1916(3) OFF MOD v.1

New mission files. In late August the German air service is reorganised and the small scout sections are brought together into the first Jasta units. Boelcke returns, having recruited more pilots to form a new crop of fighter pilots, amongst them Manfred von Richthofen, and new scout types start to arrive at the front (starting with Halberstadts in the last weeks of August). This leads to a more aggressive attitude from September onwards, with flight or Jasta strength patrols starting to contest Allied domination of the sky over the battlefield. The British are still patrolling aggressively, despite the now inferior machines, with a policy of deep offensive patrols, long recon., and now frequent bombing missions to strategic railway junctions, airfields, and lines of communication. The photographing and detailed mapping of opposing trench systems also continues, with art.obs. and photorecon. by both sides. The German air service continues to send their solo photorecon. missions far into Allied airspace, but they need to fly ever higher as Allied flak becomes more effective, with the switch from Shrapnel to HE shells and development of better targetting doctrine and technology. By the end of the year the stage is now set for 'Bloody April' 1917, with the Allies struggling to push the German scouts back from their Front sectors where increasingly vulnerable Allied art.obs. and photorecon. machines are going about the daily task of registering the artillery, counterbattery, and photography...