Issoudun Aerodrome

Issoudun Aerodrome was a complex of military airfields in the vicinity of Issoudun, Centre, France. They were used during World War I as part of the Third Air Instructional Center, American Expeditionary Forces for training United States airmen prior to being sent into combat on the Western Front.

It was at that time the largest air base in the world. Today the entire complex consists of agricultural fields, the military facility totally obscured with no trace of its wartime history.

By the summer of 1917, two and a half years of the air war had begun to take a serious toll on the number of French and British aviators. While the United States possessed a relatively enormous pool of human resources, they lacked the well developed training methods and aircraft production capabilities of the Allies. In order to maximize the resources of both, the French submitted a memorandum to General George O. Squier, then the Chief Signal Officer of the U.S. Army, suggesting the establishment of an American advanced flying school in France.

The site decided upon for this advanced aviation school was Issoudun, France. Issoudun, located about 100 miles southeast of Paris, was primarily chosen because the surrounding countryside was extremely level and relatively sparsely populated with wide-open spaces for flying fields. The site was also relatively close to a major government-owned railroad line. Probably just as important was its proximity to the aviation factories and new plane assembly fields in the south which were to supply the aircraft to be used in the training at Issoudun. In spite of the advantages of this location, significant work was required to bring the Third Aviation Instruction Center (3rd AIC), as it was to be named, to life.

When General John J. Pershing first saw the site, it was nothing but a series of flat fields, with no barracks, hangars, buildings or classroom facilities. Under the agreement with the French, the United States was, “...to furnish 200 workmen to erect it (3d AIC) and ‘all the tools, nails and other implements necessary,’ including a narrow-gauge railroad, while France was to furnish the planes, motors and suitably cleared land.” With this accomplished, American pilots were to begin training in July 1917 and be ready for the front in the fall of the same year.

While this proposal was approved by Pershing, it met some resistance when it reached the Secretary of War. With an initial price tag of almost $800,000 just to open the field, the proposal was rejected by the Secretary of War on 19 May 1917. That same day the proposal was resubmitted with the additional argument that a facility such as the 3d AIC was critical to the development of the air forces that would accompany the A.E.F. to Europe. This time the proposal was accepted, and by July 1917, the first Aero Construction Squadrons began to arrive in France.

By early fall of that same year construction at the field was in full-swing. While the initial pace of building was hectic in an effort to make the base operational as quickly as possible, construction at Issoudun was never really completed and continued right up to the 1918 Armistice with Germany. As a result of this furious pace of construction, Issoudun was fully operational and training was being conducted within a months of Pershing accepting the base.

The 3d AIC at Issoudun was initially to be merely a “refresher course” for American pursuit pilots arriving in France, prior to being sent to the front. The intent was for the American pilots, having already received advance training in the United States, to become acquainted with the current tactics and aircraft being used at the front.