Richthofen soon proved in the Polish campaign that he was not only a scholar, but also a cold-blooded warrior. He built the airport near the front line. According to Spain's experience, he sent many ground liaison officers to the frontline troops and called for air support at any time according to the situation. He himself has to go back and forth between the headquarters and the front many times every day. Near Villen, his 30 Stukas attacked and defeated a Polish cavalry brigade alone. Because the Germans had complete air superiority at the beginning of the Polish campaign, there was no need to consider the threat of Polish fighters, so Richthofen simply ordered his fighters to join the task of supporting the ground.
When blasco Witz's Eighth Army of the Southern Army Group was suddenly attacked by Poznan Army from the flank, Stuka of richthofen was first invited to help the army stabilize the front. Then the German generals realized that this was a favorable opportunity to outflank and annihilate the main force of Poznan Army, so they adjusted their deployment to make the Eighth Army attract Poznan Army, and several other army groups detoured behind Poznan Army. Finally, they assembled the 12 infantry division and three cavalry brigades on the Buchula River. With the progress of the battle, the Northern Army Group and the Southern Army Group gradually moved closer, and the 1 air force command organization supporting the Northern Army Group gradually withdrew from the battle and handed over the troops to the 4th Air Force, in which Richthofen played a leading role. Therefore, by the end of the Battle of Brazzaville, when the Germans began to March on Warsaw, Major General Richthofen actually commanded almost all the German air forces fighting in Poland.
At the gate of Warsaw, Richthofen showed his cold side: he ordered Colonel Sebald, co-captain of the 77th Bomber Wing, to bombard civilian and military targets in Warsaw. In the first bombing on September 1 1, Colonel Sebold disobeyed orders and bombed only the military targets in Warsaw, and was immediately dismissed by Richthofen. On September 22nd, Richthofen bombed Warsaw with 1 150 aircraft, in which 1 1 was an incendiary bomb, which was loaded on the junker 52 transport plane. When the bomb was dropped, the door was opened and two people shoveled outward. When terrorists bombed Warsaw, they dropped 560 tons of bombs and 72 tons of incendiary bombs, and the center of Warsaw was blown into ruins. The Germans lost two Stuka dive bombers and 1 Junker 52 transport planes. Blasco Weitz, commander of the German Eighth Army who was in charge of besieging Warsaw, was a conscientious general. He asked the Air Force to cancel further air strikes against Warsaw, so he had a big fight with Richthofen. Finally, Goering intervened and ordered the Air Force to launch air strikes against Warsaw only when the Eighth Army made a request. Richthofen knew that blasco Witz could not make such a request, so he bombed Maudlin, another Polish resistance stronghold, with 450 planes. In the battle of the western front, Major General Richthofen once again played a key role as the commander of the 8th Air Force. His air force concentrated most of its dive bombers. First, the 2nd Air Force, which belongs to Kesselring, supported Boucher's Army Group B, and then was transferred to Sparrow's 3rd Air Force three days after the war, which was responsible for supporting the establishment of the armored vanguard led by guderian in Lund's Army Group A and making a central breakthrough. In the whole campaign, the support of dive bombers is an indispensable success factor of blitzkrieg. In the whole process of cooperating with guderian's breakthrough, Richthofen did not deliberately launch large-scale air strikes, but let the air force carry out small-scale attacks continuously, always keeping pressure on the French army, not giving the French artillery and tanks a chance to maneuver freely, deliberately destroying railways and bridges at the same time, leaving a passage for the rapid advancement of guderian. Especially on the latter point, it should be said that Richthofen and guderian have quite a tacit understanding. Of course, for the first time in such a vast battlefield, armored forces often advance unexpectedly fast. Due to the communication conditions on the battlefield, it is difficult to avoid accidental bombing. When the German high command stopped in Dunkirk, not only guderian and other front-line army generals strongly opposed it, but even the Air Force was amazed by the aviation director Mi Hill (1940 Marshal), the air force chief of staff Jeshunek, the air force commander Kesselring and the front-line Richthofen. Goering boasted that the British expeditionary force could be wiped out on the beach by the air force alone, but this did not represent the opinion of the frontline generals. As soon as Richthofen heard the order, he called Ye Shunek, the chief of staff. As a melee aviation expert, he strongly doubts the feasibility of this order, because he knows that Stuka is actually very fragile during dive bombing and can't guard against enemy fighters' attacks. However, Goering's orders must be carried out, and the results confirmed Richthofen's suspicion: the air strikes failed to effectively attack the British army, and more than 300,000 British and French troops withdrew to the British mainland.
However, Dunkirk's defeat did not conceal the great success of the whole French war. Hitler awarded more than a dozen marshals, including Air Force officers Mi Hill, Kesselring and Speer. Major-General Richthofen, though limited by his seniority, can't be called handsome, but the Polish and French air force star also got his due reward: he not only won the Knight's Iron Cross, but also passed the rank of Lieutenant General and was directly promoted to a three-star aviation general. Then came the Great British Air War. Richthofen's Eighth Air Force also participated in the decisive air battle that decided the fate of Britain. He is also preparing Marshal Speller's 3rd Air Force, commanding three wing of Junk 87 Stuka dive bomber and 1 Messerschmitt 109 fighter wing. The defeat of the German Air Force did not affect Richthofen's reputation, because he only participated in the first stage of the campaign. Stuka dive bomber itself is an excellent front-line support aircraft, but it is not suitable for such large-scale strategic air strikes or breaking through enemy fighter lines. Therefore, in late August, the Eighth Air Force withdrew from the British air combat and concentrated on preparing for the Eastern Front.
1in late August, 940, Richthofen was ordered to lead the 8th Air Force out of the British air war, transferred to the 4th Air Force, and assembled in Romania and Bulgaria. In addition to the 8th Air Force, Admiral Ruhr and General geissler's 10 Air Force. Richthofen's main task, first of all, is to support the German general Weichs (Weichs, later promoted to Marshal)' s 2nd Army to invade Yugoslavia, and second, he must support Marshal Liszt's 12 Army to occupy Greece. In the main direction of Yugoslavia, there were more than 600 combat aircraft in Richthofen when 194 1 invaded on April 6. On the first day of the war, we shot down 20 enemy planes, destroyed 44 planes on the ground, lost 2 planes and gained absolute air superiority. Then saturated bombing Belgrade paralyzed the entire class communication system in Yugoslavia. Then concentrate on supporting the attack of the Second Army, and complete the task of conquering Yugoslavia in only 12 days. After the Greek campaign, Richthofen turned to be responsible for supporting the Crete operation of student generals 1 1 airborne troops. To carry out this task, the 8th Air Force has two bomber wings (each wing has three brigades equipped with Dornier 17 bombers), 1 Teaching Wing (two 88th brigades and 1 Henkel11brigade) and two. Therefore, it is quite easy for Richthofen to complete the first step of seizing air superiority. Although the German paratroopers suffered heavy losses in ground operations, the air support provided by Richthofen went quite smoothly, and only seven of the 493 Juncker 52 transport planes used to transport troops were lost. The cover of the air force dive bomber provided much-needed fierce fire support for German paratroopers.
This is the key factor to slowly occupy the highlands around the landing site. When German ground forces gradually gained the advantage on the island, Richthofen began to use reserve forces to suppress the British navy, sank the British destroyer Juno and wounded the light cruiser Ajax. On May 22nd, British Major General King led the C formation to intercept the German transport fleet carrying heavy weapons and landed on the island, which was attacked by the German Air Force, and the cruisers Naiad and Carlisle were injured. On the same afternoon, German planes wounded the battleship war paint and sank the destroyer Greyhound and the cruiser Gloucester.
At 5: 45pm, the British cruiser Fiji was sunk by a fighter plane Me 109 carrying a 500-pound bomb. That night, the British destroyers Kelly and Kashmir shelled the German-occupied airport on the island, but when they evacuated in the morning, they were found to have been sunk by 24 Stuka. On May 26th, the British aircraft carrier "Powerful" was hit by two more bombs and withdrew from the war zone. Faced with the terrible air superiority of the German Air Force, even a fearless fighter like Admiral Cunningham, commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet, had to temporarily avoid its edge. He has done his best, but he can't fly his precious spaceship out to die without air cover. As a result, the British navy lifted the blockade of the waters near Crete, and German reinforcements and equipment were able to land on the island by sea. On June 1 day, the British left Crete. In this war, the Germans lost 350 planes, but 27 1 of them were paratroopers belonging to students. Richthofen was awarded the Knight Iron Cross Oak Leaf Medal. Three weeks after the Battle of Crete, 194 1 June 22, the Soviet-German war broke out on the Eastern Front. Haven't had time to have a good rest, Richthofen and his 8th Air Force were assigned to the key direction, and the 2nd Air Force belonging to Marshal Kesselring supported Marshal Boucher's Central Army Group to attack Minsk-Smolensk-Moscow in the middle of the front line. The specific task of the 8th Air Force is to support the 3rd Armored Cluster of Hoth and the 9th Army of Strauss. Therefore, Richthofen has 26th and 27th fighter wings (equipped with Me 1 10 and Me 109 respectively) and four bomber wings, which is the strongest aviation force in the whole Eastern Front. Richthofen also encountered some difficulties, mainly because the Germans planned to go to war before dawn, and most German bomber pilots would not fly in formation at night. The German army's solution is to concentrate on sending out troops that can fly and fight night battles, with a team of three planes responsible for bombing an airport where Soviet fighters are parked. In the first week of the war, Richthofen's air force alone destroyed more than 65,438+0,000 enemy planes, mostly on the ground. From June 24th to 26th, the German army established its air superiority and turned its focus to Richthofen's specialty: close support for ground operations. On June 24th, Richthofen dispatched the whole air force to attack the Soviet troops in front of the German Ninth Army, and destroyed 105 Soviet tanks in one day. The Soviet-German war was complicated and cruel from the beginning. On June 26, Soviet ground troops attacked the main airport of the 8 th Army and were on the ground.
In the case of insufficient troops, Stuka attacked the ground several times, trying to contain the Soviet advance until the ground troops of the German Fifth Army arrived. With the support of Richthofen, the 9th Army of Strauss and the 4th Army of Marshal Krueger completed the first camp in Bialystok as planned. So the Eighth Air Force immediately turned to fully support Holt's attack on Minsk. In order to prevent the Soviet troops from being alarmed by the appearance of the reconnaissance plane and avoid the subsequent air raid, Richthofen ordered that no reconnaissance should be conducted before the air raid, and sent several hunting formations composed of three to six bombers to conduct reconnaissance on their own, so as to discover the real-time strike of the Soviet troops. On June 27th, Hult's 3rd Armored Cluster and guderian's 2nd Armored Cluster met in Minsk, and closed the second big encirclement. Because the infantry couldn't keep up with the advancing speed of the armored forces, the armored forces couldn't seal the encirclement tightly. Richthofen's air force also undertook a large part of the task of preventing the Soviet troops from being surrounded and making organized breakthroughs. Of course, the sporadic small-scale infiltration and breakthrough of the Soviet Union cannot be stopped by the air force and armored forces. German armored forces continued to advance to Smolensk, and on August 5, Smolensk fell. At this point, Hitler ordered the troops of the overly prominent Central Army Group to stop moving forward and divide the northern and southern wings to attack Kiev and Leningrad. This time, Richthofen and his 8th Air Force were not assigned to the southwest to support the Kiev General Battle, but were transferred to the 1 Air Force in the north of the front line to support General hoppner's 4th Armored Cluster to attack Leningrad. Here, the German dive bomber suddenly anchored in the port of Stoddard in Keren, and the main force of the Soviet Baltic Fleet was closely guarded by anti-aircraft fire. On September 6/KLOC-0 and September 23, Rudder broke through the dense anti-aircraft fire net twice, flying a Stuka plane from an altitude of 9,000 feet to the surface of the water before leveling it, dropping bombs weighing 1000 pounds and 2,000 pounds on the battleship Mara respectively. The second bomb exploded on the hull and the front turret and bridge were completely destroyed. The Mara sank to the bottom of the sea and was later salvaged by the Soviet Union as a floating battery. The Eighth Air Force also severely damaged the heavy cruiser Kirov.
194 1 At the end of the year, Richthofen's 8th Air Force returned to the Moscow front. At this time, Kesselring's 2nd Air Force Command and 2nd Air Force in the center of the front line were transferred to the Mediterranean battlefield to fight against the British, leaving only Richthofen and his 8th Army to take over the whole front line of the Central Army Group. When the Soviet army launched the winter counterattack, the German Air Force could not concentrate its forces to deal with a threat, so it had to divide its forces everywhere on the broad front, which was quite stretched.
However, the Germans survived at a heavy price, and in some areas, the air force's air supply to ground troops was quite successful.
Manstein's action in Crimea was the forerunner of the German strategic offensive in the spring and summer of 1942. Manstein's Crimean campaign became another successful example in the history of German war. This time, Richthofen was sent to Crimea as "Mr. Key". Richthofen has been fighting in the central front. In March 1942, he was promoted to general and became the only four-star commander of the German army at that time. The high command specially assigned the 5th Air Force of Richthofen and Raismes to Crimea, and then concentrated unprecedented huge forces for the 8th Air Force, handing them over to Richthofen 1 1 bomber wing, 3 Stuka dive bomber wings and 7 fighter wings. Richthofen and Manstein are both famous young soldiers in the German army. They are full of energy and have a positive and brave command style, so they cooperate very tacitly and can be called golden partners. Within a week after the Crimean campaign started, Richthofen continuously raided all Soviet field airports and ports in Kerch Peninsula and Sevastopol, propped up a huge air umbrella for Manstein's 1 1 Army, concentrated on dive bombers, and used air fire to help the Germans tear open the breakthrough of the narrow defense line of the Soviet Kerch Peninsula. Finally, Manstein simply ate the Soviet Transcaucasian Army with the main force of an army. Then, the Germans turned around and returned to the fortress city of Sevastopol behind them. This time, the Eighth Air Force adopted a new "conveyor belt tactic", organized a smaller bomber group, and carried out 24-hour continuous bombing of Soviet support points. One group returned, and the other group set out, dropping bombs on the fort like a conveyor belt. This kind of uninterrupted bombing can seriously hurt the morale of the defenders, but the German Air Force itself is also exhausted. The 8th Air Force has always owned 723 aircraft, with an average of 2,000 sorties per day. Richthofen personally bid day and night on the watchtower outside the fortress. As soon as he saw the smoke rising from the Soviet airport in the fortress, he immediately guided the fighters in the air to hunt it down. In the final stage of the campaign, almost all bunkers in downtown Sevastopol were destroyed by Stuka planes.
After the victory of the German Crimean campaign, Manstein was transferred to the north to organize an attack on Leningrad, while Richthofen stayed in the most critical area in the southern section of the Eastern Front to support the German summer offensive against the Don River bend and the Caucasus. /kloc-in July of 0/4, the commander of the 4th Air Force, General Loer, was transferred to the commander-in-chief of the southeast front, and 47-year-old General Richthofen was promoted to the commander-in-chief of the air force, commanding all the German air forces in the southern section of the Eastern Line. He has the 8th Air Force, which is responsible for supporting the 4th Panzer Corps of Holt and the 6th Army of paulus to attack the Don River bend, and the 4th Air Force, which is responsible for supporting General Leibel of Kleist. In addition, Richthofen also has General Deslock's 1 anti-aircraft artillery. The 4th Air Force under the command of Richthofen owns 54% of the whole German Air Force, but it has to cover a wider battlefield. In the Stalingrad theater, there is actually only the 8 th Air Force. As a warrior who is good at making decisions on the battlefield, Richthofen's personality is very different from that of paulus, commander of the Sixth Army. It is said that Richthofen himself has always disliked paulus. Soon after he took office, he suggested to the General Staff that paulus should be replaced, but it was not accepted.
On September 3, the Germans attacked Stalingrad for the first time, and then shifted their focus to supporting the German frontline ground forces. In June+10, 5438, Richthofen's reconnaissance plane found signs of heavy regrouping in the rear of the Soviet Union, and the 4th Air Force took off to carry out air strikes, but at that time most German bombers were busy supporting and coping with the increasingly powerful Soviet Air Force at the front. This makes Richthofen quite worried. Like several other German front-line generals, he also predicted that the Soviet army might use a strong reserve to fight back, and even guessed the possible breakthrough. 10,165438+1At the beginning of October, Richthofen ordered the 8th Air Force to turn to support the Romanian 3rd Army. However, the German flank forces were too thin, and the high command was unwilling to stop the offensive in Stalingrad. Therefore, the 8 th Air Force alone cannot contain the overwhelming counterattack of the Soviet Union. June 25th 165438+ Stalingrad German troops were besieged. Hitler ordered Stalingrad to be turned into a fortress, Marshal Manstein was transferred from the northern section of the Eastern Line to form the Don Army Group to clear paulus, and the task of airlifting supplies for the besieged German army fell on the 4th Air Force.
Under the general circumstances at that time, if the German Air Force concentrated its strength, it could still have some advantages over the Soviet Union in terms of equipment and personnel quality. However, the equipment of the Soviet Air Force is becoming more and more advanced, and the quality of pilots is also improving. The disadvantage of the German army in military production and quantity has seriously affected the air superiority in key areas of the front line. Before the start of airlift, Richthofen had frankly told Manstein, Goering and Zeitzler, the army chief of staff, that it was impossible to airlift supplies to the Germans in the encirclement. Jeshunek, chief of staff of the Air Force, initially supported Hitler and Goering's air transport decision, but was persuaded by Richthofen and turned against it. But Hitler and Goering made up their minds, and the high command gave orders, so Richthofen had to do it. 65438+At the beginning of February, Richthofen had more than 500 transport planes, many of which were converted from various bombers, such as He/KOOC-0//KOOC-0/. Richthofen, with its consistent pragmatic attitude, disrupted the original command system, ordered the commander of the 8th Air Force, Fieberger, to concentrate on air transport and stop directing any air combat operations, and evacuated the 4th Air Force of Pflugbeil from the Caucasus, concentrating its forces to the maximum extent. Only the 1 Anti-aircraft Artillery Command was allowed to command a few fighters to cover the retreat of the A Army Group in the Caucasus (at that time, the commander of the group was already Kleist). At the same time, Lieutenant General Manke was appointed to establish a new "Donets" aviation division to take over all the combat aircraft of the Eighth Air Force and support the clearing offensive of Marshal Manstein's Don Army Group. At the end of February, 65438+, Richthofen called Hitler directly, requesting that the Sixth Army be allowed to break through for his friend Marshal Manstein, but Hitler still didn't approve it.
During the first few days in the camp, the Germans were forced to postpone the airlift because of the bad weather. 1October 29th, 165438+ Stalingrad air transport officially started. On that day, 38 Yongke 52 and 2 1 Henkel 1 1 were dispatched, and only 12 Yongke and 13 Henkel arrived at the German airport in the encirclement. Throughout 65438+February, German transport planes had to break through the blockade of Soviet fighters and ground fire nets for air transport, and the already insufficient transport planes suffered heavy losses. In 65438+February, the daily average transportation volume was 90 tons of materials, the most of which was 1, and 300 tons were transported in the sky, while the original minimum supply was 500 tons per day. On February 24th, 65438, Soviet tanks raided the important air transport base, Tashinskaya Airport, and destroyed 72 Yongke 52 transport planes parked on the ground, which dealt a heavy blow to air transport operations. In fact, two days ago, General Fiebeger asked Richthofen to approve the evacuation of this airport, which had been seriously threatened by Soviet ground forces. But Richthofen had to take the greatest risk and refused to approve the evacuation, which led to this mistake. 65438+1October 14 Marshal Mi Hill, the second person of the German Air Force and the air force director who has been in charge of administrative affairs, was appointed as a special Commissioner by Hitler to command air transport operations in a unified manner. At this time, the tide has receded, and Richthofen clearly told M Hill that this was an impossible task. Mi Hill is going to fly into the besieged city and personally assess the situation. As a result, on the way to the airport, a car collided with a train, with broken ribs and concussion, but he still insisted on fixing his upper body with plaster and directing air transport at the headquarters of the 4 th Air Force. Even such personal efforts will not help. 1943 65438+1October 2 1 day, Mrak, the last airport in the encirclement, was occupied by the Soviet Union. At noon on October 22, 65438/kloc-0, a German plane flew out of the siege of Stalingrad. The whole Stalingrad airlift operation transported 69,565,438+0 tons of materials (another figure was 8,350 tons) and evacuated 24,965,438+00 people. The Germans lost 488 transport planes, of which the Junk 52 transport plane of the whole air force lost more than half in this battle.
1943, 16 In February, Hitler awarded the rank of Marshal to Richthofen to thank Richthofen for his meritorious military service and his superhuman efforts for air transportation in Stalingrad. 1943 spring, Richthofen commanded 1, 4, 8 air forces, in which the 8th Army supported the Kuban Peninsula 17 Army (belonging to Army A) and concentrated 1, 4 Army (1 Air Force Commander was Kurten of Kolten, and later was the Chief of Staff of the Air Force). Although just after the defeat of Stalingrad, Richthofen hit the Soviet Union 1 Guards with Junk 87 and 88 dive bombers, which strongly supported manstein's comeback. After all, at this time, the Soviet Air Force still lags behind the Germans in terms of command and coordination, the art of force concentration, and the quality of pilots. If the German Air Force concentrates enough troops, it can guarantee the battlefield air superiority in key areas. 1943 the highlight of the german eastern front is the battle of "castle" which started in July, that is, the battle of kursk. But this time Richthofen didn't attend. 12 In June, Deslock succeeded Richthofen as the commander of the 4th Air Force, while Richthofen was transferred to Italy as the commander of the 2nd Air Force. Manstein tried his best to keep his golden partner, but in vain. This job transfer does not mean that Richthofen lost Hitler's trust. In fact, before Richthofen arrived, Marshal Kesselring, commander-in-chief of the Southern Line, was the commander of the Second Air Force. Moreover, at that time, the British and American allied forces had won the final victory in North Africa, and both sides knew that the next large-scale invasion of the allied forces was imminent. This is the background of Richthofen's transfer. Starting from 1939, no matter where Richthofen appears, it will become the key battlefield of the German Air Force. The 2nd Air Force has jurisdiction over the 2nd Air Force of Buelovis and the Sicilian Tactical Command of Machek. Fighters rose rapidly from 190 before the arrival of Richthofen to 450, with 380 single-engine light bombers and 100 double-engine bombers. When the Allied forces landed in Sicily in July, the 2nd Air Force had 975 combat aircraft, but it was responsible for defending the entire Mediterranean battlefield. Therefore, it is the key of German defense to accurately judge the attack direction of allied forces and concentrate their forces accordingly. Just at this time, Richthofen was deceived by the allied intelligence agencies, mistakenly thinking that the allied forces would attack Sardinia next, so he concentrated his forces on Sardinia, and the number of aircraft of Sicily Tactical Command was reduced from 4 15 to 175. In the air battle between the two sides on the eve of landing, the Germans in Sicily lost another 100 plane. By July of 16, only 40 German planes were available in Sicily. Moreover, when the allied forces began to land in July 10, the air force's reinforcements to Sicily came too late. In the critical period of the first three days, the Germans attacked 300 sorties, while the Allies dispatched 1500 sorties, which was five times that of the Germans. Richthofen invested 635 planes in Sicily, 600 of which were destroyed, and the German air force assembly area in Sardinia was also attacked by allied forces. In view of the obvious advantages of the allied air force and the unbearable losses of the Germans, we must retain the power to defend Italy. On July 22, the German army decided to withdraw its air force from Sicily, and the army gradually contracted to the Messina Strait, eventually giving up Sicily. During the whole campaign of Sicily, the German Air Force lost 1850 aircraft, while the Allied forces only lost more than 400 aircraft.