Editing Fokker Scourge (section)

===End of the {{lang|de|Eindecker}}===

[[File:HalberstadtDII.jpg|thumb|Halberstadt D.II, said to be one of Boelcke's aircraft]]
The effect of the new Allied types, especially the Nieuport, was of considerable concern to the Fokker pilots; some even took to flying captured examples.<ref>Van Wyngarden 2006, p. 51.</ref> {{lang|de|Idflieg}} was sufficiently desperate to order German firms to build Nieuport copies, of which the [[Euler D.I]] and the [[Siemens-Schuckert D.I]] were built in small numbers.<ref>Van Wyngarden 2006, p. 64.</ref><ref>Cheesman 1960, p. 166.</ref> New D type single-seat, biplane fighters, particularly the [[Fokker D.II]] and [[Halberstadt D.II]], had been under test since late 1915 and the replacement of the monoplanes with these types began by mid-1916.<ref name="Grosz 1996, p. 5">Grosz 1996, p. 5.</ref>

In February 1916, {{lang|de|Inspektor-Major}} Friedrich Stempel began to assemble {{lang|de|Kampfeinsitzer Kommando}} (KEK, single-seat battle units). The KEK were units mostly of two to four fighters, equipped with {{lang|de|Eindeckers}} and other types which had served with FFA units during the winter of 1915–1916. By July 1916, KEK had been formed at [[Vaux-en-Vermandois|Vaux]], [[Avillers-Sainte-Croix|Avillers]], [[Jametz]] and [[Cunel]] near Verdun as well as other places on the Western Front, as {{lang|de|Luftwachtdienst}} (aerial guard service) units, consisting only of fighters.<ref>Guttman, 2009, p. 9</ref> In late May, German air activity on the British front decreased markedly, while the commander of the new {{lang|de|Luftstreitkräfte}}, {{lang|de|Oberst}} (Colonel) [[Hermann von der Lieth-Thomsen]], reorganised the German air service.<ref>Gray & Thetford 1962 p. xxix</ref> The fighters of the KEK were concentrated into fighter squadrons ({{lang|de|[[Jagdstaffeln]]}}) the first of which, [[Jagdstaffel 2|''Jagdstaffel'' 2]] ({{lang|de|Jasta 2}}) went into action on the Somme on 17 September. By this time, the last of the {{lang|de|Eindeckers}}, long outmoded as front line fighters, had been retired.<ref>Jones, 2002, p. 281</ref>