Frontbestand and German Aircraft Distributions

[ReducedAirFact]

The Frontbestand, or effective frontline strength, numbers were a set of statistics compiled at the end of every two months of WWI (except for the very end, for which I haven't seen data). The numbers were originally compiled by Hoff, and they passed into the Weyl collection and subsequently into Peter Grosz's hands. They were published in two issues of WWI Aero (#107 and #108, Dec 1985 and Feb 1986), which are available as reprints from ww1aeroinc.org. I would be interested in hearing if they've been published elsewhere as well.

The numbers aren't perfect -- there are some obvious small errors where a type shows up significantly before it became available or numerical inconsistencies, but most of those can be written off as typos or transcription errors. They do represent units at (or near) one of the fronts. Home-area training aircraft are not included, but it does include some aircraft used as "hacks" (aerial taxis), those in aircraft parks, spares, etc. There were also problems with misclassification, e.g. many A.E.G. N.I's were classified as their sibling C.IVs.

Despite these small caveats, the data are hugely interesting and useful. What it does show is the rise and fall of various types through the months and the dominance of certain types (e.g. the DFW C.V).

I wouldn't feel comfortable reproducing Mr. Grosz's charts verbatim here, but I do not mind summarizing the data in ways that give us new insights and tools. One such tool is a chart that shows which types were in use for each two-month pulse in percentages, with a d100 rolling chart to closely match those percentages. I've put together such a chart, based on the raw Frontbestand data, for German A, B, C, CL and lichtbildflugzeug (high-altitude photo planes), with percentage rolls for each type whose total was at least 2% of the overall aircraft count for that month. Leaving off the 1%'ers means the charts cover 89-97% of the aircraft in use without getting bogged down with the ultra-rare aircraft.

Here are the links to the full PDF charts from the Files section:

• Type A, B, and C (general two-seaters)
• Types A, B, C, CL, J, and N (all two-seaters)
• Types CL and J (ground-attack)
• Types D, Dr, and E (fighters)
• Type G (multi-engine bombers)

A typical two-months data looks like this:

31-Dec-17
01-42	DFW C.V	38%
43-64	LVG C.V	20%
65-74	Rumpler C.IV	9%
75-83	Halberstadt CL.II	8%
84-91	Hannover CL.II	7%
92-94	AEG C.IV	3%
95-97	Albatros C.XII	3%
98-100	Rumpler Rubild	3%

The percentage number shows the "true" percent of aircraft of that type in use, the percent-roll numbers are slightly and uniformly increased to give a 1-100 roll. For gaming purposes, if you're trying to put together a scenario, you might roll on the appropriate chart for the scenario date until you come up with a choice that matches miniatures you have available.

[Teaticket]

This is great information Daryl. It will be interesting to follow the surges of usage for the plane varieties through the war. I look forward to seeing more of this...or I can just get the reprints!

[zenlizard]

OOooooh, good one!

[ReducedAirFact]

While waiting for the files to get approved, I decided to take a different look at the data. This chart shows the percentages (not total numbers) of each fighter (D, Dr, and E class) at the front with two months between each measurement (Frontbestand data). To reduce the noise at the low end, I left off planes that never amounted to 8% or greater of a two-month's total, and I chopped off the Fokker E.I curve for the first two measurements for better scaling.

Observations:

• It's interesting to see the dominant fighter cycle along, usually with some support from Pfalz's, Halberstadts, or Rolands.
• The October 1916 data is especially interesting -- you see a lot of various planes in the period between the Eindeckers and the Albatros fighters.
• The Roland D.II's were more significant than I expected.
• The grey Albatros D.III curve has a long tail, with many serving well into 1918.
• Too bad we don't have data for the October 1918 numbers. I'd expect to see the Fokker D.VII continue its dominance, but you'd see some new planes on the scene like the SSW D.III & IV, Junkers D.I, etc.

[Teaticket]

Very interesting. Thanks for graphing this out.

[gully_raker]

What a fantastic chart Daryl!
Worthy of Rep.

[Doug]

Thanks for that. Doug

[ReducedAirFact]

Lets's look at A, B, and C-class aircraft now. Again, there's a dominant type that cycles along, led by the Albatros, but there are a lot more planes in the 5-25% range too, leading to more variety (Rumplers, Aviatiks, LVGs). The dominance of the DFW C.V stands out in the latter years. Again, the lines show percentages of planes at the front for each type, not raw counts of planes.

[Flying Helmut]

Absolutely fantastic data, Daryl!

Have some REP, old boy!

[Mike George]

This is nice work and would be good to cover the enter War. A chart per month or per three months. Very nice work.

[Carl_Brisgamer]

Thanks for the work you have put in on this one Daryl.

What are the % values for each gradient on the Y axis?

[ReducedAirFact]

Thanks for the work you have put in on this one Daryl.
What are the % values for each gradient on the Y axis?

Each y-axis line is 10% of the total planes (of those types) at the front. So you can see that at their peak, the DFW C.V were over half of the C-planes available. Further into 1918, their percentage tails off, both because of an absolute drop in numbers but also because other types start to increase, such as the late-model LVGs and Rumplers.
(By the way, I didn't include CL-types because I'm working on another chart with the ground-attack-loving CL's and J's.)

[ReducedAirFact]

The charts based on Frontbestand data are up and available now! I've added links on the original posting.

[john snelling]

Great work!