September 1918

[Stephen Nulty]

I notice from the List of Officers taken prisoner in the Great War that in September 1918, there were some 220 officers of the RAF taken prisoner. This seems to be by far the highest number throughout the short lifetime of the service.

Are there any obvious reasons for this high number?

[scottmarchand]

I think it can be attributed to the change in the nature of war operations in generalin september 1918. That was smack in the middle of the last '100 days' of the allied war ending offensive. The standard fairly routine activities on a static front of the previous 3 years had ceased. The ground armies we're steadily advancing and the RAF was being used much more directly at low level as forward ground support for the advance. A lot of strafing, bombing and in particular there was a lot of interdiction behind the german lines, bomobing and strafing to interupt communications, troop movements etc. Low work is dangerous, but the sort of damage that might occur from ground fire, etc. would make it more probable a pilot could force land and ultimately be captured. In general before this the work of the RFC had been reconnaissance and offensive patrols over a very static front. Often damaged aircraft were glided back over the lines as operations were at higher altitudes and crews went back to work versus becming prisoners, also serious damage or fire at higher altitude typically resulted in fatalities. Low level work i.e. under 1000 feet was less common.

[Stephen Nulty]

Cheers Scott, much appreciated

[Jim_Grundy]

Look up the book, "Bloody April, Black September" by Norman Franks, Frank W. Bailey & Russell Guest. It details the casualties of the two costliest months for the RFC/RAF during the Great War, April 1917 and, the one your interested in, September 1918.

It's out of print now but you should be able to find it for around £20 on www.bookfinder.com.