Josef Kammhuber
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Josef Kammhuber was a career officer who served in the Imperial German Army, the Luftwaffe of Nazi Germany and the post-World War II German Air Force. During World War II, he was the first general of
Josef Kammhuber as Inspector of the West German Air Force
Slot Zeist, Kammhubers headquarters.
Kammhuber (left) and Helmut Lent in a Nazi propaganda photograph, France, 1942
Meeting between Kammhuber and Air Marshal Sir Thomas Pike in 1956. Pike had previously served as an RAF night fighter pilot.
Mechelen incident
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The Mechelen incident of 10 January 1940, also known as the Mechelen affair, took place in Belgium during the Phoney War in the first stages of World War II. A German aircraft with an officer on board
Josef Kammhuber
…in February 1939 and was assigned as chief-of-staff of Luftflotte 2. On January 11, 1940, he was reprimanded by Adolf Hitler personally because of the Mechelen Incident. He was then transferred to the Western Front where he became commander of KG 51. On 3 June 1940, he flew with the wing (possibly on Operation Paula…
A Messerschmitt Bf.108, the type of aircraft that Erich Hoenmanns flew.
The location of the crash site
Today, a monument commemorates the crash
Original German plans captured at Maasmechelen, now in the collection of the Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History in Brussels