Helmuth Förster

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Helmuth Förster (born April 19, 1889 in Groß-Strehlitz ( Upper Silesia ), † April 7, 1965 in Lenggries ) was a German officer , most recently General of the Air Force Aviators in World War II .

Life

Promotions

Förster joined the Prussian army on September 23, 1907 and was initially employed there in the Railway Regiment 1 in Berlin until September 1910 . He then switched to the air force, where Förster was deployed from October 1910 to September 1913 at the pilot test command in Döberitz . From October 1, 1913 to August 1, 1914, he then served as an adjutant for the inspection of the air troops and, after the outbreak of World War I, as an officer for special use, or later as a pilot in Aviation Department 31 . From 1915 to 1916 Förster was employed by the head of field aviation staff, from where he moved to the general staff of the field army in 1916. He stayed there until 1917, but was transferred to the General Staff of the Commanding General of the Air Force this year. In this Förster remained after the end of the war until the end of March 1919. On March 31, 1919 he resigned from military service, being given the status of major.

Förster's reactivation as an Air Force officer took place on March 1, 1934 as an officer for special use at the Reich Ministry of Aviation . On April 1, 1934, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed chief of staff at the Höhere Luftamt in Königsberg . On April 1, 1935, this command was called Luftkreis-Kommando I , whose chief of staff, Förster, held until the end of July 1935.

1 August 1935 Forester was simultaneously promoted to colonel for Commodore in combat squadron 253 General Wever appointed whose function he held until 1937th In 1937 he was appointed commander of the Luftwaffe training troops; a task that he then completed by the end of January 1938. On February 1, 1938, Förster was promoted to major general and at the same time appointed commander of the Luftwaffe's teaching division. Shortly before the end of the attack on Poland , Förster transferred on October 1, 1939 as a general for special use to the General Inspector of the Air Force, Colonel General Erhard Milch , where he was employed by the latter's State Secretary. There Förster was appointed lieutenant general on January 1, 1940 . From April 16 to June 21, 1940 he then acted as Chief of Staff of Air Fleet 5 and, after the end of the campaign in the West, from June 22, 1940 to April 18, 1941, as head of the Luftwaffe group of the Franco-German Armistice Commission.

Following this, Förster acted as part of the Balkan campaign from April 19, while simultaneously being promoted to General der Flieger , until May 31, 1941 as military commander (of the air force) in Serbia . On June 3, 1941, he took over as commanding general of the I. Flieger-Korps , which he then led until August 23, 1942 as part of Army Group Center in the Eastern campaign . For this he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on February 22, 1942 . On August 24, 1942 he returned to the Reich Ministry of Aviation in Berlin as Chief of the Air Force, later renamed Chief of Aviation . Förster remained in this position until the end of the war. On May 9, 1945 he was taken prisoner by the Allies , from which he was released on June 30, 1947.

Awards

literature

  • Karl Friedrich Hildebrand: The Generals of the German Air Force 1935–1945, Part II, Volume 1: Abernetty – v.Gyldenfeldt , Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1990, ISBN 3-7648-1701-1 , pp. 305–306.
personal data
SURNAME Forester, Helmuth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently General der Flieger in World War II
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Groß-Strehlitz
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1965
Place of death Lenggries