Fokker Scourge - Aftermath

Aftermath

Like the Fokker scourge, the period of Allied air superiority which followed it was brief. By August 1916 the fighters in the Luftstreitkräfte had been grouped into specialist fighter squadrons, the Jagdstaffeln, and these units were receiving the first of the new Albatros fighters. These were once more able to turn the tables, and by the spring of 1917 were causing very high casualties in the R.F.C. — culminating in "Bloody April" of 1917.

In the following two years Allied Air Forces became overwhelming in both quality and quantity, and the German forces were only able to maintain limited control over a small area of the front at any time. When even this strategy seemed threatened, they started a crash programme to develop a new aircraft. The result was the famous Fokker D.VII, leading to a short but notable second "Fokker Scourge" in the summer of 1918. The Fokker D.VII was so effective that Germany was required to surrender all of them to the victorious allies as a condition of the Armistice of Compiègne.