Combat· World War I
1st Marine Aviation Force / Day Wing Northern Bombing Group
The 1st Marine Aviation Force was the Corps' main combat flying unit in the war, built around its land-plane squadrons.
Under Captain Alfred Cunningham, the first Marine aviator, the Force deployed to France and was assigned to a Navy bombing group whose job was to attack German submarine bases on the Belgian coast. Their bombers arrived in such poor condition that they had to be rebuilt, so in the meantime Marine pilots flew combat missions attached to British Royal Air Force squadrons. They scored the Corps' first aerial victory in a dogfight over Belgium. When the Germans abandoned the submarine bases, the Marines shifted to bombing rear-area targets and supporting British and Belgian ground troops during the German retreat. They flew dozens of missions, shot down several enemy aircraft, and laid the foundation for Marine air power in the decades that followed.
Podcast episodes on World War I
Record no. 546