How many German airplanes at the start of the war?

[CNE503]

Hello,

Does anyone know how many aircrafts were available in the German army (not navy) just prior to the mobilization?
I found that there were five peacetime Flieger-Abteilungen (one of them being bavarian, the others prussians) but it is unclear how many planes did they possess at this time.

An average figure seems to be: 270 Zweidecker (Aviatik B, Albatros B, LVG B.I and Rumpler B.I) and 180 Eindecker ("Taube" and Pfalz A). What do you think of it?

I also found that there were only thirteen available balloons in the Kaiserliche Heer (not navy) early August 1914:
- nine Zeppelin-type: Luftschiffe Zeppelin LZ-11 "Victoria Luise", LZ-13 "Hansa", LZ-16 Z-IV, LZ-17 "Sachsen", LZ-20 Z-V, LZ-21 Z-VI, LZ-22 Z-VII, LZ-23 Z-VIII et LZ-25 Z-IX;
- one Schütte-Lanz-type: Luftschiff Schütte-Lanz SL-II;
- three Parseval-type: Luftschiffe Parseval Ersatz P.II, P.III et P.IV.
But I may have missed the Gross-Basenach dirigibles.

Do you agree?

Thank you!
Cheers,

CNE503

[MBowden23]

Upon mobilization, the army had a strength of 450 “on paper”. 295 of which were actually capable of serving at the front.

Remember, many of these weren’t really capable of service under wartime conditions. This is why the number of aircraft at the front dropped to 218 by the end of August (most losses were due to things such as engine failure)

[CNE503]

Thank you for your answer. So the figure of 450 airplanes is accurate.
Do you know how many planes a peacetime Flieger-Abteilung (or at least a company in such an Abteilung) possess?

Have you something about the dirigibles?

Cheers,

CNE503

[Volker_Nemsch]

.
After mobilisation in August 1914 there were 33 FFA (Feldflieger Abteilungen), each equipped with 6 aircraft, altogether 198 aircraft in theory.

Furthermore there were 8 fortress flying units (Festungsflieger Abteilungen) plus additional aircraft in 8 aircraft parks (Etappen Flugzeugparks). And there also was a need of aircraft - especially 2-seaters - in the various German flying schools.

As you can see, there was indeed a lack of "modern and robust" aircraft and we can assume that not all above mentioned units were fully equipped.

.

[CNE503]

Thank you Volker.
How many planes were accounted in a Festungsflieger-Abteilung? Six?
And concerning Etappen-Flugzeugpark, do you know how many aircrafts did it keep in store?

Thanks again!
Cheers

CNE503

[Volker_Nemsch]

.
... sure, but the strength of a Festungsfliegerabteilung must have been four (maybe also six if available?) aircraft in August 1914.

But things changed rather quickly. In October 1914 there was an order that the strenght had to be increased to six aircraft and these units were also converted to Feldflieger Abteilungen.

.

[MBowden23]

the strength of the air-parks upon mobilization was 2 a/c.

[CNE503]

That's great, gentlemen, thank you.
So if I'm not mistaking, there were theoretically 198 aircrafts in the Feldflieger-Abteilungen, 32 in the Festungs-Flieger-Abteilungen and 16 in the Etappen-Flugzeugparks, total 246 in the frontline or "Etappen" units.

Maybe roughly a third of this figure should have been used in Germany itself for training or maintenance, don't you think?

CNE503

[MBowden23]

Don't forget the FEA as well (Fliegerersatz-Abteilung) which would likely bring the number of "active" aircraft closer to the number of 295 that I cited.

Like I mentioned earlier, a number of these aircraft weren't really capable of service at the front. This combined with regular wastage from the opening campaigns as well as an extremely inefficient system of aircraft production caused many FFAs to operate well below full strength throughout the final months of 1914 and into 1915.

[CNE503]

Hello Matt,

Can you be more specific concerning these Flieger-Ersatz-Abteilungen? I'm well aware of the "Ersatz" system in the German army, but about ground force consideration and not air force. How many of them did exist early August 1914? And how many aircrafts did they theoretically possessed at this time?

Thank you!
Cheers,

CNE503