US Air Service website found by Duce Lewis

[Jammer28 0]

I was looking through some of the old threads and saw that Duce Lewis had found a site back on Apr 6 about the US Air Service. I got a chuckle out of this story. Thanks Duce.

 

http://www.usaww1.com/index.php4

 

 

 

Here is an excerpt about the 1st Bombardment Group.

 

On July 10 a flight of six Breguet 14B.2 bombers from the 96th Day Bombardment Squadron bombers got lost and landed near Coblenz, Germany, falling neatly into German hands without firing a shot. Billy Mitchell wrote about this incident: 

 

"Our bombardment group was not in good condition... was poorly commanded, the morale was weak, and it would take some time to get on its feet. This was largely due to the fact that when I was away, the 96th Squadron was left behind in the Toul area. The officer who was then in command of the 96th flew over into Germany with what ships he had available for duty. He lost his way in the fog and landed in Germany with every ship intact. Not one single plane was burned or destroyed, and the Germans captured the whole outfit complete. This was the most glaring exhibition of worthlessness we had had on the front. The Germans sent back a humorous message which was dropped at one of our airdromes. It said, ‘We thank you for the fine airplanes and equipment which you have sent us, but what shall we do with the major [Harry K. Brown]?" 

 

I know of no other performance in any air force in the war that was as reprehensible as this. Needless to say, we did not reply about the major, as he was better off in Germany..." 

 

In all fairness, the mistake might have been somewhat understandable. The weather had turned to rain about an hour after the flight took off, bringing the clouds down to 100 meters (330 feet) and shutting down visibility. The planes were short on fuel and thus had to land.