HITLER ORGANIZES LUFTWAFFE:

February 26, 1935

On February 26, 1935, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler signs a secret decree authorizing
the founding of the Reich Luftwaffe as a third German military service to join
the Reich army and navy. In the same decree, Hitler appointed Hermann Goering, a
German air hero from World War I and high-ranking Nazi, as commander in chief of
the new German air force.The Versailles Treaty that ended World War I prohibited
military aviation in Germany, but a German civilian airline--Lufthansa--was
founded in 1926 and provided flight training for the men who would later become
Luftwaffe pilots. After coming to power in 1933, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler began
to secretly develop a state-of-the-art military air force and appointed Goering
as German air minister. (During World War I, Goering commanded the celebrated
air squadron in which the great German ace Manfred von Richthofen--"The Red
Baron"--served.) In February 1935, Hitler formally organized the Luftwaffe as a
major step in his program of German rearmament.The Luftwaffe was to be
uncamouflaged step-by-step so as not to alarm foreign governments, and the size
and composition of Luftwaffe units were to remain secret as before. However, in
March 1935, Britain announced it was strengthening its Royal Air Force (RAF),
and Hitler, not to be outdone, revealed his Luftwaffe, which was rapidly growing
into a formidable air force.As German rearmament moved forward at an alarming
rate, Britain and France protested but failed to keep up with German war
production. The German air fleet grew dramatically, and the new German
fighter--the Me-109--was far more sophisticated than its counterparts in
Britain, France, or Russia. The Me-109 was bloodied during the Spanish Civil
War; Luftwaffe pilots received combat training as they tried out new aerial
attack formations on Spanish towns such as Guernica, which suffered more than
1,000 killed during a brutal bombing by the Luftwaffe in April 1937.The
Luftwaffe was configured to serve as a crucial part of the German blitzkrieg, or
"lightning war"--the deadly military strategy developed by General Heinz
Guderian. As German panzer divisions burst deep into enemy territory, lethal
Luftwaffe dive-bombers would decimate the enemy's supply and communication lines
and cause panic. By the outbreak of World War II in September 1939, the
Luftwaffe had an operational force of 1,000 fighters and 1,050 bombers.First
Poland and then Denmark, Norway, Holland, Belgium, and France fell to the
blitzkrieg. After the surrender of France, Germany turned the Luftwaffe against
Britain, hoping to destroy the RAF in preparation for a proposed German landing.
However, in the epic air battle known as the Battle of Britain, the outnumbered
RAF fliers successfully resisted the Luftwaffe, relying on radar technology,
their new, highly maneuverable Spitfire aircraft, bravery, and luck. For every
British plane shot down, two German warplanes were destroyed. In the face of
British resistance, Hitler changed strategy in the Battle of Britain, abandoning
his invasion plans and attempting to bomb London into submission. However, in
this campaign, the Luftwaffe was hampered by its lack of strategic, long-range
bombers, and in early 1941 the Battle of Britain ended in failure.Britain had
handed the Luftwaffe its first defeat. Later that year, Hitler ordered an
invasion of the USSR, which after initial triumphs turned into an unqualified
disaster. As Hitler stubbornly fought to overcome Russia's bitter resistance,
the depleted Luftwaffe steadily lost air superiority over Europe in the face of
increasing British and American air attacks. By the time of the D-Day invasion
of Normandy in June 1944, the Luftwaffe air fleet was a skeleton of its former
self.