During the 1930s and 1940s, air power had not matured enough to be considered a dominant weapon of war. Unlike the other two forces, air power did not have past experience to draw upon. This resulted in the air force having to

The OKW was the highest in the military command structure. It was responsible for the co-ordinated effort of the three military arms. It was headed by Wilhelm Keitel after he took over from war minister Werner von Blomberg in 1938. Since the head of the Luftwaffe, Göring, was

Geschwader
In the Luftwaffe the largest mobile and autonomous unit was the Geschwader. A Geschwader was the

Identification markings
Aircraft markings were used to distinguish friend from foe. There were several changes in identification markings from 1935 until the end of the

All aspects of aviation including the Luftwaffe, came under the control of the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM), the Reich Air Ministry. Since the Luftwaffe was one of the three armed forces, it came under the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces from a

Six Luftkreise (Air Service Commands) were established on 1 April 1934. These were each the size of an Air Corps and were basic territorial units

Anti-aircraft units
Luftwaffe controlled the bulk of German anti-aircraft artillery (commonly called Flak) since the 1930s. The smallest tactical unit of anti-aircraft