Luftwaffe

The Luftwaffe (German pronunciation: [ˈlʊftvafə] ) was the aerial-warfare branch of the Wehrmacht before and 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 1919 Treaty of Versailles, which banned Germany from having 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 and officially established on 26 February 1935, just over two weeks before open defiance of the Versailles Treaty through German rearmament 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 began on 1 September 1939. By the summer of 1939, the Luftwaffe had twenty-eight Geschwader (wings). The Luftwaffe also operated a paratrooper force known as the Fallschirmjäger. The Luftwaffe proved instrumental in the German victories across Poland 1939 and Western Europe in spring 1940. Although the Luftwaffe inflicted severe damage to the RAF's infrastructure during the Battle of Britain and devastated many British cities during the subsequent Blitz, it failed to force the British into submission. In 1941 with the Invasion of Yugoslavia, German invasion of Greece and since June 1941 against the Soviet Union, the Luftwaffe was very successful. From 1942, Allied bombing campaigns...