This volume is part of a series documenting the history of U.S. air activities in Europe during World War I. The narratives here are published by the Office of Air Force History so as to reach a wider circle of persons interested in the Great War and the early history of military aviation. Included in this volume is William C. Sherman's "tactical History" which provides excellent information about the conduct of combat operations.

In December 1918 Maj. Gen. Mason M. Patrick, Chief of Air Service, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), directed his newly appointed Assistant Chief of Staff, Col. Edgar S. Gorrell, to prepare a history and final report on U.S. air activities in Europe during World War I. The narratives written and compiled by Gorrell and his staff were submitted by Patrick to Gen. John J. Pershing, Commander in Chief of the AEF. They summarized Air Service activities from the arrival of the first airmen in France in the spring of 1917 until the Armistice on November 11, 1918. The "Final Report" was published by the Air Service in an Information Circular in 1921, and by the Army in a multivolume collection of World War I documents in 1948. Although it has been used and cited by a number of historians over the years, it deserves to be better known. The Office of Air Force History, therefore, is republishing it so as to reach a wider circle of persons interested in the Great War and the early history of military aviation. Another important document produced under Gorrell's supervision as part of the history of the Air Service, AEF, is a "Tactical History" written by Lt. Col. William C. Sherman and a group of officers working with him in France at the end of the war. Although published in part in an Air Service Information Circular in 1920, Sherman's "Tactical History" has remained virtually unknown, or at least has not had extensive use. Since it provides excellent information about the conduct of combat operations, it should be of value to persons interested in aerial warfare in the First World War. It has been included, therefore, in this volume with the "Final Report." This is one of a series of volumes of World War I documentation that the Office of Air Force History is planning to publish.

In December 1918 Maj. Gen. Mason M. Patrick, Chief of Air Service, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF), directed his newly appointed Assistant Chief of Staff, Col. Edgar S. Gorrell, to prepare a history and final report on U.S. air activities in Europe during World War I. They summarized Air Service activities from the arrival of the first airmen in France in the spring of 1917 until the Armistice on November 11, 1918. Another important document produced under Gorrell's supervision as part of the history of the Air Service, AEF, is a "Tactical History" written by Lt. Col. William C. Sherman and a group of officers working with him in France at the end of the war. The "Final Report" and "Tactical History" published in this volume are products of the historical program of the Air Service, American Expeditionary Forces (AEF). They are part of that monumental compilation of historical narratives and documentary materials that has come to be known as "Gorrell's History."

When hostilities ceased on November 11, 1918, there were actually assigned to armies 45 American squadrons and 767 pilots, 481 observers, 23 aerial gunners, and the complement of soldiers. These squadrons were equipped with 740 airplanes, with armament of the latest type, arid the flying personnel, trained in Air Service schools was second to none in the world for aggressiveness and skill. Twelve oi these squadrons were equipped with American built airplanes and Liberty engines. This engine in actual service fulfilled the highest hope of it which had been entertained in the United States. On the Marne, at St. Mihiel, and in the Argonne air forces were pitted against the best which Germany, could produce, and the results show that the enemy more than met his match. Our pilots shot down 781 enemy airplanes which were officially confirmed, and many others, too far behind the lines to be confirmed by our own witnesses, but which were nevertheless undoubtedly destroyed. They also destroyed 73 (confirmed) enemy balloon. Our total losses in air battles were 289 airplanes and 48 balloons brought down by the enemy.