German and Allied balloon losses

[rammjaeger]

Originally Posted by agblume

Does anyone have any data on the number of German (and/or Austro-Hungarian) balloon losses there were on the Russian, Romanian, Sebianor Italian fronts? i have a number of Russian and Romanian claims by air and ground fire, but have been unable to verify any of them."

Kogenluft´s monthly reports make only a difference between Western front and all "Eastern fronts" - not helpful for your purpose. As well the monthly loss numbers for 1917 make no sense at all.

Originally Posted by agblume

do the numbers listed in the previous threads include German balloon losses by ground fire?"

Ground fire should be rather the exception for balloon losses. IMHO losses by ground fire were counted in general as "artillery" in Neumann´s book but can not prove that. German victories against airplanes because of ground fire were not seldom also labelled as "Flak", so it seems to make sense.
German papers showed pictures of MG and called it Flak or Kanonen too.

Originally Posted by agblume

"...another question arises, the Germans admit 546 losses by enemy air and artillery (??? all fronts), and the Allies on Western Front claimed between 720 and 740, that leaves a difference of between 174 and 194 balloons."

The above mentioned German number includes NOT the Bavarian losses until mid-1917 (and possibly not losses of the navy´s balloon sections). As well I see not the difference of 174 to 194 because there were another 505 balloons written-off because of "Schußverletzung [SIC!] und sonstige Beschädigungen". So the "admitted losses" in Neumann´s book are in fact a lot bigger than 546. Sadly, it seems NOT possible to match these losses to Entente claims because we do not know the "distribution" (data, location tec.) of these losses.

That is all for the start. I think some people can add some more details.

VBR
Rammjaeger

[agblume]

Hello Rammjaeger, thank you for the feedback. and thank you for
reminding me that i had quite forgotten the Bavarians had their own
balloon companies, some of which may have served in the East.
at some point when i have time i will try to make totals of what
i've learned about Russian and Romanian balloon claims. sadly i
have no verifications. cheers, august