Luftwaffe (disambiguation)

Last updated July 27, 2019

Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It may also refer to one of the following air forces:

German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol in Italy, the German-speaking Community of Belgium, and Liechtenstein. It is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg and a co-official language in the Opole Voivodeship in Poland. The languages which are most similar to German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch: Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German/Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, and Yiddish. There are also strong similarities in vocabulary with Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, although those belong to the North Germanic group. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English.

Air force military branch of service primarily concerned with aerial warfare

An air force, also known in some countries as an aerospace force or air army, is in the broadest sense, the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an army or navy. Typically, air forces are responsible for gaining control of the air, carrying out strategic and tactical bombing missions, and providing support to land and naval forces often in the form of aerial reconnaissance and close air support.

The Luftwaffe , of Nazi Germany (years 1933 to 1945)
The Luftwaffe, of the Federal Republic of Germany (1956 to the present), known as German Air Force in English
The Schweizer Luftwaffe, known as Swiss Air Force in English

The Luftwaffe was the aerial warfare branch of the combined German Wehrmacht military forces during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the Luftstreitkräfte of the Army and the Marine-Fliegerabteilung of the Navy had been disbanded in May 1920 as a result of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles which stated that Germany was forbidden to have any air force.

The German Air Force is the aerial warfare branch of the Bundeswehr, the armed forces of Germany. With a strength of 27,767 personnel, it is the fourth largest air force within the European Union, after the air forces of the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. The German Air Force was founded in 1956 during the era of the Cold War as the aerial warfare branch of the armed forces of then West Germany. After the reunification of West and East Germany in 1990, it integrated parts of the air force of the former German Democratic Republic, which itself had been founded in 1956 as part of the National People's Army. There is no organizational continuity between the current German Air Force and the former Luftwaffe of the Wehrmacht combined forces founded in 1935, which was completely disbanded in 1945/46 after World War II. The term Luftwaffe that is used for both the historic and the current German air force is the German-language generic designation of any air force.

The Swiss Air Force is the air component of the Swiss Armed Forces, established on 31 July 1914 as part of the army and in October 1936 as an independent service.

Related Research Articles

The Battle of Britain was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe. It has been described as the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces. The British officially recognise the battle's duration as being from 10 July until 31 October 1940, which overlaps the period of large-scale night attacks known as The Blitz, that lasted from 7 September 1940 to 11 May 1941. German historians do not accept this subdivision and regard the battle as a single campaign lasting from July 1940 to June 1941, including the Blitz.

The Baedeker Blitz or Baedeker raids were a series of attacks by the Luftwaffe on English cities during the Second World War.

Oberstleutnant is a German Army and German Air Force rank equal to lieutenant colonel, above Major, and below Oberst.

The Bücker Bü 131 "Jungmann" was a German 1930s basic training aircraft which was used by the Luftwaffe during World War II.

Beauvais–Tillé Airport, branded as Paris-Beauvais Airport, is an international airport near the city of Beauvais in the commune of Tillé in France. It is the tenth busiest airport in France, handling 3,997,856 passengers in 2016, and is mostly used by charter and low-cost airlines.

Generalleutnant, short GenLt, is the second highest general officer rank in the German Army (Heer) and the German Air Force (Luftwaffe).

Johannes "Macky" Steinhoff was a Luftwaffe fighter ace during World War II, German general, and NATO official. He was one of very few Luftwaffe pilots who survived to fly operationally through the whole of the war period 1939–45. He was also one of the highest-scoring pilots with 176 victories, and one of the first to fly the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter in combat as a member of the Jagdverband 44 squadron led by Adolf Galland. Steinhoff was decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords, and later received the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and several foreign awards including the American Legion of Merit and the French Legion of Honour. He played a role in the so-called Fighter Pilots Conspiracy when several senior air force officers confronted Hermann Göring late in the war.

Oberst is a military rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to Colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway. The Swedish rank överste is a direct translation, as are the Finnish rank eversti and the Icelandic rank ofursti. In the Netherlands the rank overste is used as a synonym for a lieutenant colonel.

Between 1933 and 1945, the organization of the Luftwaffe underwent several changes. Originally, the German military high command, for their air warfare forces, decided to use an organizational structure similar to the army and navy, treating the aviation branch as a strategic weapon of war. Later on, during the period of rapid rearmament, the Luftwaffe was organized more in a geographical fashion.

The German Air Force Regiment is a ground-based regiment sized branch of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) with main locations in Diepholz and Schortens. However, in the future this regiment will be located on Jever Air Base.

Landsberg-Lech Air Base is a German Air Force base located near the town of Landsberg am Lech in Bavaria.

The Bücker Bü 133 Jungmeister was an advanced trainer of the Luftwaffe in the 1930s. It was a single-engine, single-seat biplane of wood and tubular steel construction and covered in fabric.

The Gotha Go 145 was a German World War II-era biplane of wood and fabric construction used by Luftwaffe training units. Although obsolete by the start of World War II, the Go 145 remained in operational service until the end of the War in Europe as a night harassment bomber.

Chièvres Air Base is a United States Air Force operated airfield located 1 nautical mile east southeast of the Walloon town of Chièvres in the province of Hainaut, Belgium and about 12 mi (19 km) from Headquarters, Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), in Casteau. It is mainly used to provide logistic support to NATO and SHAPE. The station and support facilities are operated by the United States Army Garrison Benelux for NATO.

Sidi Haneish Airfield is an abandoned World War II military airfield complex in Egypt, in the western desert, about 235 miles (376 km) west-northwest of Cairo.

Sint-Truiden Air Base is a Belgian Air Component base, located south of Sint-Truiden (Limburg), approximately 37 mi (60 km) east of Brussels (Bruxelles).

Hohn Air Base is a military air base in Germany. It is home to the Lufttransportgeschwader 63 of the German Air Force (Luftwaffe). Since May 1968 the Transall C-160 is operated from the base. During 2013 Air Transport Wing 63 will disband and subsequently the air base will be given up by the German Air Force. The LTG63 is in charge until 2020

The Inspector of the Air Force is the commander of the Air Force of the modern-day German Armed Forces, the Bundeswehr. The Inspector is responsible for the readiness of personnel and materiel in the German Air Force, in that function reports directly to the Federal Minister of Defence. The current Inspector is Ingo Gerhartz, appointed on 29 May 2018.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

Luftwaffe (disambiguation)

See also

Related Research Articles