Hellmuth Felmy

Hellmuth Felmy
Hellmuth Felmy
Born	(1885-05-28)May 28, 1885 Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died	December 14, 1965(1965-12-14) (aged 80) Darmstadt, Hesse, West Germany
Allegiance	German Empire (1904 to 1918)  Weimar Republic (1919 to 1933)  Nazi Germany (1933 to 1945)
Service/branch	Imperial Army Air Service Luftwaffe
Rank	General der Flieger
Commands held	Luftflotte 2 Army Group Southern Greece LXVIII Army Corps XXXIV Army Corps
Battles/wars	World War I Turkish Front World War II Axis occupation of Greece Yugoslav Partisan General Offensive

Hellmuth Felmy (1885–1965) was a German military officer during World War I, the interwar period, and World War II. Felmy was convicted as a war criminal in 1948.

Biography

On 28 May 1885, Helmuth Felmy was born in Berlin in what was then the German Empire.^[1] In 1904, he joined the Imperial Army and, in 1912, Felmy went to flight school to become a pilot for the Imperial Army Air Service.

During World War I, Felmy commanded a squadron on the Turkish Front. After the war, he remained in the German military. Felmy alternated between infantry and aviation assignments in the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic. On 4 February 1938, Felmy was promoted to General der Flieger.

By the beginning of World War II, Felmy commanded Air Fleet 2 (Luftflotte 2) of the Luftwaffe. On 12 January, he was dismissed due to the Mechelen Incident and replaced by Albert Kesselring.

In May 1941, Felmy was called up by the High Command of the Armed Forces (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or OKW) to be the commander of Special Staff F (Sonderstab F),^[2] the doomed military mission to Iraq. While Felmy was a General der Flieger, he was not responsible for commanding the air force component of Sonderstab F.^[3] Sonderstab F lasted from 20 May to 20 June. Felmy commanded the mission in Iraq from occupied Greece.

After the failure of the mission to Iraq, Felmy was made commander of Army Group Southern Greece (Befehlshaber Südgriechenland). From 1942 to 1943, he remained in Greece and commanded a "special deployment" (zur besonderen Verwendung, or z. b. V.) unit named after him (z. b. V. Felmy). From 1943 to 1944, he commanded the LXVIII Army Corps of the German Army. Late in 1944, the LXVIII Corps moved from Greece to Yugoslavia. From 1944 to 1945, he commanded the XXXIV Army Corps.^[4] In 1945, the XXXIV Corps was overwhelmed during the Yugoslav Partisan General Offensive of March and April.

In 1948, during the Hostages Trial in Nuremberg, Felmy was accused of war crimes in Greece and was given a sentence of 15 years. On 15 January 1951, he was released early.

On 14 December 1965, Felmy died in Darmstadt in what was then West Germany.

Posthumous

In 2007, Felmy's writings about Cossacks who fought for the Germans, along with those of Walter Warlimont, were published in The Cossack Corps.

Felmy's son, Hansjörg Felmy (1931–2007), was a successful actor and appeared the films Torn Curtain and Brainwashed.

See also

• Polish Campaign
• French Campaign
• Anglo-Iraqi War
• Axis occupation of Greece
• Balkans Campaign
• Subsequent Nuremberg Trials
• XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps

Notes

References

• Churchill, Winston (1985) [1950]. "Chapter 14: The Revolt in Iraq". The Second World War, Volume III, The Grand Alliance. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. ISBN 0-395-41057-6. 
• Heiber, Helmut, and Glantz, David M. (2005). Hitler and His Generals: Military Conferences 1942-1945. New York: Enigma Books. ISBN 1-929631-09-X. 
• Lyman, Robert (2006). Iraq 1941: The Battles for Basra, Habbaniya, Fallujah and Baghdad. Campaign. Oxford, New York: Osprey Publishing. p. 96. ISBN 1-84176-991-6. 

Further reading

• "The Cossack Corps", General der Flieger Hellmuth Felmy and General der Artillerie Walter Warlimont, US Army Historical Division, Hailer Publishing, 2007 http://www.hailerpublishing.com/cossack.html
• Kurowski, Franz (2005). The Brandenburger Commandos: Germany's Elite Warrior Spies in World War II. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Book. ISBN 978-0-8117-3250-5.