Luftwaffe-2

My name is Arabelle Swatz and I have now been a German reporter for seven months. I am thirty two years old and I was born April 5, 1910. I am one hundred percent German and absolutely thrilled with my new job. I am now in midst in reporting news about the Luftwaffe, or the German Army. Luftwaffe was the most powerful and doctrinally advanced aircraft system in World War II. 11,800 aircrafts were built in 1941 and 15,600 aircrafts were built in 1942 (Bruner). Over 3.5 million people were apart of the Luftwaffe air force between the years 1939 and 1945. Of this 3.5 million over 165,000 were killed, over 155,000 went missing and over 192,000 were wounded (Pipes). We have now been fighting with the Soviet Union since 1941; we had a delay however, because of the cold weather conditions. German troops pulled back, but when summer of 1942 approached, we were ready to go. The troops surprise attacked the Soviet Union, and the Luftwaffe did lots of damage to one of their major cities, Stalingrad. While much of the town was asleep, Luftwaffe swarmed over Stalingrad and went on a bombing raid. Nearly every wooden building was set ablaze (Danzer 571). The bombings were so bad that Stalingrad officers recommended blowing up the city’s factories and then abandoning the city. Stalin was utterly furious. He told the officers that they were to defend his namesake city, no matter what the cost was. After the attack a German soldier said, “Victory is not far away.” It sure does seem that way, especially because Germany now owns 9/10 of the city (Danzer 571).

Bruner, Jerome. "Luftwaffe." __Sparticus Educational__.24 October, 2007. . Danzer, Gerald and Jorge Klor de Alva, Larry Krieger, Louis Wilson, Nancy Woloch. __The Americans__. Evanston: McDougal Littell. Pipes, Jason. "Luftwaffe - The Airforce 1935-1945." __Research on the German armed forces 1918-1945__. 24 October, 2007. .