title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: The music is composed by Anirudh Ravichander with cinematography performed by Vijay Kartik Kannan and editing by R. Nirmal. "Doctor" was released in theatres on 9 October 2021, following multiple delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film received positive reviews from critics and audience, where it grossed 100 crores in worldwide box office.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: Varun, a military doctor working in the "Indian Army Medical Corps" is a strict and practical person. While returning home from an operation, he receives a voicemail from his fiancée, Padmini, who urges him to call off their upcoming wedding. While enquiring about her sudden change-of-decision with her family. Padmini belittles him for being emotionally distant and apathetic. While leaving, Varun and Padmini's family learns that Chinnu has gone missing. The family lodges a complaint with the police – which in turn appoints Bhagat, a low-ranking police officer, to monitor the family's communications.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: Disillusioned with the police's sluggish progress, Varun plots to kidnap the ACP's daughter, believing that the resulting investigation would be more competent. His plan works, and the police nab almost every major criminal related to child-kidnapping. Varun singles out three criminals (Kamala Kannan, Kamesh, and Prathap), noticing that they were present around Chinnu's school at the time of her disappearance. Varun sedates them, and interrogates them by blackmailing them with their kidneys; he had apparently removed. Kamala Kannan confesses to kidnapping Chinnu, and handing her over to a child-trafficking network. Varun recruits one of the kidnappers Pratap and two gangsters, Mahaali and Killi, to assist in his investigation.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: Varun's search leads him to twins Alvin and Melvin, both of whom are responsible for child-trafficking and prostitution. Varun and Padmini's family confront the duo in the "Chennai Metro", and succeed in separating the duo and abducting Alvin. Desperate to save Alvin, Melvin concedes to release only one girl from his group of kidnapped girls. Although Chinnu is among them, Varun demands Melvin to release all the girls, despite Padmini's objections. Melvin refuses, but hints that the girls are being taken to Goa. Varun, Pratap, Mahaali, Killi and Padmini's family follow Melvin to Goa, where they discover that the true mastermind behind the recent kidnappings is Terry, the owner of a high-end resort.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: Varun orchestrates a drama, in which he has Mahaali and Killi and Padmini act as if the duo were kidnapping her and simultaneously has Padmini's family urge Terry to find her. As per his plan, Terry traces Padmini's "kidnapping" down to Varun, who poses as a child-trafficker masquerading as the owner of an ice-cream parlour. Varun demands Terry to give a girl to him, as compensation for "saving" Padmini. Unbeknownst to Terry, Varun had arranged for his friend, Colonel James Anderson and his team of commandos to apprehend Terry. Terry escorts Varun to his base of operations, located on a remote island. Varun discovers than Terry's victims are primarily underage girls. Realising that any action would endanger the kidnapped victim's and Chinnu's lives, Varun calls off the operation despite James' protests.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: Determined to save the girls' lives, Varun initiates his backup plan. He negotiates a deal with Terry and Terry's father to ship a consignment of 40 girls to "Don Pablo El-Fino"– a fictitious Brazilian child-trafficking's boss (actually Varun's father in disguise). Concurrently, Terry organises a meeting with his associates to discuss the upcoming deal; Melvin is among those in attendance. Varun discreetly orders Melvin to kill Terry; the latter's attempt to do so is surprisingly thwarted by Varun himself (in order to gain Terry's trust). Terry interrogates Melvin, learning about Alvin's abduction and Melvin's actions were purely out of desperation. Unwilling to reveal the identity of Alvin's abductor, Melvin is killed by Terry. Later, while going through the family profiles of the twins's latest kidnaps, Terry discovers Padmini's family is among them and deduces Varun's plan.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: Terry later has Varun and the family apprehended and takes them to his island, intending to kill them. However, Alvin appears, seeking revenge for Melvin's death. Alvin reveals he had abducted Terry's father and agrees to spare him, in return for letting Varun and the family along with all the other girls. After they leave, Alvin kills Terry's father to avenge Melvin's death, where Terry kills him in retribution. Elsewhere, Varun realises that he had left a girl behind and returns to the island alone. Terry apprehends Varun and plans to kill the lone girl in front of him, but is thwarted by James's team and Bhagat, who had infiltrated his base. Varun escorts the girl to safety while James's team kill Terry and his henchmen. 3 months later, Padmini reconciles with Varun and they get married in presence of their family and friends.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: On 20 August 2019, sources claimed that Sivakarthikeyan had signed a new project, with his close friend Nelson Dilipkumar, after directing "Kolamavu Kokila" (2018). It was initially slated to be produced by the Indian branch of Sony Pictures in their maiden production in Tamil, along with Vishnu Vardhan Induri's production banner, Vibri Media and Entertainment. Anirudh Ravichander was roped in to score music for the film, marking his sixth collaboration with Sivakarthikeyan, and the project was reported to be kickstarted in late 2019, only after the completion of Sivakarthikeyan's commitments in other projects. In a turn of events, both the producers opted out of the project, and Sivakarthikeyan was reported to be producing the film under his own banner Sivakarthikeyan Productions, whilst KJR Studios was being roped in as the co-producers. On 2 December 2019, Sivakarthikeyan unveiled the title of the film as "Doctor". The first look which released on 17 February 2020 (Sivakarthikeyan's birthday) was noted for its resemblance to a poster of Dhanush's shelved project "Doctors".


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: In November 2019, Kavin was reported to be a part of the film's cast, but no official confirmation being revealed from the producer's side. In December 2019, sources claimed that Priyanka Arul Mohan will be seen opposite Sivakarthikeyan, in a leading role, marking her debut in Tamil cinema. Vinay Rai and Yogi Babu also joined the cast within the same month, with the former playing the antagonist. Archana Chandhoke was reported to a be part of the film. Vineet and Ilavarasu. Sivakarthikeyan was reported to have shed some kilos for his role in the film. Bollywood actors and brothers Raghu Ram and Rajiv Lakshman were also roped in for antagonistic roles, making their Tamil debut.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: The film was launched on 29 November 2019, with a puja ceremony in Chennai, followed by principal shoot. On 6 January 2020, the makers wrapped the first schedule of the film, and kickstarted the second schedule of the film. As reports stated, the makers planned to shoot one half of the film in Chennai, and the other half in Goa. On 12 February 2020, Sivakarthikeyan and Nelson went for a recce in Goa, to scout the locations for shoot. The second schedule commenced in Goa, officially on 14 February 2020, and was shot for 14 days, before completing it on 28 February 2020. The film's shoot got halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India and nationwide lockdown, with 80% of the film's shoot been completed, as of May 2020.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: On 15 September, it was reported that the makers planned to resume the shoot later this month in Chennai, with a final schedule and few talkie portions were expected to be wrapped up within a single stretch of 12 days. The shoot was later resumed in 26 September, with minimal crew adhering to government rules and regulations. A special team was designated to observe the film crew, including the director and actor, were abiding the COVID-19 protocol. The final portions of the film, including one song was expected to be completed as of November 2020. The principal shooting of the film was completed on 3 January 2021.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: The post-production process of the film officially began on 11 May 2020, after the government granted permission to resume post-production works of Tamil films. The editing works of the film have been resumed during the process. On 17 September, the makers started the dubbing of the film, with a traditional puja ceremony. Archana Chandhoke started dubbing for the film, during the process. Sivakarthikeyan completed the dubbing portions of the film on 1 February 2021, thus post-production works were completed.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: The film's soundtrack album is composed by Anirudh Ravichander, in his sixth collaboration with Sivakarthikeyan, and second collaboration with Nelson Dilipkumar. In February 2020, Sony Music India secured the film's audio rights. The film's first single "Chellamma" was composed during the lockdown. The song was penned by Sivakarthikeyan himself, which had lines about TikTok being banned in India, and was sung by Anirudh and Jonita Gandhi. It was released on 16 July 2020, and the song went viral upon its release, crossing 130 million views as of November 2021.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: The second single "Nenjame" was released on 28 August 2020. It features a promotional video, directed by Nelson himself, featuring Sivakarthikeyan and Priyanka Arul Mohan, shot in monochrome by cinematographer Vijay Kartik Kannan. It was reported that the song will be featured as a montage in the film. The third single "So Baby" was released on 26 February 2021, and is a "classical-western" fusion song. The last single "Soul Of Doctor" was released on 28 September 2021 and sung by Niranjana Ramanan.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: The film was released theatrically on 9 October 2021, worldwide. Apart from Tamil, the film will be dubbed and released in Telugu under the title "Varun Doctor". Initially scheduled for a theatrical release in late 2020, the film was postponed as shooting and post-production processes came to halt due to the lockdown. In November 2020, the makers announced for a theatrical release during April 2021, refuting rumours of a digital release.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: The makers announced that the film would be released on 26 March 2021, but later postponed due to the 2021 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election taking place in April. Later the makers announced that the film will be scheduled to release in Eid on 13 May 2021. As of June 2021, the release date of the film has been postponed indefinitely due to rise in COVID-19 cases and state lockdown in Tamil Nadu.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: The satellite rights of this film was sold to Sun TV Network and digital rights was sold to Netflix and Sun NXT. The film had its digital premiere in Netflix on 5 November 2022. The Hindi dubbed version was directly premiered on Goldmines TV channel on 15 October 2022.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: The film is the third highest grossing Tamil film of 2021 behind "Master" and " Annaatthe" along with " Maanaadu". The movie had collected ₹100 crores in 25 days, becoming the first movie of Sivakarthikeyan to achieve the feat. The movie had a phenomenal run in the USA market, where the movie collections had surpassed the collections of Vijay's "Master".


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: "Doctor" received critical acclaim with praise towards its black comedy, action sequences, cast performances (particularly Sivakarthikeyan and Vinay Rai), writing, soundtrack and direction.


title: Doctor (2021 film)

text: M Suganth of The Times of India gave the film four stars out of five writing, "And all along, the writing remains solid, giving us situations that might have felt implausible in a serious film but work brilliantly because of the black comedy." Behindwoods gave the film three stars out of five while writing, "Overall, Nelson sticks to his strengths and delivers a laughter riot. Here the humour provides the shield for all the weaknesses the film has. Nelson and SK succeed in delivering an engaging and entertaining film, and the former has also etched a space for himself, making him a director to look out for in the future." The Hindu wrote, "With his earlier film "Kolamavu Kokila", the filmmaker proved that he could captivate audiences with the story of an ordinary family doing extraordinary things. He repeats the same trope in this outing, and the result: an intriguing tale of a family going to great lengths, to save a loved one." "Hindustan Times" wrote, "Sivakarthikeyan's new film is unlike any you've seen him in before. With dark humour, Nelson adds spice to a mundane script". Indiaglitz gave the film 3 out of 5 writing "Go for this laugh out loud delightful dark comedy with quirky characters galore." Business standard gave the film a positive review writing "Like Lokesh Kanagaraj, Nelson too promises a bright future for Tamil cinema. The Tarantino-esque absurdity that he brings to the table sans pareil in Indian cinema at the moment."


title: Mario Puzo

text: Mario Francis Puzo (; ; October 15, 1920 – July 2, 1999) was an American author, screenwriter, and journalist. He is known for his crime novels about the Italian-American Mafia and Sicilian Mafia, most notably "The Godfather" (1969), which he later co-adapted into a film trilogy directed by Francis Ford Coppola. He received the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the first film in 1972 and for "Part II" in 1974. Puzo also wrote the original screenplay for the 1978 "Superman" film and its 1980 sequel. His final novel, "The Family", was released posthumously in 2001.


title: Mario Puzo

text: Puzo was born in the Hell's Kitchen section of New York City to Italian immigrants from Pietradefusi, Province of Avellino, Campania. When Puzo was 12, his father, who worked as a trackman for the New York Central Railroad, was committed to the Pilgrim State Hospital insane asylum for schizophrenia, and his wife, Maria, was left to raise their seven children. He served in the US Army Air Forces in Germany in World War II, and later graduated from the City College of New York. Puzo married a German woman, Erika, with whom he had five children. When Erika died of breast cancer at the age of 58 in 1978, her nurse, Carol Gino, became Puzo's companion.


title: Mario Puzo

text: In 1950, his first short story, "The Last Christmas," was published in "American Vanguard". After the war, he wrote his first book, "The Dark Arena", which was published in 1955.


title: Mario Puzo

text: In 1960, Bruce Jay Friedman hired Puzo as an assistant editor of a group of men's pulp magazines with titles such as "Male", "Men". Under the pen name Mario Cleri, Puzo wrote World War II adventure features for magazine "True Action".


title: Mario Puzo

text: In 1969, Puzo's best-known work, "The Godfather", was published. Puzo stated that this story came from research into organized crime, not from personal experience, and that he was looking to write something that would appeal to the masses. The novel remained on "The New York Times" Best Seller list for 67 weeks and sold over nine million copies in two years. The book was later developed into the film "The Godfather" (1972), directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Paramount Pictures originally found out about Puzo's novel in 1967 when a literary scout for the company contacted then Paramount Vice President of Production Peter Bart about Puzo's unfinished sixty-page manuscript. Bart believed the work was "much beyond a Mafia story" and offered Puzo a $12,500 option for the work, with an option for $80,000 if the finished work were made into a film. Despite Puzo's agent telling him to turn down the offer, Puzo was desperate for money and accepted the deal. Paramount's Robert Evans relates that, when they met in early 1968, he offered Puzo the $12,500 deal for the 60-page manuscript titled "Mafia" after the author confided in him that he urgently needed $10,000 to pay off gambling debts. The film received three awards of the 11 Oscar category nominations, including Puzo's Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.


title: Mario Puzo

text: Coppola and Puzo then collaborated on sequels to the original film, "The Godfather Part II" (1974) and "The Godfather Part III" (1990). Coppola and Puzo preferred the title "The Death of Michael Corleone" for the third film, but Paramount Pictures found that unacceptable. In September 2020, for the film's 30th anniversary, it was announced that a new cut of the film titled "Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone" would have a limited theatrical release in December 2020 followed by digital and Blu-ray. Coppola said the film is the version he and Puzo had originally envisioned, and it "vindicates" its status among the trilogy.


title: Mario Puzo

text: In mid-1972, Puzo wrote the first draft of the script for the 1974 disaster film "Earthquake", but he was unable to continue work because of his prior commitment to "The Godfather Part II". Work continued on the script without his involvement, with writer George Fox (working on his first, and only, motion picture screenplay) and producer / director Mark Robson, who remained uncredited as a writer. Puzo retained screen credit in the completed film as a result of a quickly-settled lawsuit over story credit (most elements from his first draft made it into the final film), and Puzo's name subsequently featured heavily in the advertising. Puzo also wrote the original screenplay for Richard Donner's "Superman", which then also included the plot for "Superman II", as they were originally written as one film. He also collaborated on the stories for the 1982 film "A Time to Die" and the 1984 Francis Ford Coppola film "The Cotton Club".


title: Mario Puzo

text: In 1991, Puzo's speculative fiction "The Fourth K" was published; it centres on a fictional member of the Kennedy family dynasty who becomes President of the United States early in the 2000s.


title: Mario Puzo

text: Puzo never saw the publication of his penultimate book, "Omertà", but the manuscript was finished before his death, as was the manuscript for "The Family". However, in a review originally published in the "San Francisco Chronicle", Jules Siegel, who had worked closely with Puzo at Magazine Management Company, speculated that "Omertà" may have been completed by "some talentless hack". Siegel also acknowledged the temptation to "rationalize avoiding what is probably the correct analysis — that [Puzo] wrote it and it is terrible".


title: Mario Puzo

text: In April 2022, Paramount+ began streaming "The Offer", a 10-episode dramatic mini-series telling a fictionalized story of the making of "The Godfather", including Puzo's decision to write the first book in what came to be a series. Patrick Gallo plays Puzo. Victoria Kelleher plays his wife, Erika.


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: The Last of the Mohicans is a 1992 American epic historical drama film set in 1757 during the French and Indian War. It was directed by Michael Mann and was based on the 1826 novel "The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757" by James Fenimore Cooper and the 1936 film adaptation, owing more to the film than the novel. The film stars Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe, with Jodhi May, Russell Means, Wes Studi, Eric Schweig, and Steven Waddington in supporting roles.


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: The soundtrack features music by Trevor Jones and Randy Edelman, and the song "I Will Find You" by Clannad. The main theme of the film is taken from the tune "The Gael" by Scottish singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean.


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: Released in the United States on September 25, 1992, "The Last of the Mohicans" was met with positive reviews and commercial success during its box-office run. It won the Academy Award for Best Sound, the only Oscar won so far by a film directed by Mann. Day-Lewis received his second nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance.


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: In 1757, British Army Major Duncan Heyward arrives in Albany, New York, during the French and Indian War. He is assigned to Colonel Edmund Munro, the commander of Fort William Henry in the Adirondack Mountains. Heyward is tasked with escorting Munro's two daughters, Cora and Alice, to their father. Before they leave, Heyward asks Cora to marry him, but she asks for more time before giving her answer.


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: A Mohawk named Magua is tasked with guiding Heyward, the two women, and a troop of British soldiers to the fort, but he is actually a Huron who leads them into an ambush that kills most of the soldiers. Mohican Chingachgook, his son Uncas, and his white, adopted son "Hawkeye" arrive and kill all of the Hurons except Magua, who escapes. The trio agrees to take the women and Heyward to the fort. During the trek, they find another massacre at a farm, but do not stop to bury the victims so as not to alert the Hurons to their presence. Cora and Hawkeye are attracted to each other, as are Uncas and Alice.


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: They find the fort under siege by the French and their Huron allies, but manage to sneak in. Colonel Munro is surprised to see his daughters, as he had sent a letter warning them to stay away, but it never reached them. Heyward becomes jealous of Hawkeye when Cora tells Heyward she will not accept his marriage proposal. A militiaman sets out at night to try to reach General Webb at Fort Edward for reinforcements, with Hawkeye, Chingachgook and Uncas providing covering fire from the fort.


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: After Munro refuses to honor an agreement made by Webb that the militiamen could leave to protect their homesteads if they were threatened, Hawkeye helps them sneak away. He is arrested for sedition and sentenced to hang. However, when he learns that Webb will send no soldiers, Munro is forced to accept French General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm's terms of surrender: the British can leave the fort honorably with their arms. Magua is furious because he bears a personal grudge against Munro.


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: Once Munro, his soldiers and civilians leave the fort, Huron warriors attack and massacre them. Munro is captured alive, but mortally wounded, and Magua personally promises him that he'll kill his daughters, then cuts out his heart. Hawkeye, Uncas, and Chingachgook fight their way out, taking Cora, Alice, Heyward, and a few British soldiers. They hide in a cave behind a waterfall, but Magua finds them. Before Hawkeye, Uncas, and Chingachgook escape by leaping from the waterfall, Hawkeye tells Cora to stay alive and swears that he will find her.


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: Magua takes his three prisoners to a Huron settlement. While he is addressing a sachem, Hawkeye walks in unarmed as a parley to plead for their lives. The sachem rules that Heyward is to be returned to the British, Alice be given to Magua for the wrongs done to him by Munro, and Cora be burned alive. Although Hawkeye is told he may leave in peace for his bravery, he offers to take Cora's place. Heyward, who is acting as interpreter, instead tells the Hurons to take his life for Cora's. After Hawkeye leaves the village with Cora he shoots Heyward, who is being burned alive, as a final act of mercy.


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: Chingachgook, Uncas, and Hawkeye then pursue Magua's party to rescue Alice. Uncas races ahead and kills several of the Hurons in combat, but is killed in a duel by Magua and thrown off the cliff's edge. Devastated to see Uncas’ demise, Alice refuses to remain with Magua and commits suicide by jumping off the same cliff. Enraged, Hawkeye and Chingachgook catch up to the Hurons and slay many of them. Hawkeye then holds the rest at gunpoint, allowing Chingachgook to fight and kill Magua, avenging Uncas’ death. Afterward, Chingachgook prays to the Great Spirit to receive Uncas, proclaiming himself "the last of the Mohicans."


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: Much care was taken with recreating accurate costumes and props. Daniel Winkler made the tomahawks used in the film and knifemaker Randall King made the knives. Wayne Watson is the maker of Hawkeye's "Killdeer" rifle used in the film. The gunstock war club made for Chingachgook was created by Jim Yellow Eagle. Magua's tomahawk was made by Fred A. Mitchell of Odin Forge & Fabrication.


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: Costumes were originally designed by multiple Academy Award winner James Acheson, but he left the film and had his name removed because of artistic differences with Mann. Designer Elsa Zamparelli was brought in to finish.


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: Although the story takes place in upstate colonial New York, filming was done mostly in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Locations used include Lake James, Chimney Rock Park and The Biltmore Estate. Some of the waterfalls that were used in the movie include Hooker Falls, Triple Falls, Bridal Veil Falls, and High Falls, all located in the DuPont State Recreational Forest. Another of these falls was Linville Falls, in the mountains of North Carolina. Also, Hickory Nut Falls at Chimney Rock was in the movie near the end. Scenes of Albany were shot in Asheville, North Carolina at The Manor on Charlotte Street.


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: The set of Fort William Henry was constructed at a reported cost of US$6 million on felled forestry land () adjacent to Lake James in North Carolina. Highway 126, which ran between the set and the lake, had to be closed for the duration of the filming.


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: The film opened in the United States on September 25, 1992, in 1,856 theaters. It was the number 1 movie on its opening weekend. By the end of its first weekend, "The Last of the Mohicans" had generated $10,976,661, and by the end of its domestic run, the film had made $75,505,856 in the United States and Canada. It was ranked the 17th highest-grossing film of 1992 in the United States. Internationally, the film grossed more than $67 million for a worldwide total of over $143 million.


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: When the film was released theatrically in the United States, its running time was 112 minutes. This version of the film was released on VHS in the U.S. on June 23, 1993. The film was later re-edited to a length of 117 minutes, for its U.S. DVD release on November 23, 1999, which was billed as the "Director's Expanded Edition". The film was again re-edited for its U.S. Blu-ray release on October 5, 2010, this time billed as the "Director's Definitive Cut", with a length of 114 mins. At Mann's insistence, all home video releases of the film, including in its original VHS releases, have been presented in the original theatrical aspect ratio.


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: At review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes the film has a "Certified Fresh" rating of 93% based on reviews from 45 critics, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The site's consensus states: ""The Last of the Mohicans" is a breathless romantic adventure that plays loose with history -- and comes out with a richer action movie for it."


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: "The Last of the Mohicans" opened with critics praising the film for its cinematography and music. Critic Roger Ebert of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the film three stars and called it "quite an improvement on Cooper's all but unreadable book, and a worthy successor to the Randolph Scott version," going on to say that ""The Last of the Mohicans" is not as authentic and uncompromised as it claims to be – more of a matinee fantasy than it wants to admit – but it is probably more entertaining as a result."


title: The Last of the Mohicans (1992 film)

text: Desson Howe of "The Washington Post" classified the film as "glam-opera" and "the MTV version of gothic romance". Rita Kempley of the Post recognized the "heavy drama," writing that the film "sets new standards when it comes to pent-up passion", but commented positively on the "spectacular scenery".


title: Luftwaffe

text: The Luftwaffe () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German "Wehrmacht" before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the "Luftstreitkräfte" of the Imperial Army and the "Marine-Fliegerabteilung" of the Imperial Navy, had been disbanded in May 1920 in accordance with the terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles which banned Germany from having any air force.


title: Luftwaffe

text: During the interwar period, German pilots were trained secretly in violation of the treaty at Lipetsk Air Base in the Soviet Union. With the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Versailles Treaty, the "Luftwaffe"s existence was publicly acknowledged on 26 February 1935, just over two weeks before open defiance of the Versailles Treaty through German rearmament and conscription would be announced on 16 March. The Condor Legion, a "Luftwaffe" detachment sent to aid Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, provided the force with a valuable testing ground for new tactics and aircraft. Partially as a result of this combat experience, the "Luftwaffe" had become one of the most sophisticated, technologically advanced, and battle-experienced air forces in the world when World War II broke out in 1939. By the summer of 1939, the "Luftwaffe" had twenty-eight "Geschwader" (wings). The "Luftwaffe" also operated "Fallschirmjäger" paratrooper units.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The "Luftwaffe" proved instrumental in the German victories across Poland and Western Europe in 1939 and 1940. During the Battle of Britain, however, despite inflicting severe damage to the RAF's infrastructure and, during the subsequent Blitz, devastating many British cities, the German air force failed to batter the beleaguered British into submission. From 1942, Allied bombing campaigns gradually destroyed the "Luftwaffe"s fighter arm. From late 1942, the "Luftwaffe" used its surplus ground support and other personnel to raise "Luftwaffe" Field Divisions. In addition to its service in the West, the "Luftwaffe" operated over the Soviet Union, North Africa and Southern Europe. Despite its belated use of advanced turbojet and rocket-propelled aircraft for the destruction of Allied bombers, the "Luftwaffe" was overwhelmed by the Allies' superior numbers and improved tactics, and a lack of trained pilots and aviation fuel. In January 1945, during the closing stages of the Battle of the Bulge, the "Luftwaffe" made a last-ditch effort to win air superiority, and met with failure. With rapidly dwindling supplies of petroleum, oil, and lubricants after this campaign, and as part of the entire combined "Wehrmacht" military forces as a whole, the "Luftwaffe" ceased to be an effective fighting force.


title: Luftwaffe

text: After the defeat of Germany, the "Luftwaffe" was disbanded in 1946. During World War II, German pilots claimed roughly 70,000 aerial victories, while over 75,000 "Luftwaffe" aircraft were destroyed or significantly damaged. Of these, nearly 40,000 were lost entirely. The "Luftwaffe" had only two commanders-in-chief throughout its history: Hermann Göring and later "Generalfeldmarschall" Robert Ritter von Greim for the last two weeks of the war.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The "Luftwaffe" was deeply involved in Nazi war crimes. By the end of the war, a significant percentage of aircraft production originated in concentration camps, an industry employing tens of thousands of prisoners. The "Luftwaffe"s demand for labor was one of the factors that led to the deportation and murder of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews in 1944. The "Oberkommando der Luftwaffe" organized Nazi human experimentation, and "Luftwaffe" ground troops committed massacres in Italy, Greece, and Poland.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The Imperial German Army Air Service was founded in 1910 with the name "Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches", most often shortened to "Fliegertruppe". It was renamed the "Luftstreitkräfte" on 8 October 1916. The air war on the Western Front received the most attention in the annals of the earliest accounts of military aviation, since it produced aces such as Manfred von Richthofen and Ernst Udet, Oswald Boelcke, and Max Immelmann. After the defeat of Germany, the service was dissolved on 8 May 1920 under the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which also mandated the destruction of all German military aircraft.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Since the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany to have an air force, German pilots trained in secret. Initially, civil aviation schools within Germany were used, yet only light trainers could be used in order to maintain the façade that the trainees were going to fly with civil airlines such as Deutsche Luft Hansa. To train its pilots on the latest combat aircraft, Germany solicited the help of the Soviet Union, which was also isolated in Europe. A secret training airfield was established at Lipetsk in 1924 and operated for approximately nine years using mostly Dutch and Soviet, but also some German, training aircraft before being closed in 1933. This base was officially known as the 4th squadron of the 40th wing of the Red Army. Hundreds of "Luftwaffe" pilots and technical personnel visited, studied and were trained at Soviet air force schools in several locations in Central Russia. Roessing, Blume, Fosse, Teetsemann, Heini, Makratzki, Blumendaat, and many other future "Luftwaffe" aces were trained in Russia in joint Russian-German schools that were set up under the patronage of Ernst August Köstring.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The first steps towards the "Luftwaffe"s formation were undertaken just months after Adolf Hitler came to power. Hermann Göring, a World War I ace, became National "Kommissar" for aviation with former Luft Hansa director Erhard Milch as his deputy. In April 1933 the Reich Aviation Ministry ("Reichsluftfahrtministerium" or RLM) was established. The RLM was in charge of the development and production of aircraft. Göring's control over all aspects of aviation became absolute. On 25 March 1933 the German Air Sports Association absorbed all private and national organizations, while retaining its 'sports' title. On 15 May 1933, all military aviation organizations in the RLM were merged, forming the "Luftwaffe"; its official 'birthday'. The National Socialist Flyers Corps ("Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps" or NSFK) was formed in 1937 to give pre-military flying training to male youths, and to engage adult sport aviators in the Nazi movement. Military-age members of the NSFK were drafted into the "Luftwaffe". As all such prior NSFK members were also Nazi Party members, this gave the new "Luftwaffe" a strong Nazi ideological base in contrast to the other branches of the "Wehrmacht" (the "Heer" (Army) and the "Kriegsmarine" (Navy)). Göring played a leading role in the buildup of the "Luftwaffe" in 1933–36, but had little further involvement in the development of the force after 1936, and Milch became the "de facto" minister until 1937.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The absence of Göring in planning and production matters was fortunate. Göring had little knowledge of current aviation, had last flown in 1922, and had not kept himself informed of the latest events. Göring also displayed a lack of understanding of doctrine and technical issues in aerial warfare which he left to others more competent. The Commander-in-Chief left the organization and building of the "Luftwaffe", after 1936, to Erhard Milch. However Göring, as a part of Hitler's inner circle, provided access to financial resources and materiel for rearming and equipping the "Luftwaffe".


title: Luftwaffe

text: Another prominent figure in German air power construction this time was Helmuth Wilberg. Wilberg later played a large role in the development of German air doctrine. Having headed the "Reichswehr" air staff for eight years in the 1920s, Wilberg had considerable experience and was ideal for a senior staff position. Göring considered making Wilberg Chief of Staff (CS). However, it was revealed Wilberg had a Jewish mother. For that reason, Göring could not have him as CS. Not wishing his talent to go to waste, Göring ensured the racial policy of Nazi Germany did not apply to him. Wilberg remained in the air staff, and under Walther Wever helped draw up the "Luftwaffe"s principle doctrinal texts, "The Conduct of the Aerial War" and "Regulation 16".


title: Luftwaffe

text: The German officer Corps was keen to develop strategic bombing capabilities against its enemies. However, economic and geopolitical considerations had to take priority. The German air power theorists continued to develop strategic theories, but emphasis was given to army support, as Germany was a continental power and expected to face ground operations following any declaration of hostilities.


title: Luftwaffe

text: For these reasons, between 1933 and 1934, the "Luftwaffe"s leadership was primarily concerned with tactical and operational methods. In aerial terms, the army concept of "Truppenführung" was an operational concept, as well as a tactical doctrine. In World War I, the "Fliegertruppe's" initial, 1914–15 era "Feldflieger Abteilung" observation/reconnaissance air units, each with six two-seater aircraft apiece, had been attached to specific army formations and acted as support. Dive bomber units were considered essential to "Truppenführung", attacking enemy headquarters and lines of communications. "Luftwaffe" "Regulation 10: The Bomber" ("Dienstvorschrift 10: Das Kampfflugzeug"), published in 1934, advocated air superiority and approaches to ground attack tactics without dealing with operational matters. Until 1935, the 1926 manual "Directives for the Conduct of the Operational Air War" continued to act as the main guide for German air operations. The manual directed OKL to focus on limited operations (not strategic operations): the protection of specific areas and support of the army in combat.


title: Luftwaffe

text: With an effective tactical-operational concept, the German air power theorists needed a strategic doctrine and organization. , a serviceman (not pilot) in the "Luftstreitkräfte" during World War I, and later an experienced pilot with Lufthansa, was a prominent theorist of air power. Knauss promoted the Giulio Douhet theory that air power could win wars alone by destroying enemy industry and breaking enemy morale by "terrorizing the population" of major cities. This advocated attacks on civilians. The General Staff blocked the entry of Douhet's theory into doctrine, fearing revenge strikes against German civilians and cities.


title: Luftwaffe

text: In December 1934, Chief of the "Luftwaffe" General Staff Walther Wever sought to mold the "Luftwaffe"s battle doctrine into a strategic plan. At this time, Wever conducted war games (simulated against France) in a bid to establish his theory of a strategic bombing force that would, he thought, prove decisive by winning the war through the destruction of enemy industry, even though these exercises also included tactical strikes against enemy ground forces and communications. In 1935, ""Luftwaffe" Regulation 16: The Conduct of the Air War" was drawn up. In the proposal, it concluded, "The mission of the "Luftwaffe" is to serve these goals."


title: Luftwaffe

text: Corum states that under this doctrine, the "Luftwaffe" leadership rejected the practice of "terror bombing" (see "Luftwaffe" strategic bombing doctrine). According to Corum, terror bombing was deemed to be "counter-productive", increasing rather than destroying the enemy's will to resist. Such bombing campaigns were regarded as diversion from the "Luftwaffe"s main operations; destruction of the enemy armed forces.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Nevertheless, Wever recognised the importance of strategic bombing. In newly introduced doctrine, "The Conduct of the Aerial Air War" in 1935, Wever rejected the theory of Douhet and outlined five key points to air strategy:


title: Luftwaffe

text: Wever began planning for a strategic bomber force and sought to incorporate strategic bombing into a war strategy. He believed that tactical aircraft should only be used as a step to developing a strategic air force. In May 1934, Wever initiated a seven-year project to develop the so-called "Ural bomber", which could strike as far as into the heart of the Soviet Union. In 1935, this design competition led to the Dornier Do 19 and Junkers Ju 89 prototypes, although both were underpowered. In April 1936, Wever issue requirements for the 'Bomber A' design competition: a range of with a bomb load. However Wever's vision of a "Ural" bomber was never realized, and his emphasis on strategic aerial operations was lost. The only design submittal for Wever's 'Bomber A' that reached production was Heinkel's "Projekt 1041", which culminated in the production and frontline service as Germany's only operational heavy bomber, the Heinkel He 177, on 5 November 1937, the date on which it received its RLM airframe number.


title: Luftwaffe

text: In 1935, the military functions of the RLM were grouped into "Oberkommando der Luftwaffe" (OKL; "Air Force High Command").


title: Luftwaffe

text: Following the untimely death of Walther Wever in early June 1936 in an aviation-related accident, by the late 1930s the "Luftwaffe" had no clear purpose. The air force was not subordinated to the army support role, and it was not given any particular strategic mission. German doctrine fell between the two concepts. The "Luftwaffe" was to be an organization capable of carrying out broad and general support tasks rather than any specific mission. Mainly, this path was chosen to encourage more flexible use of air power and offer the ground forces the right conditions for a decisive victory. In fact, on the outbreak of war, only 15% of the "Luftwaffe"s aircraft were devoted to ground support operations, counter to the long-held myth that the "Luftwaffe" was designed for only tactical and operational missions.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Wever's participation in the construction of the "Luftwaffe" came to an abrupt end on 3 June 1936 when he was killed along with his engineer in a Heinkel He 70 Blitz, ironically on the very day that his "Bomber A" heavy bomber design competition was announced. After Wever's death, Göring began taking more of an interest in the appointment of "Luftwaffe" staff officers. Göring appointed his successor Albert Kesselring as Chief of Staff and Ernst Udet to head the Reich's Air Ministry Technical Office ("Technisches Amt"), although he was not a technical expert. Despite this Udet helped change the "Luftwaffe"s tactical direction towards fast medium bombers to destroy enemy air power in the battle zone rather than through industrial bombing of its aviation production.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Kesselring and Udet did not get on. During Kesselring's time as CS, 1936–1937, a power struggle developed between the two as Udet attempted to extend his own power within the "Luftwaffe". Kesselring also had to contend with Göring appointing "yes men" to positions of importance. Udet realized his limitations, and his failures in the production and development of German aircraft would have serious long term consequences.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The failure of the "Luftwaffe" to progress further towards attaining a strategic bombing force was attributable to several reasons. Many in the "Luftwaffe" command believed medium bombers to be sufficient power to launch strategic bombing operations against Germany's most likely enemies; France, Czechoslovakia, and Poland. The United Kingdom presented greater problems. "General der Flieger" Hellmuth Felmy, commander of "Luftflotte 2" in 1939, was charged with devising a plan for an air war over the British Isles. Felmy was convinced that Britain could be defeated through morale bombing. Felmy noted the alleged panic that had broken out in London during the Munich crisis, evidence he believed of British weakness. A second reason was technical. German designers had never solved the issues of the Heinkel He 177A's design difficulties, brought on by the requirement from its inception on 5 November 1937 to have moderate dive-bombing capabilities in a 30-meter wingspan aircraft. Moreover, Germany did not possess the economic resources to match the later British and American effort of 1943–1944, particularly in large-scale mass production of high power output aircraft engines (with output of over least 1,500 kW (2,000 hp). In addition, OKL had not foreseen the industrial and military effort strategic bombing would require. By 1939 the "Luftwaffe" was not much better prepared than its enemies to conduct a strategic bombing campaign, with fatal results during the Battle of Britain.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The German rearmament program faced difficulties acquiring raw materials. Germany imported most of its essential materials for rebuilding the "Luftwaffe", in particular rubber and aluminum. Petroleum imports were particularly vulnerable to blockade. Germany pushed for synthetic fuel plants but still failed to meet demands. In 1937 Germany imported more fuel than it had at the start of the decade. By summer 1938, only 25% of the requirements could be covered. In steel materials, industry was operating at barely 83% of capacity, and by November 1938 Göring reported the economic situation was serious. The "Oberkommando der Wehrmacht" (OKW), the overall command for all German military forces, ordered reductions in raw materials and steel used for armament production. The figures for reduction were substantial: 30% steel, 20% copper, 47% aluminum, and 14% rubber. Under such circumstances, it was not possible for Milch, Udet, or Kesselring to produce a formidable strategic bombing force even had they wanted to do so.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The development of aircraft was now confined to the production of twin-engined medium bombers that required much less material, manpower and aviation production capacity than Wever's "Ural Bomber". German industry could build two medium bombers for one heavy bomber and the RLM would not gamble on developing a heavy bomber which would also take time. Göring remarked, "the "Führer" will not ask how big the bombers there are, but only how many there are." The premature death of Wever, one of the "Luftwaffe"s finest officers, left the "Luftwaffe" without a strategic air force during World War II, which eventually proved fatal to the German war effort.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The lack of strategic capability should have been apparent much earlier. The Sudeten Crisis highlighted German unpreparedness to conduct a strategic air war (although the British and French were in a much weaker position), and Hitler ordered the "Luftwaffe" be expanded to five times its earlier size. OKL badly neglected the need for transport aircraft; even in 1943, transport units were described as "Kampfgeschwadern zur besonderen Verwendung" (Bomber Units on Special Duties, KGzbV). and only grouping them together into dedicated cargo and personnel transport wings ("Transportgeschwader") during that year. In March 1938, as the "Anschluss" was taking place, Göring ordered Felmy to investigate the prospect of air raids against Britain. Felmy concluded it was not possible until bases in Belgium and the Netherlands were obtained and the "Luftwaffe" had heavy bombers. It mattered little, as war was avoided by the Munich Agreement, and the need for long-range aircraft did not arise.


title: Luftwaffe

text: These failures were not exposed until wartime. In the meantime, German designs of mid-1930s origin such as the Messerschmitt Bf 109, Heinkel He 111, Junkers Ju 87 Stuka, and Dornier Do 17, performed very well. All first saw active service in the Condor Legion against Soviet-supplied aircraft. The "Luftwaffe" also quickly realized the days of the biplane fighter were finished, the Heinkel He 51 being switched to service as a trainer. Particularly impressive were the Heinkel and Dornier, which fulfilled the "Luftwaffe"s requirements for bombers that were faster than 1930s-era fighters, many of which were biplanes or strut-braced monoplanes.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Despite the participation of these aircraft (mainly from 1938 onward), it was the venerable Junkers Ju 52 (which soon became the backbone of the "Transportgruppen") that made the main contribution. During the Spanish Civil War Hitler remarked, "Franco ought to erect a monument to the glory of the Junkers Ju 52. It is the aircraft which the Spanish revolution has to thank for its victory."


title: Luftwaffe

text: Poor accuracy from level bombers in 1937 led the "Luftwaffe" to grasp the benefits of dive-bombing. The latter could achieve far better accuracy against tactical ground targets than heavier conventional bombers. Range was not a key criterion for this mission. It was not always feasible for the army to move heavy artillery over recently captured territory to bombard fortifications or support ground forces, and dive bombers could do the job faster. Dive bombers, often single-engine two-man machines, could achieve better results than larger six or seven-man aircraft, at a tenth of the cost and four times the accuracy. This led to Udet championing the dive bomber, particularly the Junkers Ju 87.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Udet's "love affair" with dive-bombing seriously affected the long-term development of the "Luftwaffe", especially after General Wever's death. The tactical strike aircraft programs were meant to serve as interim solutions until the next generation of aircraft arrived. In 1936 the Junkers Ju 52 was the backbone of the German bomber fleet. This led to a rush on the part of the RLM to produce the Junkers Ju 86, Heinkel He 111, and Dornier Do 17 before a proper evaluation was made. The Ju 86 was poor while the He 111 showed the most promise. The Spanish Civil War convinced Udet (along with limited output from the German munitions industry) that wastage was not acceptable in munition terms. Udet sought to build dive-bombing into the Junkers Ju 88 and conveyed the same idea, initiated specifically by OKL for the Heinkel He 177, approved in early November 1937. In the case of the Ju 88, 50,000 modifications had to be made. The weight was increased from seven to twelve tons. This resulted in a speed loss of 200 km/h. Udet merely conveyed OKL's own dive-bombing capability request to Ernst Heinkel concerning the He 177, who vehemently opposed such an idea, which ruined its development as a heavy bomber. Göring was not able to rescind the dive-bombing requirement for the He 177A until September 1942.


title: Luftwaffe

text: By the summer of 1939, the "Luftwaffe" had ready for combat nine "Jagdgeschwader" (fighter wings) mostly equipped with the Messerschmitt Bf 109E, four "'Zerstörergeschwader" (destroyer wings) equipped with the Messerschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter, 11 "Kampfgeschwader" (bomber wings) equipped mainly with the Heinkel He 111 and the Dornier Do 17Z, and four "Sturzkampfgeschwader" (dive bomber wing") primarily armed with the iconic Junkers Ju 87B "Stuka". The "Luftwaffe" was just starting to accept the Junkers Ju 88A for service, as it had encountered design difficulties, with only a dozen aircraft of the type considered combat-ready. The "Luftwaffe"s strength at this time stood at 373,000 personnel (208,000 flying troops, 107,000 in the Flak Corps and 58,000 in the Signals Corps). Aircraft strength was 4,201 operational aircraft: 1,191 bombers, 361 dive bombers, 788 fighters, 431 heavy fighters, and 488 transports. Despite deficiencies, it was an impressive force.


title: Luftwaffe

text: However, even by the spring of 1940, the "Luftwaffe" still had not mobilized fully. Despite the shortage of raw materials, "Generalluftzeugmeister" Ernst Udet had increased production through introducing a 10-hour working day for aviation industries and rationalizing production. During this period 30 "Kampfstaffeln" and 16 "Jagdstaffeln" were raised and equipped. A further five "Zerstörergruppen" ("Destroyer groups") were created (JGr 101, 102,126,152 and 176), all equipped with the Bf 110.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The "Luftwaffe" also greatly expanded its aircrew training programs by 42%, to 63 flying schools. These facilities were moved to eastern Germany, away from possible Allied threats. The number of aircrew reached 4,727, an increase of 31%. However, the rush to complete this rapid expansion scheme resulted in the deaths of 997 personnel and another 700 wounded. 946 aircraft were also destroyed in these accidents. The number of aircrew completing their training was up to 3,941, The "Luftwaffe"s entire strength was now 2.2 million personnel.


title: Luftwaffe

text: In April and May 1941, Udet headed the "Luftwaffe" delegation inspecting the Soviet aviation industry in compliance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Udet informed Göring "that Soviet air forces are very strong and technically advanced." Göring decided not to report the facts to Hitler, hoping that a surprise attack would quickly destroy the USSR. Udet realized that the upcoming war on Russia might cripple Germany. Udet, torn between truth and loyalty, suffered a psychological breakdown and even tried to tell Hitler the truth, but Göring told Hitler that Udet was lying, then took Udet under control by giving him drugs at drinking parties and hunting trips. Udet's drinking and psychological condition became a problem, but Göring used Udet's dependency to manipulate him.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Throughout the history of Nazi Germany, the "Luftwaffe" had only two commanders-in-chief. The first was Hermann Göring, with the second and last being "Generalfeldmarschall" Robert Ritter von Greim. His appointment as commander-in-chief of the "Luftwaffe" was concomitant with his promotion to "Generalfeldmarschall", the last German officer in World War II to be promoted to the highest rank. Other officers promoted to the second highest military rank in Germany were Albert Kesselring, Hugo Sperrle, Erhard Milch, and Wolfram von Richthofen.


title: Luftwaffe

text: At the end of the war, with Berlin surrounded by the Red Army, Göring suggested to Hitler that he take over leadership of the Reich. Hitler ordered his arrest and execution, but Göring's SS guards did not carry out the order, and Göring survived to be tried at Nuremberg.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Sperrle was prosecuted at the OKW Trial, one of the last twelve of the Nuremberg Trials after the war. He was acquitted on all four counts. He died in Munich in 1953.


title: Luftwaffe

text: At the start of the war the "Luftwaffe" had four "Luftflotten" (air fleets), each responsible for roughly a quarter of Germany. As the war progressed more air fleets were created as the areas under German rule expanded. As one example, "Luftflotte" 5 was created in 1940 to direct operations in Norway and Denmark, and other "Luftflotten" were created as necessary. Each "Luftflotte" would contain several "Fliegerkorps" (Air Corps), "Fliegerdivision" (Air Division), "Jagdkorps" (Fighter Corps),"Jagddivision" (Air Division) or "Jagdfliegerführer" (Fighter Air Command). Each formations would have attached to it a number of units, usually several "Geschwader", but also independent "Staffeln" and "Kampfgruppen". "Luftflotten" were also responsible for the training aircraft and schools in their operational areas.


title: Luftwaffe

text: A "Geschwader" was commanded by a "Geschwaderkommodore", with the rank of either major, "Oberstleutnant" (lieutenant colonel) or "Oberst" (colonel). Other "staff" officers within the unit with administrative duties included the adjutant, technical officer, and operations officer, who were usually (though not always) experienced aircrew or pilots still flying on operations. Other specialist staff were navigation, signals, and intelligence personnel. A "Stabschwarm" (headquarters flight) was attached to each "Geschwader".


title: Luftwaffe

text: A "Jagdgeschwader" (hunting wing) (JG) was a single-seat day fighter "Geschwader", typically equipped with Bf 109 or Fw 190 aircraft flying in the fighter or fighter-bomber roles. Late in the war, by 1944–45, JG 7 and JG 400 (and the jet specialist JV 44) flew much more advanced aircraft, with JG 1 working up with jets at war's end. A "Geschwader" consisted of groups ("Gruppen"), which in turn consisted of "Jagdstaffel" (fighter squadrons). Hence, Fighter Wing 1 was JG 1, its first "Gruppe" (group) was I./JG 1, using a Roman numeral for the "Gruppe" number only, and its first "Staffel" (squadron) was 1./JG 1. "Geschwader" strength was usually 120 – 125 aircraft.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Each "Gruppe" was commanded by a "Kommandeur", and a "Staffel" by a "Staffelkapitän". However, these were "appointments", not ranks, within the "Luftwaffe". Usually, the "Kommodore" would hold the rank of "Oberstleutnant" (lieutenant colonel) or, exceptionally, an "Oberst" (colonel). Even a "Leutnant" (second lieutenant) could find himself commanding a "Staffel".


title: Luftwaffe

text: Similarly, a bomber wing was a "Kampfgeschwader" (KG), a night fighter wing was a "Nachtjagdgeschwader" (NJG), a dive bomber wing was a "Stukageschwader" (StG), and units equivalent to those in RAF Coastal Command, with specific responsibilities for coastal patrols and search and rescue duties, were "Küstenfliegergruppen" (Kü.Fl. Gr.). Specialist bomber groups were known as "Kampfgruppen" (KGr). The strength of a bomber "Geschwader" was about 80–90 aircraft.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The peacetime strength of the "Luftwaffe" in the spring of 1939 was 370,000 men. After the mobilization in 1939 almost 900,000 men served, and just before Operation Barbarossa in 1941 the personnel strength had reached 1.5 million men. The "Luftwaffe" reached its largest personnel strength during the period November 1943 to June 1944, with almost three million men and women in uniform; 1.7 million of these were male soldiers, 1 million male "Wehrmachtsbeamte" and civilian employees, and almost 300,000 female and male auxiliaries ("Luftwaffenhelfer"). In October 1944, the anti-aircraft units had 600,000 soldiers and 530,000 auxiliaries, including 60,000 male members of the "Reichsarbeitsdienst", 50,000 "Luftwaffenhelfer" (males age 15–17), 80,000 "Flakwehrmänner" (males above military age) and "Flak-V-soldaten" (males unfit for military service), and 160,000 female "Flakwaffenhelferinnen" and "RAD-Maiden", as well as 160,000 foreign personnel (Hiwis).


title: Luftwaffe

text: The "Luftwaffe"s Condor Legion experimented with new doctrine and aircraft during the Spanish Civil War. It helped the "Falange" under Francisco Franco to defeat the Republican forces. Over 20,000 German airmen gained combat experience that would give the "Luftwaffe" an important advantage going into the Second World War. One infamous operation was the bombing of Guernica in the Basque country. It is commonly assumed this attack was the result of a "terror doctrine" in "Luftwaffe" doctrine. The raids on Guernica and Madrid caused many civilian casualties and a wave of protests in the democracies. It has been suggested that the bombing of Guernica was carried out for military tactical reasons, in support of ground operations, but the town was not directly involved in any fighting at that point in time. It was not until 1942 that the Germans started to develop a bombing policy in which civilians were the primary targets, although The Blitz on London and many other British cities involved indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, 'nuisance raids' which could even involve the machine-gunning of civilians and livestock.


title: Luftwaffe

text: When World War II began in 1939, the "Luftwaffe" was one of the most technologically advanced air forces in the world. During the Polish Campaign that triggered the war, it quickly established air superiority, and then air supremacy. It supported the German Army operations which ended the campaign in five weeks. The "Luftwaffe"s performance was as OKL had hoped. The "Luftwaffe" rendered invaluable support to the army, mopping up pockets of resistance. Göring was delighted with the performance. Command and control problems occurred, but flexibility and improvization in both the army and the "Luftwaffe" solved these problems. The "Luftwaffe" was to have in place a ground-to-air communication system, which played a vital role in the success of 1940's "Fall Gelb".


title: Luftwaffe

text: In the spring of 1940 the "Luftwaffe" assisted the "Kriegsmarine" and "Heer" in the invasion of Norway. Flying in reinforcements and winning air superiority, the "Luftwaffe" contributed decisively to the German conquest.


title: Luftwaffe

text: In May and June 1940, the "Luftwaffe" contributed to the unexpected German success in the Battle of France. It destroyed three Allied Air Forces and helped secure the defeat of France in just over six weeks. However, it could not destroy the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk despite intense bombing. The BEF escaped to continue the war.


title: Luftwaffe

text: During the Battle of Britain in summer 1940, the "Luftwaffe" inflicted severe damage on Britain's Royal Air Force, but did not achieve the air superiority that Hitler demanded for the proposed invasion of Britain, which was postponed and then canceled in December 1940. The "Luftwaffe" ravaged British cities during the Blitz of 1940–1941, but failed to break British morale. Hitler had already ordered preparations for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.


title: Luftwaffe

text: In spring 1941 the "Luftwaffe" helped its Axis partner, Italy, secure victory in the Balkans Campaign and continued to support Italy or the Italian Social Republic in the Mediterranean, Middle East and African theaters until May 1945.


title: Luftwaffe

text: In June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The "Luftwaffe" destroyed thousands of Soviet aircraft,


title: Luftwaffe

text: yet it failed to destroy the Red Air Force altogether. Lacking strategic bombers (the very "Ural bombers" that General Wever had asked for six years before) the "Luftwaffe" could not strike at Soviet production-centers regularly or with the needed force. The Axis and Soviet air operations during Operation Barbarossa consumed vast numbers of men and planes. As the war dragged on, the "Luftwaffe" was eroded in strength. German defeats at the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942 and in the Battle of Kursk in 1943 ensured the gradual decline of the "Wehrmacht" on the Eastern Front.


title: Luftwaffe

text: British historian Frederick Taylor asserts that "all sides bombed each other's cities during the war. Half a million Soviet citizens, for example, died from German bombing during the invasion and occupation of Russia. That's roughly equivalent to the number of German citizens who died from Allied raids."


title: Luftwaffe

text: The "Luftwaffe" defended German-occupied Europe against the growing offensive power of RAF Bomber Command and, starting in the summer of 1942, the steadily building strength of the United States Army Air Forces. The mounting demands of the Defence of the Reich campaign gradually destroyed the "Luftwaffe"s fighter arm. Despite its belated use of advanced turbojet and rocket-propelled aircraft for bomber-destroyer duties, it was overwhelmed by Allied numbers and a lack of trained pilots and fuel. A last-ditch attempt, known as Operation Bodenplatte, to win air superiority on 1 January 1945 failed. After the "Bodenplatte" effort, the "Luftwaffe" ceased to be an effective fighting force.


title: Luftwaffe

text: German day- and night-fighter pilots claimed more than 70,000 aerial victories during World War II. Of these, an estimated 745 victories were attributed to jet fighters. Flak shot down 25,000–30,000 Allied planes. Broken down according to the different Allied forces, about 25,000 were American planes, about 20,000 British, 46,100 Soviet, 1,274 French, 375 Polish, and 81 Dutch as well as aircraft from other Allied nationalities.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The highest-scoring day-fighter pilot was Erich Hartmann with 352 confirmed kills, all of them on the Eastern front against the Soviets. The leading aces in the west were Hans-Joachim Marseille with 158 kills against planes from the British Empire (RAF, RAAF, and SAAF), and Georg-Peter Eder with 56 kills of aircraft from the USAAF (of a total of 78). The most successful night-fighter pilot, Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, is credited with 121 kills. 103 German fighter pilots shot down more than 100 enemy aircraft for a total of roughly 15,400 aerial victories. Roughly a further 360 pilots claimed between 40 and 100 aerial victories for round about 21,000 victories. Another 500 fighter pilots claimed between 20 and 40 victories for a total of 15,000 victories. Part of the reason German pilots scored such high victory totals was that they were in combat for the duration of the war-unlike the Allies, who rotated their flyers out of combat after a certain amount of time, German pilots flew until they were killed, captured or too badly wounded to keep flying. It is relatively certain that 2,500 German fighter pilots attained ace status, having achieved at least five aerial victories. These achievements were honored with 453 German single and twin-engine (Messerschmitt Bf 110) day-fighter pilots receiving the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. 85 night-fighter pilots, including 14 crew members, were awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Some bomber pilots were also highly successful. The "Stuka" and "Schlachtflieger" pilot Hans-Ulrich Rudel flew 2,530 ground-attack missions and claimed the destruction of more than 519 tanks and a battleship, among others. He became the most highly decorated German serviceman of the Second World War. The bomber pilot Hansgeorg Bätcher flew more than 658 combat missions, destroying numerous ships and other targets.


title: Luftwaffe

text: "Luftwaffe" losses, on the other hand, were high as well. The estimated total number of destroyed and damaged for the war totaled 76,875 aircraft. Of these, about 43,000 were lost in combat, the rest in operational accidents and during training. By type, losses totaled 21,452 fighters, 12,037 bombers, 15,428 trainers, 10,221 twin-engine fighters, 5,548 ground attack craft, 6,733 reconnaissance planes, and 6,141 transports.


title: Luftwaffe

text: According to the General Staff of the "Wehrmacht" the losses of the flight personnel until February 1945 amounted to:


title: Luftwaffe

text: According to official statistics, total "Luftwaffe" casualties, including ground personnel, amounted to 138,596 killed and 156,132 missing through 31 January 1945.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The failure of the "Luftwaffe" in the Defence of the Reich campaign was a result of a number of factors. The "Luftwaffe" lacked an effective air defense system early in the war. Adolf Hitler's foreign policy had pushed Germany into war before these defenses could be fully developed. The "Luftwaffe" was forced to improvize and construct its defenses during the war.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The daylight actions over German-controlled territory were sparse in 1939–1940. The responsibility of the defense of German air space fell to the "Luftgaukommandos" (air district commands). The defense systems relied mostly on the "flak" arm. The defenses were not coordinated and communication was poor. This lack of understanding between the flak and flying branches of the defense would plague the "Luftwaffe" throughout the war. Hitler, in particular, wanted the defense to rest on anti-aircraft artillery as it gave the civilian population a "psychological crutch" no matter how ineffective the weapons.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Most of the battles fought by the "Luftwaffe" on the Western Front were against the RAF's "Circus" raids and the occasional daylight raid into German air space. This was a fortunate position since the "Luftwaffe"s strategy of focusing its striking power on one front started to unravel with the failure of the invasion of the Soviet Union. The "peripheral" strategy of the "Luftwaffe" between 1939 and 1940 had been to deploy its fighter defenses at the edges of Axis occupied territory, with little protecting the inner depths. Moreover, the front line units in the West were complaining about the poor numbers and performance of aircraft. Units complained of lack of "Zerstörer" aircraft with all-weather capabilities and the "lack of climbing power of the Bf 109". The "Luftwaffe"s technical edge was slipping as the only formidable new aircraft in the German arsenal was the Focke-Wulf Fw 190. "Generalfeldmarschall" Erhard Milch was to assist Ernst Udet with aircraft production increases and the introduction of more modern types of fighter aircraft. However, they explained at a meeting of the Reich Industrial Council on 18 September 1941 that the new next-generation aircraft had failed to materialize, and production of obsolete types had to continue to meet the growing need for replacements.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The buildup of the "Jagdwaffe" ("Fighter Force") was too rapid and its quality suffered. It was not put under a unified command until 1943, which also affected the performance of the nine "Jagdgeschwader" fighter wings in existence in 1939. No further units were formed until 1942, and the years of 1940–1941 were wasted. OKL failed to construct a strategy; instead, its command style was reactionary, and its measures not as effective without thorough planning. This was particularly apparent with the "Sturmböck" squadrons, formed to replace the increasingly ineffective twin-engined "Zerstörer" heavy fighter wings as the primary defense against USAAF daylight raids. The "Sturmböcke" flew Fw 190A fighters armed with heavy 20 mm and 30 mm cannon to destroy heavy bombers, but this increased the weight and affected the performance of the Fw 190 at a time when the aircraft were meeting large numbers of equal if not superior Allied types.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Daytime aerial defense against the USAAF's strongly defended heavy bomber forces, particularly the Eighth Air Force and the Fifteenth Air Force, had its successes through the calendar year of 1943. But at the start of 1944, Eighth AF commander Jimmy Doolittle made a major change in offensive fighter tactics, which defeated the "Luftwaffe"s day fighter force from that time onwards. Steadily increasing numbers of the superlative North American P-51 Mustang single-engine fighter, leading the USAAF's bombers into German airspace defeated first the Bf 110 "Zerstörer" wings, then the Fw 190A Sturmböcke.


title: Luftwaffe

text: In terms of technological development, the failure to develop a long-range bomber and capable long-range fighters during this period left the "Luftwaffe" unable to conduct a meaningful strategic bombing campaign throughout the war. However, Germany at that time suffered from limitations in raw materials such as oil and aluminum, which meant that there were insufficient resources for much beyond a tactical air force: given these circumstances, the "Luftwaffe"s reliance on tactical mid-range, twin-engined medium bombers and short-range dive-bombers was a pragmatic choice of strategy. It might also be argued that the "Luftwaffe"s "Kampfgeschwader" medium and heavy bomber wings were perfectly capable of attacking strategic targets, but the lack of capable long-range escort fighters left the bombers unable to carry out their missions effectively against determined and well-organised fighter opposition.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The greatest failure for the "Kampfgeschwader", however, was being saddled with an aircraft intended as a capable four-engined heavy bomber: the perpetually troubled Heinkel He 177, whose engines were prone to catch fire in flight. Of the three parallel proposals from the Heinkel engineering departments for a four-engined version of the A-series He 177 by February 1943, one of these being the Heinkel firm's "Amerikabomber" candidate, only one, the , emerged in the concluding months of 1943. Only three airworthy prototypes of the B-series He 177 design were produced by early 1944, some three years after the first prototype flights of the Avro Lancaster, the most successful RAF heavy bomber.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Another failure of procurement and equipment was the lack of a dedicated naval air arm. General Felmy had already expressed a desire to build a naval air arm to support "Kriegsmarine" operations in the Atlantic and British waters. Britain was dependent on food and raw materials from its Empire and North America. Felmy pressed this case firmly throughout 1938 and 1939, and, on 31 October 1939, "Großadmiral" Erich Raeder sent a strongly worded letter to Göring in support of such proposals. The early-war twin-engined Heinkel He 115 floatplane and Dornier Do 18 flying boat were too slow and short-ranged. The then-contemporary Blohm & Voss BV 138 "Seedrache" (seadragon) trimotor flying boat became the "Luftwaffe"s primary seaborne maritime patrol platform, with nearly 300 examples built; its trio of Junkers Jumo 205 diesel engines gave it a 4,300 km (2,670 mi) maximum range. Another Blohm und Voss design of 1940, the enormous, 46-meter wingspan six-engined Blohm und Voss BV 222 "Wiking" maritime patrol flying boat, would see it capable of a 6,800 km (4,200-mile) range at maximum endurance when using higher-output versions of the same Jumo 205 powerplants as used by the BV 138, in later years. The Dornier Do 217 would have been ideal as a land-based choice but suffered production problems. Raeder also complained about the poor standard of aerial torpedoes, although their design was the responsibility of the "Wehrmacht" combined military's naval arm (the "Kriegsmarine"), even considering production of the Japanese Type 91 torpedo used at Pearl Harbor as the "Lufttorpedo" LT 850 by August 1942. (See both:Yanagi missions and Heinkel He 111 torpedo bomber operations)


title: Luftwaffe

text: Without specialized naval or land-based, purpose-designed maritime patrol aircraft, the "Luftwaffe" was forced to improvize. The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor airliner's airframe – engineered for civilian airliner use – lacked the structural strength for combat maneuvering at lower altitudes, making it unsuitable for use as a bomber in maritime patrol duties. The Condor lacked speed, armor and bomb load capacity. Sometimes the fuselage literally "broke its back" or a wing panel dropped loose from the wing root after a hard landing. Nevertheless, this civilian transport was adapted for the long-range reconnaissance and anti-shipping roles and, between August 1940 and February 1941, Fw 200s sank 85 vessels for a claimed total of 363,000 Grt. Had the "Luftwaffe" focused on naval aviation – particularly maritime patrol aircraft with long range, like the aforementioned diesel-powered multi-engine Blohm & Voss flying boats – Germany might well have been in a position to win the Battle of the Atlantic. However, Raeder and the "Kriegsmarine" failed to press for naval air power until the war began, mitigating the "Luftwaffe"s responsibility. In addition, Göring regarded any other branch of the German military developing its own aviation as an encroachment on his authority and continually frustrated the Navy's attempts to build its own airpower.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The absence of a strategic bomber force for the "Luftwaffe", following General Wever's accidental death in the early summer of 1936 and the end of the Ural bomber program he fostered before the invasion of Poland, would not be addressed again until the authorization of the "Bomber B" design competition in July 1939, which sought to replace the medium bomber force with which the "Luftwaffe" was to begin the war, and the partly achieved "Schnellbomber" high-speed medium bomber concept with more advanced, twin-engined high-speed bomber aircraft fitted with pairs of relatively "high-power" engines of 1,500 kW (2,000 hp) output levels and upwards each as a follow-on to the earlier "Schnellbomber" project, that would also be able to function as shorter-range heavy bombers. The spring 1942 "Amerikabomber" program also sought to produce useful strategic bomber designs for the "Luftwaffe", with their prime design priority being an advanced trans-oceanic range capability as the main aim of the project to directly attack the United States from Europe or the Azores. Inevitably, both the "Bomber B" and "Amerikabomber" programs were victims of the continued emphasis of the "Wehrmacht" combined military's insistence for its "Luftwaffe" air arm to support the "Heer" as its primary mission, and the damage to the German aviation industry from Allied bomber attacks.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The RLM's apparent lack of a dedicated "technical-tactical" department, that would have directly been in contact with combat pilots to assess their needs for weaponry upgrades and tactical advice, had never been seriously envisioned as a critically ongoing necessity in the planning of the original German air arm. The RLM did have its own "Technisches Amt" (T-Amt) department to handle aviation technology issues, but this was tasked with handling all aviation technology issues in Nazi Germany, both military and civilian in nature, and also not known to have ever had any clear and actively administrative and consultative links with the front-line forces established for such purposes. On the front-line combat side of the issue, and for direct contact with the German aviation firms making the "Luftwaffe"s warplanes, the "Luftwaffe" did have its own reasonably effective system of four military aviation test facilities, or "Erprobungstellen" located at three coastal sites – Peenemünde-West (also incorporating a separate facility in nearby Karlshagen), Tarnewitz and Travemünde – and the central inland site of Rechlin, itself first established as a military airfield in late August 1918 by the German Empire, with the four-facility system commanded later in World War II by "Oberst" (Colonel) Edgar Petersen. However, due to lack of co-ordination between the RLM and OKL, all fighter and bomber development was oriented toward short-range aircraft, as they could be produced in greater numbers, rather than quality long-range aircraft, something that put the "Luftwaffe" at a disadvantage as early as the Battle of Britain. The "ramp-up" to production levels required to fulfill the "Luftwaffe"s front-line needs was also slow, not reaching maximum output until 1944. Production of fighters was not given priority until 1944; Adolf Galland commented that this should have occurred at least a year earlier. Galland also pointed to the mistakes and challenges made in the development of the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet – which included the protracted development time required for its Junkers Jumo 004 jet engines to achieve reliability. German combat aircraft types that were first designed and flown in the mid-1930s had become obsolete, yet were kept in production, in particular the Ju 87 Stuka, and the Bf 109, because there were no well-developed replacement designs.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The failure of German production was evident from the start of the Battle of Britain. By the end of 1940, the "Luftwaffe" had suffered heavy losses and needed to regroup. Deliveries of new aircraft were insufficient to meet the drain on resources; the "Luftwaffe", unlike the RAF, was failing to expand its pilot and aircraft numbers. This was partly owing to production planning failures before the war and the demands of the army. Nevertheless, the German aircraft industry was being outproduced in 1940. In terms of fighter aircraft production, the British exceeded their production plans by 43%, while the Germans remained 40% "behind" target by summer 1940. In fact, German production in fighters fell from 227 to 177 per month between July and September 1940. One of the many reasons for the failure of the "Luftwaffe" in 1940 was that it did not have the operational and material means to destroy the British aircraft industry, something that the much-anticipated "Bomber B" design competition was intended to address.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The so-called "Göring program", had largely been predicated on the defeat of the Soviet Union in 1941. After the "Wehrmacht"'s failure in front of Moscow, industrial priorities for a possibility in increasing aircraft production were largely abandoned in favor to support the army's increased attrition rates and heavy equipment losses. Erhard Milch's reforms expanded production rates. In 1941 an average of 981 aircraft (including 311 fighters) were produced each month. In 1942 this rose to 1,296 aircraft of which 434 were fighters. Milch's planned production increases were initially opposed. But in June, he was granted materials for 900 fighters per month as the average output. By the Summer of 1942, "Luftwaffe's" operational fighter force had recovered from a low of 39% (44% for fighters and 31% for bombers) in Winter of 1941–1942, to 69% by late June (75% for fighters and 66% for bombers) in 1942. However, after increased commitments in the east, overall operational ready rates fluctuated between 59% and 65% for the remaining year. Throughout 1942 the "Luftwaffe" was out produced in fighter aircraft by 250% and in twin-engine aircraft by 196%.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The appointment of Albert Speer as Minister of Armaments increased production of existing designs and the few new designs that had originated from earlier in the war. However, the intensification of Allied bombing caused the dispersion of production and prevented an efficient acceleration of expansion. German aviation production reached about 36,000 combat aircraft for 1944. However, by the time this was achieved the "Luftwaffe" lacked the fuel and trained pilots to make this achievement worthwhile.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The failure to maximize production immediately after the failures in the Soviet Union and North Africa ensured the "Luftwaffe"s effective defeat in the period of September 1943 – February 1944. Despite the tactical victories won, they failed to achieve a decisive victory. By the time production reached acceptable levels, as so many other factors had for the "Luftwaffe" – and for the entire "Wehrmacht"'s weapons and ordnance technology as a whole – late in the war, it was "too little, too late".


title: Luftwaffe

text: By the late 1930s, airframe construction methods had progressed to the point where airframes could be built to any required size, founded on the all-metal airframe design technologies pioneered by Hugo Junkers in 1915 and constantly improved upon for over two decades to followespecially in Germany with aircraft like the Dornier Do X flying boat and the Junkers G 38 airliner. However, powering such designs was a major challenge. Mid-1930s aero engines were limited to about 600 hp and the first 1000 hp engines were just entering the prototype stagefor Nazi Germany's then-new "Luftwaffe" air arm, this meant liquid-cooled inverted V12 designs like the Daimler-Benz DB 601.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The United States had already gotten its start towards this goal by 1937 with two large displacement, twin-row 18-cylinder air-cooled radial engine designs of at least displacement each: the Pratt & Whitney "Double Wasp" and the Wright "Duplex-Cyclone".


title: Luftwaffe

text: Nazi Germany's initial need for substantially more powerful aviation engines originated with the private venture Heinkel He 119 high-speed reconnaissance design, and the ostensibly twin-"engined" Messerschmitt Me 261 for maritime reconnaissance duties – to power each of these designs, Daimler-Benz literally "doubled-up" their new, fuel-injected DB 601 engines. This "doubling-up" involved placing two DB 601s side by side on either side of a common vertical-plane space frame with their crankcases' outer sides each having a mount similar to what would be used in a single-engine installation, creating a "mirror-image" centrifugal supercharger for the starboard-side component DB 601, inclining the top ends of their crankcases inwards by roughly 30º to mate with the space-frame central mount, and placing a common propeller gear reduction housing across the front ends of the two engines. Such a twin-crankcase "power system" aviation engine crafted from a pair of DB 601s resulted in the maximum output DB 606 "coupled" engine design for these two aircraft in February 1937, but with each of the DB 606 "coupled" engines weighing in at around 1.5 tonnes apiece.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The early development of the DB 606 "coupled" engines, was paralleled during the late 1930s with Daimler-Benz's simultaneous development of a 1,500 kW class engine design using a single crankcase. The result was the twenty-four cylinder Daimler-Benz DB 604 X-configuration engine, with four banks of six cylinders each. Possessing essentially the same displacement of as the initial version of the liquid-cooled Junkers Jumo 222 multibank engine, itself a "converse" choice in configuration to the DB 604 in possessing six banks of four inline cylinders apiece instead; coincidentally, both the original Jumo 222 design and the DB 604 each weighed about a third less (at some of dry weight) than the DB 606, but the DB 604's protracted development was diverting valuable German aviation powerplant research resources, and with more development of the "twinned-DB 605" based DB 610 coupled engine (itself initiated in June 1940 with a top output level of , and brought together in the same way – with the same all-up weight of 1.5 tonnes – as the DB 606 had been) giving improved results at the time, the Reich Air Ministry stopped all work on the DB 604 in September 1942. Such "coupled powerplants" were the exclusive choice of power for the Heinkel He 177A "Greif" heavy bomber, mistasked from its beginnings in being intended to do moderate-angle "dive bombing" for a 30-meter wingspan class, heavy bomber design – the twin nacelles for a pair of DB 606s or 610s did reduce drag for such a combat "requirement", but the poor design of the He 177A's engine accommodations for these twin-crankcase "power systems" caused repeated outbreaks of engine fires, causing the "dive bombing" requirement for the He 177A to be canceled by mid-September 1942.


title: Luftwaffe

text: BMW worked on what was essentially an enlarged version of its highly successful BMW 801 design from the Focke-Wulf Fw 190A. This led to the 53.7-litre displacement BMW 802 in 1943, an eighteen-cylinder air-cooled radial, which nearly matched the American "Duplex-Cyclone's" 54.9-litre figure, but with a weight of some matching that of the 24-cylinder liquid-cooled inline DB 606; and the even larger, 83.5-litre displacement BMW 803 28-cylinder liquid-cooled radial, which from post-war statements from BMW development personnel were each considered to be "secondary priority" development programs at best. This situation with the 802 and 803 designs led to the company's engineering personnel being redirected to place all efforts on improving the 801 to develop it to its full potential. The BMW 801F radial development, through its use of features coming from the 801E subtype, was able to substantially exceed the over-1,500 kW output level. The two closest Allied equivalents to the 801 in configuration and displacement – the American Wright "Twin Cyclone", and the Soviet Shvetsov ASh-82 radials – never had any need to be developed beyond a 1,500 kW output level, as larger-displacement, 18-cylinder radial aviation engines in both nations (the aforementioned American "Double Wasp" and "Duplex-Cyclone") and the eventual 1945 premiere of the Soviet Shvetsov ASh-73 design, all three of which started their development before 1940, handled needs for even greater power from large radial aviation engines.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The twinned-up Daimler-Benz DB 601-based, 1,750 kW output DB 606, and its more powerful descendant, the 2,130 kW output DB 605-based DB 610, weighing some 1.5 tonnes apiece, were the only 1,500 kW-plus output level aircraft powerplants to ever be produced by Germany for "Luftwaffe" combat aircraft, mostly for the aforementioned Heinkel He 177A heavy bomber. Even the largest-displacement inverted V12 aircraft powerplant built in Germany, the 44.52-litre (2,717 cu. in.) Daimler-Benz DB 603, which saw widespread use in twin-engined designs, could not exceed the 1,500 kW output level without more development. By March 1940, even the DB 603 was being "twinned-up" as the 601/606 and 605/610 had been, to become their replacement "power system": this was the strictly experimental, approximately 1.8-tonne weight apiece, twin-crankcase DB 613; capable of over 2,570 kW (3,495 PS) output, but which never left its test phase.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The proposed over-1,500 kW output subtypes of German aviation industry's existing piston aviation engine designs—which adhered to using just a single crankcase that "were" able to substantially exceed the aforementioned over-1,500 kW output level—were the DB 603 LM (1,800 kW at take-off, in production), the DB 603 N (2,205 kW at take-off, planned for 1946) and the BMW 801F (1,765 kW (2,400 PS) engines. The pioneering nature of jet engine technology in the 1940s resulted in numerous development problems for both of Germany's major jet engine designs to see mass production, the Jumo 004 and BMW 003 (both of pioneering axial flow design), with the more powerful Heinkel HeS 011 never leaving the test phase, as only 19 examples of the HeS 011 would ever be built for development. Even with such dismal degrees of success for such advanced aviation powerplant designs, more and more design proposals for new German combat aircraft in the 1943–45 period centered either around the failed Jumo 222 or HeS 011 aviation powerplants for their propulsion.


title: Luftwaffe

text: The bomber arm was given preference and received the "better" pilots. Later, fighter pilot leaders were few in numbers as a result of this. As with the late shift to fighter production, the "Luftwaffe" pilot schools did not give the fighter pilot schools preference soon enough. The "Luftwaffe", OKW argued, was still an offensive weapon, and its primary focus was on producing bomber pilots. This attitude prevailed until the second half of 1943. During the Defence of the Reich campaign in 1943 and 1944, there were not enough commissioned fighter pilots and leaders to meet attrition rates; as the need arose to replace aircrew (as attrition rates increased), the quality of pilot training deteriorated rapidly. Later this was made worse by fuel shortages for pilot training. Overall this meant reduced training on operational types, formation flying, gunnery training, and combat training, and a total lack of instrument training.


title: Luftwaffe

text: At the beginning of the war, commanders were replaced with younger commanders too quickly. These younger commanders had to learn "in the field" rather than entering a front-line post fully qualified. Training of formation leaders was not systematic until 1943, which was far too late, with the "Luftwaffe" already stretched. The "Luftwaffe" thus lacked a cadre of staff officers to set up new combat units with carefully selected and skilled combat personnel, and pass on experience.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Moreover, "Luftwaffe" leadership from the start poached the training command, which undermined its ability to replace losses, while also planning for "short sharp campaigns", which did not pertain. Moreover, no plans were laid for night fighters. In fact, when protests were raised, Hans Jeschonnek, Chief of the General Staff of the "Luftwaffe", said, "First we've got to beat Russia, then we can start training!"


title: Luftwaffe

text: The "Luftwaffe" was unusual among contemporary independent air forces in possessing an organic paratrooper force called "Fallschirmjäger". Established in 1938, they were deployed in parachute operations in 1940 and 1941 and participated in the Battle of Fort Eben-Emael and the Battle for The Hague in May 1940, and during the Battle of Crete in May 1941. However, more than 4,000 "Fallschirmjäger" were killed during the Crete operation. Afterwards, although continuing to be trained in parachute delivery, paratroopers were only used in a parachute role for smaller-scale operations, such as the rescue of Benito Mussolini in 1943. "Fallschirmjäger" formations were mainly used as light infantry in all theaters of the war. Their losses were 22,041 KIA, 57,594 WIA and 44,785 MIA (until February 1945).


title: Luftwaffe

text: During 1942 surplus "Luftwaffe" personnel was used to form the "Luftwaffe" Field Divisions, standard infantry divisions that were used chiefly as rear echelon units to free up front line troops. From 1943, the "Luftwaffe" also had an armored division called "Fallschirm-Panzer" Division 1 Hermann Göring, which was expanded to a "Panzerkorps" in 1944.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Ground support and combat units from the "Reichsarbeitsdienst" (RAD) and the National Socialist Motor Corps (NSKK) were also put at the "Luftwaffe"s disposal during the war. In 1942 56 RAD companies served with the "Luftwaffe" in the West as airfield construction troops. In 1943 420 RAD companies were trained as anti-aircraft artillery (AAA) and posted to existing "Luftwaffe" AAA battalions in the homeland. At the end of the war, these units were also fighting allied tanks. Beginning in 1939 with a transport regiment, the NSKK had in 1942 a complete division-sized transportation unit serving the "Luftwaffe", the "NSKK Transportgruppe Luftwaffe" serving in France and at the Eastern front. The overwhelming number of its 12,000 members were Belgian, Dutch and French collaborators.


title: Luftwaffe

text: In 1943 and 1944, aircraft production was moved to concentration camps in order to alleviate labor shortages and to protect production from Allied air raids. The two largest aircraft factories in Germany were located at Mauthausen-Gusen and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps. Aircraft parts were also manufactured at Flossenbürg, Buchenwald, Dachau, Ravensbrück, Gross-Rosen, Natzweiler, Herzogenbusch, and Neuengamme. In 1944 and 1945, as many as 90,000 concentration prisoners worked in the aviation industry, and were about one tenth of the concentration camp population over the winter of 1944–45. Partly in response to the "Luftwaffe"s demand for more forced laborers to increase fighter production, the concentration camp more than doubled between mid-1943 (224,000) and mid-1944 (524,000). Part of this increase was due to the deportation of the Hungarian Jews; the "Jägerstab" program was used to justify the deportations to the Hungarian government. Of the 437,000 Hungarian Jews deported between May and July 1944, about 320,000 were gassed on arrival at Auschwitz and the remainder forced to work. Only 50,000 survived.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Almost 1,000 fuselages of the jet fighter Messerschmitt Me 262 were produced at Gusen, a subcamp of Mauthausen and brutal Nazi labor camp, where the average life expectancy was six months. By 1944, one-third of production at the crucial Regensburg plant that produced the Bf 109, the backbone of the "Luftwaffe" fighter arm, originated in Gusen and Flossenbürg alone. Synthetic oil was produced from shale oil deposits by prisoners of Mittlebau-Dora as part of Operation Desert directed by Edmund Geilenberg in order to make up for the decrease in oil production due to Allied bombing. For oil production, three subcamps were constructed and 15,000 prisoners forced to work in the plant. More than 3,500 people died. Vaivara concentration camp in Estonia was also established for shale oil extraction; about 20,000 prisoners worked there and more than 1,500 died at Vaivara.


title: Luftwaffe

text: "Luftwaffe" airfields were frequently maintained using forced labor. Thousands of inmates from five subcamps of Stutthof worked on the airfields. Airfields and bases near several other concentration camps and ghettos were constructed or maintained by prisoners. On the orders of the "Luftwaffe", prisoners from Buchenwald and Herzogenbusch were forced to defuse bombs that had fallen around Düsseldorf and Leeuwarden respectively.


title: Luftwaffe

text: Thousands of "Luftwaffe" personnel worked as concentration camp guards. Auschwitz included a munitions factory guarded by "Luftwaffe" soldiers; 2,700 "Luftwaffe" personnel worked as guards at Buchenwald. Dozens of camps and subcamps were staffed primarily by "Luftwaffe" soldiers. According to the "Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos", it was typical for camps devoted to armaments production to be run by the branch of the "Wehrmacht" that used the products. In 1944, many "Luftwaffe" soldiers were transferred to concentration camps to alleviate personnel shortages.


title: Luftwaffe

text: "Luftwaffe" paratroopers committed many war crimes in Crete following the Battle of Crete, including the Alikianos executions, Massacre of Kondomari, and the Razing of Kandanos. Several "Luftwaffe" divisions, including the 1st Parachute Division, 2nd Parachute Division, 4th Parachute Division, 19th Luftwaffe Field Division, 20th Luftwaffe Field Division and the 1st "Fallschirm-Panzer" Division, committed war crimes in Italy, murdering hundreds of civilians.


title: Luftwaffe

text: "Luftwaffe" troops participated in the murder of Jews imprisoned in ghettos in Eastern Europe. For example, they assisted in the murder of 2,680 Jews at the Nemirov ghetto, participated in a series of massacres at the Opoczno ghetto, and helped to liquidate the Dęblin–Irena Ghetto by deporting thousands of Jews to the Treblinka extermination camp. Between 1942 and 1944, two "Luftwaffe" security battalions were stationed in the Białowieża Forest for "Bandenbekämpfung" operations. Encouraged by Göring, they murdered thousands of Jews and other civilians. "Luftwaffe" soldiers frequently executed Polish civilians at random with baseless accuastions of being "Bolshevik agents", in order to keep the population in line, or as reprisal for partisan activities. The performance of the troops was measured by the body count of people murdered. Ten thousand "Luftwaffe" troops were stationed on the Eastern Front for such "anti-partisan" operations.