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.
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