the really extraordinary professional ability of civil engineers D. G. Copeland and A. W. K. Billings made such work
possible, but only, I might add, with the hearty co-operation of Lieutenant-Commander Benjamin Briscoe and his small
band of loyal and devoted co-workers. Another great adventure was the establishment of our Northern Bombing
Group, under the command of Captain David C. Hanrahan,
U.S.N.; here we had 112 planes, 305 officers, and more than
2,000 enlisted personnel, who devoted all of their attention
to bombing German submarine bases at Zeebrugge and
Ostend. This enterprise was a joint one with the marines
under the command of Major A. A. Cunningham, an experienced pilot and an able administrator, who performed
all of his various duties not only to my entire satisfaction
but in a manner which reflected the greatest credit to him-
self as well as to the Marine Corps of which he was a worthy
representative. Due to the fact that the rapidity of our
construction work had exceeded that with which airplanes
were being built at home, we entered into an agreement with
the Italian Government whereby we obtained a number of
Caproni planes in exchange for raw materials. Several of
these large bombing airplanes were successfully flown over
the Alps to the fields of Flanders, under the direction of
Lieutenant-Commander E. O. MacDonnell, who deserves
the greatest credit for the energetic and resourceful manner
in which he executed this difficult task.
In September, 1918, Captain Cone's duties took him to Ireland; the ship on which he sailed, the Leinster, was torpedoed in the Irish Sea; Captain Cone was picked up unconscious in the water, and, when taken to the hospital, it was discovered that both his legs were broken. It was therefore necessary to appoint another officer in his stead, and I selected Lieutenant W. A. Edwards, who had served with credit on the destroyer Cushing, and who, for some time, had been second in command to Captain Cone in the aviation section. It was almost unprecedented to put at the head of such an important branch a young lieutenant who had only been out of the naval academy for a few years; ordinarily the duties would have required a man of Admiral's rank. Lieutenant Edwards, however, was not only extremely capable, but he had the gift of getting along splendidly with our Allies, particularly the British, with whom our intercourse was necessarily extensive, and with
