Who was in charge of the German Luftwaffe during World War II?

Hermann Goering was in charge of the German Luftwaffe during World War II. His name is also commonly written Hermann Göring, with the umlaut omitted in the stored answer’s English spelling.

Göring was a World War I flying ace and later became one of Adolf Hitler’s closest political allies. When Nazi Germany rebuilt its air force in the 1930s, Hitler appointed Göring as its commander. The Luftwaffe was officially established in 1935 after Germany openly abandoned the military restrictions imposed by the Treaty of Versailles.

As Reichsmarschall, Göring held the highest military rank in Nazi Germany. He oversaw the Luftwaffe during the invasion of Poland, the campaigns in Western Europe, and the Battle of Britain in 1940. The Luftwaffe’s failure to defeat Britain’s Royal Air Force prevented Germany from gaining air superiority for a planned invasion.

Göring remained the nominal supreme commander until the final days of the Nazi regime. He was captured in 1945, convicted at the Nuremberg trials, and died by suicide shortly before his scheduled execution.