Figure 1.--The Lufwaffe began the war with the fiest airforce in the world. The ME-109 outclassed all other fighters . Its one weakness was a limited range. Unlike much of the Heer, this required a huge industrial commitment. In terms of manpower, the Luftwaffe was a small part of the Wehrmnacht. It terms of the industrial power needed to build and maintain such a force, it was a huge part of the German war effort.

In addition to the Panzers, the Luftwaffe was the other critical component of Blitzkrieg. The Luftwaffe is particularly important because a huge portion of German industrial war production went toward producing aircraft. Data available for the early years of the Wars that about half of industrial output of weaponry went for aircraft. Thus the disposition of the air units significantly affected the industrial support povided to the Eestern and Eastern fronts. The Luftwaffe was different than the Heer and Kriegsmarine. It was significantly deployed in both the West and the East, but it was primarily deployed in the West. For nearly the first 2 years of the War (September 1939-May 1941), it was excluisively used in the West. And durung this time there were two major developments. First Soviet deliveries of oil strategic materials played a major role in both the construction of aircraft and the conduct of the Western Offensive (May-June 1940) and (July 1940 -March 1941). Second, the British RAF during the Battle of Britain significantly damaged the Luftwaffe, affecting German air supoport during Barbarossa. Beginning with Barbarossa (June 1941), the Luftwaffe was primarily, but not exclusively deployed in the East. The Luftwaffe destroyed the large Red Air Force alkrgely on the Ground (June 1941). But what the Luftwaffe could not do was privide the same level of support to the ground forces that they had in the West. This dominant depoloyment in the East lasted only a little over a year. RAF Bomber Command began receiving the Iconic Lancaster long range heavy bomber (February 1942). This was the beginning of the significant phase of the Allied Strategic Bombing Campaign. And then the American Eighth Air Force whivh ahd been building up in Britain joined in and the Around the Clock bombing of occupied Europe and the Reich began (August 1942). It was subsequently announced by Churchill and Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference. This is significant because as a result, the Luftwaffe began pulling its forces back from the East to defend German cities. As a result the bulk of the Lufwaffe was in the East for only about a year and a half (June 1941-December 1942). We can see this in operational losses. It is in the West that the Luftwaffe was destoyed in air battles over German cities (early-1944). This of course means that the vast resources (technological effort, steel, aluminum, copper, and other stratrgic materials) lavished on Göring's Luftwaffe were primarily used to fight the war in the West. (And remember that Göring as head of the Four Year Plan had a great deal to say about the allocation of resources.)

Created: 5:03 PM 1/25/2021
Last updated: 5:03 PM 1/25/2021