The Cordova daily times., 1919-04-04
0PERATIONS0F NAVYAWAT0RS
 IN NORTH SEA

LONDON, March 1 Correspondence
 of the Associated Press) Thirty
 nine attacks upon submarines were made by the American naval air force in the war, and ten of them were con-
 s1dered in some manner successful, says summary of American naval avi- ation prepared at headquarters here. When the United States entered the war the navy boasted of only thirty officers who knew anything about fly ing. When the armistice was signed the force was composed of 1,5OO of ficers and 15,O00 men, according to the report.
 Trials and discouragements of the
 United States naval air force in the war are enumerated at some length along with "occasionaP' triumps. Va rious causes are assigned for lack of effectiveness, but many of the troubles are said to have been overcome and the service ready to execute what had been expected of it when the armistice intervened. The summary of actual operations is interspersed with ac- counts of the lack of trained pilots and the difficulty in training them, shortage of machines, stories of the receipt of machines from the United States without propellors, without magnetos, defective parts, and lastly, of the failure of Italian machines for night bombing, for which they were intended. The United States had turned for planes to Italy when ma- chimes were not delivered from Amer ica quickly enough.
 One of the biggest plans of the serv- ice was the northern bombing pro- iect," calling for the cooperation of Amemricans with the British in al momst continuous bombing of subma- rine bases on the Belgian coast A great many hindrances arose, some of them shown in the summary being: Lack of machines, lack of material, lack of properly trained personnel, both pilots and enlisted men; neces- sity of complicated negotiations with the Royal air force in the matter of supplies of all sorts, and necessity of ferrying Italian machines from Milan, Italy, to the north of France. Neither the night nor the day wings were op- erating efficiently at the time of the armistice, in the opinion of those who compiled the summary l
 It was planned to have twelve squadrons, six day and six night This, however, was reduced to eight when it was found that the United States army could not deliver the planes re- quired. American machines with Lib erty motors were to be used for the day work and contract was made with the Italian government to de- liver thirty 6OO-power airplanes for night work. The Italian machines, it is stated, proved wholly unfit for night bombing work.
 What is considered by the American navy the most successful aviation op- eratlon resulted from the Killngholme project. This was an agreement by which England was to furnish fifty seaplanes and fifty lighters and the United States was to provide forty seaplanes and thirty lighters by March l, 1918, for offensive work in Helgo- land flight. The British were suc- cessfully doing similar work from their station at Felixstowe Approxi- mately 1000 Americans were sent to Killingholme to train and assist the British while awaiting the arrival of the American planes By July 1, six American planes were assembled and the British turned over the station to the Americans. It was necessary to nave British planes, however owing to the faults of the first American machines" It is reported that the American propellers were faulty, ra- dlators leaked, and that it was July 20 before the first wholly American patrol was undertaken.
 Even under these handicaps, how ever the American pilots kept after the submarines, and the Killingholme station had several attacks accredited to It. No case is recorded of where it was known submarine was sunk but even with this very efficient seaplane patrol the Royal air force was given credit for sinking only one submarine during the four years and half of war. A verdict of probably seriously | damaged" was accredited to American | pilots Of Killingholme by the British admiralty.
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