Bloody April

I'm looking for a sources that contains concise information about Bloody April. I have a few already, but I'm curious what else is out there.

I noticed there is a gap in the WWW and I plan to fill that void.

Tobias Gibson

[Darryl]

Tobias,

If you haven't already got "Bloody April, Black September", Franks et al. Grub Street, get it. It has a lot of background as well as the claims/losses stuff

regards

Darryl

[Ira_Silverman]

Tobias:

Darryl beat me to the first one, but you should find both these books quite helpful, and the latter one extremely readable:

Franks, Norman, Frank Bailey and Russell Guest. "BLOODY APRIL...BLACK SEPTEMBER. London, Grub Street, 1995. 288 pp., illus.

Morris, Alan. BLOODY APRIL. London, Jarrolds, 1967. 208 pp., illus.

Best Regards,

Ira

[leo]

I came across a book with the following information,

Front Line strength April 9, 1917

British 714 German 264(vs Brits alone)

Losses April 1917

British 316 German 119
Aircrew killed or missing

Aircraft destroyed

British 151 German 66

The book is "Warplanes and Air Battles of WWI"
Beekman Hose, NYC 1973


leo

[Soderbaum]

Hi Tobias
The book Bloody April..Black September is really good for your question.
But they does not seemed to publish the official German scores for this month as follows:
The German claimed 362 e/a and 29 Ballons this month. Of the e/a fell 12 on other fronts and no ballons.
291 e/a were claimed in air combat on the West Front and 8 on other fronts.
German Flak units claimed 48 e/a on the West Front and 4 on other fronts. Of the Flak claims on the West Front fell 28 within German Lines and 20 over enemy lines. 4 more e/a were claimed by Flak units as Forced down over enemy lines(These were not officialy confirmed).
11 e/a were claimed as Forced landings within German lines, all on West Front.
Of the total e/a fell 171 within German lines. 169 of these on West Front and 2 on other Fronts.
This 299 + 52 + 11 = Total = 362
The German also sometimes had victories which were reconfirmed. And perhaps a few victories should be added to these but its difficult to make any correction with the material we have today. But Frank Olynyk seems to have recieved this kind of material newly from Germany...
VBR
Gunnar

[leo]

Gunnar:
In your reply, are you referring to April 1917, September 1918, or both. I am not clear on it, but that could be my fault, not yours.

Regards


leo

[Soderbaum]

Hi
my figures only refers to April 1917
VBR
Gunnar

[Soderbaum]

Hi
The German also officialy recorded their losses in April 1917 as follows:
66 aircraft was lost on the West front and 8 on other front.
10 Ballons were lost, all on West front.
Of the total of aircraft were 39 lost in Air combat on West front and 4 on other fronts.
23 aircraft went missing on the West front and 4 on other fronts.
3 aircraft was lost due enemy Flak, all on West front.
1 more aircraft was reported lost on West front by other reason.
So 43 + 27 + 3 + 1 = Total = 74 aircraft.
But for the aviation historian this is not the whole true as discussed earlier in this Forum.
The German like the other countries involved in the War seldom talled the whole truth regarding their own losses especially in Daily and monthly reports.
In general terms by the knowledge we had today You
must dubbel the German losses in long terms to came near some acceptable truth..
The reason for that is that the German does not seems to counted aircraft in their monthly reports which came down with wounded or unwounded crews within their own lines.
So a guess without examination their actual losses for April which infact can be found in Kofl reports etc...is around 150 +- 50.
VBR
Gunnar

[leo]

Do you have any figures for Sept and October 1918?

Thank you for the reply.

leo

[Soderbaum]

Leo and Tobias
I have not chequed up if this information is the book "Bloody April.... Black September.
But if not here are the official German Army Air Service victories for this month:
The German claimed 773 e/a on West front and 15 on other fronts and 95 Ballons(all on West front).
637 e/a was shot down in Air combat on West front and 15 on other fronts. Of the victories in air combat on West front fell 356 within German Lines and 281 over enemy lines.
The Flak units claimed 125 e/a of these fell 94 e/a over German lines and 31 over enemy lines. But Grunow stated that 94 e/a fell over German lines and 32 over enemy lines(perhaps one reconfirmation)
11 more e/a were forced landing within German lines, all on West front.
Of the total fell 464 e/a within German lines, 461 of these on West front and 3 on other fronts.
So the total was 652 + 125 + 11 = Total = 788.

The German Naval Air Force claimed a further of 52
e/a this month, which included 13 by Naval Flak.
So the real total was 840 e/a + ballons.
As said before perhaps some reconfirmations should be added.
VBR
Gunnar