paragraph_text: The Battle of the Bulge (16 December 1944 -- 25 January 1945) was the last major German offensive campaign on the Western Front during World War II. It was launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in eastern Belgium, northeast France, and Luxembourg, towards the end of World War II. The surprise attack caught the Allied forces completely off guard. American forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties of any operation during the war. The battle also severely depleted Germany's armored forces, and they were largely unable to replace them. German personnel and, later, Luftwaffe aircraft (in the concluding stages of the engagement) also sustained heavy losses.

paragraph_text: The bombing failed to demoralise the British into surrender or significantly damage the war economy. The eight months of bombing never seriously hampered British production and the war industries continued to operate and expand. The Blitz was only authorised when the Luftwaffe had failed to meet preconditions for a 1940 launch of Operation Sea Lion, the provisionally planned German invasion of Britain. By May 1941 the threat of an invasion of Britain had passed, and Hitler's attention had turned to Operation Barbarossa in the East. In comparison to the later Allied bombing campaign against Germany, the Blitz resulted in relatively few casualties; the British bombing of Hamburg in July 1943 inflicted some 42,000 civilian deaths, about the same as the entire Blitz.

paragraph_text: Hermann Lichtenberger (20 August 1892 – 15 January 1959) was a general in the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany during World War II who commanded the Flak-Brigade IV. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Lichtenberger retired from active duty on 31

paragraph_text: Josef Kociok (26 April 1918 – 26 September 1943) was a German Luftwaffe pilot during World War II and a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. He was killed in an air collision.

paragraph_text: Leutnant Hans-Georg von der Osten began his career as a World War I flying ace credited with five aerial victories. He later rose to command of all Luftwaffe bases in Germany, during World War II.

paragraph_text: Men of the Lightship is a short propaganda film produced by the Crown Film Unit for the British Ministry of Information in 1940, the year after the beginning of the Second World War. It dramatises the bombing of the East Dudgeon lightship by the "Luftwaffe" on 29 January 1940 and was designed to portray Germany as a barbaric enemy. An opening narration explains the traditional understanding of lightships (stationary ships used as lighthouses) as neutral vessels during war.

paragraph_text: Erich Hohagen (9 January 1915 – 8 March 1990) was a German general in the Bundeswehr. During World War II, he served in the Luftwaffe and was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany.

paragraph_text: Walter Grabmann (20 September 1905 – 20 August 1992) was a German general in the Luftwaffe during World War II. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross of Nazi Germany. Grabmann was credited with 7 aerial victories during the Spanish Civil War claimed in 137 combat missions.

paragraph_text: The Blitz was a German bombing offensive against Britain in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press as an abbreviation of Blitzkrieg (lightning war). The Germans conducted mass air attacks against industrial targets, towns and cities, beginning with raids on London towards the end of the Battle of Britain in 1940, a battle for daylight air superiority between the Luftwaffe and the Royal Air Force over the United Kingdom. By September 1940, the Luftwaffe had failed and the German air fleets (Luftflotten) were ordered to attack London, to draw RAF Fighter Command into a battle of annihilation. Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, commander - in - chief of the Luftwaffe, ordered the new policy on 6 September 1940. From 7 September 1940, London was systematically bombed by the Luftwaffe for 56 out of the following 57 days and nights. Most notable was a large daylight attack against London on 15 September.

paragraph_text: Walter Gericke (23 December 1907 – 19 October 1991), was a German paratroop officer in the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany during World War II and a general in the Bundeswehr of West Germany. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves.

paragraph_text: Günther Sachs (4 May 1903 – 15 July 1962) was a general in the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany during World War II who commanded the 18th Flak Division. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

paragraph_text: Rudolf Bogatsch (4 September 1891 – 5 June 1970) was a general in the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany during World War II who commanded the IV. Flakkorps. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.

paragraph_text: Adolf Dickfeld (20 February 1910 – 17 May 2009) was a German "Luftwaffe" military aviator during World War II, a ace credited with 136 enemy aircraft shot down in about 1,072 combat missions. He was also a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, the highest award in the military and paramilitary forces of Nazi Germany during World War II.

paragraph_text: Werner Schröer (12 February 1918 – 10 February 1985) was a German World War II fighter ace credited with shooting down 114 enemy aircraft. He served in the "Luftwaffe" from 1937, initially as a member of the ground staff, until the end of World War II in Europe on 8 May 1945, by which time he had reached the highest ranks of combat leadership. Schröer was the second most successful claimant of air victories after Hans-Joachim Marseille in the Mediterranean, and was decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords.

paragraph_text: Gabrielle Wittkop (née Menardeau) (1920 – 22 December 2002) was a French writer. She was born in Nantes. She married Justus Wittkop, a Nazi deserter, in Paris and moved with him to Germany in 1946 after the end of the Second World War.

paragraph_text: Erhard Milch (30 March 1892 – 25 January 1972) was a German field marshal who oversaw the development of the Luftwaffe as part of the re-armament of Nazi Germany following World War I. During World War II, he was in charge of aircraft production. He was convicted of war crimes during the Milch Trial held before the U.S. military court in 1947 and sentenced to life imprisonment; he was released in 1954.

paragraph_text: However Italy's conquests were always heavily contested, both by various insurgencies (most prominently the Greek resistance and Yugoslav partisans) and Allied military forces, which waged the Battle of the Mediterranean throughout and beyond Italy's participation. Ultimately the Italian empire collapsed after disastrous defeats in the Eastern European and North African campaigns. In July 1943, following the Allied invasion of Sicily, Benito Mussolini was arrested by order of King Victor Emmanuel III, provoking a civil war. Italy's military outside of the peninsula itself collapsed, its occupied and annexed territories falling under German control. Italy surrendered to the Allies at the end of the Italian Campaign.

paragraph_text: The Axis leaders of World War II were important political and military figures during World War II. The Axis was established with the signing of the Tripartite Pact in 1940 and pursued a strongly militarist and nationalist ideology; with a policy of anti-communism. During the early phase of the war, puppet governments were established in their occupied nations. When the war ended, many of them faced trial for war crimes. The chief leaders were Adolf Hitler of Germany, Benito Mussolini of Italy and Emperor Hirohito of Japan. Unlike what happened with the Allies, there was never a joint meeting of the main Axis heads of government, although Mussolini and Adolf Hitler did meet on a regular basis.

paragraph_text: Pavol Jantausch (27 June 1870- 29 June 1947) was a Czechoslovakian priest and Bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. During the Second World War he protested the antisemitic policies of the Nazi aligned Slovak Republic (1939–45).

paragraph_text: The Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, and along with Mussolini's Italy sought to gain control of the continent by the Second World War. Following the Allied victory in the Second World War, Europe was divided by the Iron Curtain. The countries in Southeastern Europe were dominated by the Soviet Union and became communist states. The major non-communist Southern European countries joined a US-led military alliance (NATO) and formed the European Economic Community amongst themselves. The countries in the Soviet sphere of influence joined the military alliance known as the Warsaw Pact and the economic bloc called Comecon. Yugoslavia was neutal.

Question: When did the Second World War end in the country that the leader of Luftwaffe aligned Germany with?
Answer: July 1943