Les unités aériennes allemandes en Alsace-Lorraine (1914-1918)

This book offers the reader a glimpse into the birth of this new weapon that is the air war. After a few stammerings during the 1870 war with the military use of observation balloons, the birth of aviation began to intrigue the military command before being structured and finding its place in support of ground troops during the 1914-1918 war. This is the 7th volume of the series of books that SPAL is devoting to the German units operating in Alsace-Lorraine during the First World War.

The study of postal franchise marks of the German air units based in Alsace-Lorraine sheds an original light on the development of military aviation. Initially limited to rare reconnaissance units (Flieger-Bataillon) depending on each of the armies present in our region, aviation diversified from 1915 onwards with various observation and aerial photography groups (FFA, AFA), fighter units (Jasta), protection and attack units (Kasta, Schusta) and finally bombing units (Bogohl, Bosta), not forgetting observation balloon units (Ballonzug). At the same time, anti-aircraft defense systems were developed and the famous Flak (Flugabwehrkanone) was born.

The book undertakes a systematic analysis of the structure of the German military aviation based in Alsace-Lorraine, and of the various units attached to it. This research is based on historical data and on the postal franchise marks of the units that were identified and located in our region. These units being very mobile, their precise location at a given date remains sometimes hypothetical or even unknown, which leaves this field of research open to future discoveries.

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