Oberkommando der Luftwaffe The Oberkommando der Luftwaffe ( OKL ) was the air force High Command of the Third Reich . History . Luftwaffe was organized in a large and diverse structure led by Reich minister ( ) and supreme commander of the Luftwaffe Hermann Göring . Göring through the Reich Air Ministry ( / RLM / ) controlled all aspects of aviation in Germany including civilian and military aviation . The organization of this organization was from the peacetime period dating prior to involvement in Spanish Civil War . In early 1937 , Göring announced reorganization of the Reich Air Ministry into Military and civilian branches . The military branch was to be led by the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe ( Supreme H . Q . of Air Force ) . A chief would be leading the general staff . However , the separation of military from civil aviation was not complete and it was fragmented . Some parts of the military branch were left under the control of Air Inspector General Field Marshal ( ) Erhard Milch . These were The reasons for this formation was primarily to undermine Milch , who was getting favorable attention from the Party . However later during the year and early next year , Göring again changed the organization structure by removing three offices from Milch ' s and General Staff ' s control . He brought under his own direct control . These were This change made these offices to be additional power centers in RLM further fragmenting the top Luftwaffe organization . It also crippled important functional areas . Organization . To gear for the European war , Luftwaffe needed a high command equivalent to Army ( Oberkommando des Heeres OKH ) or Navy ( Oberkommando der Marine OKM ) . Hence In 1939 , the Luftwaffe was again reorganized . The credit for the formation of a true Air Force High Command ( OKL ) goes to Colonel General Günther Korten commander of Air Fleet 1 ( and his Chief of Operations General der Flieger Karl Koller . They both campaigned to carve out a command out of Goring ' s all compassing Reich Air ministry . The intent was to put Luftwaffe on a true wartime footing , by grouping all the essential military parts of the RLM into a single command . Thus on 5 February 1944 , Air Force Command ( OKL ) was created . It included following branches . Other areas such as training , administration , civil defense and technical design remained under RLM ' s control . The new organization proved to be more efficient and lasted until the end of the war . OKL like OKH or OKM reported to Supreme High Command of the Armed Forces ( OKW ) . The OKW was answerable to Hitler for the operation command of the three branches of the armed forces . OKL was divided into forward Echelon ( ) and rear echelon ( ) . The forward echelon moved with the theater of operations while rear echelon remained almost exclusively in Berlin . OKL was also the operational branch of the Luftwaffe . It was divided operationally into air fleets at a high level . Initially it was divided into four air fleets ( ) that were formed geographically and were numbered consecutively . Three more " Luftflotten " were added later on as German territorial expansion grew further . Each Luftflotte was a self - contained entity . The leader of each was in charge of overall air operations and Support activities . However a fighter leader ( ) was in charge of all the fighter operations and reported to the Luftflotte Leader . Each Luftflotte was further divided into air districts ( ) and flying Corps ( ) . Each " Luftgau " had 50 to 150 officers led by a Generalmajor . It was responsible for providing administrative and logistical structure as well as resources to each airfield . The Fliegerkorps on the other hand were in charge of the operation matters related to flying such as unit deployment , air traffic control , ordnance and maintenance . Since this structure was making ground support structure available to flying units , the flying units were freed from moving the support staff from one location to another as the unit relocated . Once the unit arrived at its new location , all the airfield staff would come under the control of the commander of that unit .