In 1933, Herman Goering was appointed to the position of National Commissioner of Aviation. He had been a successful fighter pilot during World War I, and he now had as his goal the establishment of an independent air force. In May of 1933, the Reichs Minister of Defense announced that Paul von Hindenburg, President of the Reich, had authorized the establishment of an Air Ministry under the National Defense Ministry. Goering realized the significance of a strong and independent air force in any future war and set about assuring that such a unit was created. The Reichs Air Ministry now assumed the functions of a Luftwaffe High Command, and those selected from army and navy units to oversee this new group had to create the Luftwaffe from the ground up, a challenge none had ever faced in peacetime (Faber 10).

The Germans faced considerable difficulties in the creation of an air capability. No German air force had survived from the Great War except as a camouflaged planning stage within the army. In addition, the capacity for civil aircraft production was inadequate for military purposes. The success of the effort is apparent in the fact that within six years, the Luftwaffe was ready to g

Penrose, Roland. Picasso: His Life and Work. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958.

Thus, the Luftwaffe=s contribution to victory could involve attacks on an enemy's air forces, his army, his fleet, or even the destruction of his resources and armament industry. The conditions of the general situation and overall national strategy would determine in what form one would wage the air battle (Murray 7-8).

Irving, David. The Rise and Fall of the Luftwaffe. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1973.

The Second World War actually began with Germany's invasion of Poland in 1939, and Hitler used a staged incident as his excuse. The war started with an attack by the Luftwaffe on bridges over the Vistula River at Dirschau (Jablonski 21). Richtofen claimed that the methods he had used in Spain would be effective elsewhere, and while there were some in the high command who doubted this, he was allowed to create a special air division that would embody his ideas of tactical air power. His task in Poland was to punch holes in the Polish fortifications along the border so the army could enter, and a variety of planes made the attacks on airfields inside Poland. Other planes of the Luftwaffe were flying up and down the length of Poland to destroy the life lines of the Polish ground armies, pulverizing the roads and railways in the region. In some cases, incendiary bombs known as flambos were dropped on Polish troops (The Luftwaffe 20-24).