Luftflotte 3
The 3rd Air Fleet ( Lfl. 3) was established on February 1, 1939 Air Force Air Force of the Armed Forces, which was used during the Second World War, mainly in Western Europe and lasted until September 1944.
History
The 3rd Air Fleet was on 1 February 1939 which a year earlier formed Air Force Command Group 3 under Hugo Sperrle out and had its headquarters until the beginning of the war in Munich. Then the new headquarters in the Hessian town of Bad Orb was purchased in September 1939, where the Air Force directed the missions during the war in the seat area southwest Germany. During the campaign in the west, the air fleet supported 3, the procedure of Army Group A through the Ardennes and contributed significantly to the success of the sickle cutting plan. After the end of the operations in France, she was, together with the 2nd Air Fleet the brunt of the Battle of Britain. As the latter was moved in preparation for the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 to the east, fell here the 3rd Air Fleet as the supreme headquarters of the Luftwaffe in the west and took over the responsibility for Northeast France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Here she was responsible for air defense and the continuing operations on a reduced scale attacks on England (including Baedeker Blitz 1942 companies Capricorn 1944) responsible. The headquarters were in Paris. The Allied landings in Normandy in June 1944, made the air fleet already significantly weakened; of approximately 900 aircraft were only about 500 ready to use. Sperrle commander was relieved of his post in August 1944 after the defeat in France, a month later, the Air Force was disbanded and formed in its place in Mannheim- Sandhofen the Air Force Command West.