/
Description
The RAF (full English name: Royal Air Force) is the British Air Force that began to bear this name in April 1918. Previously, it was known as the Royal Flying Corps. From April 1918, they also became an independent air force, not under the command of the army or navy. For a large part of the interwar period, the RAF did not take part in any major military conflict, mainly dealing with communication and transport tasks. However, in the face of the growing threat from Nazi Germany, in 1936 the RAF was reorganized, separating three commands within it: coastal defense, fighter and bombing. From the mid-1930s, the process of implementing new types of aircraft began, such as the Hawker Hurricane (prototype flight in 1935) or Supermarine Spitfire (prototype flight in 1936). The process of building a radar network in England and Scotland, which was later called Chain Home, was started and continued with considerable success. RAF squadrons took part in combat operations from the beginning of World War II, and the greatest success of the British Air Force is the victory in the Battle of Britain (1940), achieved despite the numerical superiority on the German side, and with the support of pilots from many countries - in the ones from Poland. It is worth adding that in the course of these struggles the hunting tactics were subjected to a profound reform. The RAF also made great contributions to the air defense of Malta against the Italian and German air forces. He also participated in virtually every major British land offensive from 1942 to 1945. Independently, and later together with American bombers, it carried out strategic bombing of Germany. There is no doubt that the RAF during World War II proved to be one of the most powerful air force in the course of this conflict.
The Luftwaffe is a German air force that began to form in February 1935 under a special order of the Nazi dictator of Germany - Adolf Hitler. The commander of the Luftwaffe - from its very beginning, actually until the end of World War II - was Herman Göring. The quantitative development of the German air force in the period 1935-1939 was rapid, and at that time it was equipped with machines that de facto served until the end of the war, including the Me-109 fighter, the Ju-87 Stukas dive bomber or medium bombers such as the He- 111 or Ju-88. Some German pilots also gained combat experience while serving as part of the Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Moreover, even before the war, the Luftwaffe was oriented in such a way as to be able to support the operations of the land forces as effectively as possible. This was reflected in its equipment, structure and organization, as well as in the training of pilots. The German air force successfully emerged from campaigns in Poland, Norway and France, with the Luftwaffe sustaining relatively heavy losses in the latter campaign - both in planes and in personnel. On the other hand, a very painful lesson was the Battle of Britain, during which it had a decisive defeat, losing many more planes, and above all well-trained pilots, than the enemy. It can be added, by the way, that Adolf Galland was one of the best fighter pilots in the Luftwaffe during this battle. In the course of the fighting on the Eastern Front (1941-1945), the German air force, especially at the beginning of the conflict, dominated the quality of aircraft and the training of crews and pilots, which translated into horrendous losses of Soviet aviation and led to even fantastic results of shooting down German fighter aces, such as for example, Hermann Graf or Walter Nowotny. However, in the years 1942-1943 the scales of victory in the air war over Europe began to lean towards the Soviet and - above all - the Allied aviation, which, thanks to machines such as the latest versions of the Spitfire or the P-51 Mustang, caused the German Luftwaffe more and more losses, also in the course of fighting over Germany and in the course of strategic bombing. Even the efforts of the Luftwaffe to make a qualitative leap by introducing jet machines such as the Me-262 or Ar-234 into the line in 1944-1945 did not bring any effect, and the increasingly poorly trained German pilots suffered higher and higher losses in the clash with Allied machines . It is assumed that from the beginning of the war to January 1945, the losses of Luftwaffe personnel amounted to approx. 140,000. people killed and approx. 155 thousand. missing persons.
During World War II, the US Air Force, the USAAF (United States Army Air Force), was not an independent type of armed force and was formally under the command of the army. In the course of this conflict, they became the most powerful military aviation in the world, and at the time of the end of hostilities, they numbered about 2.25 million people! Due to the fact that the American aviation industry was one of the most modern and efficient in the world, the USAAF saw many successful, and sometimes great, aircraft models. It is worth remembering that in 1940-1945 it produced a total of approx. 295 thousand. machines, and therefore more than the aviation industry of Germany, Italy and Japan combined. Moreover, among these thousands of machines produced, one can point to the very successful P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt or P-51 Mustang fighters, B-25 Mitchell or B-26 Marauder tactical bombers, but also the legendary B-17 Flying Fortress strategic bombers. and the B-29 Super Fortress. The USAAF pilot training system can also be considered successful and well-thought-out, as it was able to provide the rapidly expanding air force with well-trained pilots. It is also worth remembering that, unlike the German aviation, the American crews and pilots were rotated and after serving a certain period of time, they most often returned to the country, to training units, passing their experiences on. This fact may explain why American fighter aces (such as Richard Bong or Thoma McGuire) had "only" dozens of kills compared to several hundred kills of German aces (such as Erich Hartmann or Gerhard Barkhorn).
