{"id":5011,"date":"2019-12-13T12:33:29","date_gmt":"2019-12-13T19:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/?page_id=5011"},"modified":"2023-02-15T11:41:35","modified_gmt":"2023-02-15T18:41:35","slug":"leo-mccarthy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/the-biographies\/leo-mccarthy\/","title":{"rendered":"Leo McCarthy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

(Rockland, Massachusetts, June 6, 1894 \u2013 South Weymouth, Massachusetts, September 18, 1967).1<\/a><\/p>\n

Leo McCarthy\u2019s grandparents came to the U.S. from Ireland and settled south of Boston. His father, John Joseph McCarthy, began working in a shoe factory in Rockland, Massachusetts, and rose to the position of foreman. He married Margaret F. Ahearn in 1881; the 1900 census shows four children, with Leo the third child and older of two sons.2<\/a> Leo McCarthy studied business administration at Boston University while working in the E. T. Wright and Co. Shoe factory; his draft registration records that he was a department manager there.3<\/a> He attended ground school at M.I.T. and was one of a group of eight men recorded as having graduated September 1, 1917.4<\/a><\/p>\n

Of those eight, six\u2014McCarthy, John Lavalle, Jr., Phillips Merrill Payson, Andrew Joseph Shannon, George Dana Spear, and Perley Melbourne Stoughton\u2014chose or were chosen for training in Italy, and these six were among the 150 members of the \u201cItalian\u201d or \u201csecond Oxford detachment\u201d who sailed to England on the\u00a0Carmania.<\/i>\u00a0The ship left New York September 18, 1917, made a brief stop at Halifax, and then crossed the Atlantic as part of a convoy. \u201cAt the end of our voyage came the order which, at that time seemed to blight our young lives. The American authorities here had changed our orders so that we would be trained with the R.F.C.\u201d\u2014this is McCarthy\u2019s description of learning, when the\u00a0Carmania<\/i> docked at Liverpool on October 2, 1917, that they would not proceed to Italy but remain in England.5<\/a> He goes on: \u201cAnd worse, we were put in the ground school at Oxford University for four weeks.\u201d While the cadets, as they were now designated, repeated ground school at the Royal Flying Corps\u2019s No. 2 School of Military Aeronautics at Oxford they were initially housed at Christ Church College, under Elliott White Springs, and at Queen\u2019s College, under William Ludwig Deetjen.6<\/a><\/p>\n

McCarthy appears to have been in the Queen\u2019s College group and to have roomed with his ground school classmate Spear<\/a> and with Fremont Cutler Foss, who had attended ground school at Ohio State University. Foss recounts how he, Spear, and McCarthy were conversing late one evening when \u201cA knock sounded at our door. \u2018Ten shun\u2019 called Adeley and in walked Major Robinson U.S. Also a British staff officer, Captain Drexel and Lieutenant Dwyer. They asked us how we liked the place, whether we were learning anything etc. McCarthy was our spokesman and of course he answered \u2018yes.\u2019\u201d7<\/a> Gerald Graham Adeley was Assistant Commander of the S.M.A. at Oxford; Robinson was probably Gordon Robinson, a West Point man; John Armstrong Drexel and Geoffrey Dwyer represented the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps in Great Britain\u2014altogether a formidable delegation.8<\/a>\u00a0Major Robinson proceeded the next day to inspect the cadets of both the first and second detachments of Americans at Oxford. The relevant entry in\u00a0War Birds<\/i> reads in part: \u201cThis major had a parade of both outfits and inspected us and then got us in the mess-hall and pitched into us as if we were convicts. He said he had heard that we were grousing because we had to go to Ground School again and hadn’t gotten our commissions as we had been promised. He said if any of us didn’t like it, he would send us over to France and send us up to the trenches as privates.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0. He didn’t like our uniforms. He said they were all right at home but they wouldn’t do over here where everybody has to be smart. So we’ve got to buy tailor-made uniforms and pay for them ourselves\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0and any man who refuses to buy one of these special uniforms, is to be sent to France for discipline.\u201d9<\/a>\u00a0American campaign hats were replaced with R.F.C. caps, and the men started wearing General Pershing-approved Sam Browne belts.<\/p>\n

On November 1, 1917, the second Oxford detachment men learned from Dwyer that 130 of them would go to machine gun school at Grantham in Lincolnshire, while twenty would begin flight training at Stamford.10<\/a> Foss wrote in his diary the next evening that \u201cBefore supper Perley [Stoughton]<\/a>, Mac [McCarthy], [Donald Swett] Poler, [Frank Aloysius] Dixon, and myself went to canteen and drank five rounds. Orders were issued for all baggage to be ready by 7 P.M.\u201d On November 3, 1917, they all, with the exception of Dixon, who was to go to Stamford, made the six-hour train journey to Grantham and then settled in at Harrowby Camp, the machine gun school located just to the northeast of Grantham in the park belonging to Belton House. Not long after arriving, McCarthy wrote appreciatively that \u201cwe\u2019ve landed in a mighty fine place. Although our own government considers us cadets still the authorities here have placed us on the status of officers. Officers mess, good service and wonderfully good food, orderly to take care of our \u2018hut\u2019 . . . The studies here we also find very interesting.\u201d11<\/a>\u00a0Fifty of the men departed on November 19, 1917, for flying schools; McCarthy was among those who remained at Grantham through Thanksgiving and completed two two-week machine gun courses, the first on the Vickers, the second on the Lewis machine gun.<\/p>\n

\"Portion
Portion of Foss’s list of men posted December 3, 1917, showing the cadets going to Rochford.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In December, finally, the cadets still at Grantham were sent to training squadrons. McCarthy was posted, along with eleven others (Thomas Welch Blackburn, Jr., James Mitchell Coburn, Kenneth MacLean Cunningham, Lavalle, Roy Edwin Martz, Uel Thomas McCurry, Linn Daicy Merrill, Thomas M. Nial, Elwood D. Stanbery, Horace Palmer Wells, and Louis McComas Young), to Rochford in Essex. The initial assignment was apparently to No. 61 Squadron, a home defense squadron flying S.E.5a\u2019s.12<\/a> However, at least some of the eleven, including McCarthy, were reassigned to No. 198 Night Training Squadron, also at Rochford.13<\/a> Neither squadron was, on the face of it, intended for the training of novices,\u00a0 but the men evidently got some time in the air.\u00a0 McCarthy, in an undated letter to his father, mentions \u201cone of the instructors at Rochford,\u201d and entries in his R.F.C. Training Transfer Card indicate that while he was a t No. 198 McCarthy put in over five hours flying dual in an Avro and twenty-five minutes in a B.E.2e.14<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
From McCarthy’s R.A.F. service record.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On January 26, 1918, McCarthy was posted from Rochford to Waddington in Lincolnshire, initially to No. 44 Training Squadron.15<\/a> Deetjen, who had ten days previously been posted from Stamford to Waddington, noted in his diary that around the time McCarthy arrived \u201cA whole lot of our bunch came from Stamford and all over. We must number about 30.\u201d16<\/a> A short while later, on February 6, 1918, Deetjen wrote that \u201cMcCarthy of ground school moved in with us tonight.\u201d Ten days later McCarthy was assigned to No. 47 T.S. at Waddington.17<\/a> William Thomas Clements, also at No. 47, called it a \u201cRumpety squadron\u201d\u2014the Maurice Farman Shorthorn, commonly known as a \u201cRumpty \/ Rumpety\u201d was an obsolete two-seater pusher biplane much used in training at this time. By March 8, 1918, McCarthy had flown this plane for an hour and forty minutes with an instructor and nearly six hours solo.18<\/a><\/p>\n

McCarthy and Deetjen were evidently given leave from Wednesday, March 6, 1918, through the weekend, and they spent the time in London. They played tourist (\u201cWestminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Bank of England, Strand, Pall Mall and the rest o\u2019 London\u201d), shopped, socialized, and enjoyed several shows as well as \u201cWarm beds, hot bath, and late breakfasts.\u201d Late Thursday evening \u201cthere was a Gotha air raid at about 11:30 P.M. \u2019Twas a first all the way throughout. Darned cheap advertising, these Huns play. When we heard the warning\u2014auto klaxons\u2014Mac and I hopped for the windows and hung there for an hour.\u201d \u201cSunday at 11:40 A.M. Mac and I laughed and packed ourselves off. At Peterborough he changed for Waddington while I went on to Nottingham.\u201d19<\/a><\/p>\n

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McCarthy at Waddington. A copy of this photo was also kept by Deetjen, who was probably the photographer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next day was, according to Clements\u2019s diary entry, \u201cdud,\u201d i.e., the weather was too bad for flying. Over the next few days, however, both Clements and Foss got in quite a bit of flying, but for some reason McCarthy did not.20<\/a> Deetjen wrote in his diary on March 18, 1918, that \u201cAt 9:30 Lt. Brandon of 51 T.S. loaned me a deH6 for 15 minutes and I ran over to 47 T.S. and picked up Mac. Poor devil has not been up for three weeks. I let him monkey around for a while and then gave him some instruction. The bus was returned (after dropping Mac) after 40 minutes. No one was the wiser and Mac learned something too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not long after, things evidently began to pick up. McCarthy writes towards the end of March that he \u201cwent solo on the intermediate bus. The same day I did 3\u00bc hours solo\u2014altogether 4 hours in the air in one day.\u201d21<\/a> He presumably does not name the intermediate bus type because of censorship rules; he was perhaps now piloting a D.H.6, the two-seater training plane that Deetjen had flown him in, or an an Armstrong Whitworth FK.3\u2014both are listed on his R.F.C. Training Transfer Card as planes he flew solo.22<\/a> He noted that he needed \u201conly 11 hrs more flying to do in order to get my \u2018commish\u2019 or wings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recommendation for McCarthy\u2019s commission was forwarded to Washington on April 8, 1918.23<\/a>\u00a0 However, the recommendation stipulates that he and a number of American Oxford cadets should be commissioned \u201cFirst Lieutenants Aviation Reserve non flying.\u201d The \u201cnon-flying\u201d status apparently arose from an effort by Pershing to rectify an injustice. In a cable to Washington dated March 13, 1918, the commander in chief of the American Expeditionary Force described the situation of the approximately 1400 aviation cadets in Europe, some of whom had waited three months to start flying training, and some of whom, after five months, were still waiting and might have to wait another four.24<\/a> \u201cAll of those cadets would have been commissioned prior to this date if training facilities could have been provided. These conditions have produced profound discouragement among cadets.\u201d To remedy this injustice, and to put the European cadets on an equal footing with their counterparts in the U.S., Pershing asked permission \u201cto immediately issue to all cadets now in Europe temporary or Reserve commissions in Aviation Section Signal Corps. . . .\u201d Washington approved the plan in a cable dated March 21, 1918, but stipulated that the commissioned men be \u201cput on non-flying status. Upon satisfactory completion of flying training they can be transferred as flying officers.\u201d25<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
Page from McCarthy’s R.F.C. Training Transfer Card.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Washington took its time responding, and on April 30, 1918, Pershing wrote: \u201cRequest action taken on . . .\u201d and lists cables dated March 29 through April 8, 1918. The confirming cable from Washington, finally, is dated May 13, 1918.<\/p>\n

By this time McCarthy had almost certainly earned the right to be among those \u201ctransferred as flying officers.\u201d The next day (May 14, 1918) he graduated from this stage of R.F.C. \/ R.A.F. training, with nearly sixty hours of flying, including, if I read his R.F.C. Training Transfer Card correctly, an hour and twenty minutes on a service (as opposed to training) plane, an R.E.8. He was placed on active service on May 28, 1918.26<\/a><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, he was \u201cJust a little lonesome . . . My bunkie, best friend & pal left yesterday for an aerial gunnery course.\u201d27<\/a>\u00a0 Deetjen had departed for Marske-by-the-Sea in Yorkshire on April 4, 1918. Entries in McCarthy\u2019s R.F.C. Training Transfer Card suggest that he remained at No. 47 T.S. in Waddington through at least the end of June 1918.<\/p>\n

In a letter written in early April 1918 McCarthy reports that he had been asked by his instructor \u201cwhy I didn\u2019t put in application for transfer to scouts. He claims I\u2019ve got just the right touch for scouts and that I don\u2019t seem to be afraid to throw the bus around in the air.\u201d28<\/a>\u00a0Whether McCarthy did ask for such a transfer is not evident, but the little further available documentation of his training makes clear that he continued on courses for two-seater bomber and observation plane pilots. His R.A.F. service record indicates he was posted on October 14, 1918, from the No. 1 School of Aerial Navigation and Bomb Dropping at Stonehenge in Wiltshire to U.S.A.S. H.Q. London.<\/p>\n

\"\"
McCarthy and 8th Aero Squadron DH-4.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He had evidently received training on D.H.4s, as he was posted at the end of the month to the U.S. 8th<\/sup> Aero Squadron, an observation squadron flying D.H.-4s.29<\/a>\u00a0The 8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero was by now stationed at Sazerais, about ten miles northeast of Toul. It had been supporting the American First Army, but was now assigned to the Air Service of the recently formed American Second Army. While at Saizerais, the 8th<\/sup> Aero undertook photographic and voluntary bombing missions.30<\/a> I have been unable to find operations reports that might provide details of individual flights and thus document McCarthy\u2019s participation. It was intended that the Second Army would \u201cbegin a general offensive leading to the capture of Metz and the gateway into Germany proper.\u201d31<\/a>\u00a0The armistice supervened.<\/p>\n

McCarthy was back in his home town of Rockland by May 1919.32<\/a> He resumed working at E. T. Wright & Co., from which he retired as the company\u2019s president in 1966.33<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0mrsmcq April 20, 2017<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Notes<\/h3>\n

(For complete bibliographic entries, please consult the list of\u00a0works and web pages cited<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

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1<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0For McCarthy\u2019s place and date of birth, see Ancestry.com,\u00a0U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917\u20131918<\/i>, record for Leo McCarthy. On his place and date of death, see \u201cLeo McCarthy, 73: Shoe Company President.\u201d The photo is (cropped) from a formal portrait photo; see full image here<\/a>.\u00a0 This and the other images on this page (excepting the detail from Foss\u2019s diary and the portion of McCarthy’s R.A.F. service record) were supplied by McCarthy\u2019s grandson, who kindly gave permission for their reproduction.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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2<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ancestry.com,\u00a01900 United States Federal Census<\/i>, record for Leo McCarthy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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3<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See Boston University,\u00a0The Year Book 1917\u20131918<\/i>, p. 211, and the draft registration cited above.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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4<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cGround School Graduations [for September 1, 1917].\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

5<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0McCarthy, letter of November 6, 1917. Various reasons have been put forward for the change of plans. See, for example, Hadley, \u201cForeign Aviation Detachments,\u201d p. 4 (286), Dwyer, \u201cReport on Air Service Flying Training Department in England,\u201d p. 2, and Sloan and Hocutt, \u201cThe Real Italian Detachment,\u201d p. 44. Dwyer, who would surely have been the person best positioned to know what had happened, only reports that the detachment \u201chad their orders revoked.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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6<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Deetjen, diary entry for October 4, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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7<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Foss, diary entry for October 13, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

8<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0On Adeley, see \u201cRegular Forces,\u201d p. 10490. On Drexel and Dwyer, see Murray, Air Service History, p. 77. On Gordon Robinson, see Cullum,\u00a0Biographical Register<\/i>, pp. 962\u201363, and Alden Rogers,\u00a0The Hard White Road<\/i>, p. 6.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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9<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0War Birds<\/i>, entry for October 16, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

10<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0Foss, diary entry for November 1, 1917. 129 men actually went to Grantham; according to the War Birds<\/em> entry for November 6, 1917, James Whitworth Stokes stayed behind in Oxford to be operated on for appendicitis.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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11<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0McCarthy, letter of November 6, 1917.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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12<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0For the assignment to Rochford and No. 61 Squadron, see Foss\u2019s list of \u201cCadets of Italian Detachment Posted Dec 3rd<\/sup>\u201d in Foss, Papers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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13<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See The National Archives (United Kingdom),\u00a0Royal Air Force officers’ service records 1918\u20131919<\/i>, record for Leo McCarthy, and McCarthy, R.F.C. Training Transfer Card.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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14<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0McCarthy, undated letter to his father.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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15<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See McCarthy\u2019s R.A.F. service record and his R.F.C. Training Transfer Card.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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16<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Deetjen, diary entry for January 27, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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17<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See McCarthy\u2019s R.A.F. service record and his R.F.C. Training Transfer Card.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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18<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0McCarthy, R.F.C. Training Transfer Card.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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19<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Quotations are from Deetjen\u2019s diary entry for March 12, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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20<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0See relevant entries in Clements\u2019s and Foss\u2019s diaries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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21<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0McCarthy, undated letter. A reference to the recent opening of the German Spring Offensive in this letter suggests it was written about March 25, 1918; a reference to the solo flying having occurred on Wednesday suggests it took place March 20, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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22<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0The last named I assume is what is meant by \u201cAW90″ on the card, i.e., an A.W. FK.3 with a 90 h.p. engine.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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23<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Cablegram 874-S.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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24<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Cablegram 726-S.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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25<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Cablegram 955-R.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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26<\/strong><\/a> \u00a0McAndrew, \u201cSpecial Orders No. 205.\u201d\u00a0 See also McAndrew, \u201cSpecial Orders No. 147,\u201c dated May\u00a0 27, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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27<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0McCarthy, letter to his father dated April 5, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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28<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0McCarthy, letter of April 5, 1918.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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29<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u201c8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero Squadron,\u201d p. 143; see also rosters on p. 132 and 136. (D.H.4 is a standard designation for the British plane, D.H.-4 for the American version.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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30<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201c8th<\/sup>\u00a0Aero Squadron,\u201d p. 112.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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31<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Sloan,\u00a0Wings of Honor<\/i>, p. 360.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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32<\/strong><\/a> \u201cPraise for Rockland Boys by Col Edward L. Logan.\u201d\u00a0 \u201d I have not thus far found his name on a manifest of a returning ship.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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33<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u201cLeo McCarthy, 73: Shoe Company President.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Rockland, Massachusetts, June 6, 1894 \u2013 South Weymouth, Massachusetts, September 18, 1967).1 Leo McCarthy\u2019s grandparents came to the U.S. from Ireland and settled south of Boston. His father, John Joseph McCarthy, began working in a shoe factory in Rockland, Massachusetts, and rose to the position of foreman. He married Margaret F. Ahearn in 1881; the … Continue reading “Leo McCarthy”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5024,"parent":30,"menu_order":81,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5011","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5011"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7812,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5011\/revisions\/7812"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/parr-hooper.cmsmcq.com\/2OD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}