German Air Force 1945, Restored Color

[Geo99]

Thank you for the link. Some interesting things about the Luftwaffe that I only recently became aware of:

It was forbidden for anyone in the German Air Force to become a member of any political party (G.D.L. 1938); there were extremely few that considered themselves Nazi Party members.

At the start of the war there were 28,000 fighter pilots, by the end supposedly only about 1200 survived.

Reichsmarschall Göring and the Nazi Party were despised by most members of the Luftwaffe.
It was fighter ace Col. Gunther Luetzow who coined the name "Fat One" for Göring. Luetzow's nickname was "Ice Man".

The most important thing to a fighter pilot was Honor - to fight by the rules, no matter what. The Luftwaffe was based on the tradition of gentlemen knights. That was quite a distinction from the rest of the military, particularly Party members who often encouraged brutality towards the enemy and civilians.

Many Luftwaffe pilots considered the Allied fliers to be opponents, rather than enemies.

- Geo