Introduction
Hellmuth Felmy (May 28, 1885 – December 14, 1965) was a German general (General der Flieger) in the Luftwaffe during World War II. Felmy was convicted as a war criminal in 1948.
Biography
Felmy was born on 28 May 1885 in Berlin. In 1904, he joined the Imperial Army and, in 1912, Felmy went to flight school to become a pilot for the Imperial Army Air Service. During World War I, Felmy commanded a squadron on the Turkish Front. After the war, he remained in the German military. Felmy alternated between infantry and aviation assignments in the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic. On 4 February 1938, Felmy was promoted to General der Flieger.
By the beginning of World War II, Felmy commanded Air Fleet 2 (Luftflotte 2) of the Luftwaffe. On 12 January, he was dismissed due to the Mechelen Incident and replaced by Albert Kesselring.
In May 1941, Felmy was called up by the High Command of the Armed Forces (Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, or OKW) to be the commander of Special Staff F (Sonderstab F), the doomed military mission to Iraq. While Felmy was a General der Flieger, he was not responsible for commanding the air force component of Sonderstab F. Sonderstab F lasted from 20 May to 20 June. Felmy commanded the mission in Iraq from occupied Greece.
After the failure of the mission to Iraq, Felmy was made commander of Army Group Southern Greece (Befehlshaber Südgriechenland). From 1942 to 1943, he remained in Greece and commanded a "special deployment" (zur besonderen Verwendung, or z. b. V.) unit named after him (z. b. V. Felmy). From 1943 to 1944, he commanded the LXVIII Army Corps of the German Army. Late in 1944, the LXVIII Corps moved from Greece to Yugoslavia. From 1944 to 1945, he commanded the XXXIV Army Corps. In 1945, the XXXIV Corps was overwhelmed during the Yugoslav Partisan General Offensive of March and April.
In 1948, during the Hostages Trial in Nuremberg, Felmy was accused of war crimes in Greece and was given a sentence of 15 years. On 15 January 1951, he was released early.
On 14 December 1965, Felmy died in Darmstadt in what was then West Germany.
Posthumous
In 2007, Felmy's writings about Cossacks who fought for the Germans, along with those of Walter Warlimont, were published in The Cossack Corps.
Felmy's son, Hansjörg Felmy (1931–2007), was a successful actor and appeared the films Torn Curtain and Brainwashed.