German Luftwaffe

The ***Luftwaffe*** was the aerial warfare branch of the *Wehrmacht* during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the *Luftstreitkräfte* of the Imperial Army and the *Marine-Fliegerabteilung* of the Imperial Navy, had been disbanded in May 1920 in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Versailles which stated that Germany was forbidden to have any air force.

During the interwar period, German pilots were trained secretly in violation of the treaty at Lipetsk Air Base in the Soviet Union. With the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Versailles Treaty, the *Luftwaffe*'s existence was publicly acknowledged on 26 February 1935, just over two weeks before open defiance of the Versailles Treaty through German re-armament and conscription would be announced on 16 March. The Condor Legion, a *Luftwaffe* detachment sent to aid Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, provided the force with a valuable testing ground for new tactics and aircraft. Partially as a result of this combat experience, the *Luftwaffe* had become one of the most sophisticated, technologically advanced, and battle-experienced air forces in the world when World War II broke out in 1939. By the summer of 1939, the *Luftwaffe* had twenty-eight *Geschwader* (wings). The *Luftwaffe* also operated *Fallschirmjäger* paratrooper units.

The *Luftwaffe* proved instrumental in the German victories across Poland and Western Europe in 1939 and 1940. During the Battle of Britain, however, despite inflicting severe damage to the RAF's infrastructure and, during the subsequent Blitz, devastating many British cities, the German air force failed to batter the beleaguered British into submission. From 1942, Allied bombing campaigns gradually destroyed the *Luftwaffe*'s fighter arm. From late 1942, the *Luftwaffe* used its surplus ground support and other personnel to raise *Luftwaffe* Field Divisions. In addition to its service in the West, the *Luftwaffe* operated over the Soviet Union, North Africa and Southern Europe. Despite its belated use of advanced turbojet and rocket propelled aircraft for the destruction of Allied bombers, the *Luftwaffe* was overwhelmed by the Allies' superior numbers and improved tactics, and a lack of trained pilots and aviation fuel. In January 1945, during the closing stages of the Battle of the Bulge, the *Luftwaffe* made a last-ditch effort to win air superiority, and met with failure. With rapidly dwindling supplies of petroleum, oil, and lubricants after this campaign, and as part of the entire combined *Wehrmacht* military forces as a whole, the *Luftwaffe* ceased to be an effective fighting force.

After the defeat of Germany, the *Luftwaffe* was disbanded in 1946. During World War II, German pilots claimed roughly 70,000 aerial victories, while over 75,000 *Luftwaffe* aircraft were destroyed or significantly damaged. Of these, nearly 40,000 were lost entirely. The *Luftwaffe* had only two commanders-in-chief throughout its history: Hermann Göring and later *Generalfeldmarschall* Robert Ritter von Greim for the last two weeks of the war.

The *Luftwaffe* was deeply involved in Nazi war crimes. By the end of the war, a significant percentage of aircraft production originated in concentration camps, an industry employing tens of thousands of prisoners. The *Luftwaffe*'s demand for labor was one of the factors that led to the deportation and murder of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews in 1944. The *Oberkommando der Luftwaffe* organized Nazi human experimentation, and *Luftwaffe* ground troops committed massacres in Italy, Greece, and Poland.