The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy

by Adam Tooze

Within four years the Luftwaffe was to reach a peacetime strength of 21,750 aircraft. This was the logical extension of the decision taken five months earlier to base Germany’s airfleet around a force of as many as 7,000 Ju 88 medium bombers. These were now to be flanked by over 800 heavy four-engined bombers (He 177) and swarms of long-range fighter escorts and Messerschmitt interceptors.10 The navy, for its part, launched a new fleet-building programme, designed to put Germany in a position to compete with the Royal Navy within six years.11 In December 1938, Hitler and Admiral Raeder agreed on a programme that gave first priority to the construction of 6 giant battleships, followed by a fleet of 249 U-boats and 8 cruisers for long-range operations. By 1948 the German navy was to include 797 vessels, at a total cost of 33 billion Reichsmarks over nine years.