Postwar Wreck of an 85th Aero Squadron Plane

The wreck of 85th Aero Squadron pilot Lt. Arthur Mitchell, and the student observer Capt. Burgess, in DH.4 #17 (serial # 22905). According to the accident report, the motor cut out on take-off and crashed at end of field (report lists the field as Congoult Aerodrome) due to red gas and water in gas. It was suggested the remedy to prevent future incidents was change from red fighting gas to white gas & filter it thru a chamois.

Both occupants were able to walk away…

Owen Griffith Williams: One of the First Qualified U.S. Air Service Aerial Photographers in WWI

OGW Posing in 278th Aero Sqdn DH4 ‘Katheleen’

Owen G. Williams was born March 13, 1894 in Slatington, Pennsylvania. Williams entered the U.S. Army on October 9, 1917 & was sent to the aerial photography school at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. He graduated in March 1918 as a qualified observer & aerial photographer. While at Cornell, he was made assistant instructor & Sergeant-in-Charge of all photography at the University. Williams was one of the first group of nineteen Cornell graduates to leave for overseas duty. He was made Sergeant-in-Charge of this 1st group (25 in all, including motorcyclists & truck drivers) as they left for France.

Williams states that due to the high loss of life amongst qualified English & French photographers, the U.S. Army decided no experienced ‘photog’, or anyone that had taken the course, was allowed to fly. He was not only deprived of a 2nd Lt. commission, but was also deprived of the additional $75 per month due to his photographic knowledge. Williams & the rest of this group, who had arrived in France in September 1918, were detailed to ground work, laboratory work, handling & setting the apertures and time on the cameras for the observers who were not trained photogs.

Williams saw service along the Alsatian front (Oct. 1, 1918 – Nov. 1, 1918) & St. Michiel (Nov. 1, 1918 to Nov. 11, 1918). After the Armistice, he was called upon to cover 45 sq. miles of the Hindenburg Line with a camera. Williams was in 8 of the 11 Metz forts & photographed everything on the surface of the ground, as well as everything under the surface, sometimes about 50 or more feet below ground.

Williams’ first flight was on December 1, 1918 in which he covered the St.Mihiel Sector. Thereafter, he would cover Cologne (Dec. 5, 1918), take pictures of area occupied by the 2nd Army, & would spend 10 weeks plotting dugouts, trenches, fortifications along the Hindenburg Line.

On June 6, 1919, Owen returned to Bethlehem, PA upon his discharge from the military. He did a few month’s work as a photographer before being employed as a traveling salesman for an insurance company. He would also be employed for 8 years as an Inheritance Tax Investigator & Appraiser for the Department of Revenue.

Williams died on November 27, 1982 and is buried in Bethlehem, PA (Nisky Hill Cemetery). Most of the photos Williams took during the war (approx. 800 images) ended up at the National Archives.