After Hoffmann overthrew Goering and concurrently served as the commander-in-chief of the Air Force, the basic organizational structure of the Luftwaffe was drastically adjusted, and the Air Force Command, like the naval and army commands, absorbed its responsibilities by the Supreme Command, and the functions of the Air Force General Staff and the former Aviation Department were merged to undertake specific military orders and military and political affairs, but the production and research and development functions were handed over to the Ministry of Armaments. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 info in general is a large number of streamlined institutions and staff, especially a significant reduction in administrative staff.

At the same time, Hoffman also cut off Goering's style of reaching out in all directions during his reign, and all the air force armored brigades and air force field divisions were delegated to the army after the transition period, and the supporting guard forces were also greatly reduced, and these few moves alone cleared more than 500,000 redundant personnel for the air force. When Hoffman took over, the total number of air forces was nearly 2 million, but there were only more than 8,000 combat aircraft, and an average of 250 people were needed for one aircraft; In less than two years, the number of front-line combat aircraft has exceeded 20,000, but the total number has dropped to more than 1.2 million, almost 60 people on one plane, and if you count the more than 3,000 active aircraft and nearly 100,000 people diverted to the Navy, this number is almost 55 people on one plane.

Although Hoffman believes that this number is relatively high, at the end of World War II, the US Army Aviation was almost 1 aircraft with more than 40 people, and the US Army also had a large number of heavy bombers that required many officers and soldiers, if calculated according to this establishment, it would be more reasonable for Germany to adjust the Air Force establishment to 30,000 aircraft / 1.4 million personnel at the end of 1944.

However, he also took into account that the US military did not have a strong ground air defense needs, and that the army and aviation units of the European and American forces stationed in Europe had received help from the British side, so he appropriately relaxed the requirements, and the target for Yeshunek was 30,000 planes per 1.5 million people (excluding the diversion of the naval aviation part). Of course, in view of the relatively smooth development of the current war situation, he believes that there may not be a need to deploy so many more troops, but the air force is still steadily advancing according to this requirement.

The air force and the aviation military region to which it belongs are the basic campaign units of the air force, and the general or lieutenant general is generally appointed as the commander of the air force, which is equivalent to the level of an army group army, while the commander in charge of several air forces is usually held by the rank of general or marshal, and the status is equivalent to the commander of an army group group. Similar to the rhythm of the Army's withdrawal and expansion of divisions, the Air Force also abolished the establishment of the Air Force and changed it to an air force directly under the jurisdiction of several air force wings, so that the Air Force Wing changed from the original regiment-level organization to a division-level combat force.

In addition to the air force wing, the aviation military districts under the jurisdiction of the aviation also include airfield combat units (communications and antiaircraft artillery), airfield support units (supply, logistics, maintenance), and so on. According to its importance and geographical allocation, an air force has several air force wings, including bomber wing (KG), fighter wing (JG), night fighter wing (NJG), transport wing (CG), which was originally further subdivided into destroyer wing (ZG), teaching wing (LG), etc., but with the increase in the size of the air force wing, these functions have been absorbed one after another. The rest of the air corps are no longer in separate columns, but have a teaching group in each combat wing.

As a result of this readjustment, the Air Force Wing has basically realized the "May Fourth Unit System": That is, each Air Force Wing has four combat groups and one teaching group under its jurisdiction, and each squadron has four squadrons under its jurisdiction, and each squadron has four squadrons, each of which is composed of three or four planes -- four fighters are divided into two twin-plane structures; Heavy bombers are also 4 units, but 4 in groups; Dive bombers and other attack aircraft were 3 in groups of 3.

Usually combat missions require at least squadrons (12-16 aircraft) to be carried out, usually a wing has about 270-400 aircraft when it is fully established (in addition to each squadron, the brigade headquarters and the wing headquarters each have some aircraft), so the wing commander is required to be a major general or even a lieutenant general. Of course, theory is theory, and practice is practice, and basically no wing can be fully staffed, and if it can reach 90 percent, it will be regarded as full, and more than 70 percent will be able to undertake combat missions, and only when it is less than 50 percent will it be considered to replenish it.

In particular, the teaching brigade of the air wing on the Western Front is lonely all year round, with only half or even one-third of its personnel -- because once the combat unit is damaged in battle, the wing commander thinks of transferring personnel from the teaching unit to fill the shortage. However, Germany's unique three-level teaching mechanism (after graduating from aviation school, he first entered the training aviation unit, then entered the Eastern Front Training Brigade, and finally joined the Western Front Teaching Brigade) made the additional personnel not novices, but relatively mature in terms of experience, and could be put into front-line combat as long as they were slightly adapted.

At this point, the Luftwaffe has the advantage, the initial training time of the US Army pilots is longer, up to 350-400 hours, much more than the 200-250 hours of training of the German counterparts, but the German new pilots have the novice village of the Eastern Front to practice, these novices with a training time of about 200 hours often go to the Red Army pilots with only 20-30 hours of training time under the leadership of the old bird, and wait for this group of German novices to get away with death after performing 150-200 hours of combat missions, the same about 400 hours of flight time, their combat experience and tactical skills have been tested in real combat, completely overpowering their American counterparts with the same 400 flight hours.

With the continuous expansion of the losses of the US army, the training time of the US army began to be compressed to about 300 hours, while the actual combat time of the German army on the front line reached 300-400 hours, which is equivalent to the 300 hours of the US army on the Western Front, and the novice pilots collided with all opponents with 500-600 hours of actual combat experience. The greater misfortune of the US Army Aviation was that it ran into the German Air Force -- air force personnel selected entirely from the elite units of the Eastern Front, and even the young pilots trained by the German Navy from scratch had to go to the Eastern Front to undergo the test of blood and fire.

Richthofen concluded: "1 hour of actual combat on the Eastern Front is equal to 10 hours of domestic training, equal to 5 hours of in-team drills and simulated air battles, those pilots with poor psychological quality, negligence, reckless impulsiveness, and wrong technical and tactical actions have been eliminated by the Russians in advance, this process is very cruel, but after passing is the pride of the sky that can really fight in the sky!" In a sense, we have to thank the Russians, who are conscientious, unreserved, and selfish examiners! ”

It was precisely by virtue of this strategic adjustment, the outbreak of the military industry, and the abundant supply of fuel that the Luftwaffe gradually reversed the decline of the stalemate stage and regained the shining brilliance of the Blitzkrieg. The size of the air force has also been expanded to 14, and the Air Force is preparing to establish a 15th air force (South America) in the near future as the air force in the South American direction continues to grow.

Hoffman quietly looked out the window, waiting for good news from the front, believing that the air force, which was now different, could win the Second Battle of Britain.

But the earliest good news came from Ribbentrop, who said on the phone in an excited and even somewhat excited voice: "Führer, Stalin can't hold on!" Early this morning, our special liaison officer in Bulgaria received a message from Boris III himself that the Russians had asked us to negotiate an armistice as soon as possible...... The mood is very urgent. ”

"Who are they sending?"

"Old friend Molotov, if you agree, he will be able to meet us in Sofia (the capital of Bulgaria) this evening, and of course we have to promise to guarantee his flight safety."

"Hang Stalin first, just say that you are negotiating with the British, you can't get out of the way for the time being, Mr. Molotov can go to Sofia first, and we guarantee his safety and freedom to come and go."

"Okay, I see, how many days are you going to delay?"

"Today is the 28th." Hoffman thought for a moment, "It is estimated that in a few days the war in Iceland will have a major result, and we will be able to eat more Red Army on the Eastern Front, and you can say that we will meet him in Bulgaria on the night of June 1......"

"Do the core conditions of the negotiations need to be changed?"

"The core conditions remain the same, the Bolsheviks must retreat to the east of the Urals, the army must be reduced to less than 2 million, and the Central Asian national regimes need to be independent." Hoffman smiled, "Of course, you can see other strategies, this kind of negotiation will not end for a while, we can see how sincere Stalin is." ”

"And the British?"

"The battle of Iceland will determine their final attitude, don't worry, Hess has to arrange the second line here, so that they can fight each other...... You've been in the champagne business, and you're better versed than me, aren't you? ”

If others dared to say the words "champagne seller" in front of Ribbentrop, he would have turned his face, but the Führer was obviously not among them - he repeatedly used the word "businessman" to describe the shrewdness of a big man, for example, the Japanese Navy Marshal Hori Tsukichi was very good at "doing business", and Ribbentrop regarded "being able to do business" as the Führer's best praise.

May 28 was destined to be the day of the German offensive on all fronts, in the offensive on the Eastern Front, the Guderian, Kleist, Hausser, Hote clusters and the Transcaucasian cluster that landed on the southern front launched a fierce counterattack, and the total number of troops invested in the offensive was as high as more than 1.5 million, and the Red Army was eaten 140,000 in one day, which not only forced Chernyakhovsky's troops in the Transcaucasia to accelerate the contraction, but also successfully ate most of the living forces of the 3rd, 24th, and 1st Guards armies in the encirclement. The Red Army shifted from an offensive on all fronts to a retreat on all fronts.

At the same time, on the British battlefield, more than 4,000 German planes carried out more than 8,000 air raid missions, destroyed 37 military airfields and ancillary facilities in northern Britain and Northern Ireland at the cost of 421 aircraft, and shot down and destroyed more than 600 British planes (some of which were destroyed on the ground), plus the loss of British planes carrying out the bombing mission of the Icelandic fleet could not return home, the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy lost nearly 1,000 planes in one day. What's even more troublesome is that after losing so many planes and facilities, they will not be able to organize an offensive force of 2,000 aircraft on the 29th......