Curt Pflugbeil

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Curt Pflugbeil (born May 9, 1890 in Hütten , † May 31, 1955 in Weende ) was a German aviator general in the Luftwaffe in World War II .

Life

Promotions

Early years and World War I

Pflugbeil joined the 10th Infantry Regiment No. 134 of the Saxon Army in Plauen on April 1, 1910 and was employed as a company officer in the 2nd Company after his promotion to lieutenant . With this, Pflugbeil was used at the outbreak of the First World War on the western front . As leader of the MG company in June 1915 at Givenchy-lès-la-Bassée on the Artois front, he was instrumental in repelling an attempted breakthrough by enemy forces. For this plow ax was by the Saxon King Friedrich August III. on July 21, 1915 entrusted with the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of St. Henry .

Pflugbeil switched to the air force at the end of 1915 and from December 15, 1915 to the end of January 1916 completed his training as a pilot in the pilot replacement department 10. After that, he was pilot in the combat squadron 24 until December 1916, later in the combat squadron 4 of the Supreme Army Command ( Kagohl 4 ). On December 19, 1916 he was appointed leader of Kampfstaffel 27. From January to June 20, 1917 he was then as a pilot in the Schutzstaffel 9. He then took over the leadership of Kampfstaffel 23 in Kampfgeschwader 4. On April 23, 1918, he was seriously injured when his plane crashed. After a hospital stay and subsequent home leave, Pflugbeil did not return to service until August 1, 1918, where he was assigned to Army Air Park 11. He stayed there after the end of the war until the demobilization of the flight park on January 13, 1919.

Interwar years

In January 1919 Pflugbeil came as a court officer in the Air Force Replacement Department 6, from which he left on February 11, 1919. After the Versailles Treaty and the resulting ban on military aviation in Germany, Pflugbeil was transferred back to his parent regiment and served there until the association was dissolved at the end of February 1919. He joined the Volunteer Border Regiment 1 as a machine-gun officer and was then in also worked in the Grenzjäger Regiment 4.

On September 5, 1920, Pflugbeil was taken over by the Reichswehr as first lieutenant and joined the Reichswehr Infantry Regiment 37 as a company officer . In January 1921 he moved to the 11th (Saxon) Infantry Regiment . There he was promoted to captain on April 1st and appointed chief of the 1st company. On October 1, 1926, he was transferred to the 11th (Prussian) Cavalry Regiment and was assigned to the staff of the 4th Division in Dresden until July 31, 1927 . Subsequently, he was assigned to the training staff for the military technology course.

On March 31, 1928, Pflugbeil retired from military service, and from April 1, 1928, disguised as a civilian, he was involved in building the secret air force in the Soviet Union , Sweden and Italy . In April 1931 he was reactivated and assigned to the staff of the 3rd Division in Berlin . From October 1931 to June 1933 he was in command of the 2nd (Prussian) Driving Department 2 in Altdamm . On June 30, 1933, Pflugbeil resigned from the army, again for camouflage reasons, and continued to work in the still secret air force until September 1933.

On October 1, 1933, he officially joined the Luftwaffe, which was being established . Until November 1933 he was an officer for special use in the Reich Ministry of Aviation , and later in the inspection of schools. From December 1933 to February 1934 he served as leader of the Lechfeld school's advance command . In March 1934 he was appointed director of the blind and high-altitude flight center of the German Aviation Weather Service , which was actually a camouflaged fighter pilot school. After the Luftwaffe was exposed, Pflugbeil was in command of the Lechfeld Great Fighting School from March to August 1935. In September 1935 he returned to the Reich Ministry of Aviation in Berlin, where he was appointed inspector of fighter pilots on October 1, 1935 . In this role, which he held until August 6 1939 he was also from April to September 1937 Acting Higher Commander of the Air Force demonstration units and from 4 July to 6 August 1934 representatives of the commander of the 4th Air Division General of Aviator Alfred Keller .

Second World War

In the course of general mobilization, Pflugbeil was appointed commander of the Luftgaustabes on August 7, 1939. b. V. 8 appointed. He was then from October 8, 1939 to June 23, 1940 commander of the Luftgau staff z. b. V. 16. On June 24, 1940 he became commanding general and commander in Luftgau Belgium - Northern France . On August 20, 1940, Pflugbeil was appointed commanding general of the IV Air Corps , which he led until September 3, 1943 , mainly on the Eastern Front . On September 4, 1943, Pflugbeil gave command of the corps to General der Flieger Rudolf Meister and was appointed chief, from summer 1944 then commander-in-chief of Luftflotte 1 . He held this position until April 17, 1945; thereafter he was named Commander of the Air Force Command Courland until the end of the war.

On May 8, 1945, Pflugbeil was taken prisoner by the Soviets and sentenced to 25 years of forced labor. In view of his poor health, as he suffered from bladder cancer , he was released early from prison on January 4, 1954 and returned to the Federal Republic of Germany.

Others

Johann Pflugbeil (1882–1951) officer and most recently Lieutenant General of the Army was the brother of Curt Pflugbeil.

Awards

literature

  • Dermot Bradley (ed.), Karl Friedrich Hildebrand: The Generals of the German Air Force 1935-1945. Part II, Volume 3: Odebrecht – Zoch. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1992, ISBN 3-7648-2207-4 , pp. 31-32.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Royal Saxon Military St. Heinrichs Order 1736-1918. An honor sheet of the Saxon Army. Wilhelm and Bertha von Baensch Foundation, Dresden 1937, p. 505.
  2. ↑ Leonid Reschin: General caught in the middle - Walter von Seydlitz in Soviet captivity and imprisonment from 1943 to 1955. Edition q, 1996, ISBN 3-86124-296-6 , p. 311.
  3. ↑ a b c d Ranking list of the German Reichsheeres , Ed .: Reichswehr Ministry , ES Mittler & Sohn , Berlin 1924, p. 156.
  4. ↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 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. 592.
personal data
SURNAME Plow ax, Curt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German aviator general in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Huts
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 1955
Place of death Turn