Fighter Units Developed

The first two Ehrenbechers had been presented at Christmas 1915 to the leading fighter aces of the time, Oberleutnant Max Immelmann and Oberleutnant Oswald Boelcke. The latter was the most prominent of the many German flyers sent to the Verdun Sector in early 1916. Boelcke, who arrived in the area in February,³³ had nine confirmed aerial victories to his credit and now flew the nimble little Fokker Eindecker [monoplane] that Göring and Loerzer had greatly admired. Boelcke was assigned to Artillerie-Flieger-Abteilung 203, abbreviated FAA 203, an artillery-spotting unit formed on 6 August 1915 and specifically furnished with two single-seat Fokker fighters for protection. He was charged with coordinating FAA 203’s Fokkers with pairs of Fokkers from other Flieger-Abteilungen to form, as needed, multi-aeroplane fighter groupings that would evolve into Jagdstaffeln [fighter squadrons].