70-622: The Amerikabomber (English: America bomber ) project was an initiative of the German Ministry of Aviation ( Reichsluftfahrtministerium ) to obtain a long-range strategic bomber for the Luftwaffe that would be capable of striking the United States (specifically New York City ) from Germany , a round-trip distance of about 11,600 km (7,200 mi). The concept was raised as early as 1938, but advanced plans for such
140-647: A German historian. Ten copies of the plan were made, with six going to different Luftwaffe offices and four held in reserve. The plan specifically mentions using the Azores as a transit airfield to reach the United States. If utilized, the Heinkel He 277, Junkers Ju 390 , and the Messerschmitt Me 264 could reach American targets with a 3 tonne, 5 tonne, and 6.5 tonne payload respectively. Although it
210-458: A black swastika. The reverse looked almost the same as the obverse but a black swastika replaced the eagle and eagles replaced the four swastikas. The flag was in use until the end of 1935. On 26 February 1935 Hitler officially created the Luftwaffe with Hermann Göring as its Commander-in-Chief ( German : Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe ). Late in 1935 a flag was instituted that consisted of
280-487: A design first asked for by the earlier USAAC on April 11, 1941 - an enormous six- engined , 70-meter wingspan design far superior to either the Heinkel He 277 or Focke-Wulf Ta 400 designs. One idea similar to Mistel-Gespann was to have a Heinkel He 177 bomber carry a Dornier Do 217 , powered with an additional Lorin-Staustrahltriebwerk ( Lorin - ramjet ), as far as possible over the Atlantic before releasing it. For
350-724: A golden Luftwaffe eagle in the centre and four golden swastikas set in each corner of the flag. Suspended from the base of the silver laurel was a true representation of the Pour le Mérite . When Göring was promoted to "Generalfeldmarschall" a pair of Luftwaffe field marshal's batons were added to the flag's reverse design and shown crossed above the "Pour le Mérite". The obverse remained the same as before. This alteration took place on 28 April 1938. 52°30′31.31″N 13°23′2.4″E / 52.5086972°N 13.384000°E / 52.5086972; 13.384000 Erhard Milch World War II Erhard Milch (30 March 1892 – 25 January 1972)
420-408: A long-range strategic bomber design were not presented to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring until early 1942. Various proposals were put forward, but these plans were all eventually abandoned as they were too expensive, too reliant on rapidly diminishing materiel and production capacity, and/or technically infeasible. According to Albert Speer 's book, Spandau: The Secret Diaries , Adolf Hitler
490-410: A major difference to the outcome of the war. Ultimately, all of the aircraft designs under consideration were deemed too expensive and/or ambitious and were abandoned. Post-war, however, they continued to be of interest to aerospace engineers: Notes Bibliography Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany) The Ministry of Aviation ( German : Reichsluftfahrtministerium , abbreviated RLM )
560-481: A man who was known to have a short temper. When Milch arrived, Mills-Roberts was said to be still seething from the suffering and atrocities he had seen during the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . Milch reportedly addressed Mills-Roberts in a haughty manner, demanding good treatment, waving his Generalfeldmarschall' s campaign baton around, and dismissing concerns about the inmates of several satellite Arbeitslager of Neuengamme concentration camp in
630-696: A number of very long-range maritime patrol duties in co-operation with the Kriegsmarine's U-boats off the US East Coast . The most promising proposals were based on conventional principles of aircraft design, and would have yielded aircraft very similar in configuration and capability to the Allied heavy bombers of the day. These would have needed ultra-long range capability similar to the Messerschmitt Me 261 maritime reconnaissance design,
700-557: A pharmacist who had converted from Judaism who served in the Imperial German Navy , and Clara, née Vetter. The Gestapo later investigated Milch due to his Jewish heritage. Under the Nuremberg Laws , Milch would have been categorized as mixed race ( mischling ). However, he would not have been considered Jewish according to that religion's orthodoxy (or halakha ), which states that a person’s Jewish status
770-549: A result, early successes in aircraft development progressed only slowly and erratically during World War II . The Ministry was formed on 27 April 1933 from the Reich Commissariat for Aviation ( German : Reichskommissariat für die Luftfahrt ), which had been established two months earlier with Göring at its head. In this early phase the Ministry was little more than Göring's personal staff. One of its first actions
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#1732793503916840-470: A return trip without refueling. The only German aircraft already built and flown that had a range close to this was the Messerschmitt Me 261 Adolfine , with a maximum range of 11,025 kilometres (6,850 mi). Had sufficient time and resources been devoted to the project at a point in time early enough, an Amerikabomber may have become operational before the war's end. However, as historian James P. Duffy pointed out, Nazi Germany had no central authority for
910-462: A square of bright red silk. The flag was similar to some extent to that used before. The differences of the obverse were that now there was placed in the centre a gold swastika and instead of the four black swastikas four golden Luftwaffe eagles were added. The wings were left out. Moreover, the flag was edged on all four sides with a gold-braided border, which incorporated a row of 76 small gold swastikas all standing on their points. The reverse displayed
980-521: A truly "four-engined" heavy bomber to carry out raids against Great Britain. He endorsed Arado Flugzeugwerke to be the subcontractor for the Heinkel He 177B separately engined heavy bomber design. Only three flyable prototypes were completed by early 1944. From March 1944, Milch, together with Speer, oversaw the activities of the Jägerstab ("Fighter Staff"), a governmental task force whose aim
1050-515: Is Eugen Sänger 's pre-war Silbervogel ("Silverbird") sub-orbital bomber. Included in the plan was a list of 21 targets of military importance in North America. Many of these would not have been viable targets for conventional bombers of World War II, operating from bases in Europe. Of these targets, primarily but not exclusively located in the eastern United States , 19 were located in
1120-522: Is a Jew in the air force". However, many believe that he was merely quoting Karl Lueger , the former mayor of Vienna . In a reorganization of 1 February 1939, Milch, now with the rank of Generaloberst , was given the additional job of Inspector-General of the Luftwaffe . After the outbreak of World War II , Milch commanded Luftflotte 5 during Operation Weserübung in Norway . Following
1190-585: Is apparent that the plan itself deals only with an attack on American soil, it is possible the Nazis saw other interrelated strategic purposes for the Amerikabomber project. According to military historian James P. Duffy, Hitler "saw in the Azores the ... possibility for carrying out aerial attacks from a land base against the United States ... [which in turn would] force it to build up a large antiaircraft defense." The anticipated result would have been to force
1260-566: Is passed down through the mother . In 1935, rumours began to circulate that Milch's father was a Jew. The Gestapo began an investigation which was halted by Hermann Göring , the commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe , who produced an affidavit by Milch's mother that his true father was her uncle, Karl Brauer. Milch was then issued with a German Blood Certificate . If true, that would mean that Milch's mother, Clara, committed not only adultery but also incest . Author and Holocaust denier David Irving claimed in his book The Rise and Fall of
1330-643: Is to be picked out, and every tenth man will be shot in front of the rest. In 1944 Milch sided with Joseph Goebbels , the propaganda minister and Heinrich Himmler , the Reichsführer-SS , in attempting to convince Adolf Hitler to remove Göring from command of the Luftwaffe . When Hitler refused, Göring retaliated by forcing Milch out of his positions as State Secretary and Generalluftzeugmeister on 20 June 1944, and as Luftwaffe Inspector General in January 1945. From August 1944, he worked under Speer in
1400-835: The Rüstungsstab (Armaments Staff) but was sidelined and achieved little. He was injured in a car accident in the fall of 1944 and hospitalized for several weeks. Finally placed into the Führerreserve in March 1945, he was not reassigned. Milch was apprehended by the British No. 6 Commando on the Baltic coast on 4 May 1945. He was taken to the unit's command post of Brigadier Derek Mills-Roberts in Neustadt in Holstein ,
1470-480: The Four Year Plan , in an effort to coordinate control over all industrial war production. Milch cancelled production of the ineffective and dangerous Me 210 and He 177 and put them back in development. Under his direction, aircraft production focused on mass production of the tested and tried models. Output doubled in the summer of 1943 in comparison with the winter of 1941–1942. Adam Tooze wrote "For
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#17327935039161540-990: The River Deime in September 1914 and later on the Angerapp Line in February 1915. In July 1915, he was transferred to the Fliegertruppe (Imperial Air Force) and trained as an aerial observer on the Western front, seeing action on the Somme in 1916 (through the period of it becoming the Luftstreitkräfte in October that year) and later in Flanders during 1917. After a spell as a company commander in
1610-625: The defeat of France , Milch was promoted to Generalfeldmarschall (field marshal) during the 1940 Field Marshal Ceremony . Following the suicide of Generaloberst Ernst Udet in November 1941, Milch succeeded him as Generalluftzeugmeister , in charge of all Luftwaffe aircraft production, armament and supply. In April 1942 he was named to the Central Planning Board along with Albert Speer , Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production , and Paul Körner , State Secretary of
1680-544: The troubling situation of being unable to develop combat-reliable piston aviation engines of 1,500 kW (2,000 PS) and above output levels led to both designs being considered for six-engined upgrades, with Messerschmitt's paper project for a 47.5 meter wingspan "Me 264B" airframe upgrade to use six BMW 801E radials, and the Heinkel firm's July 23, 1943 -dated request from the RLM to propose a 45-meter wingspan, six-engined variant of
1750-400: The "Pour le Mérite". Extending from the left and right side of the wreath were a pair of stylised wings each consisting of four ascending "feathers". Also extending from the wreath towards the four corners of the flag were four black-edged white inactive wedges, a feature that was to be incorporated in the design of the future unit Colours of the new Luftwaffe. In each of the four corners was set
1820-697: The Azores to the British, allowing the Allies to provide aerial coverage in the middle of the Atlantic. Requests for designs, at various stages during the war, were made to the major German aircraft manufacturers ( Messerschmitt , Junkers , Focke-Wulf and the Horten Brothers ) early in World War II , coinciding with the passage of the Destroyers for Bases Agreement between the United States and
1890-482: The Do 217 it would have been a one-way trip. The aircraft would be ditched off the east coast, and its crew would be picked up by a waiting U-boat. When plans had advanced far enough, the lack of fuel and the loss of the base at Bordeaux prevented a test. The project was abandoned after the forced move to Istres increased the distance too much. The Huckepack Projekt was brought up again at multiple joint conferences between
1960-524: The Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine. After a few weeks the plan was abandoned on August 21, 1942. Air Staff General Kreipe wrote in his diary that the German navy could not supply a U-boat off the United States to pick up the aircrew. The plan saw no further development, since the Kriegsmarine would not cooperate with the Luftwaffe. Other designs were rockets with wings. Perhaps the best-known of these today
2030-647: The Luftwaffe during the war years, to improve their aviation and weapons technology as a "technical-tactical" department would do in other nations' military aviation bureaus, the Luftwaffenverwaltungsamt (LD) for construction, Luftwaffenpersonalamt (LP) for training and staffing, and the Zentralabteilung (ZA), central command. In 1934, an additional department was added, the Luftzeugmeister (LZM) in charge of logistics . With
2100-549: The Luftwaffe: The Life of Field Marshal Erhard Milch , that Milch asked him not to reveal the truth about his parentage, so although Irving states that Erhard's father was not Anton Milch and concentrates on his wealthy great-uncle Karl Brauer (who died in 1906), he does not actually name Brauer as his father. However, Irving, who claimed to have had access to the Field Marshal's private diary and papers, says
2170-454: The Ministry. This is often considered the birth of the Luftwaffe. The Ministry was now much larger, consisting of two large departments: the military Luftschutzamt (LA) and the civilian Allgemeines Luftamt (LB). Erhard Milch , the former head of Deutsche Luft Hansa , was placed in direct control of the LA, in his function as Secretary of State for Aviation. In September 1933, a reorganization
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2240-719: The Nuremberg trials 1946, Milch was again questioned about his alleged Jewish father and Göring's role in the matter by Chief United States Prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson . Milch enlisted in the Imperial German Army in 1910, where he rose to the rank of Leutnant and commanded an artillery unit in East Prussia at the beginning of the First World War. He saw action against the Russian Army on
2310-612: The United Kingdom in September 1940. Heinkel 's bid for the project had occurred sometime shortly after February 1943, by which time the RLM had issued the Heinkel firm the airframe type number 8-277 for what essentially became its entry. The Amerikabomber project plan was completed on April 27, 1942, and submitted to Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring on May 12, 1942. The 33-page plan was discovered in Potsdam by Olaf Groehler ,
2380-511: The United States to use more of its antiaircraft capabilities—guns and fighter planes—for its own defense rather than for that of Great Britain, thereby allowing the Luftwaffe to attack the latter country with less resistance. Partly as a liaison with the Wehrmacht Heer , in May 1942 Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch requested the opinion of Generalmajor Eccard Freiherr von Gablenz on
2450-530: The United States; one in Vancouver, British Columbia , Canada (a possibly achievable target for a similar Japanese project ) and one in Greenland . Nearly all were companies that manufactured parts for aircraft, so the goal was likely to cripple U.S. aircraft production. Were New York City to be bombed, the required combat radius was 11,680 kilometres (7,260 mi), as the bomber would have needed to make
2520-514: The area. Mills-Roberts became so incensed with Milch's tone, the British officer snatched the field-marshal's baton from him and began beating Milch over the head with it until it broke. He then grabbed a champagne bottle and continued, fracturing Milch's skull. The bloodied field-marshal was then pulled up from the floor and driven back to Sierhagen Castle where he had been staying, and robbed at gunpoint by British soldiers (which included his ceremonial jewel-encrusted Generalfeldmarschall baton). He
2590-494: The ban and successfully submitting a design. The Messerschmitt-designed Bayerische Flugzeugwerke corporate entry, the Bf 109 , proved to be the winner. Messerschmitt maintained its leading position within the German aircraft industry until the failure of the Me 210 aircraft. Even after that Milch, as the leader, did not depose him, but put him in an inferior position. In 1935 doubts about
2660-476: The banner of Lloyd Luftdienst, Norddeutscher Lloyd ' s union of regional German airlines. The airline linked Danzig to the Baltic States . In 1923, Milch became the managing director of its successor company. From there, Milch and Sachsenberg went to work for rival Junkers Luftverkehr , where Milch was appointed a managing director in 1925. In 1926, Milch was named a managing director (one of three) of
2730-451: The contract for the design of the Heinkel He 177 , Germany's only operational heavy bomber during the war years, the Luftwaffe's commander-in-chief Hermann Göring gave a speech saying, "I completely lack the bombers capable of round-trip flights to New York with a 4.5-tonne bomb load. I would be extremely happy to possess such a bomber, which would at last stuff the mouth of arrogance across the sea." Canadian historian Holger H. Herwig claims
2800-497: The development and construction of advanced weaponry, including new aircraft concepts and designs , as well as critical problems in developing high-powered aviation engines – that is, with output of over 1,500 kilowatts (2,000 hp) each, which could operate reliably in combat conditions – that would have been required. Hitler was often swayed to waste time, money and resources on new "miracle weapons" and other projects that were unlikely to be successful. The Amerikabomber project
2870-437: The ethnic origin of Erhard Milch began when rumors circulated that his father Anton Milch was Jewish. The Gestapo began an investigation but it was stopped by Göring; Erhard's mother had signed a document that Anton was not the true father of Erhard and his brothers but that it was her uncle Karl Brauer. Those events and the later extension of the "Certificate of German Blood" were the background to Göring's statement, "I decide who
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2940-586: The existence of the Third Reich, overseeing all matters concerning both military and civilian designs – it handled military aviation matters as its top priority, particularly for the Luftwaffe . As was characteristic of government departments in the Nazi era, the Ministry was personality-driven and formal procedures were often ignored in favour of the whims of the Minister, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring . As
3010-573: The first time, the German aircraft industry was able to achieve substantial economies of scale. The resources pumped into the Luftwaffe in 1940–41 were now concentrated in mass assembly". To achieve this level of mass production, the Armaments Ministries and the industry cooperated with the SS to procure labour from concentration camps. Due to Milch's connections with the SS, the Luftwaffe had an advantage in obtaining slave labour. To increase
3080-502: The longest-ranged intended design actually flown during the Third Reich's existence. Many of the developed designs, themselves first submitted during 1943 suggested tricycle landing gear for their undercarriage, a relatively new feature for large German military aircraft designs of that era. These included the following concepts: Three prototypes of the Me 264 were built, but it was the Ju 390 that
3150-489: The new proposal, with regard to the aircraft available to fill the needs of an Amerikabomber , which had then included the Me 264, Fw 300 and the Ju 290. von Gablenz gave his opinion on the Me 264, as it was in the second half of 1942, before von Gablenz's own commitments in the Battle of Stalingrad occurred: the Me 264 could not be usefully equipped for a true trans-Atlantic bomber mission from Europe, but it would be useful for
3220-504: The newly-formed airline Deutsche Luft Hansa . Milch joined the Nazi Party (number 123,885) on 1 April 1929, but his membership was not officially acknowledged until March 1933, because Hitler deemed it desirable to keep the fact hidden for political reasons. On 5 May 1933, Milch took up a position as State Secretary of the newly formed Reich Ministry of Aviation (RLM), answering directly to Hermann Göring . In this capacity, he
3290-628: The plan started as a result of discussions by Hitler in November 1940 and May 1941 when he stated his need to "deploy long-range bombers against American cities from the Azores ." Due to their location, he thought the Portuguese Azores islands were Germany's "only possibility of carrying out aerial attacks from a land base against the United States." At the time, Portuguese Prime Minister Salazar had allowed German U-boats and navy ships to refuel there, but from 1943 onwards, he leased bases in
3360-447: The protection of German industry if unrest breaks out among this foreign scum. If, for instance, there is a mutiny at X, an officer with a couple of men, or a lieutenant with thirty troops, must appear in the factory and let fly with their machine-guns into the mob. The object is to lay out as many people as possible, if mutinies break out. This is the order I have issued, even if the people are our own foreign workers. Every tenth man
3430-510: The quantity, Milch also made some sacrifices in quality, notable in the case of the Bf 109 . When the US Air Force began to directly challenge the fighter forces of the Luftwaffe , the cost of Milch's decisions was shown. The handling of the Bf 109 G was so bad that they became, in the words of Tooze, "little more than death traps". On 10 August 1943, Milch finally addressed Germany's lack of
3500-498: The rapid growth of the Luftwaffe following the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the Ministry grew so large that Göring was no longer able to maintain control. This period was marked by an increasing inability to deliver the new aircraft designs that were desperately needed, as well as continued shortages of aircraft and engines. In 1943 Albert Speer took over from Milch, and things immediately improved. Production reached their highest levels in 1943 and 1944, and though Speer introduced
3570-463: The rumours about Milch's parentage began to spread in the autumn of 1933, and that Erhard Milch personally obtained a signed statement by his putative father Anton that he was not the father of Clara's children. Furthermore, Irving claimed that Clara Milch had already written to her son-in-law Fritz Herrmann in March 1933 explaining the circumstances of her marriage, and that Göring had initiated his own investigation that identified his real father. During
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#17327935039163640-511: The same measures of self-regulation that he had introduced in other areas of industry, and tried to take credit for the so-called Armaments Miracle , contemporary German statistics show that the real reason for increased production were measures and investments made by Milch and his staff in 1941 and 1942. Though German aircraft production had briefly caught up with that of the Soviet Union in 1944, it collapsed in 1945. The RLM never overcame
3710-499: The shortage of raw materials and fuel supply, lack of experienced pilots and deficits in technology and know-how that had handicapped it since the beginning of the war. The Ministry building was one of the few public edifices in central Berlin to survive the severe Allied bombings in 1944–45. On 5 May 1933 the German Air Ministry, with Hermann Göring as Reich Minister for Aviation ( German : Reichsluftfahrtminister )
3780-512: The still-unfinalized He 277 airframe design that could alternatively accommodate four of the troublesome, over-1,500 kW output apiece Junkers Jumo 222 24-cylinder six-bank liquid-cooled engines, or two additional BMW 801E radials beyond the four it was originally meant to use. July 23, 1943, was the same day that the USAAF submitted a " letter of intent " to Convair, that ordered the first 100 production Convair B-36 bombers to be built - itself
3850-467: The trenches in the spring and summer of 1918, in the waning days of the war, he was promoted to Hauptmann and appointed to command a fighter wing, Jagdgruppe 6 , even though he had never trained as a pilot and could not fly himself. Milch resigned from the military in 1920 to pursue a career in civil aviation. With squadron colleague Gotthard Sachsenberg , Milch formed a small airline in Danzig under
3920-490: Was a German Generalfeldmarschall ( field marshal ) who oversaw the development of the German air force ( Luftwaffe ) as part of the re-armament of Nazi Germany (1933-1945) following World War I (1914-1918). He served as State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Aviation from May 1933 until June 1944 and as Inspector General of the air force from February 1939 to January 1945. During most of World War II he
3990-685: Was a government department during the period of Nazi Germany (1933–45). It is also the original name of the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus building on the Wilhelmstrasse in central Berlin , Germany , which today houses the German Finance Ministry ( German : Bundesministerium der Finanzen ). The Ministry was in charge of development and production of all aircraft developed, designed, and built in Germany during
4060-412: Was eventually transferred to Landsberg. Milch's sentence was commuted to 15 years imprisonment in 1951, and he was paroled in June 1954. He lived out the remainder of his life in Düsseldorf , where he died in 1972 as the last living Luftwaffe field marshal. In the 1969 film Battle of Britain , Milch was portrayed by German actor Dietrich Frauboes. American actor Robert Vaughn portrayed Milch in
4130-429: Was fascinated with the idea of New York City in flames. In 1937, Willy Messerschmitt hoped to win a lucrative contract by showing Hitler a prototype of the Messerschmitt Me 264 that was being designed to reach North America from Europe. On 8 July 1938, barely two years after the death of Germany's main strategic bombing advocate, Generalleutnant Walter Wever , and eight months after the Reich Air Ministry awarded
4200-420: Was founded. This event came along with the introduction of a command flag that was produced in different sizes, ranging from 200 to 30 cm (79 to 12 in). The flag consisted of bright red material on which was placed in the centre of the obverse a wreath of silver coloured laurel leaves. In the centre of the leaves was a black eagle. Suspended from the base of the wreath was a true-coloured representation of
4270-422: Was in charge of German aircraft production and supply. In the Milch Trial of 1947, a U.S. military court convicted Milch of war crimes and of crimes against humanity, sentencing him to life imprisonment. However, in 1951 John J. McCloy , the U. S. High Commissioner for Germany , commuted Milch's sentence to 15 years. Paroled in 1954, Milch died in 1972. Milch was born in Wilhelmshaven , the son of Anton Milch,
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#17327935039164340-418: Was instrumental in establishing the Luftwaffe , the air force of Nazi Germany. Milch quickly used his position to settle personal scores with other aviation industry personalities, including Hugo Junkers and Willy Messerschmitt . Specifically, Milch banned Messerschmitt from submitting a design in the competition for a new fighter aircraft for the Luftwaffe . Messerschmitt outmanoeuvred Milch, circumventing
4410-489: Was not one of the projects so favored. In addition, Allied bombing became so intense during the middle of the war that it disrupted critical German supply chains, particularly fuel; in addition, ever-greater proportions of resources were reserved for home defense purposes. German scientists were forced more and more to compete for ever scarcer resources. Together, all of the above political and strategic constraints made construction of such an aircraft increasingly less likely. It
4480-465: Was selected for production. A verified pair of the Ju 390 design were constructed before the program was abandoned. After World War II, several authors claimed that the second Ju 390 actually made a transatlantic flight, coming within 20 km (12 mi) of the northeast U.S. coast in early 1944, but this claim has since been discredited as Ju 390 V2 never flew. As both the Me 264 and He 277 were each intended to be four-engined bombers from their origins,
4550-444: Was taken against the Commando Brigadier. Milch was tried as a war criminal in 1947 by a United States Military Tribunal in Nuremberg . He was convicted on two counts: Milch was sentenced to life imprisonment . Unlike the vast majority of other Nazi war criminals who were tried under U.S. military law, Milch was not immediately sent to Landsberg Prison to serve his sentence. He was instead sent to Rebdorf Prison, near Munich , but
4620-412: Was then sent to a holding camp for Nazi prisoners at Lüneburg near the field HQ of British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery . A few days later Mills-Roberts went to the British HQ. On entering Monty's tent, the British Field Marshal is said to have covered his head with his hands, quipping "I hear you've got a thing about Field Marshals". Mills-Roberts apologised for his actions but no further action
4690-522: Was to increase the production of fighter aircraft , in part by moving the production facilities underground. In cooperation with the SS , the task force played a key role in the exploitation of slave labour for the benefit of the German aircraft industry and the Luftwaffe . When the agitation among the legions of foreign workers in his factories threatened production, Milch was able to refer to his association with Himmler I spoke to Himmler recently about this, and told him his main task must be to see to
4760-432: Was to requisition control of all patents and companies of Hugo Junkers , the German aeronautical engineer. These included all rights to the Junkers Ju 52 aircraft. Defence Minister General Werner von Blomberg decided that the importance of aviation was such that it should no longer be subordinate to the German Army ( Heer ). In May 1933 he transferred the army's Department of Military Aviation (the Luftschutzamt ), to
4830-508: Was undertaken to reduce duplication of effort between departments. The primary changes were to move the staffing and technical development organizations out of the LB, and make them full departments on their own. The result was a collection of six: Luftkommandoamt (LA), Allgemeines Luftamt (LB), Technisches Amt (LC, but more often referred to as the C-amt ) in charge of all research and development, but having no clear way of receiving and acting on requests from front-line combat personnel of
4900-419: Was unlikely that any damage caused to targets in North America, by the relatively small conventional bomb loads that could be delivered by such an ultra-long-range bomber, would be significant enough to justify the loss of such a bomber. Nazi Germany's nuclear programme was years behind the Allies, and did not include weapons in the form of aerial bombs, so it was unlikely that the Amerikabomber could have made
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