LUFTWAFFE´S HISTORY

The Luftwaffe was secretly formed in 1923, in defience to the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Reichsluftminister (air minister) Hermann Göring of the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM or Air Ministry) publically announced its existence in 1935. "Der Dicke" ("fatty"), as Göring was jokingly called by his pilots, had been a fighter pilot in World War 1. He even became the commanding officer of JG 1 (Jagdgeschwader or fighter wing 1) after the death of Rittmeister Manfred von Richtolfen, the Red Baron.

The Reichsluftminister delegated many of his duties to his two subordinates: Inspector General of the Luftwaffe, Erhard Milch, and his Chief of Staff, General Wever. By sharing the burden, Göring had more time to further his political career. Milch had five-hundred thousand airmen to draw upon, these men having been trained by both the Reichluftversportband (Air Recreation Union) and the Luftwaffe's secret training base at Lipetsk, in the USSR. In 1936, the Luftwaffe lost its first Cheif of Staff, General Wever, in an air accident. Wever was among the few advocates of a long-range heavy-bomber force. With his death, the Reich concentrated instead on medium and dive bombers. With the arrival of Prof. Willy Messerschmitt's superb Bf 109 monoplane fighter in 1937, the German Air Force was one step closer to war.

In the summer of 1936, Hitler sent a detachment of Luftwaffe pilots to Spain. They were to support the facist leader Franco's war to gain control of Spain. Using Bf 109 fighters to protect the He 111, Ju 88, and Do 17 bombers and the Junkers Ju 87 Sturzkampfflugzeug (dive bomber), or the Stuka, the Condor Legion also gained much needed combat experience during its support of Franco. The Stuka performed very well, which lead to the mistaken belief that it was invulnerable. That belief lead to difficulty in the Battle of Britain, and in the Soviet Union.

On 01 Sept 1939, at 04.45 Central European Time (CET), the First Panzer Army crossed the Polish border under heavy air support from the Luftwaffe. This was the first demonstration of blitzkrieg (lightening war) the world had ever seen. As the Wehrmacht overwhelmed the Polish defenders, the Luftwaffe destroyed the well-trained, but poorly-equipped Polish Air Force. After twenty-seven days (27), Poland surrendered.

During the winter of 1939, in a period called "Sitzkrieg", or the "Phooney War", little action took place. But in the spring of 1940, the Third Reich launched blitzkrieg upon the West. Denmark fell to the Nazis in twenty-four (24) hours, followed by Norway in twenty-three (23) days. Then came Holland's turn, which lasted five days, followed by Belgium (eighteen days), then France in five weeks. In May of 1945, the Allies evacuated Dunkirk under cover of the Royal Air Force's Fighter Command. It was here that the Bf 109E "Emil" and 110C "Zerstörer" (destroyer) first encountered the Supermarine Spitfire. The Spits slaughtered the German aircraft with general ease, and allowed most of the Allied escapecraft to reach Britain.

Then came the Battle of Britain. German bombers raided much of southern Britain in massive waves. Soon RAF Fighter Command was severly weakened, and became the main target of the Luftflotten. The largest air battle of the war was between 8 and 17 Aug 1940, this was the Aldertag (eagle-day). This caused major damage to Fighter Command, but an impatient Hitler ordered the massive aerial attack on London and other major cities, starting on 7 Sept 1940. This was to be called the London Blitz.

In November of 1940, after defeat at the hands of Air Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding's Fighter Command, the Third Reich cast its hungry eyes upon Stalin's Soviet Union. Operation "Barbarossa" (red-beard) began on 22 June 1941. The Wehrmacht was divided into Army Groups North, Center, and South. They were supported by a massive air attack on Voennoe-Vozduzhnoye Sily (V-VS, or Soviet Military Air Forces) airfields by Luftflotte I, II, and IV. Over one-thousand Soviet fighters were destroyed on the ground in the first day. By the winter of 1941, Army Group Center was outside Moscow. But then the Wehrmacht ground to a halt when the Russian winter took hold. After making some gains in the winter months, the Red Army was driven back in the spring on 1942. In the southern part of the front, General von Paulus began his siege of a city on the Volga River, a city called Stalingrad. This battle would be called the Rattenkrieg, or 'war of the rats'. Everyday the Soviet troops charged at the German positions, and everyday were killed by the thousands. By December 1942, the German Sixth Army was trapped in Stalingrad. They fought valiantly, but the loss of Gumrak Airfield on 22 Jan 1943 meant no more supplies for Paulus to carry on the fight. On 2 Feb 1943, von Paulus surrendered the surviving 91,000 men of the Sixth Army to Soviet troops.

After the Battle of Kursk, which was the largest tank battle in history, the German armies began to retreat towards the distant Reich. The Luftwaffe could barely protect them from both the V-VS and the Red Army, as much of the Luftwaffe was either fighting the Allied Strategic Bombing Offensive in the West, or supporting Rommel in Africa. By late 1943, the Allies had driven the Afrika Korps to Italy, and were driving up the Italian peninsula. On 6 June 1944, as part of the Allies' Operation "Overlord", the D-Day invaision on Normandy took place. The Allied Air Forces achieved absolute air superiority over the French battlefields. But in the winter of 1944, the German Armed Forces attacked the American army throught the Ardenne Forest in an offensive called the Battle of the Bulge. Winter weather had grounded the Allied Air Forces, and without their flying artillery, the Allies were driven back. But clear weather allowed the Allies to once again control the skies. In January of 1945, the Luftwaffe launched a large scale attack on Allied airfields, called Operation Boedenplot. Though they sent seven-hundred aircraft, and destroyed over two-hundred aircraft, they lost too many aircraft and pilots then they could replace.

By the spring of 1945, the Wehrmacht had been smashed and the Luftwaffe had been blasted out of the sky. Hitler refused to accept defeat, and constantly ordered attacks by units that had ceased to exist. Soon old men and young boys were filling the ranks of rifle companies, and climbing into the Luftwaffe's few remaining fighters. This was not sufficient to halt the advancing Allies, who were coming in from all sides. On 25 April 1945, Soviet troops had entered Berlin. By 30 April 1945, the Russian soldiers had stormed the Reichstag (German Parliament), and Adolf Hitler, the Führer of the German Third Reich, had committed suicide in his bunker. On 2 May 1945, General Weidling, the Commandant of Berlin, called on his troops to lay down their arms.