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Battle of Britain prelude: the birth of the Luftwaffe

By 1924, there were only two airlines left in Germany. Over thirty had existed at the end of the First World War.

On March 29th 1926, a man named Erhard Milch addressed the press to announce the upcoming commencement of fights of a new national German Airline.

The German government, the Weimar Republic, had forced Milch’s old airline - Junkers Luftverkehr - to merge with another - Deutscher Aero Lloyd, making Milch a board member of the new company.

The airline was named Deutsche Luft Hansa.

By September of 1926, Milch had become chief executive officer of Lufthansa.

Milch would become a key figure in the new German air force. He is seen above in the cockpit of a Udet U-11 “Kondor”. Ernst Udet, another piece in the story, is up next..