While Allied Air Forces were tied to the support of the Army, the Luftwaffe deployed its resources in a more general, operational way.

For example, during a strategy briefing late in the war, Luftwaffe intelligence discovered vast numbers of Soviet fighter aircraft ready to be deployed to the front.

New Italian aircraft and units were supplemented by the arrival of the German Afrika Corps, and the attached Luftwaffe contingent deployed almost 200 airplanes in Libya and another 600 in Sicily.

The German Luftwaffe deployed small numbers of the experimental Bordkanone series of heavy aircraft cannon in 37, 50 and 75 mm calibres, mounted in gun pods under the fuselage or wings.

The R4M was developed in order to deal with the increasing weight of anti-bomber weapons being deployed by Luftwaffe fighters.

This modification was put into the final version of the Hs 293A-2 but by then the Luftwaffe had no aircraft available for anti-shipping operations and it was never deployed.

The Carl Zeiss Lotfernrohr 7, widely deployed by the Luftwaffe, was an advanced mechanical system technically similar to the original Norden bombsight.

Von Werra then returned to the Luftwaffe and was initially deployed to the Russian front as Gruppenkommandeur of I ./ JG 53.

During the last phase of the fighting Luftwaffe bombers steadily increased their attacks against the allied forces, while the Norwegians deployed their few Fokker C. V light bombers and Heinkel He 115 and Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M. F. 11 seaplanes in support of the offensive.

The design was based on the Schräge Musik, the manually triggered upward-firing air-to-air cannon extensively deployed with the Luftwaffe night fighter squadrons.

During World War II, RAF Leiston, northwest of the town in the neighbouring village of Theberton, sent fighter squadrons of the American 357th Fighter Group to fight the Luftwaffe.

In essence, the tactic involved meeting incoming Luftwaffe bombing raids in strength with a wing-sized formation of three to five squadrons.

At daybreak, Luftwaffe fighter squadrons would then fly in from Brittany and land on the captured airfields.

Combat formations were introduced, with several fighter squadrons being part of one wing, an organization that the Germans would also adopt for their army air service and, later, for the Luftwaffe.

In the Luftwaffe as a grouping of Staffel ( squadrons ) either independent of as the sub-division of a Geschwader.

Category: Luftwaffe squadrons

It is most notable by its occupation by the German Luftwaffe whose wing ( in RAF terms, a group of 3 squadrons ) II.

It also referred to bomber groups in Luftwaffe usage, which themselves consisted of three or four Staffeln ( squadrons ), and existed within Kampfgeschwader bomber wings of three or four Kampfgruppen per wing.

During the course of the Second World War Luftwaffe, Kampfgeschwader bomber units consisted of several Kampfgruppen, which in terms of size were situated somewhere between squadrons and groups of Anglo-American air forces.

About 6. 35am, five squadrons of Luftwaffe bombers from Air Command Croatia, including Stuka divebombers began bombing targets within Drvar.

Brown, who has researched the records of individual Desert Air Force squadrons, suggests that Luftwaffe claim confirmation in North Africa was less stringent than it had been during the Battle of Britain.

During the invasion of Poland and the Battle of France, Luftwaffe fighters — primarily the Messerschmitt Bf 109 — held air superiority, and the Luftwaffe played a major role in German victories in these campaigns.

During the Battle of Britain, however, British Hurricanes and Spitfires proved roughly equal to Luftwaffe fighters.

The Soviets were also helped indirectly by the American and British bombing campaigns, which forced the Luftwaffe to shift many of its fighters away from the Eastern Front in defense against these raids.

With the Luftwaffe largely cleared from the skies, Allied fighters increasingly served as attack aircraft.

Allied fighters, by gaining air superiority over the European battlefield, played a crucial role in the eventual defeat of the Axis, which Reichmarshal Hermann Göring, commander of the German Luftwaffe summed up when he said: " When I saw Mustangs over Berlin, I knew the jig was up.

A significant failure in terms of technological development was not to develop a long-range bomber and capable long-range fighters during this period leaving the Luftwaffe unable to conduct a meaningful strategic bombing campaign throughout the war.

* German wartime newsreel, showing dogfighting Luftwaffe fighters, 1942

The risk of Luftwaffe interception was judged small, given the crushing air superiority of Allied fighters but there were concerns about the increasing number of flak units in the Netherlands, especially around Arnhem.

Luftwaffe records indicate that the Ju 88 maritime fighters were operating beyond their normal patrol area to intercept and shoot down the aircraft. Bloody Biscay: The Story of the Luftwaffe's Only Long Range Maritime Fighter Unit, V Gruppe / Kampfgeschwader 40, and Its Adversaries 1942 – 1944 ( Chris Goss, 2001 ) quotes First Oberleutnant Herbert Hintze, Staffel Führer of 14 Staffeln and based in Bordeaux, that his Staffel shot down the DC-3 because it was recognised as an enemy aircraft, unaware that it was an unarmed civilian airliner.

A major heavy fighter design was the Messerschmitt Bf 110, a German fighter that, prior to the war, the Luftwaffe considered more important than their single-engine fighters.

The only such system to see any sort of widespread operational use was the Spanner Anlage system used on the Dornier Do 17Z night fighters of the Luftwaffe.

The effective Schräge Musik was the name given to installations of upward-firing autocannon mounted in large, twin-engine night fighters by the Luftwaffe and Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service during World War II, with the first victories for each occurring in May 1943.

With the loss of Luftwaffe air superiority in the east they became vulnerable to the Red Army Air Force fighters, and from 1943 had begun conversion to the more conventional cannon attack tactics.

The Fiat CR. 42s were first to be blooded in Belgium but after encountering the vastly superior Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters of the Luftwaffe, the entire contingent of Fiats was soon overwhelmed, although the Belgian pilots fought with great skill.

At first, the Polikarpov I-16 fighters proved superior to any of the German Luftwaffe fighter aircraft, and managed to achieve local air superiority wherever they were employed.

Schräge Musik, derived from the German colloquialism for " Jazz Music "( the German word " schräg " literally means " slanted " or " oblique ") was the name given to installations of upward-firing autocannon mounted in night fighters by the Luftwaffe and Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service during World War II, with the first victories for each occurring in May 1943.

Three waves of aircraft bombed the area, and a successful diversionary raid on Berlin by RAF Mosquitoes attracted the main Luftwaffe fighter effort and meant that only the last of the three waves was met by any sizable group of night fighters.

Sadly, in many cases these were actual ' kills ' by Luftwaffe night fighters ...

It was mounted in virtually the same position in the fuselage as in the Luftwaffe fighters.

As a result, by 1940, the French Air Force had only 1562 planes and was together with 1070 RAF planes facing 5, 638 Luftwaffe fighters and fighter-bombers.

The Luftwaffe bombers were at their most vulnerable when they were at the limit of the escorting Bf 109's range and many German fighters had already expended their fuel in combat with 11 Group aircraft over Kent.

Having been told that the RAF was down to its last 50 fighters by their leaders the Luftwaffe aircrew were continuously attacked on the run over Kent only to be confronted by a further formation of 60 RAF aircraft over London just as their escort reached the limit of their range.