Robert Ritter von Greim

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Robert Ritter von Greim (Robert Greim; June 22, 1892 – May 24, 1945) was a German Field Marshal, pilot and army officer.

Contents 1 Early years 2 Between the wars 3 World War II 4 Generalfeldmarschall 5 Death 6 Notes 7 External links

[edit] Early years

Born in Bayreuth, son of a Bavarian police captain, von 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, von 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 had 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 had scored 28 victories, and had been awarded the Pour le Mérite, and the Bavarian Max-Joseph Order (Orden Max-Joseph). This latter award made him a Knight (Ritter), and allowed him to add both this honorific title and the style 'von' to his name.

[edit] Between the wars

After the war, von Greim struggled to find a place in 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 the government of China, in the form of Chiang Kai-Shek, to come to China (Canton) and assist in building a Chinese air force. von Greim then moved himself and his family for a few years to China where he founded a flying school and laid some rudimentary measures regarding developing an air force that he was to build on later in his career. von Greim's opinion was never high of his Chinese pupils, perhaps falling victim to the contemporary bias that Asians were unable to operate complicated machinery. He stated in a letter to friends that "The Chinese will never make good fliers, they have absolutely no fine touch with the stick". Even before the Nazis came to power, von Greim realized that his and his family's place was not in the expatriate community in China, but in Germany proper, and he decided to return to his home country.

von Greim was asked by Hermann Göring in 1933 to help rebuild the German Air Force and in 1934 was nominated for the command of the first school of fighter pilots following the closure in early 1933 of the secret flying school near the city of Lipetsk in the USSR during the closing days of the Weimar Republic, an era when Germany had been forbidden, under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919, to have an air force, so it had had to train its future pilots in secret.

In 1938, he assumed command of the department of research techniques in the Luftwaffe. Thereafter, von Greim was awarded command of Jagdgeschwader 2 Richtofen, based in Doeberitz, a fighter squadron equipped with the Bf-109, and named after Manfred von Richtofen also known as The Red Baron.

[edit] World War II

When the war began, von Greim was given command of a Luftflotte (Air Wing) and was involved in the Battle for Poland, Battle for Norway, the Battle of Britain and Operation Barbarossa. Hitler awarded von Greim the Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords of the Iron Cross (Das Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub und Schwertern des Eisernen Kreuzes), which made him one of the most highly decorated officers at that time.

In late 1942, his son, Hubert Greim, a Bf-109 pilot with 11./JG 2 "Richthofen" was listed as missing in Tunisia. He was shot down from below by a Spitfire flown by a RAAF pilot, but bailed out successfully, and spent the remainder of the war in a prison camp in the United States.

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 and his efforts that he was awarded the swords to his Knights Cross.

[edit] Generalfeldmarschall

On 26 April 1945, when the Soviet forces had reached Berlin and the Reich was all but doomed, Generaloberst (Colonel-General) von Greim flew into Berlin with female flying ace (and also his mistress) Hanna Reitsch. He came from Munich based on a radio request from Hitler. He was to be promoted to generalfeldmarschall (Field Marshal), making him the last German officer to achieve the rank of Field Marshal, and to be appointed as head of the Luftwaffe after Hitler previously dismissed Göring in absentia for treason. Hitler dismissed Göring on account of his having contacted Western Allied forces, with the intention of negotiating a ceasefire, without Hitler's consent. Von Greim thus became the second man in the history of the Third Reich to command the Luftwaffe. Although, with the end of the war in Europe fast approaching, his tenure as Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe would last only a matter of days.

While flying with Reitsch over Berlin, von Greim was seriously wounded by Soviet anti-aircraft fire. Reitsch landed von Greim on an improvised air strip in the Tiergarten near the Brandenburg Gate. ^[1]

On 28 April, von Greim was ordered by Hitler to leave Berlin and fly to Ploen to arrest the "traitor" Heinrich Himmler. He and Reitsch were ordered to leave Berlin. During the night of 28 April, they only just managed to get away. Later, in an interview, both von Greim and Reitsch kept repeating: "It was the blackest day when we could not die at our Fuhrer's side." Then they added as tears kept running down Reitsch's cheeks: "We should all kneel down in reverence and prayer before the alter of the Fatherland." When asked what the "Alter of the Fatherland" was, completely taken aback, they responded: "Why, the Fuhrer's bunker in Berlin . . . " ^[2]

[edit] Death

On 8 May, von Greim was captured by American soldiers in Austria on the same day as the surrender of the Third Reich. Von Greim, however, 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, but I have no Luftwaffe."

After his death, his decorations, which he had put on along with his dress uniform for his almost ritual suicide, were stolen by his US Army guards.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Victories of von Greim in World War I

German Field Marshals (Generalfeldmarschall) of World War II (in alphabetical order)
Werner von Blomberg | Fedor von Bock | Walther von Brauchitsch | Ernst Busch | Hermann Göring | Robert Ritter von Greim | Wilhelm Keitel | Albert Kesselring | Ewald von Kleist | Günther von Kluge | Georg von Küchler | Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb | Wilhelm List | Erich von Manstein |Erhard Milch | Walter Model | Friedrich Paulus | Walther von Reichenau | Wolfram von Richthofen | Erwin Rommel | Gerd von Rundstedt | Ferdinand Schörner | Hugo Sperrle | Maximilian von Weichs | Erwin von Witzleben
Honorary: Eduard von Böhm-Ermolli
German Grand Admirals (Großadmiral) of World War II
Erich Raeder | Karl Dönitz