Banned in 1919, Germany's air force trained in secret on Soviet soil
The Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany any air force at all, and its wartime squadrons were dissolved in 1920. Yet by the start of the Second World War the Luftwaffe was among the most advanced air arms anywhere. Much of that groundwork happened quietly at a hidden airfield in the Soviet Union.
Germany's First World War flying service had produced famous aces such as Manfred von Richthofen and Oswald Boelcke before the treaty ordered its aircraft destroyed. To keep skills alive, pilots trained on light civil planes under cover of airline careers, and in 1924 a secret base opened at Lipetsk in the Soviet Union, another diplomatic outcast, running for about nine years. When Hitler came to power, Hermann Göring, himself a wartime ace, took charge of aviation, with former Luft Hansa director Erhard Milch doing much of the actual organising. Göring had last flown in 1922 and knew little of modern aircraft, but his place in Hitler's inner circle unlocked money and materials.
The Luftwaffe was unveiled on 26 February 1935, weeks before Germany openly announced rearmament. Its planners, including chief of staff Walther Wever, argued over whether bombers should target industry or support the army; as a land power, Germany leaned toward helping ground forces. The Condor Legion sent to the Spanish Civil War became a proving ground for new aircraft and tactics.
When war began on 1 September 1939, the force was central to rapid victories over Poland and Western Europe. The Battle of Britain was its first failure: it battered RAF airfields and then British cities during the Blitz, but could not force surrender. From 1942 Allied bombing steadily wore down its fighters, and late jet and rocket aircraft could not offset Allied numbers, a shortage of trained pilots and dwindling fuel. A final bid for air superiority in January 1945 failed.
The service was also deeply implicated in Nazi crimes, drawing on forced labour from concentration camps for aircraft production. Göring led it almost to the end, replaced only for the war's last two weeks by Robert Ritter von Greim. Nearly 40,000 aircraft were lost outright, and the Luftwaffe was disbanded in 1946.
Source: Luftwaffe
