Blog - CREATION OF THE ARMADA SERVICE AND AVIATION SCHOOL DURING THE GREAT WAR
2020-02-07
With Portugal's entry into the Great War, on March 9, 1916, national ports, ships and routes of communication were now at the mercy of the German submarine weapon. And its effects were not long-awaited. It was in January 1917 that the then First Lieutenant Sacadura Cabral proposed to the Minister of the Navy the creation of an aerial surveillance device on the coast that, in conjunction with the existing naval resources, would be the most effective means of detecting enemy submarines that with impunity attacked national ports and ships.
By decree no. 3395 of 28 September 1917, the Service and School of the Armada Aviation was created, which began its operational activity with the activation of the Lisbon Maritime Aviation Center, on December 14 of that same year, installed at the Bom Sucesso Dock. Throughout 1918, until the end of the Great War, the Lisbon Maritime Aviation Center carried out several reconnaissance patrols along the coast that was assigned to it. Despite the great scarcity of resources, it always counted on the high competence and dedication of all who served in it, thus guaranteeing the future continuity of the most recent operational component of the Portuguese Navy: Naval Aviation.
