Alfred Bülowius

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Colonel Alfred Bülowius.

Alfred Bülowius (born January 14, 1892 in Königsberg , † August 9, 1968 in Detmold ) was a German officer , most recently General of the Air Force Aviators in World War II .

Military biography

Early years and World War I

On January 23, 1911, Bülowius joined the Infantry Regiment "von Boyen" No. 41 of the Prussian Army as a flag boy . With the regiment he took part in the fighting on the Eastern Front during the First World War until 1916 as a company officer , later a company commander and regimental adjutant . He wrote a book about these experiences together with his regimental comrade and later Major General Bruno Hippler . In 1916 he switched to the air force and trained as a pilot . Until 1918 he flew as a squadron leader in the bomb squadron of the Supreme Army Command No. 3. The last months of the war and beyond until 1919 he was deployed in the Grauert squadron .

Promotions

Interwar years

In the spring of 1919, Bülowius came to a squadron of the Grenzschutzkommando Nord in Bartenstein , where he stayed until October of the same year. On January 1, 1920, Bülowius resigned from military service and on February 1, 1920 joined the police . In this he served until the end of August 1922 with the East Prussia Police Fliegerstaffel near Königsberg and later with the East Prussia air surveillance department. On August 31, 1922, Bülowius resigned from the police and from April 1, 1925 was employed as a civilian employee until the end of April 1934 as an air protection officer at the staff of the military district command I in Königsberg and then until the end of August 1934 as an officer at the Higher Aviation Office. On September 1, 1934, Bülowius joined the Luftwaffe , which was under construction , where he worked as a consultant in the Reich Aviation Ministry (RLM) in Berlin until 1935 . In the same year he switched to the Merseburg Air Force as a squadron captain , where he remained until 1936. In that year he was assigned to Kampfgeschwader 253 "General Wever", where he acted as group commander until 1937. Then Bülowius was commander of the combat flying school in Tutow until November 16, 1939 .

Second World War

The following day, Bülowius was appointed commodore of Lehrgeschwader 1 , which he commanded in the western campaign . In this capacity he was shot down over France at the beginning of June 1940 and wounded into French captivity . On June 21, 1940, Bülowius returned to Germany and was in a hospital until October 1940 . After his recovery, he was appointed Higher Aviation Training Commander 7 . On January 15, 1941, he was appointed Higher Commander of the Combat and Dive Flight School in Prague . On the eastern front drafted, Bülowius took over on August 2, 1942 as commander of the battle group Nord in the Air Force Command Don .

On November 1, 1942, Bülowius was appointed commander of the 1st Flieger Division . This he commanded until June 25, 1943 in the central section of the Eastern Front in the greater Dugino area , later Orel . On June 26, 1943, Bülowius was appointed commanding general of the II. Air Corps , which was deployed under his command until the end of June 1944 in the Italian theater of war and, after the Allied landing in Normandy, in the invasion area. It was just an organizational staff that prepared army support in Compiègne and did not command its own fighter-bomber units. On July 1, 1944, Bülowius was appointed commanding general of the II. Hunting Corps , which was deployed at other hot spots in northern France until mid-October 1944.

On October 15, 1944, Bülowius gave command of the corps to Major General Dietrich Peltz and was entrusted the following day with the management of business as commanding general and commander in Luftgau XVI Dresden until January 21, 1945. In addition, from January 22 to February 3, 1945, he was briefly charged with taking on the business of Commanding General and Commander in Luftgau XV in Prague. During this time, Bülowius did not coordinate with the army units in his area and acted “autocratically”, as historians later discovered. He was thus a major player in the heavy air raids on Dresden on 13/14. February 1945, because the city was his area of ​​responsibility. For example, the Luftwaffe's flak batteries acted at their own discretion, ignoring orders from the Army. After the attacks, he quickly left the city.

After the dissolution of this office, Bülowius was temporarily in the Führerreserve until February 21, 1945 and was appointed commanding general and commander of the Dresden staff of Luftgau Command III on February 22, 1945 ; a function that was dissolved in April 1945. During the last weeks of the war, Bülowius acted as commander of the Wehrmacht order troops in Tyrol until May 8, 1945 , where he was taken prisoner by the Allies, from which he was released on June 4, 1947.

Awards

literature

  • Karl Friedrich Hildebrand: The Generals of the German Air Force 1935-1945. Volume 1: Abernetty – v.Gyldenfeldt. Biblio Publishing House. Osnabrück 1990. ISBN 3-7648-1701-1 . Pp. 129-130.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bruno Hippler, Alfred Bülowius: The Infantry Regiment v. Boyen (5th East Prussian) No. 41 in World War 1914–1918. Based on the official war files, contributions from war participants and personal memories. Gerhard Stalling Publishing House. Oldenburg / Oldenburg 1929. in: memorial sheets of German regiments. The sequence of texts, vol. 262
  2. ↑ Horst Boog , Gerhard Krebs, Detlef Vogel: The German Reich on the Defensive - Strategic Air War in Europe, War in the West and in East Asia 1943 to 1944/45. German publishing company. Stuttgart 2001. p. 290.
  3. ^ Rolf-Dieter Müller : The military importance of Dresden in the spring of 1945 and the effects of the Allied air raids. In: Rolf-Dieter Müller, Nicole Schönherr, Thomas Widera (eds.): The destruction of Dresden February 13th to 15th, 1945. Expert opinion and results of the Dresden Historical Commission to determine the number of victims. V&R Unipress. Göttingen 2010. ISBN 978-3-89971-773-0 . Pp. 75–101, here: 78.
  4. ↑ a b Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 251.
personal data
SURNAME Bülowius, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently General der Flieger in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Königsberg (Prussia)
DATE OF DEATH August 9, 1968
Place of death Detmold