26 Division Observer Uniform

[cwnorma]

Its been quiet here on the WW1 wing front lately, so I thought I would share a recent acquisition:

 

Division-assigned Observers are scarce. 825 were trained in the Spring of 1918 due to a shortage of qualified Air Service Observers.

The 26th Division was largely constituted with men from New England National Guard units. As a Division, only the 1st Division arrived in France earlier. The uniform was stored poorly at some point and there is a small amount of scattered nothing. As a bonus, when I vacuumed the moth carcasses out from the pockets, I discovered a second, identical 26th Division SSI.

[cwnorma]

Front view of the wing:

 

Typical, American-made, nicely padded wing.

[cwnorma]

View from the top of the wing:

 

Shows the nicely padded nature of the wing.

[trenchbuff]

Beautiful Ron. Could he have been a balloon guy?

[cwnorma]

Mark,

 

My understanding is that due to the shortage of observers in Spring 1918, the Division-assigned observers would go to wherever they were needed to support their Division's operations. There would normally be two Observation Squadrons and one Balloon Company temporarily assigned to each Division by Corps for an operation. These too would be frequently moved around to support other ongoing operations.

 

I'll be honest, trying to nail it all down is confusing.

 

Sometimes French or English units were assigned as well. I think it might require detailed research into 26th Division operational reports to ever figure it out for sure. Especially if the supporting unit was French, an English-speaking Observer would have been needed to help direct the Artillery.

 

Chris

[patches]

All's Quiet on the WWI Wing Front, good one And a Great Coat.

[hawk3370]

Very nice, and you are correct in that these divisions officers attached as observers are very scarce. I have seen only one other that sported a division patch that could be attributed to the officer. Very good.

[pfrost]

Wow... very nice!

 

I am such a sucker for 1/2 wings.

[cwnorma]

Patrick,

 

You and I share the exact same affliction: An affinity for half-wings!

 

Would you believe that this is the first sew-on half-wing, still sewn on the uniform in its original context, I've acquired for my collection?

 

Chris

[pfrost]

I think those bullion half wings are like "redheaded stepchildren on Christmas morning" (to coin a phrase). They get no respect. But I sure do think they are neat. AND because of that, you can get them a bit cheaper.

 

I have one on a uniform but I don't think it is identified.

 

Do you think this guy was acting as an observer for the 26th Div arty? Or was he maybe with a balloon company? I'm very ignorant about this whole area, but I assume that you can conclude that he was an arty observer because he is wearing the crossed cannons? What would a pilot (lets say and RMA) assigned to the division be wearing Air service collar insignia?

 

I believe I recall seeing pilots with signal corps, air service or artillery service collar devices, but I could be wrong.

 

P

[BEAST]

I believe that most of the aerial observers were artillery officers as they were already trained in adjusting artillery fire which, along with locating & photographing positions, was a primary function of an observation squadron.

 

That is a good question about wearing the 26 Division SSI. My best guess, based on a group that I have, is that the officer was a member of the 26th Division and volunteered to become an observer. When the war ended, he was returned back to the 26th Division and returned home with them.

[BEAST]

To give you a breakdown on observers, Hawk3370 posted this in a different thread:

 

Records indicate that there were approximately 1620 Observers serving during WW1

907 Infantry and Artillery

296 Air Service and

417 Bombing Military Aviators that were crossed trained as Observers.

[cwnorma]

This Lieutenant was assigned to the 51st Artillery Brigade.

 

In Spring of 1918, due to a shortage of qualified Air Service Observers in France, 825 AEF Artillery and Infantry Officers were asked to "volunteer" to become Aerial Observers (Maurer, 1978, p105).

 

One thing I find interesting about this uniform, is that the Lieutenant apparently chose to wear the "shield" half wing. The shield half wing was obsolete for all purposes on 29 December 1917. By the Spring of 1918, the official badge for Observers had been the "O" half wing (since at least January 1918). This Lieutenant only has one overseas chevron on his uniform meaning more than 6 but less than 12 months overseas. Since the 26th Division left France in April 1919, this Lieutenant would have arrived in France during May of 1918 at the earliest (I am still researching him) Certainly in time to volunteer for observer training but long past the time where he could have earned the shield-type badge.

 

Campbell (1978) noted that the O-type observer's badge quickly got the appelation; "Flying A__hole," which makes me wonder how many Observers chose to wear the obsolete badge in lieu of the ignominiously-nicknamed version?

 

Chris

[cwnorma]

~10,000 pilots, but only ~1620 Observers. Of the 1620, 417 would have been Bombing Military Aviators who would have worn that distinctive badge.

 

Between 15 August 1917 and 27 October 1917, probably no more than a couple of hundred Reserve Military Aviators or Junior Military Aviators likely trained; earning the half wing (and almost certainly all switched to the full wing version when those became regulation for JMA/RMA pilots)

 

Roughly speaking therefore, Observer half-wing badges (of both types) are 7-8 times more rare than pilot wings.

 

Considering that 1/2 wings do indeed sell for less, they are; 1) under-appreciated, and 2) a relative bargain!

 

Chris

[BEAST]

~10,000 pilots, but only ~1620 Observers. Of the 1620, 417 would have been Bombing Military Aviators who would have worn that distinctive badge.

 

Between 15 August 1917 and 27 October 1917, probably no more than a couple of hundred Reserve Military Aviators or Junior Military Aviators likely trained; earning the half wing (and almost certainly all switched to the full wing version when those became regulation for JMA/RMA pilots)

 

Roughly speaking therefore, Observer half-wing badges (of both types) are 7-8 times more rare than pilot wings.

 

Considering that 1/2 wings do indeed sell for less, they are; 1) under-appreciated, and 2) a relative bargain!

 

Chris

Chris,

 

I absolutely agree with you! These bullion half-wings are just beautiful!

[pfrost]

I am wondering if he wasn't actually the pilot of the observation aircraft? I was trying to find out if a divisional observation/liaison aircraft wasn't a one seater aircraft?

 

I am wondering if its possible that he was actually the pilot of the Division's observation aircraft, and so still wore the RMA wing rather than the observer wing?

[cwnorma]

Patrick,

 

I don't think there were normally aircraft assigned to Divisions during WW1.

 

It appears as though Aero Squadrons and Balloon companies were temporarily attached to Divisions as supporting organizations, but were never part of the Division. Divisions do not appear to have had indigenous air assets included in their order of battle. During WW1, the Division was the ground maneuver unit of the Army, while Air Service organizations were either independent or assigned at the Corps, or Army level and would be attached, seconded, or reattached in support roles to Divisions during operations.

 

For example, the History of the 26th Division (MA State Lib) spends a fairly large percentage of its pages on the brief time the 94th Aero Squadron was temporarily attached to the Division--especially on the death of Maj Raul Lufberry. However, the 94 AS was only attached to the 26th Division during part of the St Mihiel Operation.

 

I haven't tried to research this specific question much; but I personally believe almost no self-respecting JMA/RMA would have continued to wear the half wing for very long after 27 October 1917 when the full wing became their prescribed badge--especially not overseas where only Observers wore half wings.

 

Additionally, the Order of Battle of the United States Land Forces in the World War notes the National Defense Act of 1916 fixed the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps at 148 officers and the Army only had 146 "flying officers" on 26 July 1917 when the Army was legislatively given permission to expand the aviation arm (CMH, 1949, p115). Arnold submitted his drawings for wing badges in May 1917, but the badges may not have been actually authorized until 15 August 1917 (Campbell) and it must have taken manufacturers some time (weeks?) to ramp up production and distribution to the Army. Around that time, the Army only had capacity to train about 50 Aviators per year (43 in 1916), and Curtiss about 125 civilian pilots per year (CMH, 1949, p93). Army Aviator training took a combined four months (two months ground school, one week transfer, eight weeks primary flight training), and it probably took at least a couple of weeks to get the enlarged classes up and running, so the earliest post-expansion graduates would have earned wings and been commissioned 2nd Lieutenants in November 1917--after the full wing was authorized for JMA/RMAs (CMH, 1949, p123).

 

Some percentage of the original 146 would have already been full-wing wearing Military Aviators, and perhaps a few civilian Curtiss-trained students got commissions and were able to bypass Army training. All considered, I estimate the total number of JMA/RMAs who ever wore the half-wing with shield badge--in the capacity of JMA/RMA--is perhaps only a little more than 150.

 

I would guess that a true JMA/RMA half wing still sewn to a uniform could be considered something of a rarity. In light of the above, IMHO, I assume any US Air Service half wing I encounter sewn on a uniform is best seen as an Observer half wing unless the uniform is from pre-November 1917 (KIA, left the service, etc) or can definitively be shown to have belonged to an RMA/JMA.

 

Chris

 

[pfrost]

I'm trying to find the information I dug up the other day, but it seemed that there were in fact a divisional recon/observation plane attached to a Division. Of course, now I cannot find that information... argh.

[rustywings]

Chris, your 26th Division Observer uniform is a terrific WWI era surviving specimen! Thank you for your time and effort in sharing it with us!

 

I've managed to pick up a few of these half-wing Observer's along the way. The bullion example in the middle of my small lot has many design and material characteristic similar to your wing sewn to the uniform. I suspect these two bullion wings may have been produced in the same shop, if not by the same hands?

 

 

 

[rustywings]

If they are the same, then this image might represent what the back of your wing looks like?

 

[pfrost]

This is some information that I found in Maurer Maurer's book "The US Air Service in WWI":

 

This is an excerpt from page 209-210 concerning the assignment of an experienced observer (and I would assume a pilot) to act as a direct liaison between the Division artillery and the Air Service:

 

"As a consequence, an intensive system of personal liaison was inaugurated between the office of the Chief of Air Service, the group and squadrons, and the posts of command of the corps line organizations. As an initial effort in this direction, an experienced observer was detailed from each of the divisional squadrons and arrangements were made for these officers to take station at the headquarters of the divisions to which the squadrons were assigned for operations. It was the duty of the liaison officer to investigate all matters connected with the proposed divisional operations and to forward without delay to his squadron all information, plans, and data necessary for complete Air Service cooperation in such operations. In addition, the liaison officer of the Chief of Air Service made daily visits to the headquarters of the corps chief of artillery, the post of command of the corps artillery commander, and the post of command of each division, where he interviewed the officers in charge of the G-2 and G-3 sections, and, if necessary, the Chief of Staff concerning operations for the ensuing day. As it became increasingly difficult to send messages between the divisions and the group, the custom developed of sending one officer from each squadron to each division and the post of command of the corps artillery commander each day for the purpose of returning with all new information, plans, and requests for missions, and to transmit all details concerning the results obtained or difficulties encountered."

 

So, could it be possible that this officer was the liaison to the 26th Division? If so, then he could have been either the pilot or the observer

[pfrost]

Reading farther along, I found this:

 

"Both the 26th and the 42d Divisions (the latter relieved the 26th Division on July 25) had been given a certain amount of training in conjunction with the Air Service. It was by no means sufficient to insure a uniform success in keeping the command informed as to the location of the infantry by means of the infantry airplane. To begin with, there arose many cases where infantry units were not equipped with the proper supply of individual panels and flares for marking out the lines. After this condition was remedied, the infantry had apparently forgotten their proper use for marking out the line at the call of the observer. The result was that in the majority of infantry contact patrols the observer was forced to descend to altitudes varying from 300 to 50 meters, face the galling machine-gun and rifle fire that invariably met him when flying at such low height, and locate the front lines of the friendly troops by distinguishing their uniforms. As time passed, the efforts of Air Service liaison officers met with some success in improvement of the results of infantry contact patrols ... whenever the tactical situation made it necessary to secure particular information as to enemy activity. Much visual reconnaissance was carried out by artillery surveillance airplanes during periods of inactivity on the part of the enemy artillery. The routine procedure was to signal all information to the appropriate post of command by radio, later confirming it by dropped written messages."

 

This passage suggests that perhaps the pilot of the airplane was also the observer of the airplane (which would make sense if he were flying a one-seater such as the SPAD)

[pfrost]

Then there is this:

 

"In establishing for the first time the custom of detaching a trained observer from his squadron and assigning him to act as Air Service liaison officer at the posts of command of the corps artillery commander and at the headquarters of each division, the corps chief of Air Service sought to ameliorate the general unsatisfactory condition"

 

To me it seems that perhaps you have the uniform of the assigned liaison pilot or the artillery observer who was assigned to the 26th Division. Thus the wearing of the artillery collar insignia. This would be different than a pilot who was assigned to an Aerosquadron and who would wear the Air Service insignia.

 

But, that is just my conjecture.

 

[cwnorma]

Patrick,

 

Thanks for taking the time to look that up. It is interesting and relevant information. As I noted early up the thread to BEAST, this whole matter is somewhat confusing. All I have been able to nail down so far is he was assigned to the 51st Artillery Brigade. I think at this point, I would have to find copies of daily operational reports of the Brigade to gain more specific insights. That said, it is still my opinion that the half wing in this instance represents an observer as the SSI puts the uniform at the latter half of 1918, and as I noted above, I have doubts many JMA/RMA pilots continued to wear the half wing badge past November 1917.

 

 

Russ,

 

Beautiful! I do see many similarities especially in the configuration of the wing. As Patrick and I have both noted, we share a "soft spot in our heads" for half-wings! Thanks for upping the quality of this thread with your addition!

 

Chris

[pfrost]

Chris,

 

No matter what, I think the uniform is wonderful. Who knows, but it is possible that he was trained as an observer from one of the 26th artillery divisional officers. OR, maybe he was a liaison pilot assigned to the 26th? I am sure that you could find that information from the archives someplace. Which, of course, makes it so much more interesting.

 

I also read someplace that once the AEF arrived in Europe and the Air Service began to get its act together, that many pilots (and non-pilots) got training with the other Allied forces (especially the French) and that some officers were assigned to these flight schools even if they weren't already assigned to an aerosquadron. It seems that there was a lot of fluidity in what was going on with the AEF. I'm not sure that I really understand it all, but...

 

as to what these guys were wearing... One never knows what was going through their minds.