CASUALTY RATES FOR THE RFC, JANUARY TO MAY 1917

[usmc1855]

There was a previous discussion on length of training time, and life expectancy, but I can't find that thread now.

According to figures collated by Trevor Henshaw in his book The Sky Their Battlefield, for 1917 the RFC suffered a total of 7 casualties (24 killed in action) during January; 96 casualties (52 KIA) in February; 188 casualties (92 KIA) in March; a devastating 421 casualties (207 KIA) during April and 262 casualties (98 KIA) in May. For March; this represents just 101 hours of flying time for every death, which fell even further to 92 hours in April at the height of teh air battle.

Overall, between January and the end of May the RFC lost some 708 aircraft of which an incredible 275 fell in April.

Most of these losses were obsolescent models of aircraft.

In the period January to May the RFC lost:

151 assorted BE2s
168 FE2bs & FE2ds
64 Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutters
37 RE8s (as they began to replace the BE2s)

Total RFC casualties for the RFC during these five months: 1,014 (473 KIA; 317 WIA; 224 POWs).

This scale of losses would not be surpassed until the final three month of the war.

[flash]

I was staggered by these stats Brian, until I thought of the losses sustained on the ground which, as you know, could be tens of thousands in a day. A frightening thought, however, whilst running the numbers through my tiny fragile mind I extrapolated a time scale - if you take it that a pilot flew an average of five hours a day (and I'm not saying that's correct) which would roughly equate to two sorties a day using full tanks of fuel then your 101 hours flying time would be about 20 days or, in other words, nearly three weeks. That ain't long to collect a gong.