Erhard Milch

Erhard Milch

Milch in 1944
Born 30 March 1892
Wilhelmshaven, Province of Hanover, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died 25 January 1972 (aged 79)
Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany
Allegiance  German Empire (to 1918)
 Weimar Republic (to 1933)
 Nazi Germany
Years of service 1910–22; 1933–45
Rank Generalfeldmarschall
Unit Luftwaffe
Commands held Battle of Britain
Norwegian campaign
Battles/wars World War I
World War II
Awards Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross
Relations Werner Milch (brother)
Joachim Schlichting (son in law)
Other work Retirement spent in Landsberg prison on account of his conviction for war crimes

Erhard Milch (30 March 1892 – 25 January 1972) was a German field marshal who oversaw the development of the Luftwaffe as part of the re-armament of Germany following World War I, and served as founding Director of Deutsche Luft Hansa.

Early life

Milch was born in Wilhelmshaven, the son of Anton Milch, alleged to be a Jewish pharmacist,[1][2]who served in the Kaiserliche Marine, the Imperial German Navy, and Clara Milch, née Vetter. Since his mother was not Jewish, he was not a Jew according to Jewish law. But he was a Jewish Mischling of the first degree ("mixed-race" person) under the Nuremberg Laws introduced by the Nazi regime in 1935. He was later reclassified as Aryan by Adolf Hitler. Milch was one of the few officers in the German high command of alleged Jewish ancestry.

World War I

Milch enlisted in the German Army in 1910, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant in the artillery. He later transferred to the Luftstreitkräfte (Imperial Air Force) and trained as an aerial observer. Although not a pilot, in the waning days of the war, he was appointed to command a fighter wing, Jagdgruppe 6, as a captain.[3]

Interwar

Milch resigned from the military in 1920 to pursue a career in civil aviation. With squadron colleague Gotthard Sachsenberg, Milch formed a small airline in Danzig under the banner of Lloyd Luftdienst, Norddeutscher Lloyd‍ '​s union of regional German airlines. The airline, which linked Danzig to the Baltic States, was simply called Lloyd Ostflug. In 1923, he became managing director of its successor company, Danziger Luftpost when Lloyd Luftdienst merged with its rival firm Aero Union to form Deutsche Aero Lloyd. From there, Milch and Sachsenberg went to work for rival Junkers Luftverkehr, where Sachsenberg had been appointed managing director. Sachsenberg only held the position until 1925, when Milch took over from him. It was in this position that Milch oversaw the merger of Junkers Luftverkehr with his previous firm of Deutscher Aero Lloyd in 1926, making him the first managing director of Deutsche Luft Hansa.[4]

1933—1939

In 1933, Milch took up a position as State Secretary of the newly formed Reichsluftfahrtministerium ("Reich Aviation Ministry" – RLM), answering directly to Hermann Göring. In this capacity, he was instrumental in establishing the Luftwaffe. Milch was responsible for armament production, though Ernst Udet was soon making many of the decisions concerning contracts for military aircraft. Milch quickly used his position to settle personal scores with other aviation industry personalities, including Hugo Junkers and Willy Messerschmitt. Specifically, Milch banned Messerchmitt from submitting a design in the competition for a new fighter aircraft for the Luftwaffe. Messerschmitt proved Milch's better and managed to circumvent this ban to successfully submit a design. The Messerschmitt-designed Bayerische Flugzeugwerke corporate entry, the Bf 109, proved to be the winner. Messerschmitt maintained its leading position within the German aircraft industry until the failure of the Me 210 aircraft. Even after that Milch, as the leader, did not depose him, but put him in an inferior position.[5] The score against Messerschmitt is one of the likely reasons that Willy Messerschmitt was not allowed to personally acquire the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke [BFW] until July 1938. Because of this, the 'Bf' prefix continued to be used throughout the war for Messerschmitt aircraft designed before Messerschmitt's acquisition of the company. As an example, the "Bf-" prefix was used for the Messerschmitt Bf 109 in all official German documents throughout World War II, as it was for all pre-July 1938 origin Messerschmitt aircraft designs.

World War II

Milch (centre) meets Minister of Armaments Albert Speer (left) and aircraft designer Willy Messerschmitt (right)

At the outbreak of World War II Milch, now with the rank of general, commanded Luftflotte 5 during the Norwegian campaign. Following the defeat of France, Milch was promoted to Generalfeldmarschall (field marshal) during the 1940 Field Marshal Ceremony and given the title Air Inspector General. As such, Milch was in charge of aircraft production. The lack of a long-term strategy, and a divisive military command structure, led to many mistakes in the operational and technical ability of the Luftwaffe, and were key to the continued loss of German air superiority as the war progressed.[6]

The frequent, and often conflicting, changes in operational requirements led to numerous changes in aircraft specification and designs so that manufacturers like Messerschmitt were unable to focus outright on a few aircraft types and, most importantly, production output. The Germans failed to put their production on a war footing, continued to run factories only eight hours a day, and failed to include women in the workforce. German aircraft production output did not rise as steeply as Allied output - especially Soviet production which exceeded Germany's in 1942 and 1943.

By the summer of 1943, Germany's lack of a truly "four-engined" heavy bomber to retaliate against Great Britain was finally addressed by Milch in his 10 August 1943 endorsement for Arado Flugzeugwerke to be the subcontractor for the Heinkel He 177B separately engined heavy bomber design. Only three flyable prototypes were completed by early 1944.[7] In 1944 Milch sided with Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister and Heinrich Himmler, the Reichsführer SS, in attempting to convince Adolf Hitler to remove Göring from command of the Luftwaffe following the failed invasion of the Soviet Union. When Hitler refused, Göring retaliated by forcing Milch out of his position. For the rest of the war, he worked under Albert Speer.

Following Hitler’s suicide, Milch attempted to flee Germany, but was captured by Allied forces on the Baltic coast on 4 May 1945. On surrendering, he presented his baton to the Commando Brigadier Derek Mills-Roberts, who was so disgusted by what he had seen when liberating the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp that he broke the baton over Milch's head.[8]

Trial and conviction at Nuremberg

Main article: Milch Trial

In 1947, Milch was tried as a war criminal by a United States Military Tribunal in Nuremberg. He was convicted on two counts:

  1. War crimes, by participating in the ill-treatment and use of the forced labour of prisoners of war (POWs) and the deportation of civilians to the same ends.
  2. Crimes against humanity, by participating in the murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, and the use of slave labour of civilians who came under German control, German nationals and prisoners of war.

Milch was sentenced to life imprisonment at Landsberg prison. His sentence was commuted to 15 years imprisonment in 1951, but he was released in June 1954. He lived out the remainder of his life in Düsseldorf, where he died in 1972.

Dates of rank

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Rigg (2004)
  2. ↑ "Half-shadows of the Reich". Anita Bunyan (Times Higher Education).
  3. ↑ Franks, Norman L. R.; Bailey, Frank W.; Guest, Russell (1993). Above the Lines: The Aces and Fighter Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service and Flanders Marine Corps, 1914–1918. London: Grub Street. p. 32. ISBN 0948817739.
  4. ↑ http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0oGkx8SJENJP9oAIEilzbkF;_ylu=X3oDMTByamR1NnFoBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDNgRjb2xvA3NrMQR2dGlkAw
  5. ↑ Tooze, A. (2007). The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy. New York: Viking. ISBN 0670038261.
  6. ↑ http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/erhard_milch.htm
  7. ↑ Griehl, Manfred; Dressel, Joachim (1998). Heinkel He 177-277-274. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife Publishing. p. 162. ISBN 1-85310-364-0.
  8. ↑ Neillands, Robin; Normann, Roderick de (1993). D-Day 1944 – voices from Normandy. New York: Cold Spring Press. ISBN 1593600127.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Erhard Milch.
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Erhard Milch

Bibliography

  • Rigg, Bryan Mark (2004). Hitler's Jewish Soldiers: The Untold Story of Nazi Racial Laws and Men of Jewish Descent in the German Military. Osijek: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-070-061-358-8.
Military offices
Preceded by
none		 Commander of Luftflotte 5
12 April 1940 – 10 May 1940 		Succeeded by
Generaloberst Hans-Jürgen Stumpff