The two naval aviation stations in Italy and that on the Islands of the Azores coöperated with the British and the Italian air patrols in the never ceasing hunt for submarines, the locating of mines, the watching for wrecks and the convoy of troop and merchant ships. Especially harmonious and cordial was the teamwork of the men of our six naval air stations in England and Ireland with the men of the British naval air service. The aviators flew together, they used each other’s planes, coöperated in the guarding of the coasts and the convoy of incoming and outgoing groups of troop transports and cargo vessels, worked together upon perilous enterprises. Some of the most moving tales of daring adventure and heroic endurance of the whole war narrate the deeds of these American boys who guided the wings of the navy over the coasts and waters of England, Ireland and France. In the United States alone naval aircraft flew a distance of over 6,000,000 miles. On the other side, seaplanes and dirigibles aided in the convoying and protecting of 75,000 ships. Submarine hunting, which had a greater development than any other line of naval air work, reached a notable point of scientific exactness in its methods. Each patrol as it started out had mapped for it designated areas of the air of certain sizes and shapes and locations which it covered by following the directed courses by means of the compass. It is certain that many submarine attacks upon our shipping were thus prevented and that, by the dropping of bombs, several undersea boats were sunk. At the time of the signing of the armistice the plans of the Navy for its Air Service had not nearly reached the peak of development. But its effect upon submarine activities was already evident and it is probable that it saved in values of shipping that would have been destroyed but for its protection more than its development cost the Navy Department, which had expended upon it $100,000,000. The Marine Corps, the Navy’s landing force of fighting men, developed its own Aviation Service with both heavier and lighter than air craft, for flying above both land and water, which gave important assistance in several parts of the battle front. CHAPTER XIV THE TRAINING OF THE RESERVES