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While American volunteers had been flying in Allied squadrons since the early years of the war, not until 1918 did all-American squadrons begin active operations. Technically America had fallen well behind the European powers in aviation, and no American designed types saw action, with the exception of the Curtiss flying boats .
When the United States entered World War I, the exhausted British and French forces wanted American troops in the trenches of the Western Front as soon as possible. By 1917, aerial warfare was also considered key to the success of the ground forces, and in May 1917, The French, in particular, asked the Americans to also bolster Allied air power.
The United States played an important role in the last months of the war, using French aircraft and modified cameras. Some techniques and equipment used in civilian surveying and mapping were developed by the US Army Corps of Engineers when the topographic engineer, James W. Bagley, transferred from the US Geological Survey to the army. [2]
The War to End All Wars: The American Military Experience in World War I (1998), a standard military history. online free to borrow; Committee on Public Information. How the war came to America (1917) online 840pp detailing every sector of society; Cooper, John Milton. Woodrow Wilson: A Biography (2009) Cooper, John Milton. "The World War and ...
13 August – Twelve Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2 observation aircraft from No. 2 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, flying from Dover, become the first British aircraft to arrive in France for the war. 14 August – The first true bomber , the French Voisin III , is used in combat for the first time in an attack on German airship hangars at Metz ...
German airship Schütte Lanz SL2 bombing Warsaw in 1914. Strategic bombing during World War I (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918) was principally carried out by the United Kingdom and France for the Entente Powers and Germany for the Central Powers.
As aerial combat was a new phenomenon at the war's outbreak, it drew a lot of attention in the press. The idea of "flying aces" (first coined by the French in 1915) who defeated multiple opponents in the skies quickly became popular, but initially there were no rules for determining who "won" an aerial engagement, or what criteria makes someone an "ace". [1]
To shoot down enemy planes, anti-aircraft guns and fighter aircraft were developed. Strategic bombers were created, principally by the Germans and British, though the former used Zeppelins as well. Perhaps the most famous fighter plane during World War 1 was the Fokker as it was the first to include a synchronized machine gun.