Jasta - History

History

Fighter aircraft in German service had initially been issued in small numbers to various ordinary Feldflieger-Abteilungen for escort duties. Such pioneering pilots as Kurt Wintgens, Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke pioneered the more aggressive use of the early Fokker Eindecker fighters, but there were no actual fighter units. By April 1916, the air superiority established by the Eindecker pilots had long evaporated, and a target was set to establish 37 new squadrons in the next 12 months - entirely equipped with single seat fighters, and manned by specially selected and trained pilots, to counter the fighter squadrons already successfully operated by the Royal Flying Corps and the French Aéronautique Militaire.

Boelcke, as the leading fighter pilot of the day, was called on to organise the manning, equipment and training, of the prototype for these new squadrons. This was Jasta 2 - the second of the first seven Jagdstaffeln to be established (on paper). Initially Jasta 2 was equipped with a motley collection of fighters, including the various early Fokker and Halberstadt "D" types. In September Jasta 2 began to receive the first of the superior Albatros fighters that would enable the German fighter squadrons to re-establish German air superiority in the following year. Boelcke himself was killed in an air collision on October 28 - but his tactics, especially formation flying and a combination of aggressiveness and prudence known as the Dicta Boelcke, remained the core of Jagdstaffel practice throughout the Luftstreitkräfte's fighter arm for the rest of the war. Several of the pilots of Jasta 2, trained by Boelcke, became noted fighter leaders in their own right - most notably, of course, Manfred von Richthofen.

By April 1917 the 37 jastas projected a year before were in service, and had established German air superiority on the Western Front - in fact April 1917 (known ever since as Bloody April) is still regarded as the most disastrous period in the history of British military aviation. This ascendency was not to last, as new allied fighters (most famously, the S.E.5a, the Sopwith Camel, and the SPAD S.XIII) were already starting to come into service, all of which more than matched the last of the Albatros fighters to see squadron service - the disappointing D.V/D.Va.

By this time, if not earlier, employment of the jagdstaffeln had become concentrated on the task of hindering the work of the Allied two-seater Corps, reconnaissance and bombing squadrons over the front itself, and German held territory. Offensive incursions by fighters any distance behind Allied lines were generally avoided, as risking a war of attrition that Germany was unlikely to win.

Publicity surrounding the successful pilots of the jagdstaffeln rapidly established their status as elite units, and the various squadrons became associated with the different kingdoms of the German Empire. Most Jastas (eventually about 67 of them) were considered to be specifically Prussian; however other jastas were associated with the kingdoms of Bavaria, Saxony, and Wuerttemberg. The Bavarian units in particular were associated for organisational and supply purposes with the (theoretically independent) Bavarian army, which did not add to overall efficiency in these departments.

In order to obtain a local and temporary air superiority larger fighter units were established, composed of several Jastas - and called jagdgeschwader and jagdgruppen. These units were moved from one section of the front to another, as the tactical situation demanded. The most famous of these units was Jagdgeschwader 1 - composed of Jastas 4, 6, 10 and 11, and commanded until his death by Richthofen.

By March 1918 there were 80 Jagdstaffeln in the Luftstreitkräfte - most of them still entirely or partially equipped with Albatros D.Vs. Shortly after this, long overdue re-equipment with new types, most notably the Fokker D.VII, began - which for the first time since mid 1917 gave the Jastas equipment that matched their opponents'.