When was the U.S. AAA units formed?

[RICHARD1959]

[James A Pratt III]

I think the first were formed in 1917. There is a short book on them but, I can't remember the title

[KizmeRD]

Is this referring to the AAA branch of the  US Army Coast Artillery Corps? They formed four battalions in 1917 (60th, 61st, 62nd & 63rd - two manning French 75 mm guns and two machine guns). All 4 units served in France during WW1.

Further expansion of AA units occurred in 1921.

MB

Edited 16 August , 2022 by KizmeRD

[KizmeRD]

Other information that comes to hand slightly contradicts details given in the previous post….

On 10 October 1917 an Antiaircraft Service in the American Expeditionary Force (AEF) was created at Arnouville-Les-Gonesse where an antiaircraft school was established. The antiaircraft units were organized as serially numbered battalions during the war, as follows:

• 1st Antiaircraft Battalion through the 10th Antiaircraft Battalion
• 1st AA Machine Gun Battalion through the 6th AA Machine Gun Battalion (however, only two of these Bn’s saw active service by war’s end)
  - These units were organized by Col. James A. Shipton who is regarded as the founding father of US AAA.

After the war the war the National Defense Act of 1920 formally assigned the air defense mission to the Coast Artillery Corps, and 4 battalions were organized in 1921. In 1924 under a major reorganization of the Coast Artillery the battalions were reorganized as regiments.

• (5) Anti-aircraft regiments
  • 60th Coast Artillery (AA)
  • 61st Coast Artillery (AA)
  • 62nd Coast Artillery (AA)
  • 63rd Coast Artillery (AA)
  • 64th Coast Artillery (AA)

Edited 17 August , 2022 by KizmeRD

[The Dark]

The information in Archie in the A.E.F. - The Creation of the Antiaircraft Service of the United States Army, 1917-1918 is somewhat maddeningly vague. I haven't found an actual establishment date, but here are the relevant dates from the book up to the latest thing that I think one could consider a starting date.

The General Organization Project of the A.E.F. (dated 10 July 1917) called for one 3-inch antiaircraft battalion and one antiaircraft machine gun battalion for each corps, while each army would have twenty platoons of antiaircraft guns. This was inspired by Col. Baker's six-week tour of the Western Front beginning in May 1917.

On 26 July 1917 three Coast Artillery officers were dispatched to learn about British and French AAA techniques, Brig. Gen. James A. Shipton, Capt. Glenn Preston Anderson, and Capt. George F. Humbert. Shipton was soon reassigned to command the Antiaircraft and Trench Mortar School, while the two Captains organized the service itself.

Training of American AAA officers started on 26 September 1917, when 25 Coast Artillery officers were selected as the cadre to train the rest of the organization and began receiving instruction from Capt. Charles Rollet and Capt. Paul Gassier of the French Antiaircraft Artillery Service.

10 October 1917 is when Shipton was assigned to command the new American School on the same site as the French School, which is likely why that date pops up a lot in summaries of the early AAA service.

[KizmeRD]

So from what I understand, the storyline is that the US anti-aircraft service originally evolved from Coast Artillery units with the first dedicated Coastal Artillery (AA) regiments formally established (States-side) in 1917. Men from these units were then sent to France, the first of them arriving at Arnouville for training in October 1917 (an advanced guard of 25 officers already having undergone training with the French before then).
The US AA school was established along the same lines as the (co-located) French AA school, and was divided into two sections, (1) artillery (responsible for training men for the AEF AA Battalions, using French 75mm guns), and (2) machine-guns (responsible for training men in the use of the French Hotchkiss MG (becoming the 1st-6th AA MG Battalions on their deployment in the field). And in Jan 18 there would also be a third section established at the school that focussed on the use of searchlights. In all, the American AA school at Arnouville trained some 578 officers and 12,000 enlisted men, although not all of these were operational before war’s end. The US army also built its own AA gun, the Model 1918 3-inch gun. Some field trials were undergone in France, but it wasn’t properly introduced into service until a month after the Armistice.

MB

Edited 23 January , 2023 by KizmeRD