Luftwaffe

The Treaty of Versailles banned Germany from having a military air force, but the Reichswehr trained pilots in secret, including at Lipetsk in the Soviet Union. In 1933 all aviation was placed under Hermann Göring’s Reich Air Ministry; 15 May 1933 is regarded as the Luftwaffe’s birthday. Germany revealed its existence in March 1935, and in Spain the Condor Legion tested new aircraft and tactics.

The Luftwaffe began the war with the raid on Wieluń on 1 September 1939. In Poland and France it quickly won command of the air, but it lost the Battle of Britain and failed to break the British in the Blitz. From 1943, worn down on the Eastern Front and in defending the Reich against Allied bombing, it lost its edge. More than 3 million men served in it; it was dissolved in 1946.