Luftwaffe

In 1940, the German Air Force or Luftwaffe was the largest and most formidable air force in Europe.

Adolf Hitler, the German leader, officially created the Luftwaffe on 26 February 1935, with Hermann Goering as its commander-in-chief. Goering, a celebrated First World War fighter pilot and one of Hitler's closest political associates, had also been Air Minister since 1933 and therefore combined both administrative and military leadership of the German Air Force.  The Luftwaffe enjoyed a rapid expansion over the next five years, in large measure due to Goering's considerable political influence.

The organisation of the Luftwaffe was very different from the Royal Air Force. Whereas the latter had branches based on function, such as Fighter Command, the German Air Force was arranged into air fleets, or Luftflotten, which were self-contained units complete with all fighter, bomber and other elements. The average strength of a Luftflotte was 1,000 aircraft. 

On the eve of the Battle, three air fleets, Luftflotte 2, 3 and 5, were deployed from Norway to Brittany facing Fighter Command across the English Channel and North Sea. On 1 July, they had a strength of 2,186 serviceable aircraft including 898 bombers, 708 single-engined fighters and 202 twin-engined fighters.

Luftflotte 2, commanded by Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, was based in north-east France, the Low Countries and northern Germany and undertook the main weight of operations against the south-east of England. Luftflotte 3 occupied airfields from west of the River Seine to the French Atlantic coast and concentrated on targets in the western half of England. It was led by Field Marshal Hugo Sperrle. General Hans Stumpff was commander of Luftflotte 5, based in Norway and Denmark, which was to be used for diversionary attacks against northern Britain.

The Luftwaffe suffered various problems, both structural and operational, which hampered its effectiveness in the Battle of Britain. It was not designed for a strategic bombing campaign against a well-equipped and well-entrenched opposing fighter force, but as a close support weapon to move forward in concert with ground troops. The rapid occupation of France and the Low Countries in the spring of 1940 compelled the hasty preparation of many new air bases and caused supply problems. More significantly, the difficulties in establishing adequate localised facilities forced the removal of damaged aircraft back to Germany for repair. As a result of underachievement in aircraft production, the Luftwaffe suffered from a lack of reserves throughout the battle. German aircrew were well-trained and with much greater combat experience than their RAF counterparts. Fighter pilots survived longer, but the Germans had fewer of them than the British. The Luftwaffe's vitally important fighter, the Messerschmitt 109, had a very short combat endurance over Britain and the fighter force as a whole suffered from two decisive disadvantages. It had no method of plotting the positions of Fighter Command aircraft and it had no means of ground -to-air control of its machines.

German Fighter Aircraft