Talking about the person "Richthofen", I believe that everyone's first impression must be the German ace pilot of World War I, the famous "Red Baron - Manfred von Richthofen."
However, in the position of Marshal of the German Army in World War II, there was also an Air Marshal named Richterhofen, but his full name was not Manfred von Richterhofen, but Wolfgang von Richterhofen, the cousin of the Red Baron and an ace pilot.
For Wolfgang von Richthofen, the greatest tragedy of his life was that he had to live under the aura of his cousin The Red Baron, but for the enemy, this Richterhofen may be more terrifying than his cousin the Red Baron.
(1) Pilots and scholars
Wolfgang von Richterhofen was born in Silesia, Germany in 1895 (hereinafter referred to as Richterhofen). Like most young Germans, Richterhofen grew up to serve in the German army and contribute to the War.d'Or.
At the time, the Air Force was a new branch of the army, and not many people were initially involved, and Richthofen initially joined the cavalry unit instead of the Air Force.
But soon, as the Red Baron's aerial record soared, Richterhofen gradually fell in love with the position of air pilot, so he constantly made requests to his superiors to transfer from cavalry to air force.
Eventually, after some twists and turns, Richterhofen finally entered the Air Force as he wished, and in April 1918 he entered the Air Wing under the command of his cousin Baron Red.
By the end of the war, Richthofen had achieved a record of shooting down 8 enemy aircraft, and according to the standard of shooting down 5 enemy aircraft at that time, even if it was an ace pilot, Richterhofen was also considered to have stepped into the ranks of ace pilots. Compared with his cousin The Red Baron's 80-plane shotdown, Richterhofen's achievements are less impressive.
After the end of World War I, according to the Treaty of Versailles, Germany was not allowed to have an air force, so the original Luftwaffe could only announce its dissolution.
However, since General Zecht, who was in charge of forming the Weimar Defense Force at the time, wanted to leave a little seed for the future German army, Richterhofen was able to continue to serve in the army and become a member of the "100,000 Wehrmacht".
Although fortunate to remain in the 100,000 Wehrmacht, Richterhofen did not want to be limited to the status of a soldier, so in 1920 he voluntarily applied for retirement and went to study at the Hannover Engineering University. Although Richterhofen returned to serve in the German army after graduating from university, he still did not give up his love of learning, and in 1929 he received a doctorate in engineering, becoming one of the most educated officers in the German army at that time.
So for Richterhofen, he always had two identities, one was a Luftwaffe commander and the other was a doctor of engineering.
(ii) Vultures over Spain
After the end of World War I, although the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany to have an air force, the German officers did not intend to be bound by this blank piece of paper, so Germany soon secretly rebuilt its own air force.
Soon after Richterhofen returned to the German army, he joined the secretly formed Luftwaffe, and in 1929, under the name of a study tour, he traveled to Italy to learn Italian air force theory and the practice of large formation combat command.
In Italy, Richterhofen not only learned Italian, but also learned how to deal with people, and Richthofen seemed to be a genius in this period, as long as it was something he wanted to do, there was nothing he could not do.
When Hitler came to power in 1933, the German army immediately expanded its armaments.
Two years later, Hitler announced that Germany had reorganized its own air force, and Hitler's deputy, Hermann Göring, had become commander-in-chief of the air force, and Richterhofen had a broader space for development.
When the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, Nazi Germany decided to send a reinforcement army to Spain in order to support the dictator Franco in controlling Spain.
At Hitler's suggestion, the Luftwaffe soon formed a "Condor Regiment" equipped with advanced fighters and bombers, with Speler, commander of the 5th Air Force Division, as the commander of the regiment, and Lieutenant Colonel Holler as the regimental chief of staff.
However, because Speler and Holler often clashed over different opinions, it was only two months before Lieutenant Colonel Holler was removed from his post and replaced by Richterhofen taking over the post of chief of staff of the Condor Corps.
For Speyler, Richthofen's sleek, conversational soldier was the right chief of staff, and Richthofen soon proved himself more than just a sleek chief of staff through his actual combat performance on the Spanish battlefield.
As early as the end of World War I, there was a discussion within the German Army about what role the Air Force would play in the future war, and the final result of the discussion was that the Air Force should act as a battlefield supporter and support the ground forces with strong air firepower.
Richterhofen was deeply influenced by this idea.
As soon as Richterhofen arrived in Spain, he immediately drew up plans for the Vulture Legion to turn from the area around Madrid to the north of Spain.
Under the intensive bombardment of the Condor Regiment, the Spanish Republic suffered heavy losses, and the brutality of the Luftwaffe was permanently nailed to the shame rack because of the famous painting "Guernica".
For Richterhofen, the Spanish battle was just a small test, and the next European war was the stage for his performance.
(iii) From Warsaw to Crete
Trained by the Spanish Civil War, by the eve of the Polish campaign, Richterhofen had become an Air Force commander proficient in Air Force ground support tactics.
At this time, Richthofen also developed his own set of war concepts, the core idea of which is "bombing", using heavy bombardment to open up offensive channels for ground troops, thereby ensuring the smooth execution of ground operations.
Thus we can see that before the outbreak of the Polish Campaign in 1939, Richterhofen, as the commander of the "Special Flying Command" of the 4th Air Force, deliberately sent a large number of ground liaison officers to the front-line troops in order to facilitate air support and effectively cooperate with the army operations.
On September 1, 1939, the Germans blitzed Poland, and the Luftwaffe, as the first strike force, crossed the Polish-German border first.
At that time, Richterhofen was responsible for commanding the dive bomber group to support the operations of the German 10th Army, and under the command of Richterhofen, the German dive bomber troops poured out and continuously attacked railway hubs, fortresses and front headquarters in Poland with bombs according to the coordinates and parameters given by the ground liaison.
After the fighters gained air supremacy in the Polish theater, Richterhofen even ordered the fighters to participate in the task of ground support, with one goal, that is, to bomb me desperately.
Under the heavy blows of Richterhofen, the Polish army was so overwhelmed that it was unable to stop the advance of the German ground troops.
On 27 September, the warsaw defenders surrendered, and four days later, Gdynia, the last Polish city, ceased confrontation and Poland fell.
In this battle, Richterhofen proved himself not only to be a strong air force ground support master, but also a cold-blooded soldier.
Under his command, the Luftwaffe carried out a fierce bombardment of the Polish capital Warsaw, blowing the city of Warsaw into ruins, in order to strengthen the bombing of the air force, Richterhofen even let the transport aircraft also load the bomb to attack, and when it reached the bombing area, it used a shovel to shovel the bomb out of the transport aircraft to increase the intensity of the air raid.
For such an enemy, the German soldiers on the front line may have to sigh that this guy is our own person, if Richterhofen is a British general or an American general, then the Losses of the German Army may far exceed the actual historical data.
Soon after, the Battle of France broke out, and Richterhofen was appointed commander of the German 8th Air Force.
In the Luftwaffe at the time, a large number of dive bombers were concentrated in the 8th Air Force, because the 8th Air Force would be mainly responsible for supporting ground forces, which happened to be the specialty of Richterhofen.
In the Battle of France, Richterhofen changed the previous tactic of concentrating bombing in Poland, but let the German bombers attack continuously in small groups, constantly putting pressure on the French army and restricting the mobility of the French artillery and tank units to cover the breakthrough of the ground troops.
At the same time, Richthofen kept a number of Squadrons of Stuka dive bombers on the airfield able to strike immediately, so that if the front-line infantry units encountered a troublesome target, the German bombers could attack immediately to support the infantry's movements.
On 21 May 1940, the Anglo-French forces launched a counterattack against the German armored spearheads in the Arras area, trying to cut off the German armored spearheads to avoid their own forces being encircled by the Germans.
After receiving information that the ground forces had encountered a Coalition counterattack, Richterhofen immediately ordered the dive bomber troops on the front line to attack immediately. The intensive bombardment of the Luftwaffe made the Allied counterattack pay a very heavy price. According to later statistics, a large number of Tanks of the Anglo-French Coalition Army were not destroyed by the German infantry, but by the Teeth and Claws of the Luftwaffe.
It can be said that the reason why the German army in the French campaign was able to win so easily was inseparable from the outstanding contribution of Richterhofen.
So after the end of the Battle of France, when Hitler wantonly ennobled the meritorious men, Hitler directly promoted Richterhofen's rank from major general to air general, crossing the rank of lieutenant general, which is rare in the entire history of the German army.
Subsequently, Richterhofen commanded the bomber forces non-stop in the Battle of Britain and the Balkan Campaign.
In the Battle of Britain, Richterhofen was the commander of bombers rather than fighters, so the defeat of the Luftwaffe in Britain did not affect his reputation;
In the Balkan Campaign in early 1941, the 8th Air Force under the command of Richterhofen once again showed its fangs - they completely smashed Yugoslavia's ground command system in just one day, leaving the Yugoslav millions of troops in a dilemma of fighting separately, so much so that the American author Chitino said in his book: "The punitive action laid the foundation for the victory of the Yugoslav campaign in the first 20 minutes." ”
After taking Yugoslavia, Richterhofen commanded his bomber forces to move to Greece, using aerial bombs to blow up the British troops who had just landed in Greece.
Richterhofen then commanded the Luftwaffe's bombing campaign against Crete, assisting german paratroopers in the capture of Crete.
Although German paratroopers suffered heavy losses in Crete, Richterhofen did an excellent job of completing the air raids on Crete.
In the process, Richterhofen also commanded dive bombers to blow up several capital ships of the British Royal Navy, including the battleship "War Weary" and the "Fearsome" aircraft carrier, which startled The Commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, Admiral Cunningham, and quickly ordered the lifting of the blockade of the sea near Crete, allowing German reinforcements and equipment to continuously support Crete by sea.
It can be said that Richthofen did many things that bomber commanders wanted to do in their lifetime, that is, to use bomber units to determine the victory of a ground battle.
While the British were still struggling with what to do with the Mediterranean war, Richterhofen's attention had turned to the East.
(iv) Outstanding Air Force Commander
On June 22, 1941, the German blitzkrieg against Poland, and the Soviet-German War officially broke out. At this time, although the 8th Air Force had just finished fighting in the Mediterranean, it had not yet had time to rest, but it joined the most critical task.
At that time, the 8th Air Force not only had 2 fighter wings, but also 4 bomber wings, which was the strongest German aviation force in the Soviet-German battlefield at that time, and they had only one task, that is, to assist the 3rd Tank Group and the 9th Army to break through the Soviet defenses.
And that happens to be Richterhofen's best play.
When the fighter forces seized air supremacy on the border, Richthofen immediately ordered his bomber units to take turns, causing great difficulties for the Soviets, and on June 24 alone, the company commanded by Richthofen destroyed 105 Soviet tanks.
With the strong support of Richthofen, the German ground combat forces could be described as making rapid progress, and by early August, the Germans had captured Smolensk, just one step away from Moscow.
After that, Richterhofen moved to the main battlefields of the Eastern Front, he was the one who paralyzed the Soviet Crimean Front in the Crimean Campaign, he was the one who blew up the Soviet front in Operation Blue, and he was the one who blew Stalingrad to ruins in the Battle of Stalingrad.
In his memoirs, Marshal Trikov of the Soviet Union complained more than once that the German Air Force had caused too much trouble to his troops, which showed the strength of Richterhofen.
It can be said that Richthofen's contribution to the Eastern Front battlefield is not worse than that of manstein, Kleist, Modell and other ground force commanders.
On 16 February 1943, Hitler officially awarded Richthofen the rank of Marshal in recognition of his military exploits and efforts to achieve final victory, and Richterhofen became the 4th Marshal of the Luftwaffe.
After that, Richthofen commanded his own air force to participate in the Kharkov Counterattack and the Kuban Air Battle, which effectively supported the operation of the ground forces, and Manstein regarded Richthofen as his golden partner, because as long as Richterhofen was present, Manstein's armored forces could always receive strong and powerful air support.
In his memoir, Lost Victory, How Manstein said of Richthofen:
"Its commander, Baron Richterhofen, was indeed one of our most prominent air generals in World War II. He often has extremely strict requirements for the units he commands, and he himself always personally supervises the important attacks they are supposed to make... I will always remember all the achievements of Baron Richterhofen and his Aviation Corps, and I deeply admire and thank him. ”
However, as British and American pressure on the Western Front increased, Richterhofen could no longer remain on the Eastern Front.
(5) Fighting on the Western Front
On June 12, 1943, on the eve of the Battle of Kursk, Richterhofen was transferred back from the Eastern Front by Hitler to Italy as commander of the 2nd Air Force.
Although Manstein desperately wanted to keep Richterhofen in the Eastern Front, the signs of the Allied landing in Italy were already very obvious, and the position of commander of the 2nd Air Force was long held by Marshal Kesselring, the commander-in-chief of the Southern Front, and Kesselring was too busy to come, so he needed Richthofen to go to Italy and take over the command of the 2nd Air Force.
When Richterhofen arrived in Italy, the British and American air forces, both in quality and quantity, far exceeded the exhausted 2nd Air Force at this time, so even a general like Richthofen could not save Italy.
In the most difficult times, Richterhofen even had to use 300 aircraft against 4,000 Allied fighters.
Under these circumstances, however, Richterhofen planned an airstrike on the port of Barrie.
In December 1943, Richterhofen amassed more than 100 JU88 bombers, evaded Allied reconnaissance, and launched a nighttime low-altitude bombing of the Allied occupied port of Bari, Italy, sinking 28 ships, destroying port facilities, and causing the port of Bari to be suspended for three weeks, known as the "Little Pearl Harbor" incident.
So even if Richterhofen did not block the British and American air forces, Hitler did not blame Richthofen, but hoped to transfer Richthofen to France to command the air forces on the German Western Front in response to the Allied landings.
And no one would have known that from this point on, Richterhofen would never be able to continue the expedition.
During a health check-up in the second half of 1944, doctors found that Richterhofen had brain cancer, which was already advanced and only had a few months to live.
In this case, Richthofen was no longer suitable to continue to command the troops, so Hitler asked him to continue to serve as commander of the 2nd Air Force, staying in Italy to recuperate, and Richterhofen was unable to participate in the fighting in Western Europe.
It was not until 28 October 1944 that Richterhofen was able to retire into the reserve and return home to recuperate, eventually dying in Austria on 12 July 1945.
Throughout Marshal Richterhofen's life, although he was not as famous as his cousin the Red Baron, his great exploits for Germany in World War II may be greater than a hundred Red Barons.
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