118 Facts About Hugo Sperrle

Hugo Wilhelm Sperrle was a German military aviator in World War I and a Generalfeldmarschall in the Luftwaffe during World War II.

Hugo Sperrle served in the artillery upon the outbreak of World War I In 1914 he joined the Luftstreitkrafte as an observer then trained as a pilot.

In 1934 after the Nazi Party seized power, Hugo Sperrle was promoted to Generalmajor and transferred from the army to the Luftwaffe.

Hugo Sperrle was given command of the Condor Legion in November 1936 and fought with the expeditionary force in the Spanish Civil War until October 1937.

Hugo Sperrle was appointed as commanding officer of Luftwaffengruppenkommando 3 the forerunner of Luftflotte 3 in February 1938.

Hugo Sperrle was used during the Anschluss and Czech crisis by the Nazi leadership to threaten other governments with bombardment.

Hugo Sperrle attended several important meetings with Austrian and Czech leaders for this purpose upon the invitation of Adolf Hitler.

Hugo Sperrle played a crucial role in the Battle of France and Battle of Britain in 1940.

In 1941 Hugo Sperrle directed operations during The Blitz over Britain.

Hugo Sperrle's command was depleted in the battles of attrition forced on him by the Combined Bomber Offensive.

Hugo Sperrle was involved in the bribery of senior Wehrmacht officers.

Hugo Sperrle was born in the town of Ludwigsburg, in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg, German Empire on 7 February 1885 the son of a brewery proprietor, Johannes Hugo Sperrle and his wife Luise Karoline, nee Nagele.

Hugo Sperrle joined the Imperial German Army on 5 July 1903 as a Fahnenjunker.

Hugo Sperrle served another year until his promotion to Oberleutnant in October 1913.

At the outbreak of World War I, Hugo Sperrle was training as an artillery spotter in the Luftstreitkrafte.

Hugo Sperrle did not distinguish himself in battle as his fellow staff officers in World War II had done, but he forged a solid record in the aerial reconnaissance field.

Hugo Sperrle served first as an observer, then trained as a pilot with the 4th Field Flying Detachment at the Kriegsakademie.

Hugo Sperrle went on to command the 42nd and 60th Field Flying Detachments, then led the 13th Field Flying Group.

Hugo Sperrle commanded units in Silesia including the Freiwilligen Fliegerabteilungen 412 under the leadership of Erhard Milch.

Hugo Sperrle fought on the East Prussia border during the 1919 conflict with Poland.

Helmuth Wilberg led the air service sector and Hugo Sperrle was one of 83 commanders ordered to assist.

Hugo Sperrle served on the air staff for Wehrkreis V in Stuttgart from 1919 to 1923, then the Defence Ministry until 1924.

Hugo Sperrle then served on the staff of the 4th Infantry Division near Dresden.

Hugo Sperrle travelled to Lipetsk in the Soviet Union at this time, where the Germans maintained a secret air base and founded the Lipetsk fighter-pilot school.

Hugo Sperrle purportedly visited the United Kingdom to observe Royal Air Force exercises.

The air staff remained small, but Hugo Sperrle's contingent were present in the 4,000 officers retained in the military.

Hugo Sperrle was selected for his expertise in technical matters; he was seen as highly qualified staff officer with combat experience in commanding the flying units of the 7th army during the war.

On 1 February 1929 Hugo Sperrle was replaced with Hellmuth Felmy.

Hugo Sperrle's departure came as he was pressing for an autonomous aviation authority.

Hugo Sperrle was promoted to Oberstleutnant in 1931 while commanding the 3rd battalion, 14th Infantry Regiment from 1929 to 1933.

Hugo Sperrle ended his army career in command of the 8th Infantry Regiment, from 1 October 1933 to 1 April 1934.

At the rank of Oberst, Hugo Sperrle was given command of the headquarters of the First Air Division.

Hugo Sperrle was involved in the difficulties in German aircraft procurement.

Four months after assuming command, Hugo Sperrle was rigorously critical of the Dornier Do 11 and Dornier Do 13 in a conference on 18 July 1934.

Five months later, with development failing, Hugo Sperrle met with Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen, head of aircraft development and Luftkreis IV commander Alfred Keller, a wartime bomber pilot.

Hugo Sperrle was initially given command of Luftkreis II, and then Luftkreis V in Munich upon his promotion to Generalmajor on 1 October 1935.

Hugo Sperrle remained in Germany until the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.

Hugo Sperrle commanded all German forces in Spain from November 1936 to November 1937.

Hugo Sperrle was the first commander of the Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War.

Hugo Sperrle was given command of all German forces earmarked for operations in Spain on his appointment.

Hugo Sperrle needed a highly competent man with a staff officer background.

Hugo Sperrle had the advantage of knowing Richthofen since the 1920s and thought highly of his chief of staff.

Hugo Sperrle privately viewed Richthofen as a ruthless snob, and Richthofen disliked his superior's coarse wit and table manners.

Professionally, they had few disagreements, and Richthofen's good relationship with Franco encouraged Hugo Sperrle to leave day-to-day affairs in his hands.

Richthofen and Hugo Sperrle agreed German support should be limited, for Franco's rule would not be perceived as legitimate if he received lavish foreign aid.

Hugo Sperrle was assisted by the Oberkommando der Luftwaffe.

Hugo Sperrle left Germany by air on 31 October 1936 and arrived in Seville, via Rome on 5 November.

Hugo Sperrle was sent a Kampfgruppe, Jagdgruppe 88 and Aufklarungsstaffel.

Hugo Sperrle began the war with 120 aircraft, and for the first four months the German aviators failed to make an impact.

Hugo Sperrle lost 20 percent of his strength in the failed attempt to seize Madrid in 1936.

Hugo Sperrle personally led an attack against the Republican Navy at Cartagena, sinking two ships.

The Heinkel He 51 was not up to the job, Hugo Sperrle requested Berlin send modern aircraft.

Hugo Sperrle's command began receiving the Dornier Do 17, He 111, Ju 86 bombers and Bf 109 fighters in January 1937.

On 1 April 1937 Hugo Sperrle was promoted to Generalleutnant.

Hugo Sperrle moved his headquarters to Vitoria to lead his small force of 62 aircraft.

Hugo Sperrle's plan was to block the roads to the south and east of Guernica, thereby offering a chance to encircle and destroy Republican forces.

Hugo Sperrle's men routed eight battalions of infantry and large numbers of tanks in the close air support and interdiction role.

Hugo Sperrle lost 12 aircraft and 22 men killed, amounting to 17.5 percent of his strength.

In late 1937, Hugo Sperrle fought against the interference of Wilhelm Faupel, one of Adolf Hitler's advisors in Spanish affairs.

On 1 November 1937 Hugo Sperrle was promoted to General der Flieger.

Hugo Sperrle was given command of Luftwaffe Group 3 on the 1 February 1938 which eventually became Luftflotte 3 in February 1939.

Hugo Sperrle commanded the air fleet for the remainder of his military career.

Hugo Sperrle was used by Hitler in his foreign policy to intimidate small neighbours with the Luftwaffe, which had earned a reputation in Spain.

Hugo Sperrle possessed 650 aircraft in Fliegerdivision 5, which formed part of his command.

Hugo Sperrle's orders were to support the 12th Army in the event an invasion of Czechoslovakia was required.

The Munich Agreement ended the prospect of war and Hugo Sperrle's forces landed at As airfield as the Wehrmacht annexed the Sudetenland in October 1938.

Hugo Sperrle turned to the Luftwaffe to assist him achieving diplomatic results.

Hugo Sperrle was asked by Hitler to talk about the Luftwaffe, to intimidate the Czech president.

Hugo Sperrle received the competent Major General Maximilian Ritter von Pohl as his chief of staff.

Hugo Sperrle was assigned Major General Walter Suren, appointed as the air fleet's chief signals officer.

Hugo Sperrle developed a reputation as a gourmet, whose private transport aircraft featured a refrigerator to keep his wines cool, and although as corpulent as Goring, he was reliable and as ruthless as his superior.

Hugo Sperrle wanted his air fleet to take a more aggressive stance and won over Goring.

Reconnaissance operations were eased when Hugo Sperrle received KG 27 and KG 55 once the Polish campaign had ended.

Hugo Sperrle arranged a single, massive bombing of the defences; Loerzer did not carry out the plan, but a series of bombing operations on the Meuse front.

Hugo Sperrle's job was to protect Guderian's southern flank, though he was ordered to assist against an attempted counter-attack near Arras by supporting the 4th Army advance north.

Hugo Sperrle and Kesselring objected to the halt order during the Battle of Dunkirk.

Hugo Sperrle, according to Richthofen, was ambivalent and had made few provisions for an attack on the port, preferring to concentrate on his area of operations in the south.

Kesselring's air fleet carried the burden of operations over Dunkirk, but Hugo Sperrle's men were attacking shipping.

Hugo Sperrle and Kesselring failed to prevent the Dunkirk evacuation, despite flying 1,997 fighter, 1,056 bomber and 826 "strike" operations.

Hugo Sperrle had long-planned for air attacks on Paris using II.

Hugo Sperrle was ordered to support Rundstedt advancing southward, with orders to encircle the Maginot Line, from the west.

Hugo Sperrle was becoming disconcerted at the personnel, rather than aircraft, losses.

Hugo Sperrle knew he could not afford to lose experienced officers at such a rate.

Hugo Sperrle, Kesselring, Grauert and Loerzer were summoned to Karinhall to explain why the operation had been a mess.

Hugo Sperrle lost only seven crews, reflecting the perilous state of RAF night fighter defences.

Hugo Sperrle lost Richthofen to Kesselring who took possession of some units in Normandy, and concentrated the available dive-bomber force near the Straits of Dover.

Hugo Sperrle had seen inflated claims made before in Spain, and advocated maintaining attacks on the RAF and the infrastructure supporting it.

Hugo Sperrle dismissed Kesselring's optimism, and put British strength at the more accurate figure of 1,000 fighters.

Hugo Sperrle's command flew the majority of the missions; 3,500 to Kesselring's 2,400.

Hugo Sperrle provided 304 of the 448 bombers in the Coventry attack.

On 24 November 1940 148 of Hugo Sperrle's bombers began the Bristol Blitz.

Hugo Sperrle had been involved in the war at sea since the first phase of the Battle of Britain.

Hugo Sperrle received an OKL directive on 20 October 1940 ordering him to attack shipping in the Thames Estuary.

Hugo Sperrle protested to the OKL, OKW and Goring upon the dissipation of mine-laying operations through 1941 and 1942.

Ulrich Kessler, commanding Fliegerfuhrer Atlantik, estimated that with Hugo Sperrle's proposed bomber forces, he could sink 500,000 tons of shipping per month.

Hugo Sperrle's forces lost 81 fighters from the approximate total of 200 in France and Belgium.

Hugo Sperrle's fighters flew 19,535 sorties and lost 93 in the same period.

Hugo Sperrle was able to provide five bomber groups for the Donnerkeil.

Hugo Sperrle resisted attempts by Luftwaffenbefehlshaber Mitte to gain control of anti-aircraft forces or to allow the physical degradation of his air fleet, and the offensive mindedness of the OKL favoured front-line units.

Regardless of the logic, Hugo Sperrle opposed the idea to preserve his command.

Hugo Sperrle was sensitive to a centralised command for fighter forces and resisted.

Hugo Sperrle had retained the Luftgaue in southern Germany and his air fleet was given control of the 5.

Hugo Sperrle did retain the III Flak Corps which could be used in ground combat.

Hugo Sperrle remarked to Goring that he would need any aircraft capable of carrying a bomb.

Hugo Sperrle had wanted to use his bomber forces to attack the invasion forces during the night at the landing grounds and the embarkation points in England.

On 23 May 1944, Hugo Sperrle had 349 heavy and 407 Flak batteries at his disposal.

Nevertheless, Hugo Sperrle issued a pompous order of the day to his airmen:.

The performance of Hugo Sperrle's III Flak Corps was an exception.

Hugo Sperrle was dismissed from his post on 23 August 1944, hours before American and French forces liberated Paris and overran his headquarters.

Hugo Sperrle had become lazy and had a tendency to indulge in the trappings and luxury that occupied France offered.

Hugo Sperrle became indebted but retained sufficient standing with Hitler for him to be loaned or given 50,000 Reichsmarks.

Analysts of Hugo Sperrle's performance have been critical of his perceived inaction in Normandy and point to critical contemporary army reports on the failures of his command.

Hugo Sperrle was deemed unfit for a senior command and spent the rest of the war in the Fuhrerreserve, effective from 5 October 1944.

On 1 May 1945, Hugo Sperrle was arrested by the British Army and became a prisoner of war.

Hugo Sperrle was captured by the Allies and charged with war crimes in the High Command Trial at the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials but was acquitted.

Hugo Sperrle was again acquitted in June 1949 following a second hearing before a court in Munich.

The court concluded that Hugo Sperrle had never been a member of the Nazi Party nor one of its affiliate organizations.

Hugo Sperrle was buried at the village cemetery in Thaining, Bavaria.