Hans Jeschonnek was fifteen when he decided he joined the German army in the first world
war.
Early on he embraced militarism and showed much potential.
As he rose through the ranks of the German army, he was known as a competent and intelligent
commander, and one of the most popular generals of Nazi Germany, serving as Chief of the General
staff of the Luftwaffe until his death.
He would not see the end of the war, due to his own fatal mistake.
So.. what exactly happened to Jeschonnek?
-intro-
Born in Hohensalza in eighteen-ninety-nine, Jeschonnek military career began when he was
fifteen, as he registered at the Prussian Haupt Kadetten Anstalt in order to fight at
the front during the First World War.
He graduated top of his class at the Kriegsakademie in september nineteen-fourteen he was promoted
to lieutenant and three years later, in nineteen-seventeen, he was transferred to the Lufstreitkräfte,
Germany’s air force.
As we know, in nineteen-eighteen Germany lost the first world war, and Germany was tormented
by years of turbulence, chaos and attempted coups from both left and right.
Jeschonnek was awarded the iron cross first- and second class for shooting down two enemy
fighter planes during the war.
Anyway, a bit lesser known are the Silesian Uprisings, the three uprisings of Poles between
nineteen-nineteen and nineteen-twenty-one.
After the first world war, the second Polish Republic had been established and the Silesians
were hoping to break away from Germany and join this Republic.
The whole nitty-gritty of these uprisings are a story for another time, but Jeschonnek
fought on the German side during them.
Afterwards, he became an officer of the cavalry in the Reichswehr, the army of the Weimar
Republic and graduated, top of his class, from the general staff training.
He worked in the ministry of national defense and built up the Luftwaffe, in secret though,
because it broke the terms of the Versailles treaty.
In nineteen-thirty-three he became Erhard Milch, the secretary of state for the air
force's adjutant.
By this time, Adolf Hitler had rose to power in Germany and rapidly transformed the country
into a totalitarian state.
Two years later Jeschonnek was tasked with testing aircrafts, after which he returned
to the Luftwaffe ministry, and was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
It didn’t take long for him to be promoted to Oberst, the equivalent of colonel, and
in nineteen-thirty-nine, right before the second world war broke out, he was promoted
to Chief of the General Staff of the Luftwaffe, replacing Hans-Jürgen Stumpff.
Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to Generalmajor, as
you can probably tell, Jeschonnek was a rather competent military man.
He wasn’t a member of the Nazi party, though he was loyal to Hitler and the aims of the
Nazi regime.
Described as a hard working, military gentleman that could keep his head cool in the face
of danger, he was a popular German commander at the outbreak of the second world war.
September nineteen-thirty-nine saw Germany invade Poland, and after the successes of
the Luftwaffe, combined with the successes against France in nineteen-forty, he was promoted
to General der Flieger.
The Luftwaffe, however, did not manage to maintain this momentum.
The battle of Britain, Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia, and the fighting around
the Mediterranean, which included supplying Germany’s Afrika Korps, all displayed shortcomings.
Jeschonnek was blamed in part, together with Göring, for the deterioration of the Luftwaffe.
Regardless, he was promoted to Generaloberst in March nineteen-forty-two.
A year later, in nineteen-forty-three, after the Bombardment of Hamburg which caused around
forty-two-thousand civilian deaths, there were talks suggesting the replacement of Jeschonnek
among Hitler’s inner circle.
Ever since the absolute failure Stalingrad turned out to be, Hitler had been... rather
angry with the Luftwaffe leadership, including Jeschonnek.
Nevertheless, Jeschonnek was seen as a very competent and impressive leader, as Field
Marshal Albert Kesselring described: During the war years, the most impressive personality
among the Chiefs of the General Staff was Generaloberst Jeschonnek — an unusually
intelligent and energetic person.
Now, the series of events that caught my attention and which is why I wanted to make a video
about Jeschonnek, were put in motion when the Allied Powers launched a campaign called
Bodyline.
The operation was renamed to Operation Crossbow and in nineteen-sixty-five a film was made
about these events.
The objective was to curb the research and development of German long-range weapons and
the allied powers employed strategic bombing tactics in order to halt the development of
said weapons.
Well, between the seventeenth and eighteenth of August nineteen-forty-four the scientific
research centre of Peenemünde was bombed by five hundred Air Force One fighters as
part of Operation Hydra, which fell under the overall operation Crossbow.
Hans Jeschonnek saw fighter planes fly over Berlin and, figuring they were enemy aircrafts
that got lost.
What followed was Jeschonnek ordering the Berlin’s air defenses to fire upon these
planes.
As you can probably guess by this point… they weren’t enemy planes, but two-hundred
German fighters.
Realizing his mistake and being confronted with the damage done, Jeschonnek took his
own life on the eighteenth of August nineteen-forty-three.
He left a suicide note in which he proclaimed his loyalty to Adolf Hitler but spoke unfavorably
about other nazis such as Göring.
Two years after this competent and popular Generaloberst had taken his own life, the
Nazi regime itself would fall and the top of the Nazi regime would either commit suicide
or be tried for war crimes and executed, but that’s a story for another time.
Thank you for watching this video and what is an event or person from the second world
war that you would like to know more about, and perhaps see a video of?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
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See you next time!