The Scrapbooks of Willis B. Haviland

An Earlybird's Scrapbook

USNAS Porto Corsini (1918)

Book Two, Page One

After the United States entered the war, many of the American pilots, including Willis Haviland, left the Lafayette Escadrille and joined the American forces. In July, 1918, Lt. Haviland was assigned to train pilots and command the U.S. Naval Air Station that was constructed by the marshes near the villiage of Porto Corsini. (The presence of a US station in Italy was the product of the Italian government's request that the two allies collaborate their forces in order to provide better protection from Austrian attacks.)

The photos are presented in this section in the same order as they appear in Lt. Haviland's second scrapbook (the book that contains images from Porto Corsini), with all legibile captions and notations preserved. (Porto Corsini was the only U.S. Navy seaplane patrol station established in Italy during World War I.)

"Austrian plane shot down off Venice, 1917."


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Lafayette
Escadrille 		Porto
Corsini 		Airplanes
Off Ships 		Stateside
Action 		The Roma
Catastrophe 		Earlybird
Artifacts
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