Johann Raithel

Johann Raithel (born March 11, 1897 in Munich , † January 29, 1961 in Harksheide ) was a German Lieutenant General in the Air Force in World War II .

Life

Raithel occurred on 15 August 1914 in the imperial army and served in World War I in the infantry . He later switched to the air force , where he also ended the war as a lieutenant . Then he was accepted into the Reichswehr and served in the 20th Infantry Regiment of the 7th Division . On April 1, 1925, he was promoted to lieutenant there . From October 1929 he began studying engineering, which he completed on April 28, 1934 with the title of graduate engineer . In the meantime he had been promoted to captain on April 1, 1931 .

On May 1, 1934, he moved from the army to the air force and took over as squadron captain of the 1st squadron of Fliegergruppe Döberitz, which was later renamed 1st squadron of Jagdgeschwader 132 (later Jagdgeschwader 2 "Richthofen" ). Here he was promoted to major on December 1, 1937 . Then he took over on July 1, 1936 the office of inspector of the fighter pilots , where he was promoted to lieutenant colonel on January 1, 1937 . After brief interim employment in the Reich Ministry of Aviation , he switched to the German embassy in Sofia in Bulgaria on May 1, 1938 as an air force attaché . After being promoted to colonel again on April 1, 1939 , he worked directly in the Reich Aviation Ministry from October 1, 1939.

On August 1, 1940, he took over the position of squadron commodore of Kampfgeschwader 77 . This squadron, which was equipped with twin-engine bombers of the type Dornier Do 17 and Junkers Ju 88 , was at the time in occupied northern France and was preparing for the Battle of Britain . In the following year, the squadron took part under Raithel's leadership in the German-Soviet War when it was subordinate to Luftflotte 1 in the northern section of the front.

After receiving the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on October 17, 1941 and promotion to major general on April 1, 1942 , he again moved to various positions in the Reich Aviation Ministry. He stayed there until June 15, 1944, before joining the staff of the Reich Luftflotte to take over liaison duties. From December 6th he was in the Flieger-Ersatz-Division, in which he became lieutenant general on January 1, 1945. From February 28, 1945 he was finally retired from the Air Force, fell into Allied captivity on May 12, 1945 and was released from there on May 12, 1947.

Web links

• Henry L. deZeng IV, Douglas G. Stankey: Air Force Officer Career Summaries, Section L – R. (PDF) 2017, pp. 596–597 , accessed on December 23, 2017 (English). 
• Biographical data and photo on valka.cz (Czech)