Fliegerführer Atlantik (German: Flyer Command Atlantic) was a World War II Luftwaffe naval air command for anti-maritime transport, anti-submarine, anti-surface fleet, close air support for the Kriegsmarine for operations in the Atlantic Ocean, maritime interdiction and maritime reconnaissance. The air command fought exclusively in the Battle of the Atlantic.
At the outbreak of the war in September 1939, the Luftwaffe had few specialised naval aviation units and aircraft. By 1940, the Wehrmacht occupied much of Western Europe and Scandinavia. The Kriegsmarine (Navy) and its commander-in-chief Erich Raeder saw this as an opportunity to destroy the sea communications of the United Kingdom, Germany's last significant opponent in Europe.
In February 1941, the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (OKL) was ordered by Adolf Hitler to form a naval air command to support the Kriegsmarine's U-boat operations in the Battle of the Atlantic. Commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring, agreed to the formation of the specialised naval command which remained under the operational control of the Luftwaffe and was subordinated to Luftflotte 3, commanded by Hugo Sperrle. The command had jurisdiction over all Luftwaffe operations in the Atlantic Ocean, English Channel and Irish Sea. The organisation's first commanding officer was Martin Harlinghausen.
The command flew in action and achieved considerable success in 1941. Prime Minister Winston Churchill referred to Fliegerführer Atlantik and its main weapon of war, the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor, as the "scourge of the Atlantic". At the close of the year British countermeasures tamed the threat from long-range German aircraft. As the battles in the Atlantic intensified in 1942 and 1943 the command made continuous demands for aircraft and crews. Busy in other theatres, the Luftwaffe could not afford to divert or create forces for Atlantic operations. Along with reconnaissance and anti-shipping operations, Fliegerführer Atlantik provided fighters for air superiority to cover U-boat transit routes in the Bay of Biscay against RAF Coastal Command.
By 1944 Fliegerführer Atlantik had ceased to be effective and in April it had been disbanded and merged into Fliegerkorps X (10th Flying Corps). Throughout its existence, Kampfgeschwader 40 was the command's main combat unit.
Background The Imperial German Navy () conducted aerial operations in the North Sea in World War I. The German Naval Air Corps () gained air superiority and proved effective in anti-shipping operations. Despite battling bravely in the war the navy, unlike the Imperial German Army, lacked a major victory. The Army's success in contrast could be traced back to the Napoleonic Wars and there was a tradition in learning from experience. When the Reichsmarine was instituted by the Weimar Government (1919–1933), German naval officers were conscious of their wartime record and their status as the junior service. All of this contributed to the reluctance to undertake an examination of naval air operations. By 1921 the Reichsmarine had not made much progress in building a new air service. It possessed only 15 pilots.
Inter-service rivalry also hampered the development of German naval air doctrine. The Navy was unwilling to cooperate too closely with the army in aerial manoeuvres. The former Luftstreitkräfte (Air Service) officers, now employed in the army, knew that the naval staff had been the main opponents of the creation of an independent air arm and viewed the German Admiralty with suspicion. The navy resented the Luftstreitkräfte men in turn for their control of production and development of aircraft during the war. The German naval staff remained angered by the army's unwillingness to support naval logistics and the development of naval aviation requirements. Commander-in-chief of the Reichsmarine Admiral Hans Zenker was also wary of the Reichstag's attitude toward the navy. In the 1920s the very need for a German fleet of any kind was in question. Zenker was certain that if cooperation with the army was too close, the navy might be placed under army command.
The Reichsmarine supported a small naval air program. Heinkel and Dornier Flugzeugwerke were contracted to produce seaplanes and naval aircraft. Ernst Heinkel's Heinkel He 1 and Claude Dornier's Dornier Wal were among the most effective seaplanes and flying boats of the 1920s. One advantage for the navy was the allowance of a large anti-aircraft force. The navy could use aircraft for towing and exercises which enabled it to conduct a more open program of aircraft development in contrast to the army. Zenker felt it unnecessary to join the army in clandestine development programs in Russia. In the early 1920s the navy spent one-sixth of what the army spent on aviation.
The Treaty of Versailles banned most aspects of aerial development in Germany. For all of its diligence the treaty did not prohibit naval exercises with aircraft. The loophole allowed for the development of aircraft in the naval sphere of influence. The Paris Treaty of 1926 restated the terms of the treaty in Versailles but relented over the issue of air defence. Germany would be permitted to develop air defence systems to guard against aerial aggression. Although this did not translate into permission to develop naval aircraft, by 1927 the Germans were initiating secret training and design programs at Warnemünde under the guise of Radio Experimental Command. A Coastal Air Section was created but masqueraded as a private enterprise. It was dissolved on 1 September 1929 in favour of using private firms. The Reichsmarine hired aircraft for fleet exercises from Luftdienst G.m.b.H which charged the navy 453 RM per hour for a contracted allowance of 3,000 flying hours per year. By 31 January 1931 naval air cadets were joining the navy in significant numbers and the first regulations on cooperation between naval and air units were published. The beginnings of a naval air arm had been created.
Göring and Raeder
When Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist party came to power in 1933 the work by the Reichsmarine and the Weimar Republic was reversed. Hitler appointed his close associate Hermann Göring, a Nazi supporter, ally of Hitler, World War I flying ace and the holder of the Orden Pour le Mérite, as National Kommissar for aviation. Former Deutsche Luft Hansa director Erhard Milch was appointed deputy. In April 1933 the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM – Reich Air Ministry) was established under Göring's direction. Göring decreed all military aviation belonged to the Luftwaffe, created in March 1933. It was to exist as an independent air force.
Göring's logic in having an independent air force was militarily prudent but the future Reichsmarschall saw the new Luftwaffe as a personal power base as well as a crucial war weapon and would not divide it with the navy. Göring's behaviour brought him into conflict with Großadmiral Erich Raeder, commander-in-chief of the navy—known as the Kriegsmarine from 1935. Göring loathed the navy and Raeder. In Göring's perception, Raeder and the navy represented the bourgeois clique of German society the National Socialist revolution had pledged to eliminate. During World War II their rivalry devolved into open hostility. Raeder did not oppose the independence of a German air force but wanted a naval air arm under naval control. If the Kriegsmarine was to be effective it required aerial striking power. The arguments over the control of naval aviation ended temporarily, until 1937, when the German Defence Ministry () stated naval aviation would be the domain of the Luftwaffe but specialised units would be placed under the operational control of the Kriegsmarine.
On 4 February 1937 Göring invited Raeder to a private conference with the aim of sidelining the proposals. At the meeting, held on 11 March, Raeder handed Göring a detailed memorandum asking for naval aviation to be seconded, permanently, to the navy as it was in the best position to understand naval–air requirements. Raeder found support from the commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht (German armed forces) Werner von Blomberg. Blomberg summarily confirmed the current proposals but the meeting did not completely resolve the question over which service should be responsible for aerial operations at sea, with aircraft carrier forces a future consideration. The naval staff recognised the defective proposal and complained again at the absence of a clear resolution. On 10 March a new conference was organised with Albert Kesselring, Oberkommando der Luftwaffe Chief of the General Staff and Göring on 1 April and 10 May without result. Göring perceived Blomberg's and Raeder's proposals as power-grabbing and he refused to commit air units to naval command during specific operations. Perhaps exasperated and defeated, Raeder noted on 20 May 1937, "Commander in Chief, Navy has decided that the demand of command by the Navy over all Naval Air units shall not be voiced." Raeder noted that Göring would probably never agree to dividing his service.
The Kriegsmarine—Luftwaffe dispute rumbled on through 1937 and 1938. Göring did not openly reject the claim of the navy on technical grounds, nor did he deny the importance of air power in sea warfare, which gave him plenty of latitude in discussions. Rather, Göring feigned willingness to cooperate, but only really did so in matters and ways that the Luftwaffe could profit from the operational research of the Kriegsmarine. Göring ordered the dismemberment of naval–air activities and organisations at his own discretion and according to his own plans. Göring was named Hitler's deputy for the Four Year Plan and he was now in a position to govern all policy concerning the allocation of aerial resources weakening the position of the navy. Final confirmation of how the air and sea arms were to interact was decided at a conference on 27 February 1939, and ratified by a memorandum drawn up by Karl Bodenschatz (adjutant to Göring) signed by Göring and Raeder. The former would retain all control over naval air units and operational control would be exercised by a Luftwaffe liaison officer assigned to the Kriegsmarine.
The regression of naval aviation continued. During the Spanish Civil War German aircraft—mainly Heinkel He 59 and Heinkel He 60s—sank 144 ships out of the 554 lost by the Republican forces. Before the fall of Barcelona in 1939, for example, German aircraft sank 30 ships and damaged scores more in the harbour. The success of anti-shipping operations did not spur naval aviation to a place of importance. Resembling the policies of Admiral Zemker, doctrine produced under Walter Wever's tenure as Chief of the General Staff (1933–1936) relegated naval concerns to fourth place on the list of priorities in the Conduct of the Air War in 1935—which remained unchanged. Nevertheless, much of the progress in naval aviation was initiated by the Luftwaffe, rather than the Kriegsmarine. General Hellmuth Felmy, commanding Luftlotte 2, set up a specialised naval aircraft corps in his command under the control of Hans Geisler—a naval aviator and former sailor. In the event of war, Felmy was responsible for conducting air operations against England in May 1939. Another naval airman, Joachim Coeler, was appointed Inspector of Naval Aviation. These men developed air-dropped torpedoes and naval mines which proved very successful from 1940. However, all attempts to produce a naval air arm were thwarted by Hitler's deputy and commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Göring.
World War II