Ernst Udet was born in 1896 and died by suicide in 1941. He was one of the most famous German pilots of the First World War with 62 confirmed shootings, but also one of the highest commanders of the Luftwaffe at the beginning of World War II. Ernst Udet volunteered for Imperial Germany in 1914 - almost immediately after the outbreak of World War I. In 1915, he joined the aviation, where he flew as a pilot of observation machines until the end of that year, but during this service he showed considerable skills and personal courage. In March 1916, as a fighter pilot, he achieved his first aerial victory, which by the end of 1918 was joined by 61 more! During this conflict, he served in several fighter units, including Jasta 37 or Jasta 11. He is the second German fighter ace of the First World War in terms of the number of shots. In 1933, Ernst Udet joined the Nazi NSDAP, and two years later he joined the Luftwaffe, and a year later he joined the Technical Office of the German Ministry of Aviation (German: RLM). He significantly contributed to shaping the Luftwaffe as an air force focused primarily on supporting its own land forces. He was also a great supporter of the introduction of the Ju-87 Stukas machines to the line. As a result of the criticism that faced him after the German failures in the Battle of Britain and the problems of aviation on the Eastern Front, he committed suicide in November 1941.
The German air force was organized in 1913 under the name of die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches, to change its name to in 1916 Luftstreitkräfte. At the time of the outbreak of World War I, they played a decisively subordinate role to the ground forces and were, moreover, quite strictly subordinated to them. It is worth adding that each German infantry division included a reconnaissance company of 6 aircraft in August 1914. However, very quickly the German air force began to expand and play an increasingly important role over the battlefield. In 1918, they had a total of about 2,700 aircraft and about 240 other aircraft. This significant quantitative development was possible, among others, thanks to a strong industrial base and a well-developed aviation industry with such factories as: Albatros Flugzeugwerke, Fokker, Pfalz Flugzeugwerke or Siemens-Schukert. The German air force also introduced many successful aircraft in the years 1914-1918, including the great Fokker Dr.I or Gotha G.IV or GV fighter, but also such unusual designs as the Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI. The German air force was also able to undergo organizational changes during the Great War, as evidenced by the establishment of specialized fighter units (German: Jagdstaffeln) in 1916. Manfred von Richthofen, known as the red baron, was undoubtedly one of the greatest Luftstreitkräfte aces, but it is also worth remembering about such pilots as: Max Immelmann, Wilhelm Frank, Oswald Boelcke, Ernst Udet or later Luftwaffe commander Herman Göring.