In 1940 and '41, the Luftwaffe was the world's newest yet most experienced air force. Born in 1935 (albeit in clandestine training since the 1920s, in contravention of the Treaty of Versailles), it had fought in the Spanish Civil War against surprisingly advanced Soviet Polikarpovs, gone head to head in 1939 with an enraged and competent Polish air force, battled Frenchmen in Moranes and Dewoitines, and suffered its first defeat in the Battle of Britain, where it was beaten by inept leadership rather than any failings of its airmen.
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