What happens when an air force loses the ability to gain and maintain air superiority? How might an energetic and resourceful air force leadership deal with this situation? As the United States prepares to face twenty-first-century adversaries, it is extremely unlikely that it will encounter an air force able to match the US Air Force in terms of technology, training, numbers, and combat power. However, the United States may well have to deal with opponents who employ asymmetric strategies in an attempt to wage a “poor man's air war.”
A study of the Luftwaffe's efforts to cope with the loss of daylight air superiority in 1944–45 is of more than historical interest. It serves as a case study of how a military organization, faced with neutralization of most of its weaponry and the increasing irrelevance of its doctrine, may attempt to prolong its useful life. Since the United States may encounter such an adversary in the future, an examination of how a past foe coped with this state of affairs may enlighten contemporary air and space planners.
When the Anglo-American bomber offensive began seriously to threaten Germany's control of its airspace, the Luftwaffe leadership responded energetically. Gen Günther Korten, chief of the Luftwaffe General Staff, set to the task of creating “an umbrella of fighter aircraft over the Reich.” Korten belonged to a “defensive clique” that included Col Adolf Galland—the inspector general of fighters—and Field Marshal Erhard Milch—the chief of air armament. Korten beefed up the homeland air-defense organization, finally creating Air Fleet Reich—equivalent to a numbered air force—which centralized all flak, fighter, and command-and-control functions. At the same time, and in keeping with basic Luftwaffe doctrine, Korten's reforms also called for strong bomber forces in both the eastern and western theaters in order to permit the Luftwaffe to carry out strategic operations.1 Even so, Korten's program brought about an increase in the strength and efficacy of Germany's air defenses.
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