[Sailor Steve]

December 31, 1916

Air War:
At this time home air defence in Britain involve 12,000 officers and men manning anti-aircraft guns and 2,200 officers and men operating 110 aircraft in 12 RFC squadrons.

According to Idflieg's bi-monthly report the German Air Service has the following fighters operating at the front:

Albatros:
D.I----39
D.II--214
D.III--13

Fokker:
D.I-----4
D.II---68
D.III--34
D.IV----2
E-II-----1
E.III---11
E.IV-----2

Halberstadt:
D.II----55
D.III---17
D.V----32

LFG Roland:
D.I------7

Pfalz:
E.I-------1

SSW:
E.I-------2

Supposedly all Fokker aircraft were grounded at the beginning of December, but those numbers are still reported as front-line aircraft, and one or two pilots are still claiming kills in them.

The precise date is unknown, but sometime in December French ace Marcel Viallet scored his 9th and last victory. He will survive the war and continue to serve in the military. While on service in Morocco Viallet contracted a disease and died on September 21, 1925, one month after his 38th birthday.



English Channel:
Claus Lafrenz, commanding UB-18, stops and scuttles 2 Norwegian freighters south of the Lizard:
SS Eva, 1,081 tons, bound from Swansea for Rouen with a load of coal.
SS Flora, 1,033 tons, carrying a load of coal from Swansea to Cantenay.
Lafrenz's score is now 24 ships and 22,384 tons.

British schooner Bayawanna, 1,121 tons, en route from Dartmouth to Plymouth, founders off Stoke Point.



North Sea:
British pilot boat Protector, 200 tons, hits a mine laid in the River Tyne by Otto von Schrader in UC-31. Von Scrader's score is now 9 ships and 6,026 tons.

Erwin Sebelin, in UC-43, captures Norwegian freighter SS Lupus, 539 tons, traveling from Øierhavn to Amsterdam with a load of pyrites. This is Sebelin's first attack.


Aegean Sea:
French naval trawler Venus, 281 tons, hits a mine laid of Milos by Johannes Kirchner in UC-23. His score is now 5 ships and 14,985 tons.