men were the only technically trained officers in the air service of the United States. When America entered the war there were sixty-five officers, with an enlisted and civilian personnel of 1,330 men, and yet if there was one branch of warfare in which the people of the United States expected America to take the lead, it was in the warfare in the air. The airplane had been invented in America, both theoretically by Professor Langley, and practically by the Wright Brothers. It had been improved by American inventors, and many aviators of America had become famous. Moreover, many adventurous young men in the United States had early in the great war enlisted in the allied aero squadrons in France. Many of these had gained great fame. The service especially appealed to adventurous and daring young men. It was almost the only service in which men of unusual courage and physical ability were sure to obtain distinction. The young man who might become a lieutenant in the infantry or the artillery might serve with the greatest valor and never be heard of by the general public, but the daring aviator was a hero. Among the Americans who enlisted at the beginning of the war in the French Foreign Legion as infantrymen, and afterwards were transferred to the aviation service, were William Thaw, Kiffen Rockwell and Victor Chapman. These, with Norman Prince, who had already flown in America, were sent to the French Aviation School and with Cowdin, Hall, Masson and the famous ace, Raoul Lufbery, trained in the art of fighting in the air. From the beginning they seem to have had an idea of forming a squadron of American pilots. The French Ministry of War did not at first approve of this proposition, for America at the time was strictly neutral, and to have an American fighting unit among the French aero squadrons certainly might suggest a breach of neutrality. After a time, however, through the persistence of Norman Prince and Major Edmund Gros an American organization was formed, commanded by a French Captain, and was called the Escadrille Americaine. This squadron was financed by Mr. and Mrs. W. K. Vanderbilt. It was composed of Captain Thenault and Lieutenant de Laage de Meux of the French service, with Lieutenant William Thaw, Sergeants Norman Prince, Elliott Cowdin, W. Bert Hall and Corporals Victor Chapman, Kiffen Rockwell and James McConnell. Soon after came Raoul Lufbery, Charles C. Johnson and Clyde Balsley. Later on, before the United States entered the war, more than two hundred American volunteers at one time or another, were members of this squadron. It became famous. On November 16, 1916, it was notified by Colonel Barrès, Chief of French Aviation, that it could no longer be known as the Escadrille Americaine. It appeared that Count Von Bernstorff had protested to Washington that Americans were fighting on the French front, that French official statements contained the name Escadrille Americaine, and that these impudent Americans had even painted the head of a red Sioux Indian in full war paint on their machines. Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov PRODUCTION OF AIRPLANE ENGINES TO THE END OF EACH MONTH. THE TOTAL Washington as in duty bound had protested to France. Major Gros then suggested as a name which would not lead to diplomatic disputes, Lafayette Escadrille. THE LAFAYETTE ESCADRILLE The American pilots of the Lafayette Escadrille were transferred from the French to the American service Decem ber 26, 1917, flying as civilians until formally commissioned in January, 1918. Under the name of the Lafayette Flying Corps, the members of the Lafayette Escadrille took a most vigorous part in aerial activities. A report of its exploits when first organized reads as follows: "The American pilots who enlisted in the French army are already distinguishing themselves by a series of exploits. The First Escadrille is composed of only seven Americans, and here are the results of the last seven days. Sergeant Elliott Cowdin attacked twelve German planes and brought one down within our lines (military medal). Sergeant Kiffen Rockwell a few days later brought down a L. V. G. enemy plane. The next day Bert Hall used his machine gun on another airplane which developed flames. Finally two days later Lieutenant William Thaw destroyed a Fokker." The members of the Escadrille received over forty citations. Lufbery brought down seventeen German machines, and received the Legion of Honor, Military Medal, a War Cross with sixteen palm leaves, and the English Military Cross. Thaw was given the Legion of Honor, Military Medal and War Cross of four palms. Men like these had made a great impression on the American imagination, for it seemed to be the general idea that it would be an easy task to send thousands of them to France in a short time, after America entered the war. But aviation training is no easy matter. It divides itself into three stages, elementary, advanced and final. The elementary training included physical training, various practical and theoretical military subjects, the study of the structure and mechanism of airplanes, signaling, observation, ground gunnery and elementary flying. Advanced training consisted of specialized work necessary to make the man an all-round pilot observer. The final training which was given in Europe was special instruction on a particular type of machine, or the particular military problem to which the aviator was finally assigned. All this took time, and as America began with only two fields, and only a few competent instructors, almost all of |