All language subtitles for m.m.n.g.i.w.s01e04.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

[THEME MUSIC]

NARRATOR: On 1 September
1939, at 0426 hours,

three Ju 87 Bs took
off for the very first

bombing attack of World War II.

[AIRCRAFT WHIRRING]

Their targets were
the approaches to two

railway bridges at Dirschau.

They had to be
blocked to prevent

the destruction of the bridges.

It was a partial success
because the Poles

managed to blow up one bridge.

That first day of
the war was not

an overall success for the
Luftwaffe and the Ju 87.

Most of the strength
of the Luftwaffe

was sent far behind
the lines to destroy

the Polish Air
Force on the ground

but without conclusive results.

[EXPLOSIONS]

But during the next few
days, the cooperation

between the ground forces
and the Stukas improved.

Every time the Polish army
tried to organize resistance

to the rapid advance
of the tanks,

Stukas were called
in to destroy them.

[EXPLOSIONS]

In the largest Polish
counterattack of the war,

a force of 170,000 men attacked
the rear of the 10th Army

in the Battle of the Bzura.

This was brought to a halt
by relentless air attacks

from the Stukas.

The broken Polish army
was surrounded at Kutno

and completely destroyed.

After the fighting in
Poland, Joseph Goebbels

ordered the Ministry
of Propaganda

to make a movie about
the power of the Ju 87

and the devastation
it had caused.

The movie ended with a
threat against England

if it did not seek peace.

As far as England and
the Ju 87 were concerned,

it was a hollow threat.

There was little reason for the
Stukas and the Messerschmitt Bf

109 fighters to intervene
in the land battles

during the fight in the
Scandinavian countries

during the spring of 1940.

Instead, the Ju 87
was used extensively

for attacks against
Allied ships, which

tried to supply their own
expeditionary force in Norway

and to prevent the Germans
from reinforcing theirs.

The attacks of the Stukas
concentrated mainly

on the Allied
attempts to recapture

Narvik and Trondheim
by landings at Harstad,

Namsen, and Andalsnes.

At Narvik, the
Luftwaffe sank a cruiser

and damaged two others, as well
as the battleship resolution.

For the Royal Navy, this was a
serious lesson about operating

under enemy air superiority.

It was a lesson that would
soon have to be rethought

in the English channel.

Poland and the
Scandinavian countries

were not much of an
opponent for Germany.

It was in May 1940, during the
invasion of the low countries

and France, that the Luftwaffe
really proved its effectiveness.

In the opening days of
the Battle of France,

the Stukas became legendary.

There, it was not only its
accuracy as a dive bomber

but also the fear that it spread
among combatants and civilians

alike that was decisive.

Of course, it did not help
that the French army had

two commanders and
three headquarters,

none of which actually knew
what was going on at the front.

Nor did it improve things
that French generals

had been too complacent to
properly train their soldiers.

The French had expected that
after any serious move made

by the Germans, they would
have days or weeks to react,

while reinforcements and
artillery were laboriously

moved to the front line.

Their old-fashioned army, based
on the tactical principles

of World War I, was completely
unable to defend itself

against this kind of attack.

The fatal breakthrough came
on 13 May near Sudan after

a concentrated attack by
the Ju 87s wreaked havoc

among the French defenders.

Small groups of
Stukas methodically

attacked the villages in
front line, road crossing,

and artillery positions.

Even the Germans, moving
forward under protection of

these attacks, were frightened.

The commander of the French
second army, General Huntzinger,

refused to call in fighters
to chase the attackers away.

He feared the attrition that
such operations would cause.

The prevailing view
was that air force

was a vulnerable
weapon that would

soon be lost if it were used.

General Maurice Gamelin, Supreme
Commander of the French army,

is alleged to have predicted
it will burn itself in a flash.

When the French Commanders
saw their mistake,

they began to ask for
British fighter aircraft

to protect their troops.

They were unaware that because
of monumental incompetence,

most of the French Air
Force had remained inactive.

3/4 of the French fighters were
never committed to the battle,

leaving the Luftwaffe free to
attack anything that moved.

The Luftwaffe may have had
a free hand during the race

across France, but it
was unable to perform

the coup de gráce on
its surrounded foe

on the French Channel Coast.

The Luftwaffe's
attack on Dunkirk

showed the limitations of both
the Luftwaffe and the Ju 87.

There, the French and British
soldiers, finally accustomed

to the screaming attacks
of the dive bombers,

resisted admirably.

They defended the city until
almost all the British and many

of the French soldiers
could be evacuated by sea.

At the same time, the operations
of the Royal Air Force,

protecting the evacuation,
caused heavy losses

for the attackers, although a
large number of Allied ships

were sunk or damaged.

It was the first sign
of the vulnerability

of the Ju 87 and the Luftwaffe.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

When France fell, Hitler had
hoped that Churchill would see

the hopelessness of
continuing the war,

but the British War Cabinet
rejection of German terms

was emphatic.

Recognizing this,
and in an effort

to finish the war
in the West, Hitler

ordered the rapid preparation
of an invasion plan

against Britain.

The first step to invasion
was control of the air.

On 10 July, the battle begin
with the Kanalkampf or Channel

War.

The Channel War comprised
a series of running fights

above convoys of
freighter vessels

speeding through
the English Channel.

These battles off
the coast tended

to favor the Germans, whose
bomber escorts massively

outnumbered the convoy patrols.

[EXPLOSIONS]

The number of ship
sinkings became so great

that the British admiralty
canceled all further convoys

through the channel.

However, these early
fights provided

both sides with experience.

[BELL RINGING]

By the end of this period
the RAF was winning, at least

in terms of pure numbers.

The Luftwaffe had lost
248 fighters and bombers

to the RAF's 148 fighters lost.

While these numbers were
encouraging to the RAF,

it became clear that sustaining
such a battle of attrition

was impossible.

This was not so much because
of the loss of fighter craft.

British fighter
production was doing

a relatively good
job in maintaining

fighter production numbers.

More importantly, the
loss in qualified pilots

was slowly crippling the RAF.

The situation looked grim,
and the real onslaught

had yet to materialize.

On August 1, Fuhrer Directive
Number 17 was issued

from Hitler's headquarters.

It read, in part,
"The Luftwaffe is

to overpower the Royal Air Force
in the shortest possible time.

The intensification
of the air war may

begin on or after 5 August."

The Nazi War Machine was
again gearing up for battle.

The German strategy was
influenced by pre-war theories

of strategic bombing
that stressed

the weakness of air defense and
the effects of terror bombing

on public morale.

After the Spanish
Civil War, the emphasis

of German Air
operations had shifted

toward a more tactical force.

In Poland and
France, the Luftwaffe

had operated jointly
with the Wehrmacht

in its Blitzkrieg
or Lightning War.

In the Battle of Britain,
however, the Luftwaffe

had to operate alone, not as
support for an advancing army,

but as a decisive offensive
weapon in its own right.

[RAPID GUNFIRE]

The Luftwaffe was facing an
opponent the likes of which

it had not met before--

a sizable, highly coordinated,
well-supplied Air Force

that fielded aircraft every bit
the match for the German Bf 109

and Twin Engine Bf 110 fighters.

The majority of
the RAF's fighting

would rest upon the
workhorse, Hurricane Mk 1.

But more shocking
to the German pilots

was the newer
Spitfire Mk 1, which

was quickly recognized as a
nimble world-class fighter.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Initial Luftwaffe estimates
allotted four days

to defeat the RAF's Fighter
Command in Southern England,

followed by four weeks for the
bombers and long-range fighters

to mop up the rest
of the country

and destroy the UK's
aircraft industry.

The plan developed
by Luftwaffe command

called for a concerted
strike against British radar

installations.

This was to be followed
by the actual Adlertag

or Eagle Day mission
the next day against RAF

Fighter Command bases.

August 10 was set as Eagle Day.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

The weather, which was to
prove an important feature

of the campaign, delayed
Adlertag until 13 August.

But on the 12th, the first
attempt was made to blind

the doubting air defense
system when aircraft from

the specialist fighter bomber
unit, Erprobungsgruppe 210,

attacked four radar stations.

Even though the Germans lost
more aircraft than the RAF,

they did succeed in downing
a significant portion

of the radar defense system.

Eagle Day itself saw concerted
strikes against airfields

all over Southern England.

The Luftwaffe, who
announced they had destroyed

84 fighters and 8
air bases, deemed

these strikes a great success.

[RAPID GUNFIRE]

In truth, it was a failure.

The British were able to get all
but one of their RDS stations

back in service.

This gave some warning
of the oncoming operation

and allowed them to shoot down
46 German aircraft with the loss

of only 13 of their own.

As the week after
Adlertag drew on,

the airfield attacks
moved further inland

and repeated raids were
made on the radar chain.

15 August was the
greatest day, when

the Luftwaffe mounted
the largest number

of sorties of the campaign.

It was also the day of the
one attack by Luftflotte 5

in the entire battle of Britain.

Believing the strength
of Fighter Command

to be concentrated
away in the South,

raiding forces from
Denmark and Norway

swept in for a series of
raids on targets in the North.

The raids were a disaster.

The bombers ran into strong
resistance from RAF fighters.

Inadequately escorted by
long-ranged Me 110 Zerstorers,

the bombers were cut to pieces.

As a result, Luftflotte
5 would not appear

in strength again over England.

The 18th of August was the
bloodiest day of the air battle.

The losses were so
great that both sides

dubbed it the "hardest day".

Following the grinding
battles of the 18th,

exhaustion and the
weather reduced operations

for most of a week,
allowing the Luftwaffe

to review their performance.

The "hardest day" had sounded
the end for the Ju 87 Stuka

dive bomber in the campaign.

On 18 August, the
so-called Stuka Slaughter

of Thorney Island occurred.

A large formation was caught
without fighter cover,

costing the
Luftwaffe 30 Stukas--

shot down, crash-landed,
or damaged beyond repair.

The veteran of the Blitzkrieg
was simply too vulnerable

to fighter attack over Britain.

To preserve the
Stuka force, Goering

withdrew it from the fighting.

This removed the Luftwaffe's
main precision bombing weapon

and shifted the burden
of pinpoint attacks

on the already stretched
Me 110 fighter bombers

of Erprobungsgruppe 210.

As a long-range escort fighter,
the Messerschmitt Bf 110C

received a disastrous mauling
at the hands of the more nimble

Hurricanes and Spitfires.

Rather than protecting
the bombers under escort,

the Bf 110C formations
usually found

that they were hard-pressed
to defend themselves.

The farcical
situation developed,

in which single-seat
Bf 109E fighters had

to protect the escort fighters.

The Me 110 Zerstorer
had proven itself

too fragile for dogfighting
with single-engine fighters,

and its participation as an
escort fighter was scaled back.

But with the withdrawal
of the Stukas,

the Me 110 found new
life as a dive bomber.

And in the years to come,
it would serve Germany

well as a heavy night fighter.

Goering made yet
another fateful decision

to order more bomber
escorts at the expense

of free hunting sweeps.

To achieve this, the
weight of the attack

now fell on Luftflotte 2.

And most of the Me 109
forces in Luftflotte 3

were transferred to General
Field Marshal Albert

Kesselring's command to
reinforce the fighter

bases in the Pa de Calais.

Drift of its
fighters, Luftflotte 3

concentrated on the
night bombing campaign.

Finally, Goering ordered the
attacks on the radar chain

stopped.

The attacks were
seen as unsuccessful,

and neither the technically
inept Reichsmarschall

nor his subordinates realized
how vital the Chain Home

stations were to the defense.

Starting on 24
August, the Luftwaffe

concentrated all their strength
on knocking out Fighter Command.

Of the 33 heavy attacks
in the next two weeks,

24 were against airfields.

These were desperate times for
the RAF, which was also taking

many casualties in the air.

Aircraft production
could replace aircraft,

but replacement pilots were
barely keeping pace with losses.

And novice fliers were
being shot down in droves.

For Luftwaffe aircrews,
a bailout over England

meant capture, while parachuting
into the English Channel

often meant drowning
or death from exposure.

Morale began to suffer, and
Kanalkrankheit, or channel

sickness, a form
of combat fatigue,

began to appear amongst
the German pilots.

Their replacement problem was
even worse than the British,

and yet, the
Luftwaffe was winning

the battle of the airfields.

Another two weeks
of this pounding

may have forced the RAF to
withdraw their squadrons

from the South of England.

But fate and Hitler's ego
stepped in to save the British.

In the very early morning hours
of 25 August, a lone He 111

veered off course
and accidentally

bombed Central London.

This was against Hitler's
standing orders not to do so.

Little did this lost
pilot know his actions

would alter the
course of the battle

and maybe even the war itself.

Outraged by such an attack on
a completely civilian target,

Churchill ordered a retaliatory
strike on Berlin for that night.

Goering himself had boasted that
such a raid would never happen.

He had once stated jokingly
that, "You can call

me Meyer if it ever occurs."

Much to the amazement
of stunned Berliners,

on the night of 25 August,
81 British Hampden bombers

appeared over Berlin and
delivered a blow to the heart

of the Nazi regime.

It was ineffective
as a military strike,

but people were indeed calling
Goering Meier a deep insult

to the anti-Semitic leader.

Goering promised it
would never happen again,

but additional strikes
did repeatedly come.

These missions hit the
Nazis in probably their most

vulnerable spot, Hitler's ego.

He could not allow such an
intrusion into the fatherland

to go unanswered.

Hitler immediately
gave a radio address,

in which he stated, "If the
British bomb our cities,

we will bury theirs."

Against the advice
of his generals,

he issued orders to Goering to
Institute a merciless bombing

campaign against London.

The first raid on 7
September targeted

docks in the East
End of the city.

However, over the coming
days, massive raids

were launched again and again.

Some of these raids targeted
the docks but others

bombed indiscriminately.

The RAF defense was
in greater numbers

than the Luftwaffe expected.

The change in tactics
from bombing airfields

to relentless attacks
on London gave the RAF

critical breathing space.

It was the turning point.

The Battle of Britain
culminated on 15 September 1940,

with two massive waves
of German attacks

that were decisively
repulsed by the RAF.

The total casualties
on this critical day

were 60 German aircraft shot
down versus only 26 for the RAF

or a ratio of over 2 to
1 in favor of the RAF.

The German defeat caused
Hitler to order the invasion

of Britain, called
Operation Sea Lion,

to be indefinitely postponed.

Night bombing raids,
known as The Blitz,

continued, but the Battle
of Britain was over.

Thanks to one lone
German bomber,

a successful, impossible mission
to bomb Berlin and Hitler's ego,

the last bastion of freedom
in Europe, had been saved.

Early on 22 June
1941, the Luftwaffe

launched a preemptive strike
against the Soviet Union,

with 637 bombers and 231
fighters on 31 airfields.

The surprise was complete.

Hundreds of Russian
aircraft were

destroyed, with only two German
aircraft failing to return.

The attacks continued all
day, and by nightfall,

fighters in aerial
combat had claimed

almost 300 Russian aircraft.

At least 800 more were
destroyed on the ground.

By 29 June, after
one week of fighting,

the German armed forces'
high command or OKW,

reported the destruction of
at least 4,017 Soviet aircraft

to the loss of 150 of its own.

During the opening day of the
invasion of the Soviet Union,

code-named Operation Barbarossa,
air support was not as adequate

as it had been in France.

This was because the Luftwaffe
was so enormously overstretched.

Too many aircraft had to stay in
the West and the Mediterranean.

This lack of aircraft opened
the door for a new role

for an old warbird.

The main task of the Ju 87
Stuka on the Eastern Front

was the destruction
of enemy tanks.

One of the things that the
Germans had not accounted

for in their war plans was
the enormous number of tanks

the Red Army possessed.

The quality of those tanks had
also escaped the observation

of German planners.

Confronted with the presence of
large numbers of excellent T-34

tanks and disappointing
production of their own armor

industry, the Germans
sought to compensate

for their numerical
inferiority in other ways.

For the Ju 87, it was a
target-rich environment.

The Ju 87s had to operate
from very primitive airfields,

which were at the
end of long supply

lines and in a harsh climate.

Aircraft usually had to be
maintained in the open air.

And hangars or shelters
for parked aircraft

were non-existent.

In Russia, tactics
changed from dive-bombing

to low-level attacks.

The use of dive
bombing was finally

abandoned entirely with the
delivery of the Ju 87G versions.

These aircraft carried two
underwing-mounted Flak 18

37-millimeter anti-tank guns.

Eventually, the
obsolescence of the Ju 87

would again be seriously felt
and they would increasingly

be replaced by fighter
bomber versions

of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190.

The Ju 87 continued
to be effective,

mostly because of the
very experienced crews.

The most successful Stuka
pilot was Hans Ulrich Rudel,

who was to become
the most decorated

German pilot of World War II.

He was also the pilot who
flew the most combat missions,

a staggering 2,530.

He was credited with the
destruction of the battleship,

Marat, 519 tanks, and
over 2,000 other vehicles.

According to one
rumor, Hitler was

so impressed by Rudel's
actions that he contemplated

naming him as his successor.

During the summer of 1941,
as German Panzers knifed deep

into Russia, the
Messerschmitt design team

produced yet another variant
of the now-aging Bf 109.

Under the designation, Bf 109G,
it was affectionately known

as Gustav among the troops.

The G6 model became the most
produced Bf 109 version.

It was heavy armament armed with
two 13-millimeter MG 131 machine

guns above the engine, a
30-millimeter MK 108 cannon

shooting through the propeller
hub, and 120-millimeter

MG 151/20 in each wing.

The G6 was very often
fitted with assembly sets.

These were used to carry
bombs or a drop tank.

They were also used
as night fighters.

To increase firepower, rockets
or extra guns could be added.

It was in a Bf 109 G-14
that Major Erich Hartmann

of the Luftwaffe reached
his unrivaled total of 352

confirmed aerial victories.

However, these victories
were on the Eastern

Front, where German
fighters easily outclassed

early Soviet fighters.

The Bf 109 was not Germany's
only single-engine fighter.

When the Focke-Wulf 190A entered
combat in the summer of 1941,

it immediately outclassed
the Spitfire 5,

which appeared sluggish
and outdated by comparison.

From that time on, in spite
of some severe problems

with the BMW 801
engine, the 190 kept

even or ahead of Allied fighters
through successive versions.

The standard Fw 190A was quickly
modified to perform a number

of roles, particularly
that of fighter

bomber in the F and G versions.

Carrying a reasonable bomb
load or, in some cases,

rocket projectiles,
new production

Fw 190s were quickly thrown into
the fight against the Russians.

The Fw 190 basically
evolved as a successor

to the Messerschmitt
Bf 109 fighter,

although the official
view was that it would

never be capable of matching the
operational prowess of the Bf

109.

How wrong this proved to be.

The Butcherbird became Germany's
most potent piston-powered World

War II fighter.

[DRUM BEATING]

During World War
II, the Luftwaffe

raised a variety of
Fallschirmjager, Paratrooper,

and Panzer armor units.

Unlike Britain and
the USA, these ground

forces were part
of the Air Force

rather than the regular army.

Starting from a small collection
of Fallschirmjager battalions

at the beginning of
the war, the Luftwaffe

built up a division-sized
unit of three Fallschirmjager

regiments, plus supporting
arms and air assets, known

as the Seventh Air Division.

Later in the war, the Seventh
Air Division's Fallschirmjager

assets were reorganized
and used as the core

of a new series of elite
Luftwaffe infantry divisions.

They were numbered in a
series, beginning with the

first Fallschirmjager division.

These formations were
organized and equipped

as motorized infantry divisions
and often played a fire brigade

role on the Western front.

The origins of the
German parachute arm

can be traced to
23 February 1933.

It was the date
that Hermann Goering

issued a decree, founding
the police detachment, Wecke.

This was formed
almost exclusively

to combat and suppress communist
cells in the Berlin area.

In planning its many raids,
aerial reconnaissance was used,

and then a small
police parachute

unit would Jump on the target.

The Wecke detachment became
part of the German Air Force

in October 1935 and became
Regiment General Goering.

German paratroops first
saw limited action

in Poland and Norway.

It was at Eben-Emae
the Fallschirmjagers

faced their real test.

In the opening moments
of the Battle of France,

strategic objectives
had to be taken

to allow the advancing
German 6th Army to pass

unhindered into Belgium.

These objectives were three
bridges over the Albertkanaal

at Veldwezelt,
Vroenhoven, and Kannes,

and the Fortress of Eben-Emae.

Eben-Emae was considered
to be virtually impregnable

due to its location.

It had a formidable arsenal
of 16 75-millimeter and two

120-millimeter artillery
pieces in four casemates

and three revolving turrets.

It was decided that a parachute
assault was out of the question

due to the limited space
at Eben-Emae and the chance

that some men might
miss the drop zone.

Instead, the Germans used
light assault gliders.

The paratroopers
met stiff resistance

from the Belgian
defenders, who had

even resorted to
firing shells set

with the minimum fuse settings.

At one stage, Stukas
were called in to bomb

the stubborn objectives.

The Stukas did not succeed
in destroying the targets

but forced the gunners
to keep their heads down

while German engineers went
to work placing charges

to blow the concrete redoubts.

One by one, their
objectives were destroyed

and the Fallschirmjagers held
out until early on the morning

of the 11th when they
linked up with men

of the 51st Pioneer Battalion.

Together, they started to sweep
the last of their reserves

from the fort and made way
for the motorized section

of the engineer battalion
to get through and relieve

the para-assault group.

Knowing the battle was lost the
Belgian commander, Major Trond,

surrendered the fortress
at midday on the 11 of May.

The Fallschirmjager's
most famous airdrop was

in the Battle of Crete in 1941.

Known as Operation
Mercury, this was

the first operation conducted
entirely by airborne troops.

The operation was successful
after 10 hard days of fighting.

But the high casualties
among the Fallschirmjager

convinced Hitler that
such mass airdrops

were no longer feasible.

After Crete, the
Fallschirmjagers

would never again be used in
large-scale airborne operations.

However, these
highly-trained elite soldiers

would conduct smaller-scale
operations throughout the war,

culminating in the
pinnacle battle

that won them their place in
the annals of military history.

That place was a Benedictine
monastery on a hilltop town

in Italy, called Monte Cassino.

During the Battle
of Monte Cassino,

the first Fallschirmjager
division operating

as ordinary infantry held out
for months against repeated

assaults and heavy bombardment.

They earned the nickname, "Green
Devils" by the Allied forces

for their tenacious defense.

Polish and French-Moroccan
forces finally forced them out

of the position.

The Battle of
Cassino would result

in some 175,000
casualties, 115,000

Allied and 60,000 Germans.

The first Fallschirmjager
division in particular

impressed its adversaries
by digging in and enduring

relentless pounding by
artillery and bombs,

then emerging to throw back one
Allied assault after another.

At the end of the
battle, the first company

of the first battalion
was down to one officer,

one NCO, and one soldier.

After mid-1944,
Fallschirmjager troops

were no longer trained
as parachutists

due to the realities of
the strategic situation.

But they still retain the
Fallschirmjager honorific.

German paratroopers
were heavily engaged

during the Allied invasion
of France on 6 June 1944.

Defending the
fortifications at Brest,

the second Fallschirmjager
division under General Ramcke

held out against the
Americans until 20 April 1945.

German paratroop units took
part in the Ardennes Offensive,

acting as spearhead troops
for the attacking forces.

Near the end of
the war, the series

of new Fallschirmjager divisions
extended to over a dozen.

They fought with distinctions
in the defensive actions

along the Rhineland and
the Reichswald Forest.

The end came when the
ninth Fallschirmjager

division, was finally
destroyed in Czechoslovakia

in early May 1945.

As RAF and United States Army
Air Force bombing raids got

heavier and heavier
in Europe, some

German fighter
units flying the new

Fw 190s employed new tactics.

Against US heavy bombers
on daylight raids,

several Fw 190s would form a
line and approach from the rear

of the bomber formation.

At very close
range, the fighters

would then open up, giving the
rear gunners in the bombers

very little chance of
firing methodically

at all the attackers.

Demands of the air war over
Germany led to a new role

for the Luftwaffe's most
disappointing fighter.

The complete failure
of the Bf 110C,

in the role for which
it had been conceived,

led to its eventual
withdrawal from

the channel coast
but did not result

in reduction in its production.

They were being used
extensively on the Russian front

and in the Middle East.

By the fall of 1943, the
Zerstorer gruppens once again

began to have great success
in the skies over Germany

as bomber interceptors
and night fighters.

On 11 January 1944, the Allies
sent 650 heavy bombers deep

into Germany to attack
the aircraft factories

in the Braunschweig area.

The masked Bf 110s of the
Zerstorer gruppen poured

their 250-millimeter rockets
into the tightly packed groups,

breaking up the bombers'
protective formations.

They then joined the Bf 109s in
attacking individual aircraft.

41 American bombers failed
to return to their bases

in England.

On 16 March, 43 Bf
110s of ZG 76 caught

American bombers
without fighter escorts

and knocked down 18 B17s.

After their third pass, however,
the bomber escort arrived

and dived to the attack.

During the ensuing battle,
26 or 60% of the Zerstorers

were shot down.

Shortly after this, the
Zerstorer gruppen traded

their Bf 110s for Bf 109Gs.

One of the most versatile
planes of World War II

was the Junkers Ju 88, a solid
aircraft with great performance.

It went on to be one
of the Luftwaffe's

most important aircraft.

It carried out almost every
kind of mission ever imagined,

even as a giant flying bomb in
every theater with many nations.

In the fall of
1942, the Ju 88 C-6

became the first Ju
88 fighter variant

to be equipped with on-board
air intercept radar.

And by mid-1943
the Ju 86 C-6 was

being used more extensively
in the long-range night

fighter role.

In 1943, the Luftwaffe
developed a night tactic

for use by Ju 88 and
Bf 110 units, known

as Zahme Sau or "Tame Boar".

Once a Luftwaffe fighter had
infiltrated a British bomber

formation, it would mount
a long-distance pursuit

in an effort to
pinpoint and destroy

as many bombers as possible.

So successful was the
tactic that the RAF began

to suffer considerable losses.

The worst was the night
of 30 to 31 March 1944,

when the RAF lost 97
out of 725 bombers

that were dispatched
against Nuremberg, Germany.

One of the most effective
armament modifications made

to Luftwaffe night fighters was
Schrage musik, jazz or oblique

music, an installation of one
or two upward-firing cannons

mounted in the Fuselage spine.

First appearing late in 1943,
the Schrage musik installation

was mounted at an angle of
between 70 to 80 degrees

forward.

This allowed the
German night fighters

to attack British bombers
in their blind spot, which

was below and to the rear.

Literally, it
seemed that anything

was possible with the Ju 88,
except, in the end, victory.

More than 100,000
Luftwaffe aircraft were

lost between 1939 and 1945.

320,000 pilots and
aircrew were killed

and 230,000 seriously inJured.

By April of 1944, the
tide had overwhelmingly

turned against the axis.

The US Army air forces
complicated proper air

defense of Germany with
bands of long-range P-51

Mustang fighters.

Their purpose was to escort
Allied bombers on their daylight

raids over the Reich.

Not only had air superiority
been lost in all theaters

by 1945, but also, many of
the aircraft that remained

in frontline squadrons
were outclassed

by their Allied counterparts.

Yet, the fact remains
that certain technological

advantages, if they
had been exploited,

might have made an
appreciable difference

in Germany's military fortunes.

On 25 July, for
example, a British pilot

reported that his
Mosquito encountered

an aircraft of incredible speed
high over Southern Germany.

That aircraft was the
Messerschmitt Me 262 Turbojet,

known as the Schwalbe
or "Swallow".

German planners hoped that the
Me 262 would arrive in the skies

at Just the right time to
take on the Deadly P-51s

and put a serious
hitch in the confidence

the Allied forces placed
in the effectiveness

of their bombing raids.

The Me 262 B-1A was produced
as the first-night fighter jet.

Equipped with long wavelength
radar and superior homing gear,

this machine became a
deadly force in the hands

of the right pilot.

In fact, Luftwaffenkommando
Kurt Welter

became one of the first
jet aces by incorporating

wild boar night fighting tactics
and scoring 20 Allied kills.

Likely the highest number of
kills by a pilot in history.

But Hitler's insistence on
making the Me 262 a bomber

put an end to that hope.

By April 1945, only about
200 of the jet fighters

were available for combat.

When all was said and done,
the Me 262 A-1A "Swallow"

emerged as an
impressive war machine,

but in too few numbers
and much too late to serve

the Luftwaffe in Germany.

The most futuristic of all
the new German aircraft

was the Messerschmitt
Me 163 Komet.

It was a rocket-powered
aircraft,

which held the
record as the fastest

aircraft of the war years.

On October 2, 1941, it
set a new world speed

record of 623.8 miles per hour.

Fueled by an extremely
unstable mix of propellants,

it proved to be something of
a death trap for its pilots.

Operations began in 1944.

As expected, the plane
was extremely fast.

And for a time, the Allied
fighters were at a complete loss

as to what to do about it.

The plane often
climbed to the bombers

faster than the escorting
fighters could dive

in an attempt to intercept it.

That high speed proved
to be a problem.

The builders were never able to
make a truly effective weapon

for the plane, one
that could fire

fast enough to allow it to kill
a bomber before passing it.

It wasn't long before the Allied
pilots noted the extremely short

lifetime of the powered flight.

They would wait it out.

And as soon as the engine went
off, they would hunt them down.

They also quickly identified
the fields the planes

operated from and
started strafing

them after the Me 163s landed.

In any operational sense,
the Komet was a failure.

More were lost to
landing accidents

than they ever
accounted for in bomber

kills, which were only 16.

If weapons such as these and the
vengeance weapons like the V1

and V2 rockets had been
available in sufficient numbers

earlier in the war and
had been coordinated

with conventional bombing
raids, their impact

might have been significant.

As it was, their
development was too late.

By late 1944, the Luftwaffe
was already a broken force.

[THEME MUSIC]