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N0KFQ > TODAY 26.02.15 16:00l 80 Lines 3900 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Feb 26
Path: IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 150226/1500Z 48455@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
Feb 26, 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 Baron"--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 war"--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. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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