FORT WORTH TX TALIAFERRO FIELD RARE WWI RPPC POST CARD

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FROM THE ESTATE OF A WWI FORT WORTH VETERAN. A RARE REAL PHOTO PC OF TALIAFERRO FIELD AS IT APPEARED DURING WWI. PC IS IN EXCELLENT++ CONDITION. The History Of Hicks Field Our little corner of the County claims a rich history in military aviation. A small airfield, located on a breezy prairie north of Saginaw, trained more than 6,000 Canadian and American pilots, gunners and observers for service to our nation in World Wars I and II. The site, known at various times as Taliaferro Field, Camp Hicks and Hicks Field, had been part of the old Hicks Ranch. The Canadians called it Taliaferro Field, after Walter R. Taliaferro, a U.S. Army aviator who had been killed in an accident. But the name changed to Hicks Field after the U.S. went to war. The name was given from Charles E. Hicks, the landowner from who the Field came from. Mr. W.G. Fuller, a WWI pilot who had flown at Hicks Field, recalled Mrs. Hicks as she "rode fence" with a Winchester rifle cradled in her arm, looking for trespassers. "I thought I could use profanity", he reminisced. "But mine was nothing compared to that old lady". It all began on April 1917 when the United States declared war, joining other countries in World War I. But our military flying capability was small and inexperienced. The Canadians, on the other hand were already in the war with a "seasoned" air force. When the military chiefs of our two countries compared our strengths and weaknesses to fight our enemy, they saw they could help each other, and negotiated a logical contract. The concept for a flying field located was proposed by the Canadians. The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) needed a warm climate for winter flight training. The Americans needed help in quickly establishing flight training schools. The RFC agreed to train ten aero squadrons, both pilots and ground personnel, in exchange for facilities in Texas to cover the winters of 1917-1918. The airfield was born! Work had to be done fast. Cattle were moved out, and construction crews worked feverishly at the site, known as Taliaferro Field, and at two auxiliary fields in Benbrook and Everman. When the trainees first arrived in November 1917, the fields were only partially complete. But training was started anyway, despite unfinished facilities, lack of water or sewer and unassembled aircraft. The first winter was difficult. Many men lived in tents in this snowy winter. A worldwide flu epidemic hit Hicks Field hard. One cadet reported seeing a trainload of casket laden flat cars leaving Fort Worth. Despite these hardships, the skies overhead were filled with the rich, vibrant sound of throbbing airplane engines - within a month. In fact, the skies stayed full of Jennys. Colonel David L. Roscoe, an early Hicks Field commander, recalls that ".....a plane landed every 34 seconds from dawn until dark, and during the course of a day the average number of hours flown by instructors and cadets was 1,300". With that amount of flying activity, accidents were common. Although t were serious crashes, many of them resulted in little injury to the pilot or gunner (although photos of the crashes make us wonder how). The biplane of choice was the JN-4 "Jenny". It had two open cockpits; the student manned the front, and instructor commanded from the rear. With the Curtiss OX-5 engine, it could reach a top speed of 64 MPH. Later Jennys were powered by the 180 HP "Hisso" engine, which increased it's speed to 78 MPH. The speed of these planes might make them seem like toys as compared to todays aircraft, but it must be stressed that only 14 years the first flight at Kitty Hawk occurred! T were two versions of the Jennys flown at Hicks. The Canadian version was called the JN-4C Jenny "Canuck". The American version was the JN-4D. In dire need of flyable aircraft, the U.S. agreed to purchase 180 Jennys from the Canadians once their training was done. Only an expert could tell the difference. Training was taught by the Canadians. The two auxiliary fields were in charge of primary flight t... read more

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