Bloody April

Bloody April
Part of the Battle of Arras
Albatros D.III fighters of Jasta 11. The second aircraft from the camera (with the step ladder) was painted red, and was one of several flown by Manfred von Richthofen, the most successful ace of the entire war.
Date April 1917 Location Mainly Arras, France Result Indecisive
Belligerents
British Empire	German Empire
Commanders and leaders
Hugh Trenchard	Ernst von Hoeppner
Strength
Royal Flying Corps	Luftstreitkräfte
Casualties and losses
245 aircraft 400 aircrew (207 killed) [1]	66 aircraft

Bloody April was an episode during the Battle of Arras in April 1917 when the British Royal Flying Corps suffered exceptionally high casualties while conducting operations over the Western Front. The losses coincided with the introduction of the German Albatros D.III fighter at the beginning of 1917, which outperformed most British aircraft in service at that time. The British lost 245 aircraft and more than 400 aircrew were killed or reported missing, while German losses remained much lower. Despite the high losses, German air superiority proved temporary, as the arrival of the Sopwith Triplane in April and the Sopwith Camel in July enabled Allied forces to regain parity in the air.

Background

In January 1917 Field marshal Douglas Haig and General Robert Nivelle had agreed to a for a joint offensive, with the British attacking at Arras ^{[2] [3]} The British operations at Arras were subsidiary to the main attack along the Aisne In order to archive air superiority of the front extending from Givenchy-en Gohelle in the north to a point near Croisilles in the south there were twenty-five squadrons containing 365 serviceable aeroplanes distributed to the 1st, 3rd and 5th armies. ^[4]

At the end of 1916 the British had achieved air superiority over the German air service. ^[5] But this situation did not last. After the heavy losses and failures against the French over Verdun in 1916 and against the British at the Somme, the German Oberste Heeresleitung had reorganised their air forces into the Luftstreitkräfte by October 1916, including Jastas (specialist fighter units). ^{[6] [7]} These units were led by highly experienced pilots, some of them veterans of the Fokker Scourge period. ^[8] At the same time the Idflieg had ordered a new fighter aircraft based on previously captured Nieuport aircraft. ^[9] In January 1917 the Luftstreitkräfte introduced the Albatros D.III. The new fighter outclassed British aircraft such as the Airco DH.2 the F.E.8 and Sopwith Pup. ^{[5] [10]}

Battle

The air offensive opened along the whole British front on the 4th of April 1917, five days before the infantry action began. The object of this offensive was to push the German air service away from the immediate battle area to ensure the greatest measure of operational freedom for the corps aeroplanes. Close protection for these was only to be provided when they were engaged at unusual distances across the lines. The beginning of the air offensive was marked by low clouds and rain, but the fighting was intense and the losses severe. In the five days from the 4th to the 8th of April, seventy-five British aeroplanes fell in action with a loss in flying personnel of 105 (nineteen killed, thirteen wounded, and seventy-three missing). In addition, there were an abnormally high number of flying accidents resulting in fifty-six aeroplanes wrecked and struck off the strength of the squadrons. These heavy losses by accidents were due in part to a lack of pilot training and in part to the strain imposed on pilots who had to meet in the air an enemy equipped, with few exceptions, with superior fighting aeroplanes.

"A 'bird' to the British: A German biplane brought down behind Canadian lines" ( The Illustrated War News , May 1917)

During April 1917 the British lost 245 aircraft, 211 aircrew killed or missing and 108 as prisoners of war. The German Air Services recorded the loss of 66 aircraft during the same period. As a comparison, in the five months of the Battle of the Somme of 1916 the RFC had suffered 576 casualties. Under Richthofen's leadership, Jasta 11 scored 89 victories during April, over a third of the British losses.

The month marked the nadir of the RFC's fortunes. Despite the losses inflicted, the German Air Service failed to stop the RFC from carrying out its prime objectives. The RFC continued to support the army throughout the Arras offensive with up-to-date aerial photographs, reconnaissance information, effective contact patrolling during British advances and harassing bombing raids. In particular the artillery spotting aircraft rendered valuable reconnaissance to the British artillery, who were able to maintain their superiority throughout the battle. In spite of their ascendancy in air combat, the German fighter squadrons continued to be used defensively, flying for the most part behind their own lines.

Aftermath

Within a couple of months a new generation of fighters (the SE.5, Sopwith Camel, and SPAD S.XIII) entered British service in numbers and quickly gained ascendancy over the over-worked Jastas. As the British fighter squadrons became more able to adequately protect the slower reconnaissance and artillery observation machines, RFC losses fell and German losses rose.

The RFC learned from their mistakes, instituting new policies on the improvement of training and tactical organisation. By mid-1917 better aircraft designs were reaching the front. By the late summer of 1917 the British achieved a greater measure of air superiority than they had held for almost a year. The casualties in the air campaigns through the remainder of the war were never so one-sided again. In fact, this was essentially the last time that the Germans possessed real air superiority for the rest of the war – although the degree of allied dominance in the air certainly varied, the final all-out efforts of September 1918 causing even greater Allied losses.

References

1. Hart (2005) p. 11
2. Sheffield 2011, p. 201.
3. Falls 1940, pp. 44, 49.
4. Jones 1931, pp. 332–334.
5. Wood 2002, p. 10.
6. Gray and Thetford (1962) pp. xxviii–xxx
7. Kilduff 1996, p. 13.
8. Mackersey (2012) pp.126–130
9. Hallion 1984, p. 50.
10. Jones 1931, p. 335.

Bibliography

• Falls, Cyril (1940). Military Operations France and Belgium 1917. History of the Great War. Vol. I. London: MacMillan.
• Franks, Norman; Guest, Russell; Bailey, Frank W. (1995). Bloody April ... Black September. London: Grub Street. ISBN   1-898697-08-6.
• Franks, Norman; Guest, Russell; Bailey, Frank (2017). Bloody April 1917. London: Grub Street. ISBN   978-1-910690-41-3.
• Gray, Peter; Thetford, Owen (1962). German Aircraft of the First World War. London: Putman. OCLC   560204435.
• Jones, Henry Albert (1931). The War in the Air: Being the Story of the Part played in the Great War by the Royal Air Force. History of the Great War. Vol. III. London: Clarendon Press. OCLC   831226907.
• Hallion, Richard (1984). Rise of the Fighter Aircraft, 1914-18. Annapolis: Nautical & Aviation Pub. Co. of America. ISBN   0-9338-5242-8.
• Hart, Peter (2005). Bloody April: Slaughter in the Skies over Arras, 1917. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN   978-0-297-84621-5.
• Kilduff, Peter (1996). Germany's First Air Force 1914-1918. London: Arms & Armour. ISBN   1-85409-352-5.
• Mackersley, Ian (2012). No Empty Chairs: The Short and Heroic Lives of the young Aviators who Fought and Died in the First World War . London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN   978-0-297-85994-9.
• Morris, Alan (1968). Bloody April. Arrow Books. ISBN   978-0-09-000450-8.
• Shores, Christopher; Franks, Norman; Guest, Russell (1991). Above the Trenches: A Complete Record of the Fighter Aces and the Units of the British Empire Air Forces 1915–1920. London: Grub Street. ISBN   0-948817-19-4.
• Sheffield, Gary (2011). The chief. Douglas Haig and the British Army. London: Aurum. ISBN   978-1-84513-691-8.
• Wood, Alan C. (2002). Aces and Airmen of World War I. London: Brassey's. ISBN   1-8575-3380-1.