Commander of the aviators
Commander of the airmen was an official position at the level of the army within the Air Force of the German Army during the First World War .
Staff officer of the aviators
With the rapidly growing importance of the air force after the outbreak of the war, initially primarily for reconnaissance and artillery fire control , effective management and coordination of the flying units in the individual front sections became necessary. Therefore, from October 1914 on, were initially inconsistent and provisional army high command called (AOK) "staff officers of the flyers (Stofl)", usually with the rank of captain or major , set up to advise the army commander to discuss cooperation between ground troops, command posts and Ensure aviators. After a "Chief of Field Aviation " was finally appointed in March 1915 by the highest cabinet order to lead the field airmen and field pilots, who reported directly to the Quartermaster General and was supposed to standardize and improve the organization and training of the aviators, the so far provisional "Stofl" were confirmed and systematically used by all AOK. They were also given the authority to command the army air parks, which were now separated from the stage organization and instead subordinated to the AOK, and thus the authority and ability to logistically control the aviation departments in their area of responsibility.
Commander of the aviators
In the course of the first years of the war it became clear that the rapidly increasing importance of the air force required a better organizational and command structure. In October 1916, at the instigation of the new Supreme Army Command (OHL) under Hindenburg and Ludendorff, an imperial cabinet order was issued, with which a “Commanding General of the Air Force” (“ Kogenluft ”) was created, who was directly subordinate to the Chief of the General Staff ; Kogenluft became Lieutenant General Ernst von Hoeppner . Lieutenant Colonel i. G. Hermann von der Lieth-Thomsen , the previous chief of field aviation, whose office was created in March 1915, became chief of the general staff of the Kogenluft. On November 29, 1916, the previous "Stofl" were appointed "Commanders of the Aviators" ("Kofl") by the AOK and given the authority over all aviation associations of the respective army.
Squad leader of the aviators
At focal points of the front, where the general commandos of the army corps were subordinate to a large number of aviation units, these were combined in groups of 6 to 8 departments and subordinated to a newly created "group leader of the aviators" ("Grufl") as weapons superior, whose task it was To lead scouts, fighters and artillery pilots uniformly. The “group leaders of the fliers” were subordinate to the respective “commanders of the fliers”.
number
In April there were 17 commanders of the aviators and 9 squad leaders of the aviators. At the end of 1917 their number had grown to 20 "Kofl" and 12 "Grufl". In March 1918, at the beginning of the last major German offensive, there were 20 "Kofl" (numbered from I to XX) and 16 "Grufl" (numbered from 1 to 16), and in August 1918 there were 20 "Kofl" and 20 " Grufl ".
Notes and individual references
- ↑ On November 20, 1916, the term “air forces” was officially introduced as an independent part of the field army.
literature
- Georg Paul Neumann: The entire German air force in the 1st World War. Ernst Springer, Berlin, 1920 (reprint: Europäische Hochschulverlag, Bremen, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86741-672-6 )
- Horst Borlinghaus: manual and catalog of the German air force in the 1st World War 1914-1918. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Deutsche Feldpost 1914–1918 eV, Julich, 2000.