The Defeat of the German Air Force 1939-1945

One of the decisive factors in the defeat of Hitler's Germany was the Luftwaffe's failure to win the battle for the skies. Even during the war the German public criticised their Air Force and today the Luftwaffe's aims and tactics are still being questioned.

Could the Third Reich have survived if Hitler had used his secret weapons - the jet planes and rockets - as his Air Generals advised him? Was there a mutiny among the German pilots at a vital stage in the war that the Nazis managed to keep secret?

Was it the RAF's tactics - the decision to make massive raids on German cities, and not exclusively on military targets - that allowed the Luftwaffe to keep on fighting in spite of Hitler's mistakes and 'Goering's indecision'?

This documentary, made by West German Television, using combat film and interviews with ex-Luftwaffe Generals, tries to answer these questions.
Introduced by Group Captain Peter Townsend

(Could the German air force have saved the Third Reich?: page 3)