War Thunder Nations: Germany - News

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11 March 2014

German aircraft participate in large-scale battles in locations within War Thunder. A great choice of fighters, attackers and bombers provides entertaining gameplay in all three game modes. The German tree in War Thunder offers some of the most broad-ranging choices of weaponry, tactics and fighting style.

From March 11th 15:00 GMT to March 12th 15:00 GMT

^{x4 RP gain bonus for the first victory for Germany}

Pilots! We would like to present the third video of the “War Thunder Nations” series.

Junkers Ju 88 In France

The Luftwaffe was the aerial warfare branch of the German Wehrmacht during World War II. After the end of World War I Germany, under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, was prohibited from having an air force. That didn’t stop the Germans from secretly training pilots under the cover of the German Air Sports Association (German: Deutscher Luftsportverband (DLV)) and the Central Commercial Pilots School (German: Zentrale der Verkehrs Fliegerschule (ZVF)).

These pilots were trained first in the Soviet Union in late 1920’s and then in Germany in the early 1930’s, so in reality, regardless of the treaties, Germany never lacked highly qualified pilots, which was one of main strengths that would make the Luftwaffe such a formidable air force in the early years of World War II.

After coming to power in 1933, Adolf Hitler began to secretly develop a new air force and in March 1933 Hitler created the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM - Reich Air Ministry) which was in charge of developing and producing new aircraft. In May 1933 Goering was appointed as German Air Traffic Minister. In March 1935 Britain announced its strengthening of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Hitler, not wanting to be left behind, decided to reveal the existence of the Luftwaffe which was rapidly growing into a formidable air force. Goering officially announced it in March 1935 and his title changed to Reich Aviation Minister.

Even if Britain and France were deeply concerned with rapid rearmament going on in Germany nothing was done to stop or slow it and they also failed to keep up with German military production. New fighters, like the famous Me-109 were introduced in the German Luftwaffe while combat trials were run in Spain during the Spanish Civil War, which gave invaluable experience to the Luftwaffe and German pilots.

_{Bf 109Cs of 1/JG 137, August/September 1939

Attribution: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101I-379-0015-18 / Rübelt / CC-BY-SA}

Between 1933 and 1934, the Luftwaffe’s leadership was mostly concerned with tactical and operational methods and close support to troops on the ground. In December of 1934 Walther Wever, who was Chief of the Luftwaffe General Staff started to mould the Luftwaffe's battle doctrine into a strategic plan. He recognized the importance of strategic bombing and in that regard he started in May 1934 a seven year project for the Ural-Bomber, a bomber capable of flying deep into the Soviet Union. This project resulted in the Dornier Do 19 and Junkers Ju 89, these aircraft never went further than the prototype stage. In April 1936, Wever ordered “Project A” which eventually became the He-177, the only Luftwaffe strategic bomber of WW2.

The death of Walther Wever in a plane crash in early 1936 marked a change in the thinking of Luftwaffe development and Göring appointed Albert Kesselring as Chief of the Luftwaffe General Staff and Ernst Udet head the Reich's Air Ministry Technical Office. Under their leadership the strategic aspect was put aside and emphasis was put on the tactical aspects with the development of more fast medium bombers, a decision that dearly cost the Luftwaffe and Germany in the following years.

At the beginning of WW2, the Luftwaffe was one of the most if not the most advanced air force in the world. With planes like Me-109, Me-110, Ju-88, He-111, Ju-87 that were pinnacle of aero engineering, at the time the Luftwaffe was a formidable force which was capable of fighting any other air force of the time on even ground.

By September 1939, the Luftwaffe had a total of 4,000 aircraft and 400,000 personnel. This strength had grown to 1,700,000 by 1941. In total, 571,000 of these were in anti-aircraft units and another 18 percent were in the signals branch. Only 36 percent or 588,000 comprised air-crew, but this also included the aircraft maintenance personnel.

After it’s first defeat in the Battle of Britain and being involved in the fight on multiple fronts against much superior numbers, the Luftwaffe slowly lost its edge and while technological advancements of German aircraft construction was giving hope for the Luftwaffe to gain further glory, it never did and it slowly declined until the end of the war.

Total Luftwaffe casualties from 1939 to 1945 are approximate to more than 485.000 while more than 80.000 planes were lost.

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