Luftwaffe day fighter Battle of Britain ground crew & equipment set

The Luftwaffe is a German air force that began to form in February 1935 under a special order of the Nazi dictator of Germany - Adolf Hitler. The commander of the Luftwaffe - from its inception, until the end of World War II - was Herman Göring. The quantitative development of the German Air Force in the period 1935-1939 was rapid, and at that time it was equipped with machines that actually served until the end of the war, including the Me-109 fighter, Ju-87 Stukas dive bombers or medium bombers such as the He-111 or Ju-88. Some German pilots also gained combat experience while serving as part of the Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). In addition, even before the war, the Luftwaffe was oriented in such a way that it could support the operations of the ground forces as effectively as possible. This was reflected in its equipment, structure and organization, as well as in the training of pilots. The German Air Force emerged successfully from the campaigns in Poland, Norway and France, with the Luftwaffe suffering relatively heavy losses in the latter campaign, both in aircraft and personnel. On the other hand, a very painful lesson was the Battle of Britain, during which it suffered a decisive defeat, losing many more aircraft, and especially well-trained pilots, than the enemy. It can be added, among other things, that Adolf Galland was one of the best fighter pilots of the Luftwaffe during this battle. During the fighting on the Eastern Front (1941-1945), the German Air Force, especially at the beginning of the conflict, dominated the quality of aircraft and the training of crews and pilots, which resulted in horrendous losses of the Soviet Air Force and led to even fantastic results in shooting down German fighter aces, such as Hermann Graf or Walter Nowotny. However, in 1942-1943 the scales of victory in the air war over Europe began to tip towards the Soviet and - above all - Allied aviation, which, thanks to machines such as the latest versions of the Spitfire or the P-51 Mustang, caused more and more losses to the German Luftwaffe, including in the fighting over Germany and during strategic bombing. Even the efforts of the Luftwaffe to make a qualitative leap by introducing jet machines such as the Me-262 or Ar-234 into the line in 1944-1945 had no effect, and the increasingly less trained German pilots suffered ever greater losses in the clash with the Allied machines. It is assumed that from the beginning of the war to January 1945, the losses of Luftwaffe personnel amounted to about 140,000. people killed and about 155 thousand. people missing.