Everything about Robert Ritter Von Greim totally explained
Robert Ritter von Greim (Robert Greim;
June 22,
1892 –
May 24,
1945) was a
German Field Marshal,
pilot, army officer, and the last commander of the German Air Force (
Luftwaffe) until its recreation in (
1956)
Biography
Early years
Born in
Bayreuth, son of a
Bavarian police captain, Greim was an army cadet before
World War I and initially served in the
artillery before transferring to the German Air Service (
Fliegertruppe) in
1915. First flying two-seaters, Greim then joined the Jasta (
Jagdstaffel, fighter squadron) 34b flyers for a period in
1918, after Jasta 34b had been equipped with 'cast-offs' from
Jagdgeschwader (JG) I, the unit which had been commanded by
Manfred von Richthofen until his death in action on April 21. Even though the machines were second-hand, they were warmly welcomed by Jasta 34b as being superior to the older
Albatros and
Pfalz fighters that they'd been previously equipped with. In June 1918, von Greim had an encounter with a
Bristol Fighter, and his aircraft lost its cowling. This struck and damaged his top wing, along with the lower left
interplane strut, but he managed to land the machine successfully.
By the war's end he'd scored 28 victories, and had been awarded the
Pour le Mérite, and the Bavarian Military Order of Max Joseph (
Militär-Max Joseph-Orden). This latter award made him a Knight (
Ritter), and allowed him to add both this honorific title and the style 'von' to his name. Thus Robert Greim became Robert Ritter von Greim.
Between the wars
After the war, Ritter von Greim struggled to find a place in the
Reichswehr, the 100,000-man army that the
Versailles Treaty prescribed to Germany, and was unsuccessful. As a result he decided to focus on attaining a career in law, and even succeeded in passing Germany's rigorous law exams. However, the lure of aircraft and pilots was too strong, and he was asked by
Chiang Kai-Shek's government, to come to
Canton,
China to help build a Chinese air force. Ritter von Greim went with his family to China where he founded a flying school and laid some preliminary measures regarding the development of an air force. He built on these later in his career. Ritter von Greim's opinion of his Chinese pupils wasn't high, perhaps because of the contemporary belief among Europeans that Asians were unable to operate complicated machinery. He said in a letter that "The Chinese will never make good fliers, they've absolutely no fine touch with the stick". Even before the
Nazis came to power, von Greim realized that his proper place wasn't in the expatriate community in China, but in Germany, and he returned to his native country.
In
1933, Ritter von Greim was asked by
Hermann Göring to help rebuild the German Air Force and in
1934 was appointed to the command of the first fighter pilot school, following the closure of the secret flying school established near the city of
Lipetsk in the
Soviet Union during the closing days of the
Weimar Republic. (Germany had been forbidden to have an air force under the terms of the
Treaty of Versailles of
1919, so it had to train pilots in secret.)
In
1938, he assumed command of the
Luftwaffe department of research. Later, Ritter von Greim was awarded command of Jagdgeschwader 132
Richthofen (later JG 2), based in
Doeberitz, a fighter group named after
Manfred von Richthofen.
World War II
When the war began, Ritter von Greim was given command of a
Luftflotte (Air Wing) and was involved in the invasion of
Poland, the Battle for
Norway, the
Battle of Britain and
Operation Barbarossa.
Hitler awarded Ritter von Greim the
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords (
Das Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern des Eisernen Kreuzes), which made him one of the most highly decorated military officers.
In late
1942, his only son, Hubert Greim, a
Bf-109 pilot with 11./
JG 2 "Richthofen" was listed as missing in
Tunisia. He was shot down by a
Spitfire flown by an
RAAF pilot, but bailed out and spent the remainder of the war in a prison camp in the
United States.
Ritter von Greim's greatest tactical achievement was his Luftflotte's involvement in the
battle of Kursk and his planes bombing of the
Orel bulge. It was for this battle that he was awarded the swords to his Knights Cross.
The end of the war
On
26 April,
1945, when
Soviet forces had reached
Berlin and the Reich was all but doomed,
Generaloberst (
Colonel-General) Ritter von Greim flew into
Berlin from
Munich with the noted female pilot (and also his intimate companion)
Hanna Reitsch, in response to an order from Hitler. Their
Fieseler Storch was hit by anti-aircraft fire over the Grunewald and Ritter von Greim was wounded in the leg. Reitsch took over the aircraft and landed on an improvised air strip in the
Tiergarten near the
Brandenburg Gate.
Hitler promoted Ritter von Greim to
Generalfeldmarschall (
Field Marshal), making him the last German officer to achieve that rank, and then appointed Ritter von Greim head of the German Air Force (
Luftwaffe) to replace
Hermann Göring. Hitler had recently dismissed Göring
in absentia for
treason. Ritter von Greim thus became the second man to command the German Air Force. However, with the end of the war in Europe fast approaching, his tenure as
Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe would last only a matter of days.
On
28 April, Hitler ordered Ritter von Greim to leave Berlin and have
Reitsch fly him to
Plön so that he could arrest
Heinrich Himmler for treason. That night, they only just managed to get away, taking off from the
Tiergarten strip before the eyes of soldiers of the Soviet 3rd Shock Army - who initially feared they'd just seen Hitler's escape. Later, in an interview, both Ritter von Greim and
Reitsch kept repeating: "It was the blackest day when we couldn't die at our Führer's side." Then they added as tears kept running down
Reitsch's cheeks: "We should all kneel down in reverence and prayer before the altar of the Fatherland." When asked what the "Altar of the Fatherland" was, completely taken aback, they responded: "Why, the Fuhrer's bunker in Berlin . . . "
Death
On
8 May, the same day as the surrender of the
Third Reich, Ritter von Greim was captured by
American soldiers in Austria. Ritter von Greim was to be part of a Soviet-American prisoner exchange program and, fearing
torture and
execution at the hands of the Soviets, committed
suicide in
Salzburg,
Austria, on
24 May. His final words before taking potassium
cyanide were: "I am the head of the Luftwaffe (airforce), but I've no Luftwaffe."
Portrayal in the media
Robert Ritter von Greim has been portrayed by the following actors in film and television productions.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Robert Ritter Von Greim'.
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