The 17th Aero Squadron was a United States Army Air Service unit that fought on the Western Front during World War I.
As a Day Pursuit (Fighter) Squadron. its mission was to engage and clear enemy aircraft from the skies and provide escort to reconnaissance and bombardment squadrons over enemy territory. It also attacked enemy observation balloons, and perform close air support and tactical bombing attacks of enemy forces along the front lines.
The unit achieved a number of "firsts". It was the first United States Aero Squadron sent to Canada to be trained by the British; the first squadron to be completely trained prior to be sent overseas with its complete quota of trained pilots; the first squadron to be attached to British Royal Air Force squadrons and the first to be sent into combat.
In October 1918, the squadron was transferred to the United States Second Army 4th Pursuit Group. However, with Second Army's planned offensive drive on Metz cancelled due to the 1918 Armistice with Germany, the squadron saw no combat with Second Army. It returned to the United States and was demobilized on 1 April 1919 as part of the demobilization of the Air Service after the war.Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the First World War, Volume 3, Part 3, Center of Military History, United States Army, 1949 (1988 Reprint)
On 17 October 1936, the World War I Aero squadron was consolidated with the United States Army Air Corps 17th Pursuit Squadron to preserve the lineage and history of the unit. Today, the United States Air Force 17th Weapons Squadron flies the F-15E Strike Eagle at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.AFHRA 17th Bomb Squadron
History Formation and initial training The squadron was first organized as "Company A", Remount Station, Fort Sam Houston, Texas, on 13 May 1917, about a month after the declaration of war by President Woodrow Wilson. It was later re-designated "Company M", and later, "Company B". On 16 June, it again was re-designated as the 29th Provisional Aero Squadron, Aviation Section, Signal Corps, and then on 30 July, the 17th Aero Squadron. It was made of entirely of volunteers, and the majority of the unit had enlisted in the Army believing they would be flying officers. Unit members came from thirty-five states, Puerto Rico, Canada, and Mexico, and they were among the first to arrive at the new Kelly Field. The initial duties of the squadron consisted of surveying and building the first sewage and water system, and the first barracks and hangars of the new airfield.Series "E", Volume 4, Histories of the 16th, 17th and 19th–20th Aero Squadrons. Gorrell's History of the American Expeditionary Forces Air Service, 1917–1919, National Archives, Washington, D.C.
On 2 August, the squadron was ordered to Toronto, Ontario, Canada for training under the British Royal Flying Corps (RFC). The previous month, a reciprocal agreement was made between the British and American governments under which the British would organize and train at the RFC's camps near Toronto the pilots and mechanics of ten Aero squadrons for overseas service. The 17th Aero Squadron was the first group to arrive under that agreement. The squadron arrived on 4 August at the recruit's depot at Leaside, Ontario. Here the men underwent three weeks of British drill and discipline. Then, the squadron was divided into detachments and went on to other camps in the area for training in rigging and fitting and all the trades involved in maintaining airplanes. The gunners and radio operators went to the School of Military Aeronautics at Toronto University; six went to the motor transport depot; seventy-five went to the RFC Airplane Repair Park; six to the flying field at Deseronto for training under the 43d Wing, RFC, and ninety-nine men went on to further training at Leaside.
In early October, the squadron was re-assembled at Leaside. New orders were received and the 17th was transferred to Camp Taliaferro, near Fort Worth, Texas on 12 October, for additional RFC training, although an advance party of twenty men had left for the same destination on 24 September. The squadron was assigned to Hicks Field, which afterward was given designation Taliaferro Field #1. Upon arrival, the airfield was in an unfinished state. The barracks were unfinished and the hangars for the airplanes were still to be built. Both officers and men lived in tents from which they had to chase an occasional tarantula. There was no telephones, no electricity and no transport. The training airplanes were still un-assembled in packing crates, and supplies were just beginning to arrive. However, within a week, the training aircraft, Curtiss JN-4 Jennies had been uncrated, assembled and flying. The flying cadets, who had been instructed in primary training during their time at Desoronto, were taught further details of flying. By 1 December, thirty cadets had completed their training and received commissions as First Lieutenants. The squadron's equipment has been received and on 20 December, the squadron received its overseas movement orders and departed for Garden City, New York for deployment.
Upon arrival in Garden City, it found New York in the grip of a coal shortage and a severe cold streak of weather. For two weeks, sailing was held up. The squadron was finally allowed to embark on 9 January at New York Haber pier 54 on the RMS Carmania, a former Cunard ocean liner that had been impressed as a troop ship. The Carmania sailed as part of a convoy of fourteen ships. Everything went according to schedule, and the ship arrived in Liverpool, England on 25 January. After disembarking, the squadron was marched from the docks to the Liverpool railway station where it boarded a London and North Western Railway train which took them to Winchester, Hampshire, near the south coast of England. Arriving in the late afternoon the squadron was moved to the Romsey Rest Camp.
Prior to leaving the United States, the squadron was informed that they were the first United States pursuit squadron to be deployed overseas; that they were well trained and organized; and the men were eager to do their part in the war. However now they were told by the British officers at Romsey that the squadron would be again split up into Flights and scatter the unit among Royal Flying Corps units in France for more training. It was arranged that each flight, would be attached to a separate RFC fighting squadron for duty and final training, while the pilots would be sent to various flying schools in Great Britain.
Training in France After a month of confusion and very uncomfortable living conditions at Romsey on 9 February 1918, the Ground Echelon of the squadron sailed from Southampton for Le Havre, Upper Normandy, France, with a shipload of mules and horses. After landing, the squadron was met by a British officer and the Flights were sent off to their various destinations. Headquarters Flight was assigned to 24 Squadron at Matigny in the Somme; "A" Flight to 84 Squadron at Guizancourt, also in the Somme; "B" to 60 Squadron at Ste. Marie Capelle, near Hazebrouck on the Flanders front; and "C" to 56 Squadron at Baizieux Airdrome in Somme. All left at once except "B" Flight which followed on the 10th.
Thanks to the training the men received in the United States, the men of the 17th knew their aircraft well enough to be a help rather than a hindrance to the squadrons to which they were attached. Also, both officers and men realized they were a part of an experiment in training squadrons in the field, and that, with their ability to get on well with the British, the future of this method of training in no small measure depended for the following units coming from the United States. The 17th was completely detached from the United States Army Air Service; its flights were totally out of touch with each other. Occasionally an American officer would come by for an hour or so, at widely scattered intervals, to see how well they were "getting on". Each flight relied on the British for all of its necessary resources, including clothing and transport.
As a result of the German spring offensive, all of the Flights, with the exception of "B", were still at the Airdromes to which they were originally assigned. "B" Flight had moved to Bailleul Airdrome on the Somme, where it and 60 Squadron came under shell fire from the advancing German Army, although it suffered no casualties. On 23 March, the squadron moved to La Bellevue, near Arras, Pas-de-Calais, while the Flight left for Fienvillers, Somme, on 28 March, where the squadron had arrived the previous day. All of the Flights were now on the front involved in defending the line against the Germans and from the end of March, all Flights took part in a succession of movements carried out in the face of the enemy advance. The men of the 17th helped build new Airdromes; break them down and build still others as the British Army moved back.
Headquarters Flight began moving on the first day of the German Attack (21 March) when 24 Squadron moved from Matigny less than two hours before the Germans reached it, and some squadron members were still burning the quarters and hangars. While doing so, advance soldiers of the Germans had reached the airfield and they were under machine-gun fire. From Matigny, the Flight and Squadron moved to Bertangles; then from Bertangles to Conteville.
At Guizancourt, "A" Flight had received enemy artillery fire, and along with 64 Squadron had moved to Champien Aerodrome, near Roye; the last man got away only an hour and a half before the Germans arrived. From Roye it moved to La ferme du Vert Galand aerodrome on 24 March and then to Conteville, been billeted in Maison-Ponthieu on 29 March. By the time the front was held, "A", without 64 Squadron, only made one more move on 5 April to Bertangles.
The other two flights had much the same experience. "B" Flight had come down from Flanders to Bellevue with 60 Squadron just in time to stand by to move. All the British Squadrons supplies and property were divided up so that, if the need arose, they could be destroyed quickly in the order of their importance. Nothing, in spite of the danger, was lost. The Flight and Squadron moved to Fienvillers on 28 March where they remained until 18 April when it moved again to Boffles aerodrome, setting camp at Rougefay. "C" Flight moved only one time on 26 March from Baizieux to La ferme du Valheureux, near Candas.
During the three months of the German offensive, the RAF experienced the busiest and most dangerous times it had ever known, and during this period, the men of the 17th Aero Squadron learned much more than the maintenance of aircraft. They learned what it meant to send out patrols and move frequently from one airdrome to another at the same time. The knowledge that it gained in actual experience was more valuable than the knowledge they gained working with the RAF in maintaining aircraft. This became invaluable when the 17th began operating as an American unit with the RAF and word came in the middle of the night to move in five hours, they were fully capable of the task.
On 18 May it was decided that the Americans should be assigned to Sopwith Camel units. The mechanics would be given a month to master their overhaul and upkeep. Headquarters and "A" flights were assigned to 23 Squadron, then to 60 Squadron; "B" Flight was assigned to 46 Squadron and "C" Flight to 3 squadron. The men learned rapidly, and on 20 Aero Squadron was re-assembled at Petite Synthe Aerodrome, near Dunkirk, to become a combat squadron and resume its identity as a squadron.
RAF combat operations Petite Synthe