World War II
When the war began, Ritter von Greim was given command of a Luftflotte (Air Wing) and was involved in the invasion of Poland, the Battle for Norway, the Battle of Britain and Operation Barbarossa.
In late 1942, his only son, Hubert Greim, a Bf-109 pilot with 11./JG 2 "Richthofen" was listed as missing in Tunisia. He was shot down by a Spitfire flown by a Royal Australian Air Force pilot, Flt.Lt. Robert Maxwell Brinsley, but bailed out and spent the remainder of the war in a prison camp in the United States.
Ritter von Greim's greatest tactical achievement was his Luftflotte's involvement in the battle of Kursk and his planes' bombing of the Orel bulge. It was for this battle that Adolf Hitler awarded Ritter von Greim the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves (Das Ritterkreuz mit Eichenlaub des Eisernen Kreuzes), which made him one of the most highly decorated military officers.
Read more about this topic: Robert Ritter Von Greim
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