August Schmidt (General of the anti-aircraft artillery)

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August Schmidt (born February 1, 1883 in Hildesheim , † November 23, 1955 in Rotenburg in Hanover ) was a German officer , most recently general of the anti-aircraft cartillery in World War II .

Life

Schmidt joined the Mansfeld Field Artillery Regiment No. 75 on October 16, 1901 as an officer candidate . He was promoted to lieutenant on January 27, 1903 . As such, he was employed as a battery officer in his regiment. From February 1909 he was then employed as a battery officer in the 1st Hanoverian Field Artillery Regiment "von Scharnhorst" No. 10 . On January 27, 1911 he was promoted to first lieutenant .

With the beginning of the First World War he was transferred to Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 10 as a battery leader . In the fall of 1914 he was promoted to division leader in the Reserve Field Artillery Regiment No. 46 and on October 8, 1914 to captain . From the beginning of 1915 he switched to the staff service, where he was initially adjutant of the 91st Reserve Infantry Brigade. From autumn 1916 to summer 1918 he served as first general staff officer in the 28th Division from summer 1918 in the general staff of the X Reserve Corps .

After the end of the war, he was initially taken over by the Reichswehr and employed there in the Reichswehr Ministry. From March 1, 1922, he was on the staff of Group Command 1 in Berlin. On June 30, 1922, he retired from active service with the rank of major .

From 1922 to 1934 Schmidt worked in the private sector. From 1925 to 1933 he was a member of the board of the Raiffeisen Association. In the summer of 1934 he became an employee of the Reichswehr Ministry to work there as a senior director at the Reich Defense Committee.

On March 1, 1935, Schmidt was returned to active service as a colonel and continued to work in the Reichswehr Ministry, and from May 1935 on, the Reich Ministry of War. On April 1, 1936, he moved to the Air War Academy in Berlin-Gatow with subsequent official transfer to the Air Force . From April 1, 1937, he was then appointed higher commander of the flak cartillery in Königsberg and on November 1, 1937, he was appointed commanding general and commander of Luftgaus VI (Münster). He held this command until April 1945. On January 1, 1938, Schmidt was major general , on January 1, 1940, lieutenant general and on July 1, 1941, general of the anti-aircraft cartillery. On April 1, 1945 Schmidt became the commanding general of the Flak Corps z. b. V. After the surrender of the Wehrmacht , Schmidt fell into British captivity on May 8, 1945 .

After the war he was sentenced to life imprisonment as a war criminal by a British military tribunal in Hamburg in one of the aviation trials. In 1944 he passed on orders from the Wehrmacht High Command that captured Allied airmen could not be protected, but attacked, abused and killed by the population. The life sentence was reduced to ten years after his appeal. In November 1950 he was released early from prison for health reasons.

Awards

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (Ed.), Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand: The Generals of the German Air Force 1935-1945. Volume 3: OZ. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1992, ISBN 3-7648-2208-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ United Nations War Crimes Commission: Law reports of trials of war criminals . Volume XI-XV. William S. Hein & Co., Buffalo, New York 1997, ISBN 978-1-57588-403-5 , pp. 119 . Here on Google Books
  2. ↑ Aviator lynch murders in World War II Working group of the authors of the homepage www.flieger-lynchmorde.de, accessed on September 25, 2009 .
personal data
SURNAME Schmidt, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently general of the anti-aircraft artillery in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Hildesheim
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 1955
Place of death Rotenburg in Hanover