“Based upon his experiences during the Spanish Civil War, Richthofen employed his seven Stukagruppen and single ground-attack Gruppe to devastating effect by providing direct support to the ground forces at every critical point and decisive phase in the fighting.” — Helmit Mahlke Copy Share Image
“The one officer responsible above all others for the development of Blitzkrieg tactics was General Manfred Freiherr von Richthofen” — Helmit Mahlke Copy Share Image
“Based upon his experiences during the Spanish Civil War, Richthofen employed his seven Stukagruppen and single ground-attack Gruppe to devastating effect by providing direct… — Helmit Mahlke Copy Share Image
“The next topic of conversation was the question of fighter escorts for the Stuka units. Our Kommandeur had already raised this matter on numerous occasions during his discussions with higher authority. He argued that our machines, being slow and poorly armed for air combat, needed to be provided with at least a small force of fighters to fly close escort.… — Helmit Mahlke Copy Share
“Here on the Eastern Front, whenever we carried out our low-level attacks immediately in front of our comrades on the ground – dropping our bombs singly on the gun emplacements and machine-gun nests that were holding up their advance, and then strafing the enemy’s trenches until our ammunition was exhausted – we could actually see the results. We saw our… — Helmit Mahlke Copy Share
“For unlike many of our previous opponents, Russian troops tended to stand firm when under air attack. Rather than dive for cover, most would… — Helmit Mahlke Copy Share Image
“Admittedly, our ground convoys during the later stages of the French campaign were something of a sorry spectacle. Made up of civilian and military… — Helmit Mahlke Copy Share Image
