What led to the decline of the Luwaffe?

Question

I mean by the time Operation Overlord took place, the Luwaffe was practically helpless in providing a significant support for the panzer korps or am I wrong?

Feel free to correct me on this aspect. Cheers.

Answer 1

Bad decisions, basically. Hitler and Goering had jets and aircraft that could have been produced early on that would have given the luftwaffe a definate advantage over any Air Force or Air Corp. The ME 110 was a fighter bomber that was outdated the minute it was in production, and germany thought that it would be superior due to the fact it could play two roles, but it could not carry enough payload, was too easily outmanuvered in dogfights, and was a large target for allied gunners on the bombers.

Had they produced 4 engine bombers similar to the lancaster, B 17, and B 24, they could have struck at england from germany proper, and stalingrad too.

The ME 262's, if they were put into production early, would have made a huge difference in the battle of brittain, and would have put a heavier toll of losses on the allied bombers, thus reducing bomb dammage on german industries, and would have kept german war production up.

The biggest reason why Germany lost the air war and war in general, was many skilled Jewish Artisians, Machinists, Financiers, and Designers were in concentration camps or in forced labor camps, instead of having the creative ability to engineer and design weapons of war, they were used for minor tasks.

Herman Goering once asked Adolf Galland( a top german fighter ace) what he needed to win the air war, and Galland replied," P51 mustangs" which angered Goering (who was a needle freak and heroine junkie). Sorry the reply was Spitfires. My mistake.

If you do some research, you'll fing Germany started the war with alot of technological advantages and possibilities, but did not implement them early enough. A couple of the people hit on other areas why the luftwaffe declined, and this is just a few other reasons.

Answer 2

The problems started after they started the war. The German air force was losing planes but not taking the time to replace the lost fighters, bombers, and pilots. Before the Battle of Britain, they had lost a good chunk of the air force gone and did not take the time to recover. Then the factories didn't have the speed to replace the lost planes. Pilots are the most impotent item to an air force. The Germans and the Japanese did the same thing fly till you die. The allies rotated are pilots in and out of a combat zone. The pilots that are rotated out are sent to teach in the training schools giving a uniform experience level within the ranks. Also the Germans did not take the time to develop a long-range bomber allowing the Allies to move their factories away from the medium bomber of the German air force. The jet fighter was built more as a bomber than a fighter. It was not until 1945 that Hitler allowed all Me 262s only to be build only as a fighter. With the lose of so many great pilots gone, and only rookies to take their place the air force was no longer a threat. also the long range bomber of the US is the B-17 Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, and the B-29 Super Fortress. The B-52 was in the 1950's to present day

Answer 3

There are a few things to consider when answering this question and a couple time-periods as well.

The Luftwaffe went into its first decline during the Battle of Britain and it was because of a policy decision. For the first part of the bombing campaign, the Germans largely concentrated on destroying and damaging British air forces (though they neglected to concentrate on the radar) and certain industries. They were quite successful at this and were slowly driving the RAF into destruction. Then the Brits bombed a German city. In retaliation, Hitler changed the policy to terror bombing. The shift away from targeting the RAF gave the British the respite they needed to take the strategic advantage. From that point on, it was the Luftwaffe that would suffer the most from attrition, rather than the British and well-trained, experienced pilots were VERY hard to replace.

Switch to the German invasion of Russia. Despite initial successes, the Germans were unable to match Soviet production capacity in either trained pilots or planes. The dire situation on the Eastern Front after 1943 ensured that most Luftwaffe resources were there, desperately trying to blunt the Soviets, leaving relatively little to defend German cities from bombs and protect the movement of German divisions in the defense of France.

Answer 4

a lot of well menan answeers here none of them correct, 3 factors led to the decline of the luftwaffe,
1.after the victories in 1940 41 the germans were overconfidant and did not gear up until to late,
2.Georing did not allow the techies working on the jets and rocket powered fighters as well and the v1 and v2 to move forward until to late,
3.allied bombers tok a 2.9 gunfire ratio fro a german fighter to bring them down, in other words under normal ciircumstances a german fighter simply did not have the punch to knock out an allied plane on the first pass, this resulted in many pilots of worth being killed the high command did not relaize for over 16 months what the problem was by that time allied mfg capabilities had outpaced the germn by weight of numbers.

Answer 5

The allies began using the P-51 Mustangs which were faster then the meserschmidts the luftwaffe were using during WWII. This led to an increase in the kills by allied aircrafts. The P-51 also was able to support the B-52 bombers on their long range bombing runs over germany. Previously the Allied Aircrafts couldnt protect the B-52's and this led to many B-52s being shot down, In one mission the Luftwaffe shot down 65 B-52's.

Answer 6

In saying that the Luftwaffe was helpless you are saying that the Allied had acheived what is called "air superiority" -- a state in warfare where one side basically rules the skies. It is correct to say that by D-Day the Allies had acheived air superiority in both the European and Pacific theaters of war.

The rapid development of superior Allied fighter aircraft - both quantitatively and qualitatively -- allowed the allies to systematically shoot down the Luftwaffe's air force and, most importantly, their best pilots. The American P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt, and P-51 Mustang, along with the British Spitfire, were the best allied fighters which helped acheive a decisive air superiority by 1944. (In the Pacific theater the aforementioned air force fighters, along with the Navy's Grumman F6F Hellcat beat down the Japanese air elements.)

Essential to this superiority was the development of better air-to-air cannon, as well as the ever-increasing range provided by additional fuel capacities and drop tanks.

Answer 7

Lend-lease and the British Commenwealth Air Training Program combined with radar and good old fashioned American military production. At one point the Luftwaffe had a 5-1 lead on Allied aircraft. FDR made it his goal to increase production of aircraft and aid in providing training and training facilities for pilots. The Brits first developed radar -

Answer 8

Allied aircraft, especially fighter aircraft such as the American Mustang, and the British Spitfire, could simply outperform the axis fighters, who couldn't keep pace with aircraft production after their aircraft factories were bombed to dust by the 8th airforce stationed in England.
The Brit bombers would bomb during the night, the American B-17's during the day.
The "round the clock bombing" pretty much destroyed Germany's ability to produce aircraft or make replacement parts for those axis aircraft that needed it.
They were simply outgunned.

Answer 9

They were simply mismanaged. And thank God for that. Hitler's ideal of power was always ground based . He could not see the power and tatical advantage that came from the air- the Allies did. They used the air as the tactical advantage and won. Hitler mismanaged the air power early and could not forsee the advantage he had till it was too late in the war. But - that is to all our blessings. people like Hitlers see power in themselves and not in others- thus they seldom see the advantage great leaders get through those around them.

Answer 10

In my humble opinion, several things led to their decline: the stalemate over Britain, attrition, and hitler's policy of pitting industrial giants against each other resulting in multiple designs and poor use of limited resources. The competition between Willy Messersmitt and the Focker conglomerate produced multiple designs and lack of focus. Unlike the Russians and Americans/British who were focused on mass producing certain models.