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Bloody April refers to April 1917, and is the name given to the (largely successful) British air support operations during the Battle of Arras,〔Hart (2005) pp. 11–13〕 during which particularly heavy casualties were suffered by the Royal Flying Corps at the hands of the German Luftstreitkräfte. The tactical, technological and training differences between the two sides ensured the British suffered a casualty rate nearly four times as great as their opponents. The losses were so disastrous that it threatened to undermine the morale of entire squadrons.〔Hart (2005) pp. 326–327.〕 Nevertheless, the RFC contributed to the success, limited as it finally proved, of the British Army during the five-week campaign. ==Background== In April 1917 the British Army began an offensive at Arras, planned in conjunction with the French High Command, who were simultaneously embarking on a massive attack (the ''Nivelle Offensive'') about eighty kilometres to the south. The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) supported British operations by offering close air support, aerial reconnaissance and strategic bombing of German targets. The RFC's commanding officer, Hugh Trenchard believed in the offensive use of air power and pushed for operations over German-controlled territory. It was expected the large numbers of aircraft assembled over the frontlines in the spring of 1917 would fulfil this purpose. However, the aircraft were, for the most part, inferior to German fighter aircraft. Crucially, British pilot training was not only poorly organised and inconsistent, it had to be drastically abbreviated in order to keep squadrons suffering heavy casualties up to strength. This was self-perpetuating, as it resulted in most new pilots lacking sufficient practical flight experience before reaching the war zone. German pilot training was, at that time, more thorough and less hurried than the British programmes. After the heavy losses and failures against the French over Verdun in 1916, and against the British at the Somme they had reorganised their air forces into the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' by October 1916, which now included specialised fighter units.〔Gray and Thetford (1962) pp.xxviii-xxx〕 These units were led by highly experienced pilots, some of them survivors of the Fokker Scourge period.〔Mackersey (2012) pp.126–130〕 and had been working up with the first mass-produced twin-gunned German fighters, the Albatros D.I and D.II, comprising a total of nearly 350 aircraft between the two types. Paradoxically, the one sided nature of the casualty lists during "Bloody April" was partly a result of German numerical inferiority. The German air forces mostly confined themselves to operating over friendly territory, thus reducing the possibility of losing pilots to capture and increasing the amount of time they could stay in the air. Moreover, they could choose when and how to engage in combat.〔Shores (1991) p.14〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bloody April」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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