Its initial operational aircraft was the
Albatros D.III fighter and sometime later, the
Fokker Dr.I triplane. Its theater of operations was the
Western Front. and consisted of a white rear
fuselage and all-white tail surfaces, with
vermilion red forward of the cockpit and on the wings' upper surfaces, and usually left the bare wing panels' undersides unpainted, showing their printed
lozenge camouflage. The squadron's main unit insignia consisted of a
stenciled black raven, similar in appearance to what Raben himself had used on his own
fighter aircraft while previously serving with
Jagdstaffel 39, on just about all of the squadron's aircraft fuselage sides on the white rear area, with varying personal insignia added in black, usually along with the raven. The only Jasta 18 aircraft ever to feature a white raven instead were August Raben's own Fokker D.VII, and a later
Fokker Dr.I he personally used, with the red area on the fuselages of both aircraft extended rearwards to end much closer to the stabilizer's leading edge. The unit would move on to assignments at
Faches-Thumesnil and
Lomme in the 6th Army zone of operations. On 14 June, it moved to support of
19th Armee, it moved to
Montingen, near
Metz for the remainder of the war, in opposing the efforts of the British
Independent Air Force in the 19th Armee's sector, with Jasta 18 being by far the most experienced fighter squadron in the area. Jasta 18's efforts in resisting the British IAF bomber forces were achieved alongside
Jagdstaffel 80 sharing Jasta 18's area of operations; with
Jagdstaffel 70 and the Bavarian
Jagdstaffel 78 immediately south, and the Württemberg
Jagdstaffel 64 and
Jagdstaffel 65 immediately north. A few
KEST (Kampfeinsitzer Staffel)-designation units also existed in the 19th Armee area, as home defense fighter units. , an opposing unit to Jasta 18, Sept-Nov. 1918. While still based at Lomme, the
Staffel Raben would also see action for the first time against American pilots of the
USAAS starting in the second half of May 1918, specifically the American "inheritor unit" of the French
Lafayette Escadrille of largely American personnel, the
103d Aero Squadron. By early autumn 1918, after the final move to Montingen, the aerial actions undertaken between the USAAS and the
Luftstreitkräfte over the
Battle of Saint-Mihiel pitted Jasta 18 against the macabre-marked USAAS'
13th Aero Squadron and their
Grim Oscar-bearing
SPAD XIII fighters, with the two units tangling a number of times from the St. Mihiel offensive onwards to the Armistice. ==References==