Fokker scourge

The Fokker Scourge (also sometimes called the Fokker Scare) began in the summer of 1915, during the First World War, when German Fokker E.I fighters with synchronised machine-guns, came into service over the Western Front. The Imperial German Flying Corps (Die Fliegertruppen) obtained a measure of air superiority against Allied aircraft less suitable for air fighting. Significant as the technical advantage of the new fighter was, the psychological effect of its unheralded introduction was also a major factor.

The period is usually considered to have begun in August 1915 and ended in early 1916, with the arrival in numbers of the French Nieuport 11 and British DH.2 fighters; less accurately, it is sometimes extended to the whole period of service of the Fokker monoplanes on the Western Front – from the arrival of the first two Fokker E.I fighters at FFA 62 in June 1915, until the last Eindekkers in the early German fighter units were replaced from August–September 1916.

The term "Fokker Scourge" was coined in retrospect by the British press in mid-1916, after the Eindekkers had been outclassed by the new Allied types. This was not unconnected with the political campaign launched by (among others) the pioneering aviation journalist C. G. Grey and Noel Pemberton Billing M.P., the founder of the Supermarine company and a great enthusiast of aerial warfare, the object of which was to end a perceived dominance of the Royal Aircraft Factory in the supply of aircraft to the Royal Flying Corps.

In early 1915, the Allies (especially the French) were leading the Germans in the fitting of machine guns to aircraft, as aerial warfare developed. The first aircraft used with some success as fighters included the British Vickers F.B.5 (Vickers Gunbus) and the French Morane-Saulnier L. The number of aircraft in front line service was small and the development of air fighting was rudimentary but the German High Command had ordered the development of machine-gun armed aircraft to counter those of the Allies, including the aggressive employment of the new armed two-seaters (the "C" types) and "fighter" uses for twin-engined aircraft such as the AEG G.II.

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