German Armed Forces

The Luftwaffe was formally created in 1935, but military aviation had existed in the shadows in Germany since the end of World War I. The Treaty of Versailles had banned Germany from possessing warplanes, so much of the groundwork for the Luftwaffe was laid by civilian aircraft production and Freikorps paramilitary groups. By the beginning of World War II, the Luftwaffe was arguably the best air force in the world, and its robust role within the combined-arms strategy utilized by German military planners allowed for the use of blitzkrieg tactics against overmatched Allied armies. The structure of the Luftwaffe very much reflected the whims of its commander, Hermann Göring, and over three million men served in air force, air defense, and paratrooper units from 1939 to 1945. That incarnation of the German air force was disbanded by victorious Allied powers in 1946.