East German Air Force
The Air Force of the GDR National People's Army (German: "Luftstreitkräfte der Nationalen Volksarmee") was the Air Force of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). As with the Landstreitkräfte, the Volksmarine, and the Border troops, it was a military branch of the National People's Army (NPA).
The name Luftstreitkräfte applied originally to the air corps of the German Empire between 1910 and the end of World War I in 1918. However, the West German air force adopted the name Luftwaffe as used by the Third Reich air force from 1935 to the end of World War II.
At the end of November 1953, a reorganisation of air units saw air units transferred from the Ministry of the Interior directly to the Deputy Minister and Chief of the People's Police. The air regiments were reorganized into the Aero Club 1 (Cottbus), 2 (Drewitz) and 3 (Bautzen), which in turn were divided into two sections. Starting in 1954, additional Z-126 and M-1D from Czechoslovakian production were made available.
On 1 March 1956 the Air Force was officially established as part of the National People's Army, following the GDR's entry into the Warsaw Pact alliance. Initially the Air Force (LSK), with its headquarters at Cottbus, was separate from the Luftverteidigung (Air Defence, headquartered at Strausberg (Eggersdorf). It was intended to establish three fighter divisions, an attack aircraft division and an anti-aircraft division. However, eventually only the 1st and 3rd Aviation Divisions and the 1st Flak-Division were created. On 1 June 1957 there was a merger of the two administrations in Strausberg (Eggersdorf), and the new headquarters was renamed the Kommando LSK/LV.
Read more about East German Air Force: Insignia, Uniforms, Aircraft
Famous quotes containing the words east, german, air and/or force:
“My angel,—his name is Freedom,—
Choose him to be your king;
He shall cut pathways east and west,
And fend you with his wing.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The German language “speaks Being,” while all the others merely “speak of Being.””
—Martin Heidegger (1889–1976)
“I wonder whether mankind could not get along without all these names, which keep increasing every day, and hour, and moment; till at the last the very air will be full of them; and even in a great plain, men will be breathing each other’s breath, owing to the vast multitude of words they use, that consume all the air, just as lamp-burners do gas.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Only a fully trained Jedi knight with the Force as his ally will conquer Vader and his emperor. If you end your training now—if you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did—you will become an agent of evil.”
—Leigh Brackett (1915–1978)