It wasn’t just 6 cutters that went to Europe a century ago to fight WWI: Coasties also commanded 18 Navy gunboats and ran one of the most active air stations of the war
Happy Veterans Day!
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The Coast Guard in WWI -European Theater- / Cardiff / Gibraltar / Tangier / September 26, 1918: After completing her 18th convoy, Tampa is sunk by a U-boat. All 111 Coasties on board perish / September 19, 1918: 11 crewmen from Seneca drown rescuing the crew of the torpedoed steamer Wellington / April 23, 1918: Île-Tudy Naval Air Station, commanded by Coast Guard LT Charles Sugden, strikes the first confirmed hit on a sub from a U.S. Naval Air Station. Île-Tudy sees more anti-submarine action than any other air station in the war / 1917–1918: Six Coast Guard Cutters and 18 Navy gunboats commanded by Coast Guard officers run convoys of troops and supplies to Wales, evading submarines and mines / Roughly 500 Coasties served in Europe during the Great War. Of those, over a quarter never returned.