Walter Hagen (pilot)

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Walter Hagen (born March 16, 1897 in Kiel ; † November 24, 1963 there ) was an officer in the Wehrmacht Air Force in World War II and holder of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross .

First World War

During the First World War came Hagen in 1915 as a volunteer in the German army and served initially in a Hussar - Regiment was in 1917 but then for the first Seefliegerabteilung in Jabbeke , Flanders added.

Between the wars

After the war he became a test pilot at the Junkers company and then at the Travemünde test center of the Reich Association of the German Aviation Industry. At Heinkel he carried out the first catapult take-off of an aircraft from a ship in 1930, and a year later he took part in the Germany flight. In 1935 he joined the newly established air force with the rank of captain and got a post at the Reich Ministry of Aviation . Here he was promoted to major and was responsible for the formation of the II. Group of the carrier squadron 186 (II / 186 (T)), the squadron that was to be stationed on the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin , and then became its commander .

Second World War

With the II / 186 (T), a mixed group of fighters and dive bombers , Hagen took part in the attack on Poland . With the establishment of Group I / 186 (T) - the dive bomber group of the carrier squadron 186, while the II / 186 became a pure fighter group - on September 10, 1939, Hagen became the commander of the new group on September 18. With the I / 186 he went into the French campaign and was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on July 21, 1940, representing the success of his group. On July 9, 1940, the I. Group of the carrier squadron 186 was renamed the III. Group of Sturzkampfgeschwader 1, and at the same time Walter Hagen became commodore of Sturzkampfgeschwader 1. The squadron was transferred to Trapani in the Mediterranean area as part of the X. Air Corps . From there, the dive squadron flew attacks on Malta and Tobruk as well as on sea targets. In June 1941 his squadron was finally relocated to the Eastern Front, where on February 17, 1942 he was awarded the Oak Leaves for the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. On March 30, 1943, Hagen handed over Sturzkampfgeschwader 1 to Lieutenant Colonel Gustav Preßler and was named Fliegerführer Balkan in the rank of Colonel , later renamed the 17th Fliegerdivision. He held this command until the end of the war. On July 1, 1944, Hagen was promoted to major general.

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Henry L. deZeng IV, Douglas G. Stankey: Air Force Officer Career Summaries, Section G K. (PDF) (No longer available online.) 2016, pp. 169–170 , archived from the original on December 22, 2016 ; accessed on February 3, 2017 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ww2.dk
  2. ↑ 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. 360.
personal data
SURNAME Hagen, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pilot and major general
DATE OF BIRTH March 16, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiel
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 1963
Place of death Kiel