L'aviation allemande: 1919-1939

The interwar period was an exciting time, but largely unknown in the history of German aviation. Signed in June 1919 and enacted in January 1920, the Treaty of Versailles included many provisions to limit the rearmament of defeated Germany. Thus, it was no longer entitled to tanks, artillery and military aviation, resulting in the dissolution of the Luftstreitkräften. This prohibition did not choke its aeronautics industry, bypassing the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles by building such aircraft in other countries.

For pilot training and testing of their equipment, Germany could count on the secret aviation school Lipetsk, in 1920, which allowed the Weimar Republic to keep their aeronautical expertise without France and the UK knowing. The Lipetsk school closed in September 1933, a few months after the arrival of the Nazis to power in Germany.

In 1935, the Third Reich again acquired an air force: The Luftwaffe, which will become in 1939, on the eve of World War II, the most powerful air force in the western world.

It is this history that historian Jacques Pernet, a specialist in German and American aviation, and journalist Jean-Charles Stasi tell in this book, richly illustrated with numerous period photography and color profiles of aircraft.