Page:Victory at Sea - William Sowden Sims and Burton J. Hendrick.djvu/305

1918] A few simple comparisons will illustrate the gigantic task which confronted us and the difficulties which were successfully overcome in the establishment of our naval aviation force on foreign service. If all the buildings constructed and used for barracks for officers and men were joined end to end, they would stretch for a distance of twelve miles. The total cubic contents of all structures erected and used could be represented by a box 245 ft. wide, 300 ft. long, and 1,500 ft. high. In such a box more than ten Wool worth buildings could be easily placed. Twenty-nine telephone exchanges were installed, and in addition connections were made to existing long-distance lines in England and France, and approximately 800 miles of long-distance lines were constructed in Ireland, so that every station could be communicated with from London headquarters. The lumber used for construction work would provide a board-walk one foot wide, extending from New York City to the Isle of Malta—a distance of more than 4,000 miles.

When we consider the fact that during the war naval aviation abroad grew in personnel to be more than one-half the size of the entire pre-war American navy, it is not at all astonishing that all of those regular officers who had been trained in this service were employed almost exclusively in an administrative capacity, which naturally excluded them from taking part in the more exciting work of bombing submarines and fighting aircraft. To their credit be it said that they chafed considerably under this enforced restraint, but they were so few in number that we had to employ them not in command of seaplanes, but of air stations where they rendered the most valuable service.

For the reserves I entertain the very highest regard and even personal affection. Collectively they were magnificent and they reflected the greatest credit upon the country they served so gallantly and with such brilliant success. I know of no finer individual exploit in the war than that of Ensign C. H. Hammon who, while attached to our Air Station at Porto Corsini, took part in a bombing raid on Pola, in which he engaged two enemy airplanes and as a result had his plane hit in several places. During this engagement a colleague, Ensign G. H. Ludlow, was shot down. Ensign Hammon went to his rescue, landed his boat on the water just outside of Pola harbour, picked up the stricken aviator, and flew back to Porto Corsini, a distance of seventy-five