Today in aviation history – 11th October

On 11th October 1895 in Gut Barzdorf was born Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen. He was a German aviator. He was born in aristocratic family that lived in Lower Silesia. He was a cousin of a famous Manfred von Richthofen and his brother – Lothar. After the war he started engineering studies and graduated as an engineering Phd. In 1933 he joined Luftwaffe where he worked in technical division. Three years later he was sent to Spain, where he commanded fighter formations. In 1938 he was promoted to a general. During the September Campaign his unit’s aircrafts carried out a raid on Warsaw. After Polish defeat he was a commander of a 8th Aerial Corpus that supported units commanded by Walther von Reichenau and Paula von Kleist. He was a veteran of the Battle of England and invasion of Crete. He was reassigned to Eastern front. In June 1943 he was sent to Italy to cover evacuation of German Army from Sicily. He quit the army in 1944 because of brain cancer. He died on 12th July 1945 in prison camp in Bad Ischl in Austria.
On 11th October 1919 25 first graduates of Aeronaut Officer School in Poznań gained titles of a sublieutenants. The school in Poznań was supposed to train staff for Polish hot air balloon army. Trained hot air balloon observers were involved in Polish-Bolshevick war.