Heinz Cramer (General)

Heinz Cramer (born May 24, 1911 in Strasbourg , † September 5, 2003 in Hamburg ) was a German officer and pilot in the air force of the Wehrmacht and later in the air force of the German armed forces . He retired as brigadier general .

Life

Cramer joined the Infantry Regiment 21 of the Reichswehr in 1930 as an officer candidate . In 1934 he switched to the Air Force, which was still camouflaged , as a lieutenant . Here he went to the German Aviation School in Cottbus and later to the Aviation School in Celle-Wesendorf . In 1937 he was German champion in modern pentathlon . In February 1939, after being appointed captain , he took over the 9th squadron of Lehrgeschwader 1 as squadron captain . With this he took part in the attack on Poland and in the western campaign. On May 16, 1940, he was appointed group commander of Group II of this squadron. In the following Battle of Britain on September 17, 1940, he was on his Junkers Ju 88 A-1 with the squadron identification L1 + XC on the way to Worrington near Liverpool . A Spitfire shot him down, he had to make an emergency landing at Ladywell Barn, near Warminster, and was captured. On September 18, 1940, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross , he was already a British prisoner of war . From 1941 he spent his captivity in Canada , where he was promoted to major .

After the end of the war, Cramer was released in 1946/47 and began studying law at the University of Heidelberg . In 1956 he joined the German Air Force and studied at Air University near Montgomery in the USA. From 1957 to 1960 he worked as a department head in the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) of NATO . After he was promoted to colonel in 1960, he moved to the leadership academy of the Bundeswehr in Hamburg. There he was appointed Brigadier General in 1962 and from 1963 he was appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the Second Allied Tactical Air Force . After his release in 1966, he switched to the private sector as Director of Public Relations for Mobil Oil AG Germany . In 1974 he retired.

Web links

• Henry L. deZeng IV, Douglas G. Stankey: Air Force Officer Career Summaries, Sections A – F. (PDF) 2017, p. 517 , accessed on April 14, 2018 (English).