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Naval History and Heritage Command

Naval History and Heritage Command

Lieutenant Commander Walter A. Edwards, Aviation Section, Staff of Vice Admiral William S. Sims, to Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels

[Extract]

A-3.                                              29 June 1918.

From:-         Force Commander

To:-           Secretary of the Navy. (Operations – Aviation).

Subject:-      U.S. NAVAL AVIATION ACTIVITIES IN ENGLAND FOR                    WEEK ENDING JUNE 29, 1918 – Report on. . . .

2.   OPERATIONS.  U.S.N.A.S., Killingholme has little to report for the week. The work of unloading and setting up H-16s1 still proceeds. Instruction of our officers in Large Americas is going on satisfactorily.

     There is nothing to report as regards operations at Felixstowe. The work for the week for American Officers has consisted mainly of instruction on F2a’s.2 It is worthy of note that the small America type boat3 has been abandoned at Felixstowe as a school machine, the students now going direct to the large machines. . . .

     4.        LONDON OFFICE. A request has been received from the Air Ministry for 150 Seaplane Pilots to report to English Stations during the months of August and September. The English promise to give these pilots instruction on boats. Request has been forwarded by cable to the Department.4. . .

W. A. EDWARDS 

 By direction.

Source Note: Cy, DNA, RG 45, Entry 517B.

Footnote 1: Curtiss H-16 twin engine flying boat.

Footnote 2: Felixstowe F2a was a Curtiss H-12 flying boat with a new hull developed by English designer John Cyril Porte.

Footnote 3: Curtiss H-4 flying boat.

Footnote 4: According to historian Geoffrey Rossano, by this stage of the war, the U. S. had surplus personnel but no aircraft or stations to accommodate them, and the British, by contrast, “possessed sufficient planes and bases but a growing shortage of pilots and ratings. A mutually agreeable plan soon emerged to send small groups of neophyte pilots to RNAS stations to gain valuable experience while providing critical manpower.” Rossano, Stalking the U-Boat, 156.

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