How+was+the+Luftwaffe+able+to+be+so+effective?

After their defeat in World War I, Germany was forced to remove their air force, the Luftwaffe, from service according to the Treaty of Versailles. The Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany was headed by a man name Hermann Goering, who was considered a hero in Germany, until he was faced with a brutal defeat in the Battle of Britain where the planes of his Luftwaffe were obliterated by the faster British aircraft. To read more about Hermann Goering go [|here]. Although he was very unfortunate in that battle, he was able to get the number of planes being created yearly from 10,800 in 1941 to 39,800 in 1944. This huge increase in the number of aircraft being created shows how important the Luftwaffe was to Germany's attempt at winning World War II.

One main reason that the Luftwaffe was able to be as effective as it was it the quality of the planes that it had. One main plane that was used by the Nazis is the Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" aircraft. This plane is largely credited for the success in the invasions of both France and Poland and was present for the duration of the war. The nickname "stuka" comes from the German word for dive bomber, which is the type of plane that the Junkers was. Another largely used plane was the Messerschmitt BF 109. It was considered to be the best aircraft in the Luftwaffe and arguably in the world until it was faced against the British aircraft, which out performed it. By the end of the war, over 35,000 were produced for the Luftwaffe to use. It had a max speed of 342 miles per hour which was one of the fastest of all the German planes. The Germans also built planes before the war for domestic purposes, such as the Dornier D017 and the Heinkel He III and converted them into military aircraft as the war progressed. According to //The Usborne Introduction to the Second World War, "//The German Heinkel He-111 bomber was designed to support troops on the ground and fly short-range missions behind enemy lines" (Dowswell, 70).



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