Hermann Goering headed the German air force, or Luftwaffe, during World War II. A devoted follower of Adolf Hitler and a leader of Germany's National Socialist (Nazi) Party, Goering was second in the chain of command after Hitler and was the highest-ranking Nazi to stand trial before the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg Trials.

Born Hermann Wilhelm Goering in Bavaria in 1893, this son of a diplomat came from a wealthy, powerful family and grew up in castles. He was sent to officers' training school as a teen and excelled there. His first commission came as an infantry lieutenant in the Kaiser's army in 1912. During World War I, he became a fighter pilot in the German military's newly created division for airplane technology, the Luftwaffe (Air Weaponry), and was decorated several times as a daring but skilled aviator. But the Luftwaffe, and the rest of Germany's military strength...