Original subtitles

[THEME MUSIC]

[SORROWFUL MUSIC]

[EXPLOSIONS]

NARRATOR: The roots of the mighty German Luftwaffe of World

War II can be traced to the bloody battlefield

of the Great War.

At the outbreak of the war in Europe in August 1914,

aircraft did not enter into the plans of the belligerents.

While the front-line troops of all the nations slaughtering

each other on the far-flung battlefields

counted in the millions, the number

of total aircraft deployed by the combatants

amounted to a little over 500 fragile, unarmed monoplanes

and biplanes.

Military pilots were essentially aerial chauffeurs.

Their job was to ferry an observer over the countryside

to report on troop movements.

In the first months of the war, there was plenty to observe,

with the Germans overrunning Belgium and advancing on Paris.

In the east, German aviators located the advancing

Russian army, allowing commanders to move troops

and gave the outnumbered Germans an epic victory at Tannenberg.

In the west, French aircraft returned to their base

to report that the enemy's armies had made a fatal mistake

and exposed their flank.

This allowed the French to turn the tide

and doomed Europe to four long years of trench warfare.

From 1915, photography replaced sketches and notes

as a technique for aerial reconnaissance.

Aircraft with unwieldy box cameras

were sent out day after day over the front

to take photographs of the endless trenches and gun

emplacements.

With freezing fingers, observers hung over the sides

of their ship in gale-like slipstreams

to get a shot at the enemy below.

The job was unglamorous and dangerous.

The aircraft had to fly straight and steady,

making it an inviting target from ground fire and eventually,

other armed aircraft.

[GUNFIRE]

In addition to observation, early warbirds began

to drop bombs on the enemy.

At first, the bombs were nothing more than hand grenades

and converted artillery shells.

But soon, this was refined to projectiles

capable of destroying factories and railroads.

By 1917, sturdier specialized bombers

began to appear with bomb racks and bomb sights.

Raids were carried out in daylight

when air superiority allowed it and at night when it did not.

By the end of the war, aircraft roamed the front, bombing

bridges and airfields and strafing troops,

proving that the airplane had made the battlefield

three-dimensional.

[GUNFIRE]

The third use of the plane in war was as an attack aircraft.

For the generals, the only reason

to place guns on an airplane was to protect

the reconnaissance aircraft.

But for the pilots and observers,

it was a means to have a go at the other fellow.

The first recorded aerial victory

occurred on October 5, 1914, when a French pusher aircraft

downed a German Aviatik.

For the most part, firing pistols and flares

had limited effect on a foe traveling at 90 miles an hour.

Mounting machine guns on their aircraft would change all that.

[GUNFIRE]

Dutch designer Anthony Fokker created a propeller interrupter

that allowed a forward-mounted machine

gun to be placed on a German Eindecker monoplane,

thus creating the first true fighter plane.

[CLASSICAL MUSIC]

It was so effective and took such a horrific toll

on Allied aircraft that the British

called it the Fokker Scourge.

By 1916, fighter planes were being

grouped in squadrons as tactics were developed

for fighting formations.

And a new breed of warrior was born, the fighter pilot.

[CLASSICAL MUSIC]

As members of Flight Section 62, Max Immelmann and Oswald Boelcke

were among the first pilots to receive the Fokker Eindecker.

Immelmann's exploits in the skies over the Western Front

made him a national hero.

His dominance over Allied airmen was cut short

when he was killed in June 1916, when

a faulty interrupter gear caused him

to blow off his own propeller.

Max's greatest legacy was a tricky maneuver

called the Immelmann Turn, a move that is still a crowd

thriller at modern air shows.

Immelmann's student and replacement

was Oswald Boelcke, who is considered to be

the father of the dogfight.

Boelcke argued for the grouping of hand-picked pilots

in fighter squadrons or Jagdstaffel.

As the leader of Jasta 2, he passed his knowledge

on too many of Germany's greatest fliers,

including Manfred von Richthofen.

Boelcke also set down the principles of combat

known as Boelcke's Dicta.

Some of these rules stated that pilots should attack from

behind and out of the sun, fire only at close range,

and when attacked from above, turn and face the enemy.

These tactics are still used today.

In the fall of 1916, he shot down

21 Allied aircraft in two months,

increasing his total to 40.

As with most of the great aces of the war, his luck ran out.

On October 28, 1916, during a fierce dogfight,

he collided with another German aircraft

and spiraled to Earth and his death.

[SORROWFUL MUSIC]

In a world of great aviators, the greatest hunter of the skies

was a charming and humorous Prussian

known to his admiring foes simply as the Red Baron.

ACTOR AS MANFRED: "Fight on and fly on to the last drop

of blood and the last drop of fuel,

to the last beat of the heart."

Manfred von Richthofen.

NARRATOR: Baron Manfred von Richthofen

transferred from the Prussian cavalry

to the air service in 1915.

Having flown as an observer and a bomber pilot in the East,

he was chosen by Boelcke to join his Jasta in France.

Eventually, he was given command of Jasta 11.

Because of its garishly colored machines,

the British soon christened the unit Richthofen's Flying Circus.

Having survived a head wound during a dogfight in July 1917,

Richthofen was pressured by his superiors

to withdraw from combat.

[CLASSICAL MUSIC]

He was so beloved by the German people

that it was felt by the Kaiser that his death would

be a crushing blow to German morale.

In spite of this concern, during the 1918 spring offensive,

he climbed back into the cockpit.

On April 21, the Red Baron's reign of terror came to an end

when he was shot through the heart

while pursuing a British Sopwith.

Whether he was shot by an Australian machine

gun or Canadian pilot Roy Brown is still debated.

He came down behind Allied lines and was

buried with full military honors by the enemy he terrorized.

His final victory total was 80 Allied aircraft destroyed.

No other pilot would reach that total until World War II.

These men were part of a rare breed, soldiers who fought

one-on-one far above the stench and carnage

in the trenches below.

No matter how they died, to a generation,

they were the equivalent of the Knights of the Round Table.

Their exploits and lessons set the stage for a new generation

of German Knights.

[CLASSICAL MUSIC]

On 11 November 1918, after four years of costly and fruitless

war, imperial Germany had little choice

but to accept an armistice.

The Allies were determined to prevent a German resurgence.

The armistice proposals were harsh, not least

in terms of German air power.

According to clause four, Germany was to surrender in good

condition 1,700 fighting and bombing airplanes,

including all Fokker D.VII fighters and the entire

night-bombing fleet.

By 12 December 1918, the new Republican government in Berlin

announced that it had complied.

But according to Allied records, only 516 land planes and 58

seaplanes had been surrendered.

It was a pattern of duplicity that was soon to become

the norm for nearly 15 years.

Despite the official disbandment of the Luftstreitkrafte

in January 1919, the German forces still had over 9,000

aircraft in their inventories and had no intention

of sacrificing its air assets.

The situation changed on 28 June 1919,

when the German delegation at the peace talks in Paris

was presented with terms of the Versailles Treaty

and forced to sign.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

The victorious Allies were now much more insistent.

They prohibited all military aircraft manufacture in Germany

and gave the fledgling government three months in which

to hand over all Air Force equipment.

As a result, the air industry in Germany

virtually ceased to exist, but the Germans did not give up.

By 1924, General Hans von Seeckt,

chief of the army general staff, had

ensured that a number of air officers

were retained in the Reichswehr.

In addition, official support was given

to the new sport of gliding.

Many future Luftwaffe aces gain their first experience of flight

through the government-backed Deutsche Luftfahrt.

Of even more significance was the development

of military links with Russia.

Both Germany and Russia were worried about the Polls,

and both were pariah states which

were forced together in response to widespread hatred

and distrust.

On 16 April 1924, Berlin and Moscow

created the framework for a secret air and military alliance

based on a Russian need for German technology

and a German need for training facilities

beyond the gaze of the Allies.

There for 11 years, the old Eagles, World War I officers,

and young eagles, new recruits, were trained to be the spearhead

of the new Luftwaffe.

As wounds healed from the Great War,

the victorious Allies began to lift

some of the restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles.

This was most apparent in terms of Civil Aviation.

On 6 January 1926, Lufthansa, the German national airline,

emerged under the directorship of Erhard Milch.

Many Lufthansa pilots would later join the Luftwaffe.

The existence of commercial aviation

allowed Milch to place orders with German aircraft

manufacturers for more modern airplanes,

including what would become the workhorse of the Luftwaffe,

the trimotor Junkers Ju-52.

Nicknamed Tante Ju, or Auntie Ju,

and Iron Annie by Axis and Allied troops,

the Junkers Ju-52 was one of the most

successful designs of Hugo Junkers

and Junkers Flugzeugwerke.

The Ju-52 was originally designed as a cargo aircraft.

The initial Ju-52 was a single-engine aircraft.

But since it lacked the overall performance Milch was looking

for, Junkers decided to add two additional engines, which

were both mounted on the wings.

Performance improved tremendously,

and production of the new model began immediately.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

In November 1930, the aircraft was first

presented to the German forces.

And in December 1930, the aircraft

was certified by the DVL.

In February of 1931, the aircraft

was presented to the public for the first time

at Tempelhof Airport.

The production for the first 12 aircraft of the Ju-52/1M

series was started that spring.

[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]

But Junkers failed in his forecast

for the demand of larger cargo aircraft.

Just one Ju-52/1m was sold to Canada.

When the first seven aircraft were finished,

Junkers decided to stop further production of this type.

Annie was down but not out.

When Junkers came out with the Ju-52/3,

they found their market.

The Ju-52 served as an airliner for many nations.

Finland, Spain, Sweden, and Germany were just a few.

It served as a mail carrier in China

and fitted with floats, hauled lumber in remote places

in Canada.

Its most common work, however, was

done with the German Lufthansa.

Equipped with luxuries, like typewriters and oxygen masks,

the Ju-52 could fly from Berlin to Rome

in eight hours over the Alps, an impressive feat

for contemporary aircraft.

A total of 400 passenger airliners

were sold until the breakout of World War II.

[PATRIOTIC MUSIC]

Plans for the recreation of a Military Air Force,

a Luftwaffe, were already well advanced by the late 1920s.

The economic crisis of 1929 to 1930

put on hold many of the initial ideas,

but the basic plan remained.

The plans received official approval on 10 August 1932,

five months before Adolf Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor.

Hitler, therefore, inherited an embryonic Air Force.

But the new Nazi government gave the Luftwaffe

a much-needed financial boost.

Within hours of becoming chancellor,

the Nazi leader appointed World War I

ace and right-hand man, Hermann Goering,

as head of the Luftwaffe.

However, much of the work of actually creating the Luftwaffe

fell to Erhard Milch, who had come

over from Lufthansa in 1933.

One of his first acts as [SPEAKING GERMAN]

was to order fighter and bomber aircraft to be produced to boost

the ailing aircraft industry.

These early designs were only interim fixes.

They included the Heinkel He-51 biplane fighter and the Ju-52

bomber conversion.

But other brand-new designs were soon on the way.

It is ironic to think that the Messerschmitt Bf-109,

World War II's best-known fighter,

was almost discarded out of hand.

First flown in September 1935, the Bf-109

scored more aircraft kills in World War II than any other Axis

aircraft and at various times, served

as an air-superiority fighter, an escort fighter,

an interceptor, a ground-attack aircraft,

and a reconnaissance aircraft.

The Bf-109 was also produced in greater quantities than any

other Axis aircraft of the war and is the most-produced fighter

aircraft in history with over 31,000 units built.

Although the Bf-109 had some weaknesses,

including a short range and troublesome landing gear,

it stayed competitive with Allied fighter aircraft

until the end of the war.

Bf-109 was the official German Air Ministry designation

since the design was sent in by the Bayerische

Flugzeugwerke company.

Because the company was renamed to Messerschmitt,

some late-war aircraft actually carried

the ME-109 designations stamped onto their aircraft-type plates.

ME-109 was the name used officially by the Luftwaffe

propaganda publications, as well as by the Messerschmitt company

and Luftwaffe personnel.

Willy Messerschmitt was originally not

invited to participate in the competition

to find an all-metal, monoplane, single-seat fighter

aircraft to replace the Arado Ar-64 and Heinkel

He-60 biplanes then in service.

This was mainly due to personal animosity between Messerschmitt

and Erhard Milch, director of the RLM,

after an earlier airliner design of his

had proved a disaster in Lufthansa use.

Nevertheless, Messerschmitt was on very good terms

with many high-ranking Luftwaffe officers

based on the success of the Messerschmitt

Bf-108 Taifun sportsplane.

After a delay of several months, Bavarian Aircraft Manufacturers,

or BFW, for which Messerschmitt was head designer,

was invited to take part in early 1935,

although Milch let it be known that they

would never win the contract.

Messerschmitt had already designed much of the Bf-109

by this point.

Like the Bf-108, the new design was

based on Messerschmitt's lightweight construction, which,

essentially, aimed to reduce the total number

of strong parts in the aircraft as much as possible.

One of the more notable examples of this

was the mounting of all structural points

to a strong firewall at the front of the cockpit,

including the wing spars, engine mounts, and landing gear.

Another notable advantage of this design

was that since the landing gear was attached to the fuselage

itself, it was possible to completely remove

the wings of the aircraft for major servicing if necessary,

leaving the fuselage intact sitting on the landing gear.

[PATRIOTIC MUSIC]

However, this had one major drawback.

Such a landing-gear arrangement ensured a very narrow track,

the distance between the main tires,

which made the plane very unstable, in terms of balance,

while on the ground.

In fact, the Bf-109 was notoriously

difficult to take off and land.

And many planes simply veered off or tipped over to one side

during a seemingly perfect run.

To make things worse, the landing gear

struts were comparatively long.

This left the nose pointing up at quite a steep angle

with respect to the ground, making forward visibility

during taxiing virtually zero.

These landing gear-related problems

plagued the Bf-109 throughout its life

and accounted for a notable proportion of losses.

The Bf-109 took its first flight tests in September 1935.

It was then sent to the Luftwaffe test center

at Rechlin to take part in the contest.

It was soon a front-runner in the contest

as the Arado and Focke-Wulf entries

proved to be hopelessly outdated.

[SINGING IN GERMAN]

In March, the RLM received news that the Spitfire had

been ordered into production, and a form of mass panic

broke out.

12 days later, the Bf-109 B-1 was ordered into production,

setting the stage for the greatest

air confrontation of all time.

[CLASSICAL MUSIC]

Even before the Great War, the airship

was fixed in the minds of the public as a symbol of terror.

As early as 1908, HG Wells had described an airship raid

on New York that left that city in ruins and blazing

conflagrations and heaped and scattered dead.

It was a vision that did not go unnoticed

by some military commanders.

Capt. Peter Strasser, head of the German Navy's airship fleet,

believed that Britain could be overcome by means of airships.

The Germans had no monopoly on the intent

to bomb enemy cities and industrial centers,

but they did have the lead in airship technology.

And in 1914, airships were the only aircraft

capable of carrying large bomb loads far enough

to strike strategic targets.

However, at this stage of the war,

no nation's air service was capable of fulfilling Wells's

vision of aerial destruction.

Traveling at under 50 miles per hour,

metal-framed Zeppelins and plywood-framed Schutte-Lanzes

revealed serious drawbacks in combat.

[GUNFIRE]

They presented large, tempting targets

for gunners on the ground and nimble fighters in the air.

The one weapon the airship had in its favor was stealth.

On a moonless night, despite the bulk,

Zeppelins could evade detection and pursuit.

The great airships became night raiders.

The Imperial German army and Navy

used airships to bomb a variety of strategic targets

under the cover of darkness, including Paris.

But the most prized target was London.

German schoolchildren learn to sing

"Zeppelin, fly, fly to England.

England will burn in fire."

The arrival of airships over Britain in 1915

made a deep impression on the helpless civilian population.

Yet, airship commanders found mounting

a sustained campaign risky.

Flying from bases in the north of Germany,

or occupied Belgium, to Britain and back in pitch darkness

was a dangerous task.

Once Britain deployed night fighters and ground batteries

armed with incendiary ammunition,

travel to London under the vast gasbags

seemed like a very bad idea.

From the start of the war, the Germans

had wanted to use heavier-than-air aircraft

for strategic bombing but lacked a suitable machine

until the advent of the Gotha two-engine bombers.

The Gothas began raids on Britain in the summer of 1917

with impressive effect.

Both the air defenses and the civilian population

were unprepared for formations of bombers

attacking in broad daylight.

When 14 Gothas appeared over London for the first time

on June 13, crowds of people ran into the streets to watch them.

The bombs falling on them killed 162 people.

The Gothas flew faster than the Zeppelins

and were far harder to shoot down.

When flying in formation, they could dish out

heavy punishment to pursuing aircraft

from their combined firepower.

Because they could be produced much more quickly

and cheaply than airships, they could be deployed

in far greater numbers.

The final assessment of World War I strategic bombing

was not encouraging.

At that stage of development, air power

could not disrupt production, nor weaken

the population's will to fight.

Bombing was costly and inaccurate.

[EXPLOSIONS]

[PATRIOTIC MUSIC]

[SINGING IN GERMAN]

On February 26, 1935, Adolf Hitler

ordered Hermann Goering to reinstate the Luftwaffe,

breaking the Treaty of Versailles signed in 1919.

[SINGING IN GERMAN]

Although the new Air Force was to be run totally separately

from the army, it retained the tradition

of according army ranks to its officers and airmen.

It is said that Hermann Goering personally

chose an emblem for the Luftwaffe

that differed from that of the other armed branches.

The eagle, an old symbol of the German empire,

remained, but in another posture.

While the Wehrmacht eagle held firmly

with both claws, the symbol of the Nazi party,

the Luftwaffe eagle held the swastika only with one claw,

while the other was bent in a threatening gesture.

Goering may have designed the emblem of the new Luftwaffe,

but much of the work on creating the Air Force

fell to Erhard Milch, who had come

over from Lufthansa in 1933.

[SINGING IN GERMAN]

As bombers, most German aircraft did not fit Milch's

demands, none except Annie.

The Ju-52/3M was to become a temporary bomber solution

until dedicated bomber aircraft would

become available in Germany.

[SINGING IN GERMAN]

In 1934, the Junkers Flugzeugwerke

received an order for a total of 1,200 Ju-52/3M bomber aircraft.

The company redesigned the Ju-52/3M and added two

machine-gun turrets in the rear cabin, one in the roof and one

in the bottom of the aircraft.

The passenger cabin was redesigned as the bomb

compartment, where up to 32 50-kilogram

bombs could be placed.

As the Ju-52 bomber was developed from the Ju-52/3M ge,

officially these bombers were designated Ju-52/3M 3E.

In July 1936, a total of 20 Ju-52/3M ge were sent to Spain,

where civil war was on its way.

These aircraft became the first aircraft of the newly formed

Luftwaffe to enter war action.

[EXPLOSIONS]

These early designs were only interim fixes.

They included the Heinkel He-51 biplane fighter and the Ju-52

bomber conversion.

The next step was to find a high-speed, medium bomber.

That was found in another plane originally

designed as an airliner, much like the Ju-52.

In the early 1930s, Ernst Heinkel decided to build

the world's fastest passenger plane,

a lofty goal met with more than a little skepticism

by the German aircraft industry and its newly

evolving political leadership.

To everyone's surprise, they delivered on the promise,

delivering an aircraft superior to the already-fast Lockheed

9 Orion, the He-111 Dopple-Blitz,

or Double Lightning.

The design immediately garnered the interest

of the Luftwaffe brass, which was

looking for any design that could be

pressed into military service.

The He-111 V1 was completed as a bomber prototype

and kept secret.

It first flew in February 1935 and was followed quickly

by the civilian-equipped V2.

The V2 had a smaller wing and used the bomb bay

as a four-seat smoking compartment

with another six seats behind it in the rear fuselage.

The V2 entered service with Lufthansa

in 1936, along with five newly built

versions known as the He-111C.

The V3 was also completed as a bomber prototype.

It supplanted the main bomb bay with smaller bays

in the inner wings and was armed with three

MG-15 machine guns for defense.

10 He-111 A-0 models based on the V3 were built,

but they proved to be underpowered

and were eventually sold to China.

In early 1936, the V3 was fitted with 950-horsepower Daimler-Benz

DB 600A engines, and performance jumped

to about 225 miles per hour.

The Luftwaffe placed orders for over 381 He-111B models.

Some of these planes were sent to Spain

to serve with the Legion Condor, where they proved

to be able to outfly the majority of fighters

sent to intercept them.

It appeared that the light three-gun armament

was more than enough to handle fighters

that managed to catch them.

This would lead the Luftwaffe into a false sense of security,

as the days of the bomber being faster than the fighters would

be short lived and the woeful armament

would soon prove to be deadly.

The fuselage bomb bay used four, and in later versions eight,

modular standard bomb racks designed to carry one SC-250

250-kilogram bomb or four SC-50 50-kilogram bombs

each in nose-up orientation.

This resulted in the bombs doing a flip as they were

dropped out of the aircraft.

These modular standard bomb racks

were a common feature on the first generation

of Luftwaffe bombers, including the Junkers Ju-52.

But it turned out that they limited the ordnance selection

to bombs of only two sizes.

The He-111 became a "jack of all trades" as the war progressed,

carrying out missions not even imagined

even when the war started.

In 1936, the Luftwaffe got an ideal opportunity

to test its young pilots, new aircraft,

and revolutionary tactics.

Germany sent a volunteer force of aviators and aircraft

to Spain in support of the anti-Republican government

revolt led by Gen. Francisco Franco.

In July 1936, a total of 20 Ju-25/3M ge were sent to North

Africa to airlift General Franco's troops

to the Spanish mainland.

These aircraft became the first aircraft

of the newly-formed Luftwaffe to enter war action.

While the aircraft, at first, were used to ferry some 10,000

Moorish troops from Morocco to Spain, they

were used as bombers, as well.

German military assistance expanded rapidly

in the succeeding months.

At the beginning of November, it was officially amalgamated

into the Condor Legion.

This consisted of 100 airplanes and 5,000 men under

the command of Hugo Sperlle.

By rotation of the contingents, a total of approximately 20,000

Germans served in Spain and received

valuable combat experience.

Adolf Hitler justified this involvement as part of a fight

against Bolshevism.

The Spanish Civil War also provided

the Germans with the opportunity to test new weapons and tactics.

The Messerschmitt Bf-109 fighter, Heinkel He-111 medium

bomber, and later, the Junkers Ju-87

Stuka dive bomber first saw active service

in the Condor Legion.

These aircraft played a major role during the early years

of the Second World War.

Luftwaffe markings were replaced so

as not to make the world believe that Germany was actively

supporting the revolt. Instead of the Nazi party's

swastika on the tail, the German planes used the nationalist Air

Force aircraft markings.

The Condor Legion also included non-aircraft units.

There were Panzer crews with Panzerkampfwagen I light tanks

commanded by Wilhelm Ritter von Thoma, destined

to be second in command of the Afrika Korps

and sailors who trained Franco's Naval forces.

The Germans also tested their 88-millimeter heavy

anti-aircraft artillery, which they

used to destroy Republican tanks,

fortifications, and planes.

On November 4, 1936, Russian fighters near Madrid

shot down the first Ju-52.

A further six aircraft were shot down during the next few weeks.

It became obvious that the Ju-52 was too slow,

and all Ju-52 bombers were retired

in Spain until April 1937.

[DRAMATIC MUSIC]

Few aircraft in World War II earned their place

in aviation history with as much pure infamy

as the Junkers Ju-87 dive bomber.

One of the most important requirements

for the new Luftwaffe was a dive bomber

to support ground operations.

This was fulfilled by the Junkers Ju-87 heavy dive bomber,

popularly known as the Stuka.

After Hitler came to power in 1933,

work began to convert the theoretical concept

of the dive bomber into a real force in Germany.

Ernst Udet, the head of the aircraft-development program

of the Reich Luftwaffe, was very impressed

with the demonstrations of a Curtiss aircraft

he saw in the USA in 1933.

After he had flown the Curtiss Hawk,

he bought two, which he demonstrated in Germany.

These American aircraft helped to advance the case

of the dive bomber in Germany.

The emphasis on the Stuka indicated a growing preference

among German planners for dive bombers

rather than level bombers.

It was felt that the former were likely to be much more

accurate against pinpoint targets

such as troops' concentrations.

This was true, and the Stuka would soon

be feared throughout Europe, but it diverted resources

from the development of the so-called Ural bomber,

which was planned for strategic attacks

on long-range enemy targets.

This created an unbalanced force that the Luftwaffe

would pay dearly for over England and in Russia.

[WHIRRING]

[EXPLOSIONS]

In late 1936, three Ju-87 A-1s were sent to Spain

for operational evaluation.

The Ju-87 B-1 followed them.

The A-models had not been very successful

in combat, mainly because of technical shortcomings.

But the Ju-87B proved to be effective.

They were used to attack bridges,

command posts, artillery positions, and ships in harbor.

[EXPLOSION]

[GUNFIRE]

[EXPLOSIONS]

NARRATOR: In Spain, the Stuka legend would begin,

and the Luftwaffe would finally get a chance to show its teeth.

[PATRIOTIC MUSIC]

The bombing of the town of Guernica on 27 April 1937

gave the Luftwaffe an opportunity

to test its bombing tactics and brought fierce

international condemnation.

Although not the first town to be attacked,

the sheer scale of the destruction,

with over 250 killed and 60% of the houses destroyed,

was a clear foretaste of what would happen to many cities

during the Second World War.

[SINGING IN GERMAN]

Following the experiences in Spain,

the RLM stopped the production of the Ju-52 3M bombers,

but the Ju-52s had proved their capabilities for transport

missions in Spain.

Therefore, the RLM declared the Ju-52 as the standard transport

aircraft of the Luftwaffe.

Between 1935 and 1944, Junkers Flugzeugwerke

designed a total of 14 different Ju-52 transporters.

Later, in World War II, the Ju-52s served in every theater

in which Germany participated.

[SINGING IN GERMAN]

Both the B1 and B2 versions of Bf-109

saw combat with the Condor Legion

during the Spanish Civil War, where

it was soon discovered that the armament was inadequate.

Hitler then used the war in Spain as an opportunity to field

test the upgunned Bf-109E.

[SINGING IN GERMAN]

The production version E1 Emil kept the four MG-17 machine

guns, but many of them were later field-modified

to the E3,E4 weapon standard by exchanging the wing-mounted

MG-17s with MG-FFM cannons.

This would be the version that would do battle

with the British Spitfire.

[SINGING IN GERMAN]

In Spain, valuable lessons were learned.

The most striking was the superiority of German aircraft

once second-generation designs had been developed.

[SINGING IN GERMAN]

At the same time, tactics had been refined.

These ranged from the plans for ground attack

to the finger-four fighter technique,

whereby pairs of wingmen provided flexible and mutual

support in aerial combat.

The latter was perfected by Werner

Molders when he commanded elements of Jagdgruppe 88

in Spain.

It was used to great effect in the air war over Europe.

[PENSIVE MUSIC]

[THEME MUSIC]