World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseHellmuth Felmy was born in Berlin, Germany in 1885. He joined the army in 1904, and in 1912 he attended the army's flight school. During WW1, he commanded a German Army Air Service squadron on the Turkish Front. Remaining in the military after WW1, he saw service with both infantry and air units. In 1938, he was promoted to the rank of General der Flieger. On 10 Jan 1940, a German Bf 108 aircraft crashed in Belgium with German invasion plans for the Low Countries aboard; two days later, as a responsible superior officer in this Mechelen Incident, he was dismissed as the commanding general of Air Fleet 2 (Luftflotte 2). He played no roles in the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) until May 1941, when he was made the commanding officer of Special Staff F (Sonderstab F)based in Greece; the short-lived mission, which sought to support a pro-German and anti-British element in Iraq, ended a month later. He remained in the Balkans in command of occupation troops. His final posting during the war was the commanding officer of XXXIV Army Corps, which was effectively wiped out by Yugoslavian partisan units in the final months of the war. In 1948, during the Hostages Trial in Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Germany, he was found guilty for war crimes and was sentenced to a 15-year prison sentence. He was released in 1951. He passed away in Darmstadt, West Germany in 1965. He was buried at the Alter Friedhof cemetery in Darmstadt.

Photographs

Hellmuth Felmy Timeline