Blunders of WWII: Hitler's Luftwaffe

At the beginning of the war, the Luftwaffe was the most modern air force in  the world.  They had investing many resources, and because of the Treaty of Versailles, all of the planes were newly built and modern, rather than old relics.  However, they failed their country on several occasions.  The fist major failure was their inability to annihilate the British and Allies at Dunkirk.  Much of the expeditionary force was able to make it back to England.  During the Battle of Britain, again the Luftwaffe failed to control the Royal Air Force, and consequently the invasion of England could not take place.  The industrial machine of Germany was not on a war footing.  Consequently resources were often scarce, and shared with other branches of the military.  Even within the Luftwaffe there was competition for resources.  ground troops, including parachute and anti aircraft guns too at least ten percent of the resources.  Consequently there were never enough resources.  This was especially felt in Russia.  After the invasion of Russia, the German resources were spread more and more thinly.  And when the Russians pushed the Germans back, the Russian industrial complex was out of reach of German bombers.  A great lack of the Luftwaffe was a good long-range bomber as the relied on dive bombing.  This lack crippled them in the end.  Experienced air pilots also became more scarce.  German pilots flew sortie after sortie until they were shot down.  Replacements lacked resources for training.  Consequently, as the war continued, the German pilots had less experience and training.  This became even more acute after an Allied bomber attack on German fuel supplies.  There was not fuel to spare for training.
The one think which could have evened the field for the Luftwaffe was the development of the jet.  The Germans had developed jet planes, which could fly 100 mph faster than any planes on the allied side.  However, Hitler wanted these planes to be fighter bombers, which delayed production, and so they had hardly no effect on the war.

Great Blunders of WWII: The Pilot Who Bombed London

The first bombing of London was a mistake, but it would trigger policy on both sides which would result in the loss of millions of civilians.  At the beginning of the war, the mass bombing of cities was a great fear, and both sides avoided it, although they prepared for it.  The built air raid shelters, issued gas masks and prepared defenses.  The initial policies held that aircraft would only bomb military targets.
However the Nazis did bomb Warsaw, after the Poles declared that they would defend the city to the last.  The city was surrendered after all utilities were destroyed.  The British bombers, after finding their planes were more readily shot down during the day, began bombing at night.  Navigation issues lead to bombs missing military sites and causing civilian casualties.
Another Nazi attack against a city was that of Rotterdam in Holland.  This bombing took place after the surrender was too slow.
However, full scale bombing on both sides did not take place until after an accidental bombing in London.  Both sides had escalated bombing against targets closer and closer to population centers.
Early in August of 1940 that Luftwaffe was commanded to go after the British RAF.  This would take German planes over population centers.  Hitler ordered there there should be no terror bombing.  This was a period of intense air battles.  Germans had strength in numbers, while the British were closer to home and able to stay over the battle area longer.  The German's changed tactics by having bombers attack at night.  They were hoping to stretch the British air defenses.  However, the germans had problems with night navigation.  Some of the planes became confused.  At least one dropped its bombs anyway, hitting civilians in London.  Nine civilians were killed.
The British retaliated, and then things escalated from there.  Berlin was an immediate target for the RAF.  Before the end of the war there were fire bombings of major population centers.

Documentary Review: Battle of Britain: The Real Story (2010)

This is an incredible story about the Battle of Britain.  This battle is thought to have been a one-sided affair with Germany having many more aircraft.  However the English had control of the seas and the English Channel.  The battle wasn't as one sided as perhaps supposed.  At first the German air force attempted to attack the British navy from the air.  However there was enough resistance from fighters on the island to help Britain maintain control of the English Channel.  They would also launch attacks against the airports of the Luftwaffe, which kept some of them pinned down not attacking England.  They were made more effective by the use of a new technology, radar.  The attack then changed focus to the Royal Air Force an the radar installation.  Not enough credit was given by the Germans to the radar, and more attack there may have had an effect.  The attacks on the runways was very effective, although the airports remained in service.  A bit more concentration and the Royal Air Force may have been driven from the sky.  However, inadvertently a German plane accidentally dropped its bombs on London.  Winston Churchill ordered a retaliatory bombing of Moscow.  Hitler then lost focus, and the German air attacks began to focus on London civilian targets, rather than the air force.  This film contends however that the Luftwaffe was not very effective against the grass airfields in the first place.  It also contends that different methods of counting the number of planes in a squad.  the number of British planes was greatly underestimated.  As a result, the german airplane superiority began to ware down after repeated attacks.  They were not able to establish air superiority, and the invasion of England did not happen.