page_title: Fokker Scourge
section_title: Service début
hierarchical_section_title: Fokker Scourge / Operational service / Service début
caption_attribution_description: English: Otto Parschau's Fokker M.5K/MG Eindecker prototype, E.1/15, the very first Fokker Eindecker ever produced, with lowered wing position modification
context_page_description: The Fokker Scourge occurred during the First World War from August 1915 to early 1916, when the Imperial German Flying Corps, equipped with Fokker Eindecker fighters, gained an advantage over the Royal Flying Corps and the French Aéronautique Militaire.
  The Fokker was the first service aircraft to be fitted with a machine gun synchronised to fire through the arc of the propeller without striking the blades. The tactical advantage of aiming the gun by aiming the aircraft and the surprise of its introduction were factors in its success.
  This period of German air superiority ended with the arrival in numbers of the French Nieuport 11 and British Airco DH.2 fighters, which were capable of challenging the Fokkers, although the last Fokkers were not finally replaced until August–September 1916.
  The term "Fokker Scourge" was coined by the British press in mid-1916, after the Eindeckers had been outclassed by the new Allied types. Use of the term coincided with a political campaign to end a perceived dominance of the Royal Aircraft Factory in the supply of aircraft to the Royal Flying Corps, a campaign that was begun by the pioneering aviation journalist C. G.
context_section_description: Fokker Eindecker E.5/15, the last of the pre-production series, is believed to have been first flown in action by Kurt Wintgens of FFA 6. On 1 and 4 July 1915, he reported combats with French Morane-Saulnier L (Parasols), each time well over the French lines. These victories were never confirmed, although later research has shown that the first claim matches French records of a Morane forced down on 1 July near Lunéville with a wounded crew and a damaged engine, followed three days later by another. By 15 July, Wintgens had moved to FFA 48 and scored his first recognised victory, another Morane L. Parschau had received the new E.1/15, which became the prototype for the Fokker Eindecker line of aircraft, when it was returned to the Fokker Flugzeugbau factory in Schwerin–Gorries, for development.
  By the end of July 1915, about fifteen Eindeckers were operational with various units, including the five M.5K/MGs and about ten early production E.I airframes. At first, the pilots flew the new aircraft as a sideline, when not flying normal operations in two-seater reconnaissance aircraft. Boelcke, in FFA 62, scored his first victory in an Albatros C.I on 4 July. M.5K/MG prototype airframe E.3/15, the first Eindecker delivered to FFA 62, was armed with a Parabellum MG14 gun, synchronised by the troublesome first version of the Fokker gear. At first, E.3/15 was jointly allocated to him and Immelmann when their "official" duties permitted, allowing them to master the type's difficult handling characteristics and to practice shooting at ground targets. Immelmann was soon allocated a very early production Fokker E.I, E.13/15, one of the first armed with an lMG 08 Spandau machine gun, using the more reliable production version of the Fokker gear.
caption: Otto Parschau's second Eindecker, E.1/15, with experimental "mid-wing" modification which became standard on production E.Is
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