Crossword clues for luftwaffe
luftwaffe
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
German air force in World War II era, 1935, from German Luftwaffe, literally "air-weapon," from Luft (see loft).
Wikipedia
The Luftwaffe was the aerial warfare branch of the German Wehrmacht during World War II. Germany's military air arms during the First World War, the Luftstreitkräfte of the Army and the Marine-Fliegerabteilung of the Navy, had been disbanded in 1920 as a result of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles which stated that Germany was forbidden to have any air force.
During the interwar period, German pilots were trained secretly in violation of the treaty at Lipetsk Air Base. With the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Versailles Treaty, the Luftwaffe was established on 26 February 1935. The Luftwaffes Condor Legion fought during the Spanish Civil War, the conflict became a testing ground for new doctrines and aircraft. As a result, the Luftwaffe grew to become one of the most sophisticated, technologically advanced and battle-experienced air forces in the world when war began in Europe in 1939. By the summer of 1939, the Luftwaffe had twenty-eight Geschwaders (wings).
The Luftwaffe was instrumental in contributing to the German victories across Poland and Western Europe. During the Battle of Britain, however, despite causing severe damage to the RAF's infrastructure and British cities during the subsequent Blitz, it did not achieve victory. The Allied bombing campaigns from 1942 gradually destroyed the Luftwaffes fighter arm. The Luftwaffe was also involved in operations 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 fleets, the Luftwaffe was overwhelmed by the Allies' superior numbers and improved tactics, and a lack of trained pilots and aviation fuel. A last-ditch effort to win air superiority was launched in January 1945, during the closing stages of the Battle of the Bulge, and met with failure. With rapidly dwindling supplies of petroleum, oil and lubricants after this campaign, and as part of the entire Wehrmacht military forces as a whole, the Luftwaffe ceased to be an effective fighting force and after the defeat of the Third Reich, the Luftwaffe was disbanded in 1946. The Luftwaffe had only two commanders-in-chief throughout its history: Hermann Göring and latterly Generalfeldmarschall Robert Ritter von Greim. The Luftwaffe was involved in war crimes and atrocities, including strafing civilian refugees and conducting human experiments, during its history.
Luftwaffe is a generic German term for an air force. It may also refer to one of the following air forces:
- The Luftwaffe, of Nazi Germany (years 1933 to 1945)
- The Luftwaffe, of the Federal Republic of Germany (1956 to the present), known as German Air Force in English
- The Schweizer Luftwaffe, known as Swiss Air Force in English
- The Austrian Air Force goes by Österreichische Luftstreitkräfte
Usage examples of "luftwaffe".
His home was in an LCC block of flats in the Covent Garden area and when this, itself, was eventually demolished by the Luftwaffe, he and his family had moved into the basement of a school that was being used as a Civil Defence HQ.
Part of the northern bastion had been demolished by a lucky strike from a Luftwaffe raiding party, and the surrounding walls and railings were nicked and scarred by near misses.
Across the gap, inside the sister walkway, an anti-aircraft battery had been installed and I remembered thinking more than once about coming up here one night and waiting for the stubborn German bomber pilot to fly his Dornier along the river like the Luftwaffe before him he always used the Thames as a guide into London and the docks then blasting him out of the sky as he went by.
The first time around, she was killed in a Luftwaffe attack on Manston Airfield in Kent.
They still carry Luftwaffe insignia and the man who flies them, gallant RAF pilot though he is, wears Luftwaffe uniform.
Not only the blackout, but the Luftwaffe is trying night bombing again.
Fieseler Storch spotter plane taxied out of the hangar, the Luftwaffe insignia plain on its wings and fuselage and the two mechanics who followed it wore black Luftwaffe overalls.
He wore flying boots, baggy, comfortable trousers in blue-grey as worn by Luftwaffe fighter pilots, very unusual, with large map pockets.
Iron Cross First Class above it and the Luftwaffe National Emblem on the right.
The pilot, for example, Edge, swaggering around in his Luftwaffe uniform playing Adolf Galland.
Edge replaced the receiver, a smile on his face, not a nice smile, then he opened a drawer, took out his Luftwaffe issue belt and holster with the Walther inside.
It was the Luftwaffe literally razing the Warsaw ghetto to the ground in three days and nights.
Sunday, 29 December 1940, the second great fire of London occurred when the German Luftwaffe dropped 127 tons of high explosive and more than 10,000 incendiary bombs on the city.
Heidi was an orphan so Sigmund Boldt gave her away, and there were a dozen or so of Heidi's friends, most of them her superiors and colleagues in the Ministry of Propaganda and Information, but there were others, her cousins and more distant relatives in the black dress uniforms of the elite SS divisions, or the blue of the Luftwaffe or the field grey of the Wehrmacht, and pretty girls, some of them in the traditional peasant-style dirndls of which the Nazi Party so strongly approved.
Thanks to the previous defeat of the British Air Force by the invincible Luftwaffe, air supremacy was maintained at all times.