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100th Aero Squadron

100th Aero Squadron
100th Aero Squadron - Squadron and DH-4s.jpg
100th Aero Squadron - Squadron and Dayton-Wright DH-4s, Ourches Airdrome, France, November 1918
Active 20 August 1917-30 June 1919
Country  United States
Branch US Army Air Roundel.svg  Air Service, United States Army
Type Squadron
Role Day Bombardment
Part of American Expeditionary Forces (AEF)
Engagements World War I War Service Streamer without inscription.png
World War I
Commanders
Notable
commanders
Capt. Balmont P. Beverly
Insignia
100th Aero Squadron Emblem 100th Aero Squadron - Color Emblem.jpg
Aircraft flown
Bomber Dayton-Wright DH-4, 1918-1919
Trainer Curtiss JN-4, 1917
Service record
Operations

2d Day Bombardment Group
Western Front, France: 26 October-11 November 1918

  • No combat missions flown.

2d Day Bombardment Group
Western Front, France: 26 October-11 November 1918

The 100th Aero Squadron was a Air Service, United States Army squadron during World War I. Ordered to serve on the Western Front, it boarded the SS Tuscania on 23 January 1918. The ship was torpedoed on 5 February and most of the survivors were rescued.

Re-formed in England the squadron was assigned as a Day Bombardment Squadron; its mission to perform long-range bombing attacks on roads and railroads; destruction of materiel and massed troop formations behind enemy lines. It was assigned to the 2d Day Bombardment Group, United States Second Army.

Just before its first scheduled combat mission, the war ended. After the 1918 Armistice with Germany, the squadron returned to the United States in June 1919 and was demobilized.

The squadron was never reactivated and there is no current United States Air Force or Air National Guard successor unit.

The 100th Aero Squadron was organized on 20 August 1917 at Kelly Field, Texas. Initially, the squadron was given instruction in basic drill and the fundamentals of soldiering. After two months of indoctrination training, orders for overseas duty were issued and the squadron was ordered to Mineola Field, Long Island, New York on 14 October. At Mineola Field, instruction was given to the men in the maintenance of Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" aircraft and the Liberty V-12 engine which powered them. Finally, on 20 January 1918, orders were issued for the squadron to proceed to the Port of Entry, Hoboken, New Jersey for service overseas.

The squadron boarded the SS Tuscania on 23 January, bound for the port of Liverpool, England. Initially sailing for Halifax, Nova Scotia, the Tuscania waited there to form up in a convoy prior to the Atlantic crossing. The crossing was uneventful until the late afternoon of 5 February. At 17:54 the ship was shaken to its keel by a large explosion, the significance of which everyone was aware. There was a quick alarm and some scurrying on the decks, however, there was no panic or disorder. The squadron historian writes:


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Wikipedia

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