![\""A\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-159146965sml-f35f5b5.jpg?quality=90&resize=385%2C413"\" "\\"\"A\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>To separate historical fact from myth, then, it is necessary to examine how the opportunistic Nazi regime made the air force its own \u2013 both to the eventual detriment of the world and, ultimately, to itself.<\/p>\n
Bold beginnings<\/h3>\n
Germany first began to recognise the potential of aerial warfare during the 19th century. After Prussian forces witnessed France\u2019s use of observational and evacuation balloons during the Franco-Prussian War<\/a> (1870\u201371), the newly unified German empire formed its own stationary observational balloon units. Before long, balloons were being adapted so that they could scout across long distances, transport vital equipment and drop bombs on enemy territory.<\/p>\n By the 1910s, military aircraft had been incorporated into the Deutsches Heer (Imperial German Army), and in 1914, Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches (the Imperial German Army Air Service) entered the First World War. Later reshaped into the Deutsche Luftstreitkr\u00e4fte (German Air Force) in October 1916, it provided the army with both aerial reconnaissance and ground and air support.<\/p>\n Despite the strain and dangers of the dogfights, pilots often came away with more favourable memories of warfare than troops stuck in the trenches, and the image of the valiant German airman became embedded in the national psyche. Indeed, in his interwar biography of the Bavarian fighter ace Max Ritter von M\u00fcller, Hans Haller enthusiastically wrote of how \u201cthere was again man and courage; there was hunting and the landing of blows\u201d. It was this chivalric aura that would soon give rise to other hallowed fighter aces such as Manfred von Richthofen (the famous \u2018Red Baron\u2019), as well as the likes of Oswald Boelcke, Max Immelmann and Werner Voss.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, with the influx of American airpower towards the end of the First World War, the odds simply became insurmountable for the Luftstreitkr\u00e4fte. After Germany\u2019s defeat in November 1918, the subsequent Treaty of Versailles<\/a> banned the nation from possessing \u201cany military or naval air forces\u201d, evoking, in the words of one author, \u201ca cry of rage through German aviation circles\u201d.<\/p>\n Included among such circles was Hermann G\u00f6ring \u2013 the unlikely last commander of Richthofen\u2019s \u2018Flying Circus\u2019 fighter wing \u2013 who declared in his diary that he wanted to \u201crestore German aviation to the world\u201d.<\/p>\n Cloaked with all the swagger and star power of a fighter ace, he piqued the attention of an Austrian corporal with similar aspirations of restoring Germany\u2019s prewar \u2018greatness\u2019: Adolf Hitler<\/a>. The two Nazis were eventually inserted into Germany\u2019s government in 1933. In January, Hitler was made chancellor, and the next month, G\u00f6ring was appointed Reich commissioner of aviation.<\/p>\n Yet according to the former Luftwaffe anti-aircraft assistant Georg Cordts, it was only in March 1933 that G\u00f6ring truly came to realise the extent of the \u201ctreasures that had fallen into his lap\u201d.<\/p>\n Secretly established the previous summer by the former Reich minister of defence, Kurt von Schleicher, Germany\u2019s so-called Shadow Luftwaffe was intended to boast 630 officers and 4,000 other ranks by the end of 1936. This, in turn, built upon foundations that had been laid a decade earlier, when a covert military flight school was set up in the Russian city of Lipetsk. The convenient arrangement not only allowed the Soviets to obtain vital German expertise in fighter tactics and aeronautical development, but also enabled the Germans to circumvent Versailles\u2019 restrictions on military flight in Germany.<\/p>\n Between 1926 and 1933, around 120 German fighter pilots and 450 flying personnel attended the institution, where they used high explosives, engaged in live-fire practice and undertook mock dive bombing and fighter-bomber operations. Progress in boosting the number of potential pilots who could serve in the Luftwaffe had also been made by the Reich Transport Ministry, whose earlier recruitment efforts had seen the number of student commercial and civil pilots being trained double between December 1924 and March 1926.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Keen to capitalise on the gains made by their predecessors, the Nazi regime urgently accelerated the Luftwaffe\u2019s rearmament, pledging around 10.5 billion Reichsmarks for the purpose in 1934. And, with the passing of the Wehrgesetz (Defence Law) on 21 May 1935, the Luftwaffe was officially established as a branch of the German Wehrmacht (armed forces) alongside the Heer (army) and Kriegsmarine (navy) \u2013 all in direct contravention of the terms that had been set out at Versailles.<\/p>\n The Nazi Luftwaffe prided itself on its high operational standards, with only 5 per cent of applicants passing the rigorous entrance exam required to reach the interview stage for non-commissioned officer and officer ranks. Although the Jagdflieger (fighter pilots) and Kampfflieger (bomber crews) are two of the most well- known branches of the Luftwaffe today, by July 1944 there were 70 different career pathways within the air force, with the Nazis quick to praise the \u201cflyers who don\u2019t fly\u201d at every opportunity.<\/p>\n Those serving as aircraft engineers, mechanics, electricians, metal workers, carpenters and painters were all seen as being of particular value, as \u2013 in the words of the propagandists \u2013 \u201ca fast, reliable and smoothly functioning ground service is the prerequisite for the operational readiness and fighting power of the \u2018weapon in the air\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In terms of military strategy, the Nazis initially believed the Luftwaffe should be a Risiko or \u2018risk\u2019 Luftwaffe, using its fearsome persona as a deterrent to fulfil Nazi ambitions of quickly seizing territory without provoking war. Although some airpower theorists favoured the installation of a heavy strategic bombing element within the air force, the Luftwaffe\u2019s successful intervention during the Spanish Civil War<\/a> (1936\u201339) \u2013 from pulling off logistical triumphs for Franco\u2019s Nationalists, to flushing out Republican strongholds \u2013 had been a temporary distraction from adopting a heavyweight approach. When news broke that Germany had advanced into Poland<\/a> on 1 September 1939, an airfield construction manager near Hamburg noted that both \u201cthe youngest officers of the airborne units and old medal-decorated First World War officers sat around me with serious faces\u201d. As Hitler\u2019s bloodlust swelled, and as G\u00f6ring\u2019s eagerness to unleash \u2018the F\u00fchrer\u2019s Hammer\u2019 increased, the Luftwaffe quickly found itself embroiled in conflicts across the globe. Filled with confidence, the Nazi leadership turned its attentions across the Channel to Britain, but Winston Churchill<\/a> had no intention of accepting Hitler\u2019s request to sue for peace. Dismayed at his refusal to surrender, the f\u00fchrer ordered the Wehrmacht to prepare for an amphibious invasion of Britain \u2013 code-named Operation Sea Lion<\/a> \u2013 on 16 July. The Luftwaffe\u2019s fighter pilots and bomber crews sought to soften up the country for invasion with a relentless aerial campaign.<\/p>\n Although the Luftwaffe ran the RAF ragged during the resultant Battle of Britain<\/a> \u2013 attacking Allied shipping, British ports, airfields, radar installations and aircraft factories \u2013 it did not achieve the level of air superiority necessary to make Operation Sea Lion viable. Nor was Britain\u2019s defeat secured by the Luftwaffe\u2019s switch to bombing its cities during the Blitz from early September 1940 until May 1941.<\/p>\n Disappointed, Hitler diverted his attention towards the Luftwaffe\u2019s other deployments. In particular, the air force was becoming more committed to the North African campaign \u2013 fighting over Libya, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. The Luftwaffe also enjoyed a stunning yet demanding performance over the Balkans from April 1941, after its fellow Axis power, Italy, had invaded Greece the previous October.<\/p>\n Hitler\u2019s chief priority, though, was to capture more Lebensraum or \u2018living space\u2019 by invading the Soviet Union. The Luftwaffe was partially redirected from the Blitz over Britain to the eastern front for Operation Barbarossa in June 1941. However, the ensuing invasion proved a step too far, and the Wehrmacht became locked in a bloody struggle with the Soviets that drained German resources even further \u2013 over-stretching the heavily deployed Luftwaffe.<\/p>\n Matters were made even worse for the Nazis when the Allied strategic bombing offensive started to cause chaos back at home in Germany. In January 1943, Churchill and US president Franklin D Roosevelt<\/a> had promised Soviet leader Josef Stalin they would ramp up their existing bombing campaigns to further split their foe into an exhausting \u201cwar on two fronts\u201d.<\/p>\n Although the Luftwaffe still managed to inflict heavy losses upon the Allies on occasion, the ruthless British-American firestorm that rained down on Hamburg in July 1943, and the controversial raids on Dresden between 13\u201315 February 1945, left German airmen feeling especially deflated. \u201cThe three consecutive attacks in 12 hours left every aid organisation smashed and resulted in destruction unlike anything else,\u201d said one member of the Luftwaffe after visiting Dresden on 18 February 1945. \u201c[The city] is no more.\u201d<\/p>\n But in truth, morale had been cracking since 1944. Temperamental and experimental aircraft \u2013 such as the rocket-powered Messerschmitt Me 163 \u2018Komet\u2019, the Heinkel He 162 Volksj\u00e4ger and the Arado Ar 234 \u2013 were hastily constructed to little effect. Frustrated by Germany\u2019s decline, Hubert Retz, a Luftwaffe radio operator, declared in a letter to his fianc\u00e9e in May 1944 that \u201cit will soon be time for this circus to come to an end, otherwise there will be no city in the whole of Germany that has not been destroyed\u201d.<\/p>\n Overall, the Luftwaffe\u2019s disintegration was hastened owing to a catalogue of blunders by both its operational leadership and political guardians. Its overcommitment at the hands of the rapacious Nazis strained the air force until fuel shortages, a slump in aircraft production, insufficient pilot training and inadequate logistical support all crippled the Luftwaffe from within.<\/p>\n![\""Manfred\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-55831459sml-d276a84.jpg?quality=90&resize=296%2C413"\" "\\"\"Manfred\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>![\""Hitler,\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-466707303sml-7254fc0-e1638894760399.jpg?quality=90&resize=582%2C413"\" "\\"\"The\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Ushering in a new age<\/h3>\n
Highs and lows<\/h3>\n
![\""Hermann\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-545743671sml-b728762-e1638894894789.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C404"\" "\\"\"Hermann\\"")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>A fatal misstep<\/h3>\n
![\""Local\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/7\/2021\/12\/GettyImages-514700324sml-8429dcf-e1638894839359.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C393"\" "\\"\"Dresden\\"")
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