Franz Josef Walz

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Franz Josef Walz in the Jezreel plain

Franz Josef Walz (born December 4, 1885 in Speyer , † December 18, 1945 in Breslau ) was a German lieutenant general in World War II .

Life

Walz joined the 8th Infantry Regiment of the Bavarian Army in 1905 . In 1913 he began pilot training in Schleissheim .

When the First World War broke out in 1914, he came to Field Aviation Department 3b . In July 1916 he was wounded and transferred to field pilot replacement division 1 in Schleissheim. From November he was again deployed in various squadrons. After the death of Oswald Boelcke , Walz was squadron leader of Jagdstaffel 2 from November 29, 1916 to June 9, 1917 . At the end of August 1917, as a captain in Palestine, he became the commander of Fliegerabteilung 304b in the German Asia Corps . Captain Walz achieved seven aerial victories. On August 9, 1918, he received the order Pour le Mérite .

After the end of the war he served from December 1919 to January 1920 at the air base in Schleissheim. From 1920 to 1934 he was in the police service, most recently as a lieutenant colonel , interrupted by participating in the Sino-Swedish expedition 1927–1929 under the direction of Sven Hedin .

In 1934 he rejoined the Air Force . In 1935 he was promoted to colonel , in 1939 to major general and on April 1, 1941 to lieutenant general. His departure from the Wehrmacht took place on October 31, 1944. Walz died in 1945 as a prisoner of war in Poland .

literature

  • Harald Potempa: The Royal Bavarian Air Force 1914–1918. (Diss., Munich 1995). Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-631-30508-7 .
  • Sven Hedin: On a long journey: my expedition with Swedes, Germans and Chinese through the Gobi desert 1927-1928. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1929.
  • Sven Hedin: Riddle of the Gobi: the continuation of the great journey through Inner Asia in the years 1928-1930. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1931.
  • Hans Böhm: Financing the Central Asia expedition Sven Hedins: "The strictest secrecy is seen by all those involved as essential". In: Geography: Archives for Scientific Geography. Vol. 57 (2003), 1. pp. 40-54.

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