Rudolf Kleine (pilot)

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Rudolf Kleine

Rudolf Small (* 28. August 1886 in Minden , † 12 December 1917 on Ypres ) was a Prussian officer , most recently captain and commander of the Combat Squadron 3 in the First World War .

Life

Kleine was the son of a Prussian colonel.

After his education in the cadet corps , he joined the 5th Rhenish Infantry Regiment No. 65 of the Prussian Army on June 14, 1905 as a lieutenant and served there as a battalion adjutant for three years from 1910. This was followed by his command to the Flieger Battalion No. 3, where he completed his pilot training and received the military pilot badge in July 1914 . This was followed by command of the War Academy for further training . Due to the beginning of the First World War, however, Kleine had to drop out of the academy and on August 2, 1914, joined Feldflieger -teilung 9 as a pilot.

There he flew several times in the first days of the war reconnaissance for the attack on Liege . Promoted to first lieutenant in October 1914 , Kleine was wounded in the left forearm by a bone shot in the same month during a dogfight. After two months he was fit for duty again. Promoted to captain on July 24, 1915, he was transferred as a squadron leader to Kampfgeschwader 1, the so-called "carrier pigeon departments Ostend", in mid-December. In the coming months he carried out several bomb flights in this role. Appointed leader of Feldflieger -teilung 53 at the end of August 1916, Kleine was again mainly involved in reconnaissance. Through his reports in the spring of 1917, the imminent major offensive by the French in Champagne was recognized at an early stage and the Supreme Army Command was able to initiate appropriate countermeasures. For this, Kleine was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Royal House Order of Hohenzollern with Swords.

Sign of the Kleineweg in Berlin-Tempelhof

For a few months, Kleine worked as a group leader of the aviators at the General Command of the VII Reserve Corps and was appointed commander of Kampfgeschwader 3 of the Supreme Army Command on June 23, 1917 , the so-called "England Squadron". He bombed the British capital London several times . a. from September 24 to October 2, 1917 in six consecutive night raids. By AKO on October 4, 1917, Wilhelm II then awarded him the highest Prussian valor award, the order Pour le Mérite .

During a mission over Ypres on December 12, 1917, Kleine was shot down and died.

In the “ Fliegerviertel ” in Berlin-Tempelhof , the “Kleineweg” was named after him in 1936 and still bears his name today.

literature

  • Hanns Möller: History of the knights of the order pour le mérite in the world war. Volume I: A-L. Verlag Bernard & Graefe, Berlin 1935, pp. 575-576.
  • Karl-Friedrich Hildebrand, Christian Zweng: The knights of the order Pour le Mérite of the First World War. Volume 2: HO. Biblio Verlag, Bissendorf 2003, ISBN 3-7648-2516-2 , pp. 213-214.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Supf , Georg Brütting : The book of German flight history: pre-war, wartime, post-war until 1932. Drei Brunnen Verlag. 1958. p. 410. books.google.de
  2. ^ Journal for Heereskunde , volumes 45–46, German Society for Heereskunde, 1981 books.google.de
  3. ^ Journal of the Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin Foundation and the Friends and Patrons of the DTMB e. V. , Volume 29 (53), Edition 1/2014. (PDF) p. 7.
  4. ↑ Kurt Neher, Karl Heinz Mende: Yearbook of the Air Force. Defense and Knowledge Publishing Company. 1966. p. 136. books.google.de
  5. ↑ Kleineweg. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
personal data
SURNAME Little one, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, fighter pilot in the First World War
DATE OF BIRTH August 28, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Minden
DATE OF DEATH December 12, 1917
Place of death Ypres