Martin Harlinghausen

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Martin Harlinghausen (born January 17, 1902 in Rheda , now Rheda-Wiedenbrück , † March 22, 1986 in Gütersloh ) was a German officer , member of the Condor Legion and most recently lieutenant general of the Bundeswehr Air Force .

Military background

The factory owner's son studied law for one semester in Göttingen and joined the Reichsmarine as a midshipman on April 1, 1923 , where he was promoted to lieutenant in the sea in 1927 . On October 1, 1933, he was given a command for pilot training. A year later he was promoted to captain and he began his work in the Reich Ministry of Aviation , where he was responsible for questions relating to aviation training.

Harlinghausen began his career as an active aviator with his participation as a volunteer with the Condor Legion . From December 1937 he was the commander of the sea pilots on Mallorca and achieved the rank of major until he left the Condor Legion in December 1938 .

The subsequent general staff training at the Air War School in Gatow opened up a wide range of possible uses. At the beginning of the Second World War , Harlinghausen was a major in the general staff and, since May 1940, chief of the staff of the X. Air Corps . Since April 1940 he took part in enemy flights again as an observer for Robert Kowalewski (head of the staff squadron of the corps command chain in the X. Air Corps). Among other things, he was used as a fighter pilot against ships of the British merchant and navy . In addition to military awards, he was then promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1941 . He was the respective first fighter pilot of the Air Force , which the Knight's Cross and Oak Leaves were awarded. In January 1941, until Major General Stefan Fröhlich arrived, he temporarily took over the role of " Pilot Africa " before he was appointed "Pilot Atlantic" in March. In January 1942 he took over the Kampfgeschwader 26 in Grosseto / Italy as a squadron commodore , which he transformed into the Luftwaffe's first torpedo squadron. A little later he was also appointed as "authorized representative for the air torpedo weapon". In March 1942, he moved to Norway with two groups from the squadron to take part in the attacks on the Allied northern convoys . After the Allied landings in North Africa in November 1942, he was recalled from there to take on the position of "Tunisia pilot leader". In December 1942, Harlinghausen was promoted to major general.

At the end of January 1943, Harlinghausen took over the 2nd Fliegerkorps in the Mediterranean. Serious losses of this association under his responsibility led to his removal from the management position on June 18, 1943, after which he received a subordinate position in Italy. It was not until September 1944 that his career continued with the takeover of the Luftgau Wiesbaden . In December 1944, Harlinghausen was promoted to lieutenant general. Shortly before the end of the war he was appointed in command of the Air Force Command West.

Captivity and reactivation

From the end of the war until September 1947, Harlinghausen was an American prisoner of war . He then worked as a businessman and later as a sales manager in the wood industry.

From August 1957, Harlinghausen helped to build the Bundeswehr's new air force . Until his departure on December 31, 1961, he was Lieutenant General in command of the Air Force Group North . At the end of 1961, Harlinghausen was put into temporary retirement by Minister Franz Josef Strauss at his own request , the reason was obviously a contradicting view of Harlinghausen about an accidental border crossing of the GDR with two Luftwaffe aircraft in September 1961.

Awards

literature

  • Georg Brütting: Those were the German fighter aces. Stuttgart 1975, pp. 111-132.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heiner Möllers: Totally lost. Air force jet fighter in West Berlin 1961. In: Military history - Journal for historical education , issue 2/2017, published by the Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr , ISSN  0940-4163 , pp. 10-13.
  2. ^ Jörg Nimmergut : German medals and decorations until 1945. Volume 4. Württemberg II - German Empire. Central Office for Scientific Order Studies, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-00-001396-2 , p. 2091
  3. ↑ Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 366.
  4. ^ Jörg Nimmergut: German medals and decorations until 1945. Volume 4. Württemberg II - German Empire. Central Office for Scientific Order Studies, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-00-001396-2 , p. 2441
personal data
SURNAME Harlinghausen, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Rheda
DATE OF DEATH March 22, 1986
Place of death Gutersloh