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N0KFQ > TODAY 26.02.17 15:17l 81 Lines 4417 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 24445_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Feb 26
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<IW2OHX<IR1UAW<IQ5KG<I0OJJ<N9PMO
Sent: 170226/1314Z 13218@N9PMO.#SEWI.WI.USA.NOAM BPQ6.0.13
MID: 24445_N0KFQ
Date: 2017/02/26 13:13
Type: Bulletin
From: N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
To: TODAY@WW
Subject: Today in History - Feb 26
Mbo: VE3UIL
Body: 4326
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R:170226/1312Z 24445@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.13
1935
Hitler organizes Luftwaffe
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 Baronö–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 warö–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.
73, K.O. Higgs (n0kfq)
N0KFQ@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
Winlink: n0kfq@winlink.org
E-Mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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