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Luftwaffe

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1933

May

15
- The founding of the LuftwaffeOn 15 May 1933 the military air staffs passed to Göring’s ministry. The day is seen as the birth of the Luftwaffe, which Hitler revealed to the world in 1935.

1936

June

03
- The death of Walther WeverOn 3 June 1936 General Walther Wever, the Luftwaffe’s first chief of staff and an advocate of long-range bombers, was killed in an air crash near Dresden.

November

15
- The Condor Legion goes into actionIn November 1936 Hitler sent Hugo Sperrle's Condor Legion to Spain. By the middle of the month its aircraft were already fighting over besieged Madrid.

1937

April

26
- The bombing of GuernicaOn 26 April 1937 aircraft of the Condor Legion and the Italian air force bombed the Basque town of Guernica. Most researchers put the dead at 150–300.

May

07
- Condor Legion fighters in SpainIn the spring of 1937 the Condor Legion’s fighter group brought the Messerschmitt Bf 109 into combat in Spain, and its pilots developed new air-combat tactics.

1939

August

15
- The Neuhammer disasterOn 15 August 1939 at the Neuhammer training ground (now Świętoszów), 13 Ju 87 dive bombers flew into the ground during a display for generals. 26 airmen died.

September

October

16
- The first Luftwaffe raids on BritainOn 16 October 1939 Ju 88s attacked warships in the Firth of Forth, and on 17 October Scapa Flow. Spitfires shot down two bombers, including the leader’s.

November

December

18
- The air battle of the Heligoland BightOn 18 December 1939 German fighters, alerted by Freya radar, shot down 12 of 22 RAF Wellingtons. Bomber Command then switched to night raids.

1940

January

10
- Key eventThe Mechelen incidentOn 10 January 1940 a German liaison aircraft force-landed in Belgium near Mechelen. The Belgians seized the charred papers of the plan of attack in the West.

March

16
- The Scapa Flow raid and the first civilian deathOn 16 March 1940 the Luftwaffe attacked the fleet at Scapa Flow and damaged the cruiser Norfolk. Bombs on Orkney killed James Isbister, the first civilian.

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

14
- The Balham station disasterOn 14 October 1940 a German bomb broke into the tunnel of Balham Tube station in London. Water and mud flooded the shelter, killing 64 to 68 people.

November

December

1941

January

February

March

April

May

June

02
- The massacres at Kondomari and KandanosA day after Crete fell, the Germans turned on its people. On 2 June 1941 they shot the men of Kondomari; on 3 June they razed Kandanos to the ground.

July

21
- The first air raid on MoscowOn the night of 21/22 July 1941 nearly 200 Luftwaffe bombers attacked Moscow for the first time. The city's air defences limited the effects of the raid.

November

17
- The suicide of Ernst UdetOn 17 November 1941 Colonel General Ernst Udet, head of Luftwaffe equipment, shot himself in Berlin. Propaganda claimed he died testing a new weapon.

December

01
- The thousandth air raid on MaltaAround 1 December 1941 Malta logged its thousandth air raid alert since June 1940. A quiet autumn was ending as the Luftwaffe returned to Sicily.

1942

January

07
- Malta under air attack in January 1942In January 1942 the Luftwaffe in Sicily began bombing Malta's airfields systematically. The island had 263 alerts; its Hurricanes were outclassed by Bf 109s.

February

11
- The Channel Dash (Operation Cerberus)On the night of 11–12 February 1942 Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen left Brest and broke through the English Channel by day to German ports.

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

November

11
- Convoy StoneageOn 11 November 1942 the minelayer Manxman was bound for Malta. The real convoy from Alexandria, Operation Stoneage, arrived on 20 November and lifted the siege.

December

13
- The Stalingrad airliftIn mid-December 1942 the Luftwaffe flew only a fraction of the Sixth Army's needs into the pocket. On 16 December Little Saturn hit the Italians on the Don.

1943

January

27
- The first American raid on GermanyOn 27 January 1943 American bombers attacked Germany for the first time. Of 91 B-17s and B-24s dispatched, 53 bombed Wilhelmshaven and three were lost.

April

18
- The Palm Sunday massacreOn 18 April 1943 US P-40s and British Spitfires shattered a Ju 52 formation off Cape Bon. The Axis air bridge to Tunisia began to collapse.

June

13
- The raids on Kiel and BremenOn 13 June 1943 American B-17s bombed the U-boat yards at Kiel and Bremen. The Germans shot down 26 bombers, including 22 of the 76 sent to Kiel.

August

September

October

14
- Key eventBlack Thursday over SchweinfurtOn 14 October 1943, 291 American B-17s again struck the ball-bearing plants at Schweinfurt. Sixty bombers failed to return and some 600 airmen were missing.

December

02
- Key eventThe air raid on BariOn 2 December 1943 German Ju 88s surprised the crowded port of Bari. More than a dozen ships sank, and mustard gas from the John Harvey poisoned hundreds.

1944

January

20
- The raid on Berlin of 20 JanuaryOn the night of 20–21 January 1944 the RAF sent 769 bombers to Berlin. They reportedly dropped about 2,300 tons of bombs; 35 aircraft were lost.

February

26
- Key eventBig WeekFrom 20 to 25 February 1944 US and RAF bombers struck the German aircraft industry. The Luftwaffe lost hundreds of fighters and pilots it could not replace.

March

June

13
- Key eventThe first V-1 flying bombsOn the night of 12/13 June 1944 the Germans fired the first V-1s at England. The flying-bomb offensive killed about 6,000 people in Britain.

July

September

December

24
- V-1s over ManchesterOn Christmas Eve 1944 Heinkels over the North Sea launched 45 V-1s at Manchester. More than 40 people were killed, most of them in Oldham.

1945

January

01
- Operation BodenplatteOn 1 January 1945 the Luftwaffe hit Allied airfields in Belgium, the Netherlands and France, destroying hundreds of aircraft but losing 300 and over 200 pilots.

April

23
- Göring's telegramOn 23 April 1945 Göring asked Hitler if he should take over power in the Reich. Hitler called it treason and stripped him of office; Greim took the Luftwaffe.