Royal Bavarian Jagdstaffel 79, commonly abbreviated to Jasta 79, was a "hunting group" (i.e., fighter squadron) of the ''

Luftstreitkräfte The ''Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte'' (, German Air Combat Forces)known before October 1916 as (The Imperial German Air Service, lit. "The flying troops of the German Kaiser’s Reich")was the air arm of the Imperial German Army. In English-langu ...

'', the air arm of the

Imperial German Army The Imperial German Army (1871–1919), officially referred to as the German Army (), was the unified ground and air force of the German Empire. It was established in 1871 with the political unification of Germany under the leadership of Kingdom o ...

during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. The squadron would score over 28 aerial victories during the war, including three observation balloons downed. The unit's victories came at the expense of four killed in action, three killed in flying accidents, 13 wounded in action, two injured in aviation accidents, and three taken prisoner of war.

History

Jasta 79 was founded on 7 November 1917 at ''Fliegerersatz-Abteilung'' ("Replacement Detachment") 1,

Schleißheim Schleißheim is a municipality in the district Wels-Land in the Austrian state of Upper Austria Upper Austria ( ; ; ) is one of the nine States of Austria, states of Austria. Its capital is Linz. Upper Austria borders Germany and the Czech Rep ...

. It was activated on 28 January and posted to '' 3 Armee'' on 2 February 1918. The new squadron drew first blood on 22 March 1918. Also in March, they were reassigned to '' 18 Armee''; they would remain in support of this army until war's end.

Commanding officers (''
Staffelführer ''Staffelführer'' (, " Formation leader") was one of the first paramilitary ranks used by the German ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) in the early years of that group's existence. The later SS rank of ''Staffelführer'' traces its origins to the First ...
'')

* Franz Xaver Danhuber: 28 January 1918 - 11 February 1918 (Injured in crash) * Hans Böhning: 11 February 1918 - 22 September 1918 * Franz Xaver Danhuber: Early October 1918 - war's end

Duty stations

Thugny-Trugny Thugny-Trugny () is a commune in the Ardennes department in northern France. Population See also *Communes of the Ardennes department The following is a list of the 447 communes of the Ardennes department of France France, offi ...

, France: 2 February 1918 *

Villeselve Villeselve () is a commune in the Oise department in northern France. Population See also *Communes of the Oise department The following is a list of the 680 Communes of France, communes of the Oise Departments of France, department of Fr ...

, France: 25 March 1918 - 9 August 1918 *

Guise Guise ( , ; ) is a commune in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. The city was the birthplace of the noble family of Guise, Dukes of Guise, who later became Princes of Joinville. Population Sights The remains of t ...

West, France: 6 September 1918 - 8 October 1918 * Thuilles: 29 October 1918

Notable personnel

* Franz Xaver Danhuber * Hans Bohning * Roman Schneider

Aircraft

Jasta 79 was initially equipped with

Pfalz D.III The Pfalz D.III was a fighter aircraft used by the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' (Imperial German Air Service) during the First World War. The D.III was the first major original design from Pfalz Flugzeugwerke. Though generally considered inferior to co ...

fighters. They later re-equipped with

Fokker D.VII The Fokker D.VII is a German World War I fighter aircraft designed by Reinhold Platz of the '' Fokker-Flugzeugwerke''. Germany produced around 3,300 D.VII aircraft in the second half of 1918. In service with the ''Luftstreitkräfte'', the D.VII ...

s. It also operated one or more Pfalz D.XII fighters.

References