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Hermann Göring, the first Supreme Commander of the Luftwaffe (in office: 1935–1945) Robert Ritter von Greim, the second and last Supreme Commander of the Luftwaffe (in office: April–May 1945) The Luftwaffe[N 2] (German pronunciation: [ˈlʊftvafə] ⓘ) was the aerial-warfare branch of the Wehrmacht before and during World War II.
Between 1933 and 1945, the organization of the Luftwaffe underwent several changes. Originally, the German military high command, for their air warfare forces, decided to use an organizational structure similar to the army and navy, treating the aviation branch as a strategic weapon of war. Later on, during the period of rapid rearmament, the ...
Main article: Invasion of Poland. On 1 September 1939 German forces invaded Poland, triggering World War II. The Luftwaffe begun the invasion by bombing the undefended town of Wieluń. The Luftwaffe was an instrumental component of the Blitzkrieg battle plan. The Luftwaffe assigned two airfleets to the campaign.
This list covers aircraft of the German Luftwaffe during the Second World War from 1939 to 1945. Numerical designations are largely within the RLM designation system. The Luftwaffe officially existed from 1933–1945 but training had started in the 1920s, before the Nazi seizure of power, and many aircraft made in the inter-war years were used ...
Air warfare was a major component in all theaters of World War II and, together with anti-aircraft warfare, consumed a large fraction of the industrial output of the major powers. Germany and Japan depended on air forces that were closely integrated with land and naval forces; the Axis powers downplayed the advantage of fleets of strategic ...
1940. Luftwaffe Order of Battle August 1940. Luftflotte 1 (Poland) Luftflotte 2 (The Netherlands, Belgium, Northern Germany) Luftflotte 3 (France, Luxembourg, Middle Germany) Luftflotte 4 (Austria and Czech Republic) Luftflotte 5 (Norway and Denmark)
Luftwaffe. (1935–1945) The Luftwaffe, from its founding in 1933 to the end of World War II in 1945, used ranks similar to other air forces at the time; however, some Luftwaffe ranks had no equivalent in the Allied air forces. While many ranks might have equivalents in other air forces, in reality the Luftwaffe military had a far greater ...
The second Schweinfurt raid, [ 9 ] also called Black Thursday, was a World War II air battle that took place on 14 October 1943, over Nazi Germany between forces of the United States 8th Air Force and German Luftwaffe fighter arm (Jagdwaffe). The American bombers conducted a strategic bombing raid on ball bearing factories to reduce production ...