WAR

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The aeroplane he had destroyed was a B.E.2d of No. 13 Squadron RFC.
He had harried the machine down to tree-top height firing short bursts, and the
pilot, instead of surrendering and landing, had tried to make a run for it. Unfortunately,
he hadn't the air space to manoeuvre, since he was almost on the
ground and von Richthofen was right on top of him. It was over abruptly when
von Richthofen literally ran him into a wall in the ruins of the village of Farbus.
the terms escadrille and Jasta have been used throughout this text as if they
were synonymous with squadron. As basic units of organization they were identical
in function, but there was rarely a precise correspondence between the units
of the various nations. Most fighter squadrons had a strength of 15 to 18 machines
by definition, but the actual number of aeroplanes and pilots available at
any time varied considerably, even from day to day.
In the RFC, squadrons were grouped into Wings and Wings into Groups. A
squadron was commanded by a Major, a Wing by a Lieutenant Colonel, and a
Group by a full Colonel. In the French Armee de I'Air an escadrille might be
commanded by a Capitaine or a Commandant, the latter rank being the equivalent
of Major. A body of squadrons was a Groupe, comparable to a British Wing.
Usage in the U. S. Air Service was similar to that of the RFC, except that a
unification of squadrons was a Group rather than a Wing.
In the Luftstreitkrdjte from June 1917, Jastas 4, 6, 10 and 11 were permanently
amalgamated as an autonomous body called a Geschwader and placed
under the command of Rittmeister von Richthofen. As a naval term Geschwader
means squadron, but in the German air service it meant the equivalent of a Wing
in the RFC, and was further qualified by Jagd—for "hunting." The von Richthofen
Jagdgeschwader was J.G. 1 since it was the first of its kind; others were soon
formed: J.G. 2 under von Tutschek; J.G. 3 under Bruno Loerzer; J.G. 4 (Bavarian)
under Eduard Ritter von Schleich. These large combinations were shifted
en masse by rail up and down the Front according to needs arising from the
tactical situation. Because whole trains were required to move a Geschwader and
because the aeroplanes were painted in lively colors, the Geschwaders came to be
known collectively as
"Circuses."
Circus wagon.
An Albatros D III
of Jasta 1 1
from the spring of 1917, Russia was more and more out of the war. All this
meant to the Allies at the time was that Germany would be correspondingly
stronger in the West.
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