Luftwaffe ( ) (derived from the words
"Luft"= air and "Waffe"=weapon) is a generic German term for an
air force. It is also the official name
for two of the four historic German air forces, the
Wehrmacht air arm founded in 1933 and
disbanded in 1946; and the current
Bundeswehr air arm founded in 1956.
Schweizer Luftwaffe is also the name of the
Swiss Air Force in German (
Forces
aériennes suisses in French and
Forze Aeree Svizzere
in Italian).
Two other historic German air forces are the
World War I-era Luftstreitkräfte and the
Luftstreitkräfte der
NVA in the GDR
. The air force of Austria
is called
Österreichische
Luftstreitkräfte.
History
World War I
The forerunner of the Luftwaffe, the Imperial German Army Air
Service (
Luftstreitkräfte), was founded in
1910 with the name
Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen
Kaiserreiches, and changed to the name "Luftstreitkräfte" by
the end of 1916, with the emergence of
military aircraft, although they were
intended to be used primarily for
reconnaissance in support of armies on the
ground, just as balloons had been used in the same fashion during
the
Franco-Prussian War of
1870–1871 and even as far back as the
Napoleonic Wars. It was not the world's
first
air force, however, because France's
embryonic army air service, which eventually became the
French Air Force , had also been founded in
1910. Britain's
Royal Flying
Corps (which merged in 1918 with the
Royal Naval Air Service to form the
Royal Air Force) was founded in
1912.
During
World War I, the Imperial Army
Air Service utilised a wide variety of aircraft, ranging from
fighters (such as those manufactured by
Albatros-Flugzeugwerke and
Fokker) to reconnaissance aircraft (Aviatik and DFW)
and heavy bombers (
Gothaer
Waggonfabrik, better known simply as Gotha, and the
Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI "giant"
heavy bomber). Missions were also flown in a
wide range of theatres, from the Western Front to the plains of
Russia and even as far away as bombing raids on British Suez Canal
positions in support of the Ottoman offense in 1915.
However, the fighters on the Western Front received the most
attention in the annals of military aviation, since it produced
aces such as
Manfred von
Richthofen, popularly known as the Red Baron (
der Rote
Baron),
Ernst Udet,
Hermann Göring,
Oswald Boelcke,
Werner
Voss, and
Max Immelmann (the first
airman to win the
Pour le
Mérite, Imperial Germany's highest decoration for
gallantry, as a result of which the decoration became popularly
known as the Blue Max). As did the German Navy, the German Army
used
Zeppelins as
airships for bombing military and civilian targets
in France and Belgium as well as the United Kingdom.
All German and
Austro-Hungarian
military aircraft in service used the
Iron
Cross insignia until early 1918. Afterwards, the
Balkenkreuz, a black
Greek
cross on white, was introduced.
After the war ended in German defeat, the service was dissolved
completely on May 8, 1920 under the conditions of the
Treaty of Versailles, which demanded
that its airplanes be completely destroyed. As a result of this
disbanding, today's
Luftwaffe (which dates from 1956) can
not claim to be the oldest independent air force in the world,
since the
Royal Air Force of the
United Kingdom is older, having been founded on 1 April 1918.
Interwar period
Since the
Treaty of Versailles
forbade Germany from having an air force, German pilots had to be
trained in secret from the Treaty of Versailles.
Initially, civil
aviation schools within Germany were used, yet only light training
planes could be used in order to maintain the facade that the
trainees were going to fly with civil airlines such as Lufthansa
. To train its pilots on the latest combat
aircraft, Germany solicited the help of its future enemy, the
USSR
, which was also isolated in Europe.
A secret
training airfield was established at Lipetsk
in 1924 and
operated for approximately nine years using mostly Dutch and
Russian, but also some German, training aircraft before being
closed in 1933. This base was officially known as 4th
squadron of the 40th wing of the Red Army.
On 26 February 1935,
Adolf Hitler
ordered
Hermann Göring to
establish the
Luftwaffe, breaking the
Treaty of Versailles's ban on German
military aviation. Germany violated the treaty without sanction
from Britain, France, or the
League of
Nations, and neither they nor the league did anything to oppose
this. Although the new air force was to be run totally separately
from the army, it retained the tradition of according army ranks
for its officers and airmen, a tradition retained today by united
Germany's
Luftwaffe and by many air forces throughout the
world. It is worth noting, however, that before the official
promulgation of Göring's new
Luftwaffe in 1935, Germany
had a paramilitary air force known as the
Deutscher Luftsportverband
(DLV: German air sports union). The DLV was headed by
Ernst Udet and its insignia were taken over by
the new Luftwaffe, although the DLV "ranks" had special names that
made them sound more civilian than military.
Dr. Fritz Todt, the engineer who founded
the forced labor
Organisation
Todt, was appointed to the rank of
Generalmajor in the
Luftwaffe. He
was not, strictly speaking, an airman, although he had served in an
observation squadron during
World War I
and had been awarded the
Iron Cross. He
died in a
plane crash in February
1942.
Hermann Göring personally chose an insignia for the
Luftwaffe that differed from that of the other armed
branches . The eagle, an old symbol of the German Empire, was used,
but in a different posture. Since 1933, when Hitler's National
Socialist Party came to power, the eagle held between his claws the
symbol of the party—the
swastika (an old
symbol of sunrise)—which usually was enveloped by an oak wreath.
Göring rejected the old heraldic eagle because he felt it was too
stylized, too static, and too massive; instead he chose a younger,
more natural and lighter eagle with wings spread as if in flight,
as he considered this a more suitable symbol for an
air force. While the
Wehrmacht eagle held
the symbol of the National Socialist Party firmly in its claws, the
Luftwaffe eagle held the swastika with only one claw while
the other was bent in a threatening gesture.
The Luftwaffe attempted to incorporate all military units that had
anything to do with air warfare. Given the strong nazi origin and
influence in the Luftwaffe, this was seen as a way to increase nazi
influence in the army (alongside the other project in this respect,
the formation of SS divisions), as well as boosting the personal
prestige of Göring. Thus the anti-aircraft (
Flak) and airborne troops (
Fallschirmjäger) fell under direct
Luftwaffe command, and the navy (
Kriegsmarine) never established its own air
branch; naval aviation was executed by the Luftwaffe.
Even the aircraft
flown from the (never finished) aircraft carrier Graf
Zeppelin
were intended to be flown by the Luftwaffe.
By the middle of the war, when personnel assignments for the
Luftwaffe were disproportionate to a shrinking amount of planes,
the excess personnel was not transferred to the army (Heer), but
instead organized into
Luftwaffe Field Divisions in 1942.
However, their performance as ground units was so poor that command
was transferred to Heer in 1943, although they retained their
name.
The
Luftwaffe had the ideal opportunity to test its pilots,
aircraft and tactics in the Spanish
Civil War of 1936–1939, when the Condor Legion was sent to Spain
in support
of the anti-Republican government revolt led by Francisco Franco. Modern machines
included names which would become world famous: the
Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bomber,
Dornier Do 17 "
Schnell" (fast)
bomber, and the
Messerschmitt Bf
109 fighter plane. However, since the aircraft were seconded to
Franco's Nationalist air force,
Luftwaffe markings were
replaced to avoid giving the world the impression that Germany was
actively supporting the revolt. Instead of the Nazi Party's
swastika on the tail, the German planes
used the nationalist air force aircraft markings (a Saint Andrew's
cross over a white background, painted on the rudder of the
aircraft and a black disc on fuselage and wings). All aircraft in
the Legion were affiliated to units given a designation ending in
the number 88. For example, bombers were in
Kampfgruppe
(combat group) 88, abbreviated K/88; and fighters, in Jagdgruppe
(fighter group) 88,
J/88.
A grim
foretaste of the systematic bombing of cities during World War II came in April 1937 when a combined
force of German and Italian bombers under Spanish-Nationalist
command destroyed most of the Basque
city of Guernica
in north-east Spain. This bombing received worldwide
condemnation, and the collective memory of the horror of the
bombing of civilians has ever since become most acute via the
famous
painting, named after the
town, by the
Cubist artist
Pablo Picasso. Many feared that this would be
the way that future air wars would be conducted, since the Italian
strategist, General
Giulio Douhet (who
had died in 1930), had formulated theories regarding what would be
dubbed "strategic bombing", the idea that wars would be won by
striking from the air at the heart of the industrial muscle of a
warring nation, and thus demoralizing the civilian population to
the point where the government of that nation would be driven to
sue for peace—a portent of things to come, certainly, and not just
during the war which would break out in Europe only months after
the end of the civil war in Spain.
World War II
At the outset of the war, the
Luftwaffe was one of the
most modern, powerful, and experienced air forces in the world,
dominating the skies over Europe with aircraft much more advanced
than their foreign counterparts. The
Luftwaffe was central
to the German
Blitzkrieg
(lightning war) doctrine, as the
close
air support provided by various medium two-engine bombers,
Stuka dive bombers and an
overwhelming force of tactical fighters were key to several early
successes. However, unlike the British and American Air Forces, the
Luftwaffe never developed four-engine bombers in any
significant numbers, and was thus unable to conduct an effective
long-range strategic bombing campaign against either the Russians
or the Western Allies.
The
Messerschmitt Bf 109 was
the most versatile and widely-produced fighter aircraft operated by
the
Luftwaffe and was designed when biplanes were still
standard. Many versions of this aircraft were made. The engine, a
liquid cooled Mercedes-Benz DB 601, initially generated up to
almost . This power increased as direct fuel injection was
introduced to the engines. The kill ratio (almost 9:1) made clear
this plane was far superior than any of the other German fighters
during the war. In this regard it was followed by the
Focke-Wulf Fw 190 at 4:1. This plane had
relatively short wings and was powered by a radial BMW engine. The
Junkers Ju 87 Stuka was a
main asset for
Blitzkrieg, able to place bombs with deadly
accuracy. The leader of the
Luftwaffe was
Hermann Göring, a
World War I fighter
ace and former commander of
Manfred von Richthofen's famous JG 1
(aka "
The Flying
Circus") who had joined the Nazi party in its early
stages.
In the summer and autumn of 1940, the
Luftwaffe lost the
Battle of Britain over the skies
of England, the first all-air battle. Following the military
failures on the
Eastern
Front, from 1942 onwards, the
Luftwaffe went into a
steady, gradual decline that saw it outnumbered and overwhelmed by
the sheer number of Allied aircraft being deployed against it.
Towards the end of the war, the
Luftwaffe was no longer a
major factor, and despite fielding advanced aircraft like the
Messerschmitt Me 262,
Heinkel He 162,
Arado
Ar 234, and
Me 163 it was crippled by
fuel shortages and a lack of trained pilots. There was also very
little time to develop the new aircraft, and they could not be
produced fast enough by the Germans, so the jet- and rocket-powered
planes proved to be "too little too late".
Cold War

West-German Luftwaffe field cap from
1962
German aviation in general was severely curtailed, and military
aviation was completely forbidden when the
Luftwaffe was
officially disbanded in August 1946 by the
Allied Control Commission.
This
changed when West
Germany
joined NATO
in 1955, as
the Western Allies believed that Germany was needed in view of the
increasing military threat posed by the Soviet Union
and its Warsaw Pact
allies. Throughout the following decades, the West
German Luftwaffe (Bundesluftwaffe: federal air
force) was equipped mostly with U.S.
-designed
aircraft manufactured locally under license. All aircraft
sported—and continue to sport—the Iron Cross on the fuselage,
harking back to the days of World War I, while the national flag of
West Germany is displayed on the tail.
Many well-known fighter pilots who had fought with the
Luftwaffe in World War II joined the new post-war air
force and underwent refresher training in the U.S. before returning
to West Germany to upgrade on the latest U.S.-supplied hardware.
These included
Erich Hartmann, the
highest-ever scoring ace (352 enemy aircraft destroyed),
Gerhard Barkhorn (301),
Günther Rall (275) and
Johannes Steinhoff (176). Steinhoff, who
suffered a crash in a
Messerschmitt
Me 262 shortly before the end of the war that resulted in
lifelong scarring of his face and other parts of his body, would
eventually become commander-in-chief of the
Luftwaffe,
with Rall as his immediate successor. Hartmann retired as an
Oberst (
colonel) in 1970 at age 48.
Josef Kammhuber, mentioned above, also
served in the post-war
Luftwaffe, retiring in 1962 as
Inspekteur der Bundesluftwaffe (chief inspector of the
Federal air force).
During the 1960s, the "
Starfighter crisis"
developed into a political issue, as many of these
Lockheed F-104 Starfighters crashed after being
modified to serve for
Luftwaffe purposes — specifically
for terrain, weather, and ground mechanic support issues. In
Luftwaffe service, 292 of the 916 Starfighters crashed,
claiming the lives of 115 pilots and leading to cries that the
Starfighter was fundamentally unsafe from the West German public,
which referred to it as the
Witwenmacher (widow-maker),
fliegender Sarg (flying coffin), and
Erdnagel
(ground nail).
Steinhoff
and his deputy Günther Rall noted that the non-German F-104s proved
much safer — Spain
, for
example, lost none in the same period. The Americans blamed
the high loss rate of the
Luftwaffe F-104s on the extreme
low-level and aggressive flying of German pilots rather than any
faults in the aircraft.. Steinhoff and Rall immediately left their
daily work and went to America to learn to fly the Starfighter
under Lockheed instruction and noted some specifics in the training
(a distinct lack of mountain and foggy-weather training), combined
with handling capabilities (sharp start high G turns) of the
aircraft that could create accident situations.
Steinhoff and Rall immediately changed the training regimen for the
F-104 pilots, and the accident rates quickly fell to those
comparable or better than other air forces. They also brought about
the high level of training and professionalism seen today
throughout the
Luftwaffe, and the start of a strategic
direction for
Luftwaffe pilots to engage in tactical and
combat training outside of Germany. However, the F-104 never lived
down its reputation as a widow-maker and was replaced much earlier
by the Luftwaffe than other national air forces.
The
Starfighter was completely replaced by the American-built McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter and the Panavia Tornado fighter-bomber, where the
latter was designed and produced by a cooperative of companies from
the United
Kingdom
, Germany
, and Italy
.
These fighters all remain in Luftwaffe service today, especially
with upgrades to their electronics and the addition of the
AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile for the air
defence of Germany.
From 1965 through 1970, two surface-to-surface missile wings
(
Flugkörpergeschwader) fielded 16 of the
Pershing I missile systems with nuclear
warheads under U.S. Army custody. In 1970, the system was upgraded
to Pershing IA with 72 missiles. Although not directly affected by
the 1988
Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces Treaty, the
Luftwaffe unilaterally
agreed to the removal of the Pershing IA missiles from its
inventory in 1991, and the missiles were destroyed.
Beginning in June 1979, the
Luftwaffe took delivery of 212
Panavia Tornado fighters.
Reunification
The
GDR
air force, the Luftstreitkräfte der NVA,
was supplied exclusively with Eastern
Bloc-produced aircraft such as the Sukhoi Su-17 "Fitter" and the more famous
Mikoyan-Gurevich (MiG) family of aircraft,
such as the MiG-21, MiG-23 and MiG-29 fighters, and served primarily as an extension
of Red Air Force units in Eastern
Germany. The
East
German Air Force was unique among
Warsaw
Pact countries in that it was often equipped with
Soviet-standard combat aircraft instead of downgraded export
models. Operated as an extension of Soviet air power, the East
German Air Force enjoyed less autonomy than other Eastern Bloc air
forces. Unlike the West German
Luftwaffe, the markings
sported on the aircraft reflected the identity of the country as
belonging to the Communist bloc. These markings consisted of a
diamond-shaped design, in which could be seen the vertically
oriented three stripes in black, red and gold surmounted by the
stylized hammer, compass and wreath-like ears-of-grain design,
which was also on the
Flag of East
Germany, although the stripes were a 90° orientation from those
to be seen on either national flag of the two German nations
between 1959 and 1990.
After
East and West Germany were reunified in October 1990, the aircraft
of the NVA were taken over by
the unified Federal Republic of Germany
, and their GDR markings were replaced by the Iron
Cross, thus creating the singular situation of Soviet-built
aircraft serving in a NATO air force. However, most of
these would eventually be taken out of service altogether, in many
cases being sold to the new Eastern European allies now part of
NATO
, such as Poland and the Baltic states.
The
exception to this was the Jagdgeschwader 73
"Steinhoff" (Fighter Wing 73 "Steinhoff") stationed in
Laage
. The pilots of the JG 73 flew MiG-29s
acquired during the reunification and were some of the most
experienced MiG-29 pilots in the world. One of their primary duties
was to serve as aggressor pilots, training other pilots in
dissimilar combat tactics.
The United States sent a group of fighter pilots to Germany during
the
Red October exercise to practice real tactics against
the aircraft they were most likely to meet in real combat. However,
the MiG-29s of JG 73 were fully integrated into the Luftwaffe's air
defence structure and, from
February
1995 became the first Soviet Bloc aircraft to
be declared operational within NATO. In 2004, with the introduction
of the
Eurofighter Typhoon
imminent, the decision was taken to withdraw the MiG-29. JG 73s
aircraft were finally withdrawn in
August
2004, following which they were sold to the
Polish Air Force.
1990s
The
United
States
provides nuclear
weapons for use by Germany under a NATO nuclear sharing agreement. As of
2007, only 22
B61-4 are still
present, stored at
Büchel Air
Base for delivery with German Air Force
Panavia Tornados. These bombs are likely to
be withdrawn when the Tornados at Büchel are replaced with
Eurofighter Typhoons after 2012, since
it is not planned to integrate the B-61 bomb into the Eurofighter.
B-61s stationed at Nörvenich and Memmingen Air Base (fighter-bomber
wing JaBoG 34 "Allgäu") have already been withdrawn in the mid- to
late-1990s.
All nuclear bombs formerly stored at the
Ramstein Air
Base
have been returned to the U.S.
or elsewhere
(the U.K.
is
possible), due to ongoing construction work at Ramstein AB, and
they will not be returned to Germany.
In March
1999, for the first time since 1945, the Luftwaffe engaged
in combat operations as part of the NATO
-led Kosovo War. This event was noted as
significant in the British press with
"The Sun" running the headline
"
Luftwaffe and the
RAF into battle side
by side". The
Luftwaffe flew suppression of enemy air
defence (
SEAD) sorties. No Luftwaffe aircraft
was lost during the campaign, but the force's role proved to be
controversial in Germany because Germany was not and, indeed, still
is not allowed to participate in "wars of aggression", as provided
in its 1949 constitution (
Grundgesetz). In addition to constitutional
concerns, strong pacifist sentiment is present in the population
that is opposed to the use of force by Germany in international
affairs.
2000s
In 2005 and 2008, F-4F Phantoms, in 2009 Eurofighter and F-4F
participated in NATO's
Baltic Air
Policing operation.
In 2006,
to support coalition operations across Afghanistan
, the Luftwaffe deployed Panavia Tornado
reconnaissance aircraft from Aufklärungsgeschwader 51
"Immelmann" (the 51st Reconnaissance Wing "Immelmann"),
stationed in Mazar-i-Sharif
, Northern Afghanistan.There are also various
army helicopters in operation at the German air base in
Mazar-i-Sharif and Luftwaffe C-160
Transall
conduct air transport sorties into and within Afghanistan.
Future
Since the 1970s, the
Luftwaffe of West Germany and later
the reunited Germany (as well as many other European air forces)
has actively pursued the construction of European combat aircraft
such as the
Panavia Tornado and,
more recently, the
Eurofighter
Typhoon, which was introduced in 2006.
On 13 January 2004, the
Defence Minister
Peter Struck announced major changes to
the
German armed forces. A major part of
this announcement was a plan to cut the German fighter fleet from
426 aircraft in early 2004 to 265 by 2015. Assuming the full German
order for 180
Eurofighter
Typhoons is fulfilled, this will see the Tornado force reduced
to 85. The
German Navy's air wing
(
Marineflieger) received 112 Tornado IDSs. In late 2004
the last Tornado unit was disbanded. The maritime combat role has
been assumed by the
Luftwaffe, a unit of which has had its
Tornados upgraded to carry the
Kormoran
II and
AGM-88 HARM missiles.
Tactical training centers
In light of the destroyed infrastructure of West Germany post-World
War II, the restrictions on aircraft production placed on Germany
and the later restrictive flying zones available for training
pilots, the reconstructed
Luftwaffe trained most of its
pilots tactically away from Germany, mainly in the United States
and Canada where most of its aircraft were sourced.
During the 1960s and 1970s, a very large number of Luftwaffe jet
crashes—the
Luftwaffe suffered a 36 percent crash rate for
F-84F Thunderstreaks and an
almost 30 percent loss of
F-104
Starfighters—created considerable public demand for moving
Luftwaffe combat training centers away from Germany.
As a
result, the Luftwaffe set up two tactical training
centres: one, like those of many of the NATO
forces, at
the Canadian Forces Air
Command base at Goose
Bay
; and the second in a unique partnership with the
United States Air Force at Holloman Air Force Base
in New
Mexico
(F-104 pilots had already been trained at Luke Air
Force Base
, Arizona
, since 1964). Both facilities provide access
to large unpopulated areas, where tactical and combat training can
take place without danger to large populations.
In September 2004, the
Luftwaffe s chief of staff,
Klaus-Peter Stieglitz,
announced a reduction in its training program of roughly 20%.
Holloman Air Force Base

F-4Es of the 1st GAFTS.
On 1 May 1996, the
Luftwaffe established the German Air
Force Tactical Training Center (TTC) in concert with the
United States Air Force 20th Fighter
Squadron, which provides aircrew training in the F-4F Phantom II.
The TTC serves as the parent command for two German air crew
training squadrons. The F-4 Training Squadron oversees all German
F-4 student personnel affairs and provides German instructor pilots
to cooperate in the contracted F-4 training program provided by the
U.S. Air Force (20th Fighter Squadron). A second TTC unit, the
Tornado Training Squadron, provides academic and tactical flying
training, by German air force instructors, for German
Tornado aircrews.
The first contingent of Tornado aircraft arrived at Holloman in
March 1996. More than 300 German air force personnel are
permanently assigned at Holloman to the TTC, the only unit of its
kind in the United States. The German Air Force Flying Training
Center activated on 31 March 1996, with German Air Force Chief of
Staff Gen. Portz and U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael
Ryan present. The
Luftwaffe has since stationed up to 800
personnel at Holloman for training exercises, due to limited
training space in
Europe.
Organization

Structure of the German air force in
2008
Structure of the German Luftwaffe as of November
2009
German Air Force Command
The German Air Force Command is the superior command to all combat
forces of the German Air Force.
Subordinate elements are:
- German Air Force Air Operations Command
- National Air Policing Centre
- Air Force Command and Control Regiment
- The combat units are organized in three Air Divisions and the
so called Air Transport Command:
1st Air
Division |
2nd Air
Division |
4th Air
Division |
Air Transport
Command |
Tactical Air Command and Control Regiment 1 |
Tactical Air Command and Control Regiment 3 |
Tactical Air Command and Control Regiment 2 and 4 |
|
Surface-to-Air Missile Wing 5
- SAM Battalion 22
- SAM Battalion 23
|
Surface-to-Air Missile Wing 2
- SAM Battalion 21
- SAM Battalion 24
|
Surface-to-Air Missile Wing 1
- SAM Battalion 25
- SAM Battalion 26
|
|
|
|
|
- Special Air Mission Wing, Federal Ministry of Defence
- Air Transport Wing 61
- Air Transport Wing 62
- Air Transport Wing 63
|
German Air Force Tactical Training Center Italy |
|
German Air Force Regiment
"Frisia" |
|
German Air Force Office
The German Air Force Office is responsible for supporting the air
force combat units. Main tasks are maintenance and logistic support
and provision of basic training and education.
Subordinate elements are:
- Surgeon General of the Air Force
- Bundeswehr Air Traffic Services Office
- Air Force Support Battalion
- Legal Advisor Center
Air Force
Training Command |
Air Force Weapon
Systems Command |
German Air Force
Command United
States / Canada |
- Air Force Officer School
- Non-Commissioned
Officer's School of the Air Force
- Air Force Technical School 1 (with Air Force Bands 1 and
2)
- Air Force Technical School 3 (with Air Force Bands 3 and
4)
- Air Force Training Regiment
|
- Maintenance Regiment 1
- Center for Avionics
- Center for Aircraft Technology
- Maintenance Regiment 2
- Maintenance Group 21
- Maintenance Group 22
- Maintenance Group 25
- Weapon Systems Support Center
|
- German Air Force Flying Training Center,
United States Holloman
AFB

- German Air Force Air Defense Center, United States
|
Aircraft inventory
See also
References
Notes
Selected bibliography
Hundreds of books, magazines and articles have been written about
the Luftwaffe. A select few are listed here.
- Aders, Gebhard (1992), History of the German Night-Fighter
Force, 1917-1945 (edited and translated by Alex
Vanags-Baginskis), Crecy. ISBN 0-947554-21-1. (Originally published
by Jane's in 1979.)
- Amadio, Jill (2002), Günther Rall: A Memoir, Seven
Locks Press. ISBN 0-9715533-0-0.
- Galland, Adolf (2000 [1957]), The First and the Last,
Buccaneer Books, Inc. ISBN 0-89966-728-7.
- Green, William (1990), Warplanes of the Third Reich,
Galahad. [Second edition, following from original work published in
1970.] ISBN 0-88365-666-3.
- Held, Werner and Nauroth, Holger (1982), The Defence of the
Reich: Hitler's Nightfighter Planes and Pilots (translated by
David Roberts), London, Arms and Armour Press. ISBN
0-85368-414-6.
- Mermet, Jean-Claude and Ehrengardt, Christian-Jacques (2002),
Les Jets de la Luftwaffe: Aéro-Journal Hors-Série No.4,
Aéro-Éditions International (French language edition only). ISSN
0336-1055 .
- Orbis Publishing Limited, London (1974-77), Wings, a
part-work encyclopedia of aviation in eight volumes, which included
many articles about the battles during World War II in which the
Luftwaffe took part, as well as biographies of some of its
high-profile airmen.
- Orbis Publishing Limited, London (1981-84) (second edition),
World War II, a part-work encyclopedia in eight volumes
about the 1939-1945 War.
- Philpott, Bryan (1986), History of the German Air
Force, Hamlyn. ISBN 0-600-50293-7.
- Price, Alfred (2005), Battle Over The Reich: The Strategic
Bomber Offensive Against Germany 1939-1945, Classic
Publications. [Revised, second edition based on the previous work
with the same title first published in 1973.] ISBN
1-903223-47-4.
- Price, Alfred (2000), Blitz on Britain, 1939-1945,
Sutton. [Revised edition of Blitz on Britain : the bomber
attacks on the United Kingdom, 1939-1945, first published by
Ian Allan in 1977]. ISBN 0-7110-0723-3 (1977 edition).
- Sobolev, D. A. and Khazanov, D.B. (2001), The German
Imprint on the History of Russian Aviation, Moscow, Rusavia
(English edition). ISBN 5-900078-08-6.
- Wood, Tony, and Gunston, Bill (1984), Hitler's Luftwaffe: A
Pictorial History and Technical Encyclopedia of Hitler's Air Power
in World War II, Book Sales (originally published by
Salamander Books). ISBN 0-89009-758-5.
External links