Pershing at Issoudun?

[austin08]

Hello all,
I have recently come across 2 original official photographs documented on the back thus : "With the American Expeditionary Force in France - Photographs of Sec.Baker, Gen. Pershing & party on tour of inspection of the A.E.F in France."
Photograph 1 is documented: ----8. Sec. Baker, Gen. Pershing & party on the field of one of the A.E.F Training Schools
Photograph 2 is documented 340m8. Sec Baker is not satisfied until he has a complete examination and inspection of one of the planes on an American Aviation Training Field.
The questions I have are - Is this field Issoudun? When did this tour take place? Identities of the touring party - the Officer standing behind Baker in Photo 1 looks like a young Douglas Macarthur. Is it possible to identify the young pilot in photo 2. Nieuport 17/23?
Thanks for any help & enjoy the pics.pershing01 320X233.jpg

pershing 320X236.jpg

[austin08]

Hope these upsized images help.

[retread]

The date was March 15, 1918 and Sec. of War Baker was in the middle of a one week tour of the military infrastructure in France, particularly of the U.S. armed forces, that included port facilities, rail yards, hospitals, ammunition depots, armories, training facilities, manufacturers of war materials, motor depots, the works. Pershing dedicated five pages to this visit in volume 1 of "My Experiences in the World War". The photos are almost certainly of Issoudun.

[austin08]

Thanks very much for the information Retread, I'll look up that reference & see if I can piece together the touring party.

[Taz]

austin- Great photos. Notice the mudflaps/guards on the Nieuport only found on training birds where a couple of knots did not make a difference. The Germans did the same thing on Albatros D.III training aircraft at Jastaschule I at Valencienne.

Taz
Terry Phillips

[austin08]

thanks Taz,
I think the pictures are full of such interesting details. The amount of oil being thrown back onto the cowling for example. I was surprised to see the hanging step as opposed to the semi circular footplate- I'd always associated this with Fokker aircraft. Very surprised at the roughness of the landing field, i can visualize the number of damaged propellers, brave men these early fliers!

[Taz]

austin- The full cowl on the Nieuports tended to throw oil in a more random fashion than ones with a lower cut-out like the Fokker Dr.I/D.VI/E.V. Several aircraft with full cowls had a slot cut in the bottom of the cowl which tended to force the oil airstream out the bottom and away from the fuselage sides. The rough field you see was fairly typical and was one of the reasons Fokker Dr.Is had wingtip skids on their bottom wings. Even good pilots were sometimes surprised by a really rough spot on an airfield which resulted in bouncing and sometimes even turning turtle.

Taz
Terry Phillips

That's the airfield wher Quentin Roosevelt trained. IIn the Time-life books there was a picture of him after completing a training flight. My Linotype operater who was a 28th Division infantryman said that the Germans posted a honor guard at Quentin's gravesite.

[austin08]

Hey ed, thanks for the input,
it seems that Issoudun as a training field was in fact a series of fields- by the end of hostilities 11 were in use with more planned. As a facility Issoudun would have trained thousands of potential aviators, Quentin Roosevelt among them.
On finding the photographs it did cross my mind that the young pilot talking to Baker may be Roosevelt (political connections etc.) but alas, it looks nothing like him. I've been looking at the faces of american pilots & have yet to spot anybody that is similar - a needle in a haystack really -

[StephenLawson]

For more on Issoudon see;

Cross & Cockade Intl. Vol.37, #2, 2006 “Billy Bones - an accounting of the 31st Aero Sqdn at Issoudon”
Cross & Cockade Intl. Vol.37, #2, 2006 “Issoudon 3rd A.I.C.”
Carl Spaatz query