Eastern Front 1917

[Boggler]

I'm trying to find out the principal German types used on the Eastern Front in early to mid 1917. So far I've struggled to come up with anything definite apart from the Roland DII.

Would someone be kind enough to give me an idea of the most common German aircraft that appeared on the Eastern Front during 1917 including scouts and two seater reconnaissance machines?

Was it common practice for obsolete aircraft to be reassigned to units on the Eastern Front after service in the West or was it usual for specific types deployed directly to the East from the maufacturer, perhaps due to lower performance than other contemporary aircraft?

Did Albatros DII's and DIII's or Roland CII's serve on the Eastern Front at all?

Thanks

[Epee]

Roland CII's certainly did. I can't say for sure about the others.

[rammjaeger]

Correct answers to your questions would require the availability of comprehensive numbers of used airplane types at the Eastern front for data like 1 March 1917, 1 June 1917 and others.

I don´t know if a) anybody has these numbers and b) is willing to share the data with you. Nevertheless you can assume that typical German working horses of the Western front from 1916 and early 1917 were also used in the East. For example you can not go wrong with the mass-produced DFW C.V and contemporary types of the big enterprises like LVG, Albatros etc.

In fact is seems it was not uncommon to reassign obsolete aircraft to units on the Eastern Fronts (not only the Russian front) after service in the West or to send types with weaker performance to lesser important fronts but a more qualified answer would require reliable statistics of all fronts again.

As well it seems the number of German fighters in the East was always very very low and often obsolete models were still in use there - but you knew that already.

[Cigogne]

Yes, both the Albatros D.II and D.III did as well as the Roland D.II and D.IIa (but later than they did on the Western Front). Over The Front showed some nice shots of an Albatros D.III (OAW) at FA 218 in latter part of 1917 in last Fall's issue, I believe. Primary types to see service there were:

1916-mid 1917: Albatros B.I, B.II, C.I, Albatros C.III, Aviatik C.I, and some miscellaneous types. Fokker A.I-II, E.I, II, III, M.8-10, Pfalz E.I, E.II, A.I. Halberstadt B.I-II, Rumpler G.I, LFG Roland C.II, D.II, D.IIa. SSW R-type bombers, VGO Staaken bomber/RML 1,

1917 onwards: Albatros D.II, D.III (OAW), C.VI, C.VII, C.X, C.XII. LVG C.V, DFW C.V. Maybe Fokker D.II, but not certain here. They did fly on the Macedonian front w/ Jasta 25 before arrival of the Roland D.II/IIa. Also, the Halberstadt D.II-V served also on this front.

More detail can be given by others, but this is what I have seen in documented photographs.