2-611-976 - Keystone Archives/Heritage Images

Luftwaffe commander Hermann Göring visiting a flak battery, Berlin, World War II, 1943. A decorated World War I fighter ace who flew with Baron Manfred von Richthofen's squadron, Göring (1893-1946) (right) joined the Nazi party in 1922. The following year he was involved in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch alongside Adolf Hitler. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Göring became one of the new regime's leading figures. He commanded the Gestapo until 1934, when he handed its command over to Heinrich Himmler, and from 1935 onwards was commander of the Luftwaffe, the German air force. In the face of increasingly heavy Allied bombing of Germany's cities as the Second World War progressed, Göring's boasts of the capabilities of the Luftwaffe were listened to with increasing cynicism by the civilian population.