Aviation Elite Jagdstaffel 2 'Boelcke' Von Richthofen's Mentor Osprey Books

By August 1916, the German Air Service was fighting a losing struggle in the skies over the Battle of the Somme. Royal Flying Corps aircraft reigned almost supreme over the battlefront, and the vaunted Fokker monoplanes had been hounded from the air. In response, an entirely new type of fighting formation came into being - the Jagdstaffel, which was a unit designed solely as a fighting squadron. One of the first, and undoubtedly the most famous, was Jasta 2, formed and led by Germany's premiere fighter ace and aerial tactician, the legendary Oswald Boelcke. Although Boelcke would fall in October 1916, only two months after the unit's debut, the Jasta would bear his unique stamp forever after. Renamed Jasta Boelcke by Imperial Decree, the unit would carry its first commander's legacy through hard times to even more spectacular success in late 1918. Besides Boelcke himself, many of the greatest aces and commanders of the Luftstreitkrfte would gain experience and honour in its ranks, including Paul Bumer, Karl Bolle, Max von Mller, Werner Voss and Manfred von Richthofen. Jasta Boelcke finished the war with a record of 336 victories, second only to Richthofen's own Jasta 11 in terms of confirmed successes.