''Escadrille 31'' of the

French Air Force The French Air and Space Force (AAE) (french: Armée de l'air et de l'espace, ) is the air and space force of the French Armed Forces. It was the first military aviation force in history, formed in 1909 as the , a service arm of the French Army; ...

was founded at the beginning of the World War I, on 24 September 1914, at

Dijon Air Base Dijon-Longvic Air Base (french: Base aérienne 102 Dijon, ) was a French Air Force (french: Armée de l'Air) air base. The airfield is located approximately east-southeast of Longvic; about southeast of Paris. Operating as a joint civilian base, ...

. Once equipped with

Morane-Saulnier N The Morane-Saulnier N, also known as the Morane-Saulnier Type N, was a French monoplane fighter aircraft of the First World War. Designed and manufactured by Morane-Saulnier, the Type N entered service in April 1915 with the ''Aéronautique Mili ...

s, it was posted to ''I Armee'' of the

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History

In February 1915, ''Escadrille MS 31'' was moved to defense of

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. In April 1915, it returned to ''I Armee''; on the 26th, it began re-equipping with

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two-seaters.Franks, Bailey 1992, p. 91. By January 1916, the ''Escadrille 31'' had rearmed with ten single-seater

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s. When the unit acquired Lieutenant de Villeneuve as commander in mid April, he instituted the use of a Roman archer as the ''escadrille'' insignia. In October, ''Escadrille N 31'' shifted to support ''II Armee''. The following month, the unit was incorporated into ''Groupe de Combat II''. ''Escadrille 31'' began receiving SPADs on 7 January 1917. However, it would not totally rearm with SPADs until 17 September, when it was renamed ''Escadrille SPA 31''. The ''escadrille'' would serve as part of ''GC II'' through the remainder of the war. When the armistice came, it had been credited with 42 aircraft and four

observation balloon An observation balloon is a type of balloon that is employed as an aerial platform for intelligence gathering and artillery spotting. Use of observation balloons began during the French Revolutionary Wars, reaching their zenith during World War ...

s destroyed, and have earned two citations from Army Corps.

Commanding officers

* Capitaine Raymond Yence: 24 September 1914 – ca 4 January 1915 * Capitaine Guy-Leopold Hautschamps: 5 January 1915 – died in accident ca 11 May 1915 * Capitaine Louis Mathieu: 12 May 1915 –

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22 September 1915 * Lieutenant

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: 23 September 1915 – 16 April 1916 * Lieutenant Lucien Couret de Villeneuve: 17 April 1916 – 16 July 1917 * Capitaine Charles Dupuy: 17 July 1917 - * Lieutenant Paul Reverchon: 6 May 1918 – 29 September 1918 * Lieutenant Richard de Frescheville – 30 September 1918

Notable personnel

* Lieutenant

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* ''Sous Lieutenant'' Jules Covin * ''Sous Lieutenant'' François Portron

Aircraft

: 24 September 1914 *

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two-seaters: 26 April 1915 *

: early January 1916 * SPAD: First received 7 January 1917

Endnotes

References

* Franks, Norman; Frank W. Bailey. ''Over the Front: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and Units of the United States and French Air Services, 1914-1918'' Grub Street, 1992. , .

External links

Escadrille MS 31 - N 31 - SPA 31
{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 French Air and Space Force squadrons