Luxembourg The defeat of the Luftwaffe was total at all levels, in tandem with the final and utter military rout of Nazi Germany Its failure was exacerbated by Göring’s and Hitler’s personal idiosyncracies and interference, but it had much deeper structural causes The German air force failed to develop a strong bomber arm, leading to a fundamental imbalance that was never corrected; it fell behind in the “battle of the beams” and radar war; it worked on too many and too radical new designs even as it delayed full war production until it was too late to correct for the growing Allied lead; it lost control of training even as it received more fighters, with the end result that pilot wastage rose dramatically in 1944 See specific battles, and see also ace; airborne; Baedeker raids; bandit; blitz; Blitzkrieg; bombers; Coventry raid; Crete; Fernnachtjagd; fighters; Flak; Fliegerdivision; Fliegerkorps; float planes; Galland, Adolf; Gruppe; intruder raids; Jaeger; Jagdbomber; Jagdfl ieger; Jagdgeschwader; Jagdstaffel; Jagdverband; Kampfgeschwader; Kette; Knickebein; Kursk; Lorenz; Luftflotten; Luftgau; Luftgaukommandos; Malta; Nachtjagd; Pulk; Reichsverteidigung; Rotte; Schlacht; Schwarm; shuttle bombing; Sperrle, Hugo; squadron; strategic bombing; Student, Kurt; Stuka; Valhalla; Wilde Sau; X-Gerät; Y-Gerät; Zahme Sau; Zerstörergruppen Suggested Reading: M Cooper, The German Air Force: Anatomy of Failure (1981); John Killen, The Luftwaffe: A History (1967; 2003); Williamson Murray, Luftwaffe (1985); Richard Overy, Göring: The Iron Man (1984) LUFTWAFFE FIELD DIVISIONS Units of infantry formed from Luftwaffe ground personnel, of whom there were many due to the Luftwaffe’s independent control of air base defenses, anti-aircraft artillery, and prisoner of war camps The main reason for the odd choice to create Luftflotte infantry divisions was that Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring did not wish to surrender any authority over his men, despite the extraordinary need of the Wehrmacht for reinforcements and the poor performance of the Luftwaffe in homeland defense The new units were unusually poorly trained and ill-equipped, and proved not very battleworthy Casualties taken by “field divisions” were heavy, and the units often broke while in action LUMBERJACK (FEBRUARY 21–MARCH 7, 1945) See Germany, conquest of LUXEMBOURG This small neutral state of fewer than 300,000 people was marched through by German troops on May 10, 1940, as it had been also in 1914 It was annexed to Nazi Germany from 1942 to 1945 That made its citizens legally Germans, and its young males eligible for conscription by the Wehrmacht As a result, over 10,000 Luxembourgers were conscripted and nearly 3,000 were killed while wearing Feldgrau, either in combat or shot for desertion Almost all its nearly 4,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis Many Luxembourgers supported the anti-Nazi cause Some were active in local resistance; others served as volunteers in various Western Allied military units Luxembourg was occupied by American troops on September 10, 1944, as the Wehrmacht retreated without 689