Bloody April Bloody April refers to April 1917 , and is the name given to the ( largely successful ) British air support operations during the Battle of Arras , 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 . 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 " , which now included specialised fighter units . These units were led by highly experienced pilots , some of them survivors of the Fokker Scourge period . 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 . The Battle . The Battle of Arras began on 9 April 1917 . The Allies launched a joint ground offensive , with the British attacking near Arras in Artois , northern France , while the French offensive was launched on the Aisne . In support of the British army , the RFC deployed 25 squadrons , totalling 365 aircraft , about ⅓ of which were fighter s ( or " scouts " as they were called at the time ) . There were initially only five German " Jasta s " ( fighter squadrons ) in the region , but this rose to eight as the battle progressed ( some 80 or so operational fighter aircraft in total ) . Since late 1916 , the Germans had held the upper hand in the contest for air supremacy on the Western Front , with the twin - lMG 08 machine gun - armed Albatros D . II and D . III outclassing the fighters charged with protecting the vulnerable B . E . 2c , F . E . 2b and Sopwith 1½ Strutter two - seater reconnaissance and bomber machines . The allied fighter squadrons were equipped with obsolete " pushers " such as the Airco DH . 2 and F . E . 8 - and other outclassed types such as the Nieuport 17 and Sopwith Pup . Only the SPAD S . VII and Sopwith Triplane could compete on more or less equal terms with the Albatros ; but these were few in number and spread along the front . The new generation of Allied fighters were not yet ready for service , although No . 56 Squadron RFC with the S . E . 5 was working up to operational status in France . The Bristol F2A also made its debut with No . 48 Squadron during April , but lost heavily on its very first patrol , with four out of six shot down in an encounter with five Albatros D . IIIs of " Jasta 11 " , led by Manfred von Richthofen . The new R . E . 8 two - seaters , which were eventually to prove less vulnerable than the B . E . 2e , also suffered heavy casualties in their early sorties . During April 1917 , the British lost 245 aircraft , 211 aircrew killed or missing and 108 as prisoners of war . The German Air Services recorded the loss of 66 aircraft during the same period . As a comparison , in the five months of the Battle of the Somme of 1916 the RFC had suffered 576 casualties . Under Richthofen ' s leadership , " Jasta 11 " scored 89 victories during April , over a third of the British losses . In casualties suffered , the month marked the nadir of the RFC ' s fortunes . However , despite the losses inflicted , the German Air Service failed to stop the RFC carrying out its prime objectives . The RFC continued to support the army throughout the Arras offensive with up - to - date aerial photographs , reconnaissance information , effective contact patrolling during British advances and harassing bombing raids . In particular the artillery spotting aircraft rendered valuable reconnaissance to the British artillery , who were able to maintain their superiority throughout the battle . In spite of their ascendancy in air combat , the German fighter squadrons continued to be used defensively , flying for the most part behind their own lines . Thus the " Jastas " established " air superiority " , but certainly not the air supremacy sometimes claimed . Aftermath . Within a couple of months the new technologically advanced generation of fighter ( the SE . 5 , Sopwith Camel , and SPAD S . XIII ) had entered service in numbers and quickly gained ascendancy over the over - worked " Jastas " . As the British fighter squadrons became once more able to adequately protect the slower reconnaissance and artillery observation machines , RFC losses fell and German losses rose . The RFC learned from their mistakes , instituting new policies on the improvement of training and tactical organisation . By mid - 1917 better aircraft designs were reaching the front . By the late summer of 1917 the British achieved a greater measure of air superiority than they had held for almost a year . The casualties in the air campaigns through the remainder of the war were never so one sided again . In fact , this was essentially the last time that the Germans possessed real air superiority for the rest of the war — although the degree of allied dominance in the air certainly varied , the final all - out efforts of September 1918 causing even greater Allied losses .