The Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. 1 (archived PDF)

A I R W A R , 1939-41
approximately 1 , 2 0 0 aircraft. The Italian Air Force clearly had not
been prepared for the defensive war which it was forced to fight.
Although the efficiency of the force thereafter increased slightly
under the stimulus of its working partner, the German Air Force, the
Regia Aeronautica never exhibited sufficient power to be decisive in
the outcome of prolonged hostilities. The fundamental weakness of
the Italian Air Force was not in its theory of air power, which later
events proved to be essentially sound, but rather in its inability to
make proper application of that theory.“
The German Air Force
Germany possessed by far the most formidable air force of the three
totalitarian nations. Following World War I, German aviation had
been virtually abolished by the Treaty of Versailles. Determined to
rebuild their military aviation, however, the Germans found ways of
circumventing and then openly violating the terms of the Versailles
agreement.18 Since the treaty had not prohibited German manufac-
ture of commercial aircraft except for a brief period of six months, the
German aircraft industry soon began to revive. In 1922 and again in
1924limitations were placed on the number of civil aircraft which the
Germans might manufacture, and representatives of the allied nations
also laid down more specific rules defining the term “military aircraft”
as used in the Treaty of Versailles. These restrictions had little effect,
for German aircraft manufacturers promptly established subsidiary
companies in neutral countries, where the production of aircraft could
proceed without regard to limitations. Factories were built by Junkers
in Russia, Sweden, and Turkey, by Rohrback in Denmark, by Heinkel
in Sweden, and by Dornier in Italy and Switzerland. The lid was
officially removed in May 1926, when the Paris Air Agreement with-
drew all limitations on the number and size of commercial aircraft
which Germany might build, though the bans on military aviation and
on the subsidization of sporting aviation remained.lg
It was therefore under the guise of commercial aviation that the
German Air Force began its recovery. T h e German Republic estab-
lished a ministry of transport with an aviation department which had
authority over all civilian aeronautics. Headed by a former officer of
the German Air Force, the aviation department sought to promote the
growth of “civilian” airlines, the advancement of aeronautical science,
and the development of interest in aviation among the German people.
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