In their first joint exercise as part of the "Blue Wings 2020" initiative, pilots flew over the Fuerstenfeldbruck military airfield near Munich in remembrance of the terrorist attack which left 11 Israeli athletes and personnel, a German policeman and five Palestinian gunmen dead.

The attack was carried out by the Black September organisation, which was also responsible for the assassination of the Jordanian Prime Minister Wasfi Tal.

A gunfight erupted at the airfield after the attackers took members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage from the Athletes' Village on September 5, 1972.

Despite the attack, the Munich Games continued as planned despite opponents calling for the Olympics to be cancelled.

The jets also flew over the site of the Dachau concentration camp, infamous for holding 200,000 people, of which many were Jews, and where a total of 41,500 people were killed.

A relative of a camp survivor and German Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer took part in the ceremony.

Luftwaffe chief of staff Ingo Gerhartz said the programme was a sign of friendship.

He also said that Germany's history gave the nation the "task to resolutely fight anti-Semitism today", according to broadcaster BR24.