Eagles of the Third Reich: Men of the Luftwaffe in WWII (Stackpole Military History Series) (36 page)

Hermann Goering as president of the Reichstag, circa 1932.

Adolf Galland, general of fighter pilots.
UNITED STATES NAVAL ACADEMY

Field Marshal Baron Wolfram von Richthofen and Col. Gen. Hans Jeschonnek, the fourth chief of the General Staff of the Luftwaffe.
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Two innovators: Col. Gen. Kurt Student, a World War I ace on the Eastern Front and father of the German parachute branch, and Field Marshal Richthofen outside Fuehrer headquarters, 1943.
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A pair of Heinkel He-111 bombers returning to base in France after a daylight raid on Britain, 1940. Although obsolete by 1940, the He-111 remained the standard Luftwaffe bomber throughout the war.
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General of Flyers Karl Korten, Col. Klaus Uebe, and Col. Gen. Kurt Pflugbeil on the Eastern Front, circa 1944. Korten was the fifth chief of the General Staff of the Luftwaffe. Uebe served as the chief of staff of the 1st Air Fleet in 1944–45. Pflugbeil commanded VIII Air Corps, IV Air Corps, and 1st Air Fleet.
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Gen. Walter Wever, the first chief of the General Staff of the Luftwaffe. He was killed in an air accident in 1935.
COURTESY OF JOHN ANGOLIA

Erhard Milch, the secretary of state for the Aviation Ministry and the chairman of the board of Lufthansa.
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A flight of Dornier Do-17s on a raid during the Battle of Britain, 1949.
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German soldiers bury a British pilot with full military honors in France, 1940.
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Hitler speaks with Field Marshal von Richthofen while Kurt Student and Hans Jeschonnek look on, 1943.
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The Wanne-Eickel Synthetic Oil Plant under attack by U.S. forces, November 1944. The destuction of the synthetic oil industry was a decisive blow to the ability of the Luftwaffe to wage war in the last year of the conflict.
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A German gunner from a rocket launcher battery scans the sky for Allied fighter bombers in Normandy, 1944.