The Luftwaffe: Creating the Operational Air War, 1918 – 1940.

The Luftwaffe: Creating the Operational Air War, 1918 – 1940.

The Luftwaffe: Creating the Operational Air War, 1918 – 1940.

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

This was just the opportunity the German Luftwaffe, Italian Regia Aeronautica, and the Soviet Union's Red Air Force needed to test their latest aircraft.

The Soviets increasingly were able to challenge the Luftwaffe, and while the Luftwaffe maintained a qualitative edge over the Red Air Force for much of the war, the increasing numbers and efficacy of the Soviet Air Force were critical to the Red Army's efforts at turning back and eventually annihilating the Wehrmacht.

With Hitler preoccupied with the war, Himmler focusing on the " final solution to the Jewish question " in eastern Europe, and with Hermann Göring ’ s position declining with the failure of the German Air Force ( Luftwaffe ), Goebbels sensed a power vacuum in domestic policy and moved to fill it.

Luftwaffe is also the generic term in German speaking countries for any national military aviation service, and the names of air forces in other countries are usually translated into German as " Luftwaffe " ( e. g. Royal Air Force is often translated as britische Luftwaffe ).

And because Luft means " air " and Waffe may be translated into English as either " weapon " or " arm ", " Air Arm " may be considered the most literal English translation of Luftwaffe ( cf.

The forerunner of the Luftwaffe, the Imperial German Army Air Service, was founded in 1910 with the name Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches.

In 1935, " Luftwaffe Regulation 16: The Conduct of the Air War " was drawn up.

When the Second World War began, the Luftwaffe was one of most technologically advanced Air Forces in the world.

Meanwhile, the Luftwaffe continued to defend German – occupied Europe against the growing offensive power of RAF Bomber Command and the United States Army Air Forces.

Inevitably, both the Bomber B and Amerika Bomber programs were victims of the continued emphasis of the Wehrmacht's insistence for the Luftwaffe to support the Army as its primary mission, as well as the increasingly devastating results of the RAF Bomber Command at night, and by 1943 the USAAF's Eighth and Fifteenth Air Forces ' heavy bomber raids by daylight on the German aviation industry, which catastrophically diminished the Third Reich's overall aviation production capacity later in World War II.

The Luftwaffe: A Study in Air Power, 1933 – 1945.

The Luftwaffe and the Battle for Air Superiority PDF-File

* 1945 – World War II: Ratification in Berlin-Karlshorst of the German unconditional surrender of May 8 in Rheims, France, with the signatures of Marshal Georgy Zhukov for the Soviet Union, and for the Western Headquarters Sir Arthur Tedder, British Air Marshal and Eisenhower's deputy, and for the German side of Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff as the representative of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as the Chief of Staff of OKW, and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine.

* 1940 – World War II: in response to the leveling of Coventry, England by Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe two days before, the Royal Air Force bombs Hamburg.

In December 1939, the German Army issued its own study paper ( designated Nordwest ) and solicited opinions and input from both the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe ( German Air Force ).

Beginning in August 1940, the German Luftwaffe began a series of concentrated aerial attacks ( designated Unternehmen Adlerangriff or Operation Eagle Attack ) on targets throughout the United Kingdom in an attempt to destroy the RAF ( Royal Air Force ) and establish air superiority over Great Britain.

* 1937 – Spanish Civil War: Guernica ( or Gernika in Basque ), Spain is bombed by German Luftwaffe.

Also during the Second World War the Luftwaffe and Wehrmacht had bases here.

* 1943 – A Luftwaffe bombing raid on the harbour of Bari, Italy, sinks numerous cargo and transport ships, including an American Liberty ship, the John Harvey, with a stockpile of World War I-era mustard gas.

* 1940 – World War II: In The Second Great Fire of London, the Luftwaffe fire-bombs London, killing almost 200 civilians.

On April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, Guernica was the scene of the Bombing of Guernica by the Condor Legion of Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe.

In World War II, despite extensive bombing by the Luftwaffe, Scottish industry came out of the depression slump by a dramatic expansion of its industrial activity, absorbing unemployed men and many women as well.

* 1940 – World War II: sinking of the by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France.

* 1940 – World War II: Battle of Britain – The German Luftwaffe begins attacking British convoys in the English Channel thus starting the battle ( this start date is contested, though ).

* 1940 – World War II: The Luftwaffe bombs Paris.

The Luftwaffe was the aerial warfare branch of the German Wehrmacht during World War II.

After the German Empire's World War I-era army air force, the Luftstreitkräfte, and naval air units had been disbanded under the term of the Treaty of Versailles the Luftwaffe was reformed in 1935 and grew to become one of the strongest, most doctrinally advanced, and most battle-experienced air forces in the world when World War II started in Europe in September 1939.

The premature death of one of the Luftwaffes finest officers, one that left the Luftwaffe without a strategic air force during World War II, eventually proved fatal to the German war effort.

The first was Hermann Göring, the second was Generaloberst Robert Ritter von Greim as the second ( and last ) commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, concomitant with his promotion to Generalfeldmarschall, the last German officer in World War II to be promoted to the highest rank.

Over 20, 000 German airmen gained combat experience that would give the Luftwaffe an important advantage going into the Second World War.

* Eagles of the Third Reich: Men of the Luftwaffe in World War II By Samuel W. Mitcham, Jr.

However in 1941 the new North Stand and part of the west terracing had been badly damaged in the Blitz by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War.

* 1941 – World War II: The House of Commons in London is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.

* 1940 – World War II: the old city centre of the Dutch town of Middelburg is bombed by the German Luftwaffe, to force the surrender of the Dutch armies in Zeeland.

Even though it was known that the Luftwaffe in the north was now being directed by the young and energetic General Peltz, the commander who would conduct the `` Little Blitz '' on London in 1944, a major raid on Bari at this juncture of the war was not to be considered seriously.

The Luftwaffe, the German air force, was established, and development begun on ground-attack aircraft and doctrines.

The Luftwaffe deployed squadrons of fighters, dive bombers, and transport aircraft as the Condor Legion.

However, the Luftwaffe also provided volunteers to Spain to test both tactics and aircraft in combat, including the first combat use of the Stuka.

German successes are closely related to the extent to which the German Luftwaffe was able to control the air war in early campaigns in Europe and the Soviet Union.

However, the Luftwaffe was a broadly based force with no constricting central doctrine, other than its resources should be used generally to support national strategy.

In fact, far from it being a dedicated panzer spearhead arm, less than 15 percent of the Luftwaffe was designed for close support of the army in 1939.

Although production of Luftwaffe fighter aircraft continued, they would be unable to fly for lack of fuel.

While early German tanks, Stuka dive-bombers and concentrated forces were used in the Polish campaign, the majority of the battle was conventional infantry and artillery based warfare and most Luftwaffe action was independent of the ground campaign.

Hermann Göring had promised the Luftwaffe would complete the destruction of the encircled armies, but aerial operations did not prevent the evacuation of the majority of Allied troops ( which the British named Operation Dynamo ); some 330, 000 French and British were saved.

The concept of a blitzkrieg Luftwaffe was challenged by Richard Overy in the late 1970s and by Williamson Murray in the mid-1980s.

The rearmament of the Kriegsmarine was to have been completed in 1949, the Luftwaffe rearmament program was to have been completed in 1942 with a force capable of carrying out strategic bombing using heavy bombers.

James Corum states a prevalent myth about the Luftwaffe and its blitzkrieg operations is that it had a doctrine of terror bombing, in which civilians were deliberately targeted in order to break the will or aid the collapse of an enemy.

After the bombing of Guernica in 1937 and of Rotterdam in 1940, it was commonly assumed that terror bombing was a part of Luftwaffe doctrine.

During the interwar period the Luftwaffe leadership rejected the concept of terror bombing, and confined the air arms use to battlefield support of interdiction operations.

This document, which the Luftwaffe adopted, rejected Giulio Douhet's theory of terror bombing.

J. P. Harris states that most Luftwaffe leaders from Goering through the general staff believed as did their counterparts in Britain and the United States that strategic bombing was the chief mission of the air force and that given such a role, the Luftwaffe would win the next war and that:

The Luftwaffe did end up with an air force consisting mainly of relatively short-range aircraft, but this does not prove that the German air force was solely interested in ’ tactical ’ bombing.