What happened to the Luftwaffe? | Aerial warfare on D-Day

The Wehrmacht had a joke about the Luftwaffe at Normandy: “if you see silver airplanes they’re American, if you see brown ones, they’re British, and if you don’t see any at all, they’re ours.”

The scene in "The Longest Day" summarizes the Luftwaffe's influence during D-Day.

Imagine being in a Panzer division without air cover. D day was a foregone conclusion. Unbelievable that German forces continued to fight.

Canada wrote off the cost of the BTAC to England in 1945 to the tune of 5$00 million 1945 dollars. Russia still owes Canada for retrofitting all their ships that showed up in Canada. $400 million in 1945 dollars. The first thing Canada did was raise $1billion for the UK in 1939, which was highly unpopular in Canada at the time. Canada never used any lend lease stuff. Canada passed and transported that equipment to all the Commonwealth. To the tune of another $4billion. Canada produced another $5 billion in war equipment, which it gave away. Elsie McGill produced 1800 Hurricanes, most were given to UK. Canada paid its way, fought with volunteers.

Goering also asked for postcards from British seaside towns but all he learned was how to say 'Kiss Me Quick' and 'Wish You Were Here'.

Amazing video as always, it's great to have seen all the planes at Duxford in this video in person!

I visited the Normandy area in 2000, and visited the church at St Mere-Iglais. They had a mannequin dressed as a paratrooper hanging off the church's spire. I hope it's still there.

Always interesting. Thank you IWM. 👍

Lord Beaverbrook "The Packhard Rolls-Royce engine is an example to the whole world. There was a very good American aeroplane called the Mustang. The engine of the Mustang was giving good service, but some genius had the idea of putting Rolls-Royce engines into the Mustangs, and the result is a very good aeroplane, one of the best in the world—some people will say the very best. That was the result of this project in America over which the Ministry had no supervision, although the contract was made here by the Minister." FLEET AIR ARM. HL Deb 27 January 1943 vol 125 cc794-829

Getting 1.1M men into France in just 30 days was amazing for those times. It took Russia 6 weeks to get 400,000 men into Berlin with 80,000 losses

An excellent production.

I remember a classic anecdote with one of Hitler's adjutants during one of their meetings. Hitler was annoyed because of a fly, so the adjutant was tasked of dispatching it. But being a funny man, he said that since it was flying, it was the responsibility of the Luftwaffe. Unfortunately, the mustache guy did not like the joke, and the adjutant was immediately sent to the Eastern Front

Rommel was already use to not having air superiority in Africa, so he knew that you don’t want to be moving troops and tanks 15/20m to the front. Normandy had plenty of locations that could hold tank battalions closer to the cost. Knocking the allies back into the sea prevents another landing until mid 1945, or having to funnel all troops through one beach. Once the allies had a secure beach the game was up.

These are are concise and information packed videos, slickly done. 👍

Looking forward to Duxfords D day show on Saturday!

very interesting topic

Excellent video. All I can add is “Bad management on the part of the Germans”. Thanks for posting the video. Been to the IWM at Elephant and Castle, a great visit. Cheers from Texas.

Love your work IWM.

Really well put together video. Informative and entertaining. Top effort.

As a Canadian, it's nice to see a production company that actually uses the Dominion Red Ensign, the Proper Canadian Flag of the day. Most haven't a clue what they are doing and use the current Canadian Maple Leaf Flag