The Story of the Great War, Volume 5: Battle of Jutland Bank; Russian Offensive; Kut-El-Amara; East Africa; Verdun; The Great Somme Drive; United States and Belligerents; Summary of Two Years' War
History
The Story of the Great War, Volume 5: Battle of Jutland Bank; Russian Offensive; Kut-El-Amara; East Africa; Verdun; The Great Somme Drive; United States and Belligerents; Summary of Two Years' War
World War, 1914-1918
To tabulate or chronicle accurately the losses and casualties suffered
by the various armies in their aerial warfare is absolutely
impossible. Not so much because of censorship or secrecy, but because
of the fact that when an aeroplane is "driven down" by the French
behind the German lines, it cannot be said that this aeroplane is
actually destroyed or even damaged, or that its pilot has received a
wound. Similarly when German machines attack and force a French or
British machine to descend swiftly behind its own lines. The reporting
of machines "driven down" among those "destroyed" is the cause of all
the discrepancies between the official reports of the contending
forces.
The following figures have been gathered with the greatest care from
the British "Roll of Honor," covering the killed, missing and wounded
members of the Royal British Flying Corps. They are for the month of
February, 1916, a month of comparative quiet, and there can be no
doubt that proportionately larger casualty lists could be compiled
from the more active months of the summer of 1916. The first week of
February resulted in nine officers killed, one wounded, and five
"missing"; two noncommissioned officers were also reported "missing."
The second week six officers were killed, two wounded, while one
noncommissioned officer was killed and another wounded. During the
third week three flight lieutenants were killed, five wounded, and two
captured by the enemy, while eight noncommissioned officers were
wounded. In the last week of the month there were three officers
killed, five wounded, and six "missing," while three noncommissioned
men were listed as killed. The total losses for the month on the short
battle line held by the British forces were therefore: twenty-one
officers killed, thirteen wounded, and thirteen missing; fifteen
noncommissioned officers killed or wounded. The losses among German
aviators, taken from the regularly published casualty lists issued by
the German Government, were twenty-four killed, and eleven wounded,
during the month of January.
The casualty lists become a deep mystery when compared with the losses
of machines admitted by the respective war departments. During the
month of February, for instance, the British announced the loss of
_six_ aeroplanes--yet the casualty lists showed a loss of sixty-two
officers and men! During the same month the French lost six machines,
the Germans eight, the Russians three, Austria one, and Italy one.
Statistics for the four months from April to July, 1916, gathered from
the periodical press of Great Britain and Germany, and probably far
more accurate than the occasional "estimates" made by the war
departments themselves, show the following losses in officers killed
in aerial combats:
_April_--British 18, French 15, Russian 7, Italian 3; German 16,
Austrian 3, Turkish 1, Bulgarian 0.
_May_--British 16, French 11, Russian 5, Italian 4; German 10,
Austrian 5, Turkish 0, Bulgarian 0.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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