Colonel general
During World War II he commanded a Luftflotte 2 corps from 3 October 1939 and was appointed Major general and commander of the 6th flight division on 1 January. He provided air support to the Wehrmacht Army Group B in the 1940 Battle of France and from 1941 commanded Luftwaffe units on the Eastern Front. Promoted to General der Flakartillerie on 1 January 1942, he served as a commander on the southern Eastern Front and in the Caucasus Mountains. On 11 June 1943 Dessloch succeeded Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen as commander-in-chief of Luftflotte 4 in the rank of Colonel general.