20th Aero Squadron

20th Aero Squadron
20th Aero Squadron Lieutenant Leslie P. Koepfgen with his crew. From the left: Howard W. Wolf, Marion Lappin, Koepfgen, James W. Mone and Earl G. Crain with Koepfgen's Airco DH.4. Koepfgen served four months as flight commander of the 20th Aero Squadron. He was cited for bravery in action by General John J. Pershing.
Active	26 June 1917 - Present
Country	United States
Branch	Air Service, United States Army
Type	Squadron
Role	Day Bombardment
Part of	American Expeditionary Forces (AEF)
Engagements	World War I
Commanders
Notable commanders	Lt. Cecil G. Sellers
Insignia
20th Aero Squadron Emblem
Aircraft flown
Bomber	Dayton-Wright DH-4, 1918-1919
Trainer	Curtiss JN-4, 1917 Standard J-1, 1917

1st Day Bombardment Group
Western Front, France: 5 September-11 November 1918

The 20th Aero Squadron was a Air Service, United States Army unit that fought on the Western Front during World War I.

The squadron was assigned as a Day Bombardment Squadron, performing long-range bombing attacks on roads and railroads; destruction of materiel and massed troop formations behind enemy lines. It also performed strategic reconnaissance over enemy-controlled territory, and tactical bombing attacks on enemy forces in support of Army offensive operations. After the 1918 Armistice with Germany, the squadron returned to the United States in June 1919 and became part of the permanent United States Army Air Service in 1921, being re-designated as the 20th Squadron.

The current United States Air Force unit which holds its lineage and history is the 20th Bomb Squadron, assigned to the 2d Operations Group, Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana.

The squadron was organized at Kelly Field, in San Antonio, Texas, with 150 enlisted men on 26 June 1917. There it was trained in the proper manner of soldiering being drilled and instructed. On 29 July the squadron moved to the Wilbur Wright Aviation Field, Dayton, Ohio, where it received its first training in the handling of Curtiss JN-4 and Standard J-1. While at Dayton, the squadron mechanics established a record of flight hours for one motor (165 hours) which at that time was the highest record known.

On 30 October 1917, the squadron left Wright Field for Garden City, Long Island, New York, where it was one of a group of squadrons concentrated there for shipment overseas. On 17 December, it embarked on a ship, landing at Glasgow, Scotland on 31 December. From Glasgow, taking the Glasgow & South Western Railway to Liverpool, England, then on the London and North Western Railway train which took them to Winchester, Hampshire, near the south coast of England. After two days, the squadron arrived in the late afternoon and the squadron was moved to the Romsey Rest Camp. There the squadron was divided into two detachments. One of the detachments was sent to Stamford, Lincolnshire; the other to Narborough, Norfolk where the men were trained in the technical points of airplanes being used on the front. After five months' training, the squadron was re-assembled at Stamford where it remained until mid-August 1918 carrying on the work of a first-class squadron. Mechanics from the 20th Aero Squadron made up the first all-American flights ever used by the English on a Royal Flying Corps Aerodrome.