Figure 1.--These German boys were being trained as pilots at the end of the War. The wire service caption read, "Young Germans arrive as prisoners: Young German prisoners of war admotting to 16 and 17 years of age ad from 4 weeks to 4 months in service areinspected by American soldiers here today after their arrical at a Hidson River pier." The phptograph was taken May 13, 1945, a few days after the NAZI surrender. We were a little surprised by the date. Our understanding is that at the end of the War, the Germans were surrendering in such numbers that POWS were no longer being shipped to America. Perhaps pilots were an exception.

The critical factor for the Luftwaffe proved to be pilots. This was the same position the British found themselves in during the Battle of Britain. The British, however, were unprepared for the War, the Germans seemingly should hazve anticipated pilot needs. The Allied strategic bombing campaign targeted aircraft plants, the Germans responded by decentalizing contstruction. They built aircraft parts in parts and only assembled them in the finl stage. The FW-190's plywood construction facilitated this. Production was not efficent and the Germand could not begin to compete with American production, but it meant that the Allies were unable to stop German production. While the Luftwaffe effectively adjusted production, they did not organize pilot training programs to meet needs, especialy to replace the pilots lost defending German cities from the Allied strategic bombing. The Germans like the Japanese had an extremely effective pilot training program. It was not, however, designed to produce large numbers of pilots in a short period of time. Luftwaffee pilot losses escalated dramatically once the P-51 Mustangs began accompanying the nombers deep into Germany. The Luftwaffe which still had planes did not have an effective training program. There was only one school to train fighter pilots. There were problems, especially fuel shortages, but the Lufrwaffe reacted poorly to the need to train more pilots. The training program was not expanded until 1944 and by then it was to late. This failure on the part of Luftwaffe pilots seems curious. There were many factors outside the control of Luftwaffe commanders, trasining pilots was not one of them. There were plenty of boys emerging from the Hitler Youth that would have been more than willing to become pilots. The Luftwaffe was so desperate for pilots by the end of the War that Hitler Youth boys were being sent up with only minimal training. Most were boys fron the Flieger HJ. Some Flieger HJ boys flew the Komet ME-163, in part because it was so dangerous that it was wasteful using trained Luftwaffe pilots who were in increasingly short supply.

Created: 5:41 AM 6/5/2010
Last updated: 5:42 AM 6/5/2010