Günther Korten

Günther Korten Luftwaffe-vezérezredes temetése, 1944. augusztus 3.

August 3, 1944. State funeral at the Tannenberg memorial for Luftwaffe General Günther Korten. When the Third Reich started on its rearmament programme, Korten, by then a captain, formally joined the Luftwaffe in 1934. He received training as a general staff officer and served for several years in the Air Ministry. He was a Colonel and Chief of the General Staff of Luftflotte 4 (4th Air Fleet) stationed in Austria.At the beginning of 1940, Korten was transferred to the general staff of the Luftflotte 3 (3rd Air Fleet), in which he served during the Battle of France and in the Battle of Britain. On 19 July he was promoted to Major-General. In January 1941 he transferred back to the 4th Air Fleet, in order to participate in the Balkans Campaign and in the assault on the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa). In August 1942 he was promoted to Lieutenant-General and took over the command over the I. Fliegerkorps, which fought at the southern sector of the Eastern Front and was temporarily transferred to the "Luftwaffenkommando Don" during the Battle of Stalingrad.At the beginning of 1943 Korten was promoted to General and in the summer replaced Alfred Keller at Luftflotte 1 (1st Air Fleet). A few weeks later, on 25 August he accepted the position of General Chief of Staff of the Luftwaffe, after the former Chief of Staff Hans Jeschonnek committed suicide.Korten was mortally wounded in the Wolfsschanze near Rastenburg during the July 20 Plot in 1944, in which Colonel Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg attempted to assassinate Hitler with a bomb. Two days after the assassination attempt he succumbed to his injuries in the military hospital attached to the Führer's headquarters.