Russ and Old Man,
Thank you for the very informative and clear posts. I always look forward to them.
The impression that I'm getting is that by late 1917 many flight leaders in the RFC were realizing that attack at all costs was not productive. A realization attributed to Sholto Douglas by author Ralph Barker, was that more British losses occurred while attacking than defending, because during an attack, flight support was lost due to individual pursuit of targets. Men like Mannock and McCudden stressed the importance of seeking the advantage before attacking, and that it was ok to live to fight another day. Also that the initiative to attack must lie with the flight leader. This was what the Jastas had been doing for some time, but I feel that the Jastas took casualty avoidance too far. Of course the Germans had men like Lother R and
Werner Voss who were aggressive to a fault, as did the British.