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    Marine Flyer In France — The Diary Of Captain Alfred A. Cunningham, November 1917 - January 1918
    Marine Flyer In France — The Diary Of Captain Alfred A. Cunningham, November 1917 - January 1918
    Marine Flyer In France — The Diary Of Captain Alfred A. Cunningham, November 1917 - January 1918
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    Marine Flyer In France — The Diary Of Captain Alfred A. Cunningham, November 1917 - January 1918

    By Captain Alfred Austell Cunningham

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    During November and December 1917, Captain Alfred A. Cunningham, the first Marine Corps aviator, travelling under orders from Major General Commandant George Barnett, toured the battlefronts and flying fields of France to observe Allied air operations and training.
    The diary, kept in tiny, neat handwriting in a small pocket notebook, begins on 3 November 1917 with Cunningham’s sailing from New York on board the S. S. St. Paul. After a description of a rough winter passage through the North Atlantic U-boat zone, the entries record the confusion, inconveniences, and hardships of wartime London and Paris and contain repeated expressions of homesickness, along with sometimes acid comment on the French people and culture. His tour of British and French airfields culminated with his flying a number of the different aircraft then in service, even flying himself with French airmen on combat missions in December 1917.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLucknow Books
    Release dateJun 13, 2014
    ISBN9781782891819
    Marine Flyer In France — The Diary Of Captain Alfred A. Cunningham, November 1917 - January 1918

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      Book preview

      Marine Flyer In France — The Diary Of Captain Alfred A. Cunningham, November 1917 - January 1918 - Captain Alfred Austell Cunningham

       This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – contact@picklepartnerspublishing.com

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 1974 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2013, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      MARINE FLYER IN FRANCE

      The Diary of Captain Alfred A. Cunningham

      November 1917 -- January 1918

      Edited by Graham A. Cosmas

      HISTORY AND MUSEUMS DIVISION

      HEADQUARTERS, U.S. MARINE CORPS

      WASHINGTON D.C.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

      FOREWORD 5

      PREFACE 6

      CAPTAIN ALFRED A. CUNNINGHAM DIARY, NOVEMBER 1917 TO JANUARY 1918 8

      FOREWORD

      This diary recounts the experiences and impressions of Captain Alfred Austell Cunningham, the first Marine aviator, during his tour of British and French aviation facilities in November and December 1917. The document reveals much about the character and personality of a notable Marine and gives a view of wartime England and France as seen through his eyes.

      Dr. Graham A. Cosmas, the editor, joined the staff of the Division of History and Museums in December 1973 after teaching history at the University of Texas and the University of Guam. He has a Ph.D. in History from the University of Texas and has published several articles en United States military history, as well as a book on the U. S. Army in the Spanish-American War.

      The Cunningham diary, is presented here by itself as a preview of a larger collection of Cunningham materials from World War I which will be edited by Dr. Cosmas and published next year by the History and Museums Division.

      EDWIN H. SIMMONS

      Brigadier General, U. S. Marine Corps (Ret.)

      Director of Marine Corps History and Museums

      Reviewed and Approved: 29 October 1974

      PREFACE

      During November and December 1917, Captain Alfred A. Cunningham, the first Marine Corps aviator, travelling under orders from Major General Commandant George Barnett, toured the battlefronts and flying fields of France to observe Allied air operations and training.

      In 1917, Cunningham was the Marine Corps's de facto director of aviation. He had joined the Corps in 1909 and as a first lieutenant stationed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard made his first experimental flights in a crude airplane which he rented at his own expense. In May 1912, the Marine Corps sent Cunningham to Annapolis for Navy pilot training. He soloed early in August of that same year and on 5 March 1913 was designated a naval aviator. During the next four years, as Marine aviation slowly grew, Cunningham, joined by a few other far-sighted Marines, continually worked and argued to promote its interests. On 26 February 1917, Cunningham received orders to organize at the Philadelphia Navy Yard the Marines' first tactical aviation unit, called initially the Marine Corps Aeronautic Company. At this time, Marine aviation muster rolls carried the names of seven aviators and 43 ground personnel.

      With the declaration of war against Germany in April 1917, Marine aviation, with Aeronautic Company as its nucleus, joined the rest of the Corps in rapid expansion. Cunningham began looking for a way to get his force of men and machines into front-line combat. To this end, he made his trip to France. He brought back from his tour a proposal for the creation of a Northern Bombing Group composed of squadrons of Navy and Marine land planes with the mission of attacking German U-boat bases on the Belgian coast. This plan won the backing of the General Board of the Navy, and on 11 March 1918 Cunningham received instructions to organize the First Marine Aviation Force -- the first Marine air organization ever to fly in combat.

      During his tour of the war front in 1917, Captain Cunningham kept this diary, which was acquired by the Manuscript Collection of the Marine Corps Museum in November 1973 as part of a gift of Cunningham materials made by Mrs. Alexander H. Jefferies, sister-in-law of the late Mrs. Alfred A. Cunningham. The original of the diary is now located in the Alfred A. Cunningham Papers (PC 459) in the Marine Corps Museum Collections Unit, Building 198, Washington Navy Yard.

      The diary, kept in tiny, neat handwriting in a small pocket notebook, begins on 3 November 1917 with Cunningham's sailing from New York on board the S. S. St. Paul. After a description of a rough winter passage through the North Atlantic U-boat zone, the entries record the confusion, inconveniences, and hardships of wartime London

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