page_title: Hugo Sperrle
section_title: Battle of France
hierarchical_section_title: Hugo Sperrle / World War II / Battle of France
context_page_description: Hugo Sperrle was a German military aviator in World War I and a Generalfeldmarschall in the Luftwaffe during World War II.
  Born in 1885 Sperrle joined the Imperial German Army in 1903. He served in the artillery upon the outbreak of World War I. In 1914 he joined the Luftstreitkräfte as an observer then trained as a pilot. Sperrle ended the war at the rank of Hauptmann in command of an aerial reconnaissance attachment of a field army.
  In the inter-war period Sperrle was appointed to the General Staff in the Reichswehr, serving the Weimar Republic in the aerial warfare branch. In 1934 after Nazi Party seized power, Sperrle was promoted to Generalmajor and transferred from the army to the Luftwaffe. Sperrle was given command of the Condor Legion in November 1936 and fought with the expeditionary force in the Spanish Civil War until October 1937. The Legion attracted global attention for the ruthless bombing of towns and cities in Spain.
  Sperrle was appointed as commanding officer of Luftwaffengruppenkommando 3 the forerunner of Luftflotte 3 in February 1938. Sperrle was used during the Anschluss and Czech crisis by the Nazi leadership to threaten other governments with bombardment.
context_section_description: Luftflotte 3 was heavily reinforced in the spring, 1940. Sperrle's headquarters was based at Bad Orb. The air fleet was assigned I. Flakkorps under Generaloberst Hubert Weise, I. Fliegerkorps under Generaloberst Ulrich Grauert at Cologne, the II. Fliegerkorps under Generaloberst Bruno Loerzer at Frankfurt, and V. Fliegerkorps under command of General Robert Ritter von Greim at Gersthofen. Jagdfliegerführer 3 (Fighter Flyer Command 3) under the command of Oberst Gerd von Massow was assigned to the air fleet at Wiesbaden. Massow was replaced during the campaign by Oberst Werner Junck. For the coming battle, Sperrle had 1,788 aircraft (1,272 operational) at his disposal. Opposing Sperrle, was the Armée de l'Air (French Air Force) eastern (ZOAE) and southern (ZOAS) zones under Général de Corps d'armée Aérien René Bouscat and Robert Odic. Bouscat had 509 aircraft (363 operational) and Odic 165 (109 combat ready).
  I. Fliegerkorps covered a line running from Eupen, to the Luxembourg border, westward through Fumay, south of Laon to Senlis and the Seine at Vernon through to the English Channel with just 471 aircraft. Cloudy conditions prevented the bomber wings from finding airfields, so industrial targets were attacked instead. II. Fliegerkorps operated from Bitsch to Revigny, to Villenauxe, then west north of Orléans and south of Nantes to the Atlantic Ocean south of the Loire river with only 429 aircraft. V. Fliegerkorps covered south of this line with 498 aircraft and the 359 fighters of Jagdfliegerführer 3.
  Fall Gelb began on 10 May 1940. Sperrle's air fleet engaged in operations supporting Generalfeldmarschall Gerd von Rundstedt and Army Group A in the Battle of Belgium and Battle of France, as well as Army Group C. Sperrle's counter-air campaign started badly, reflecting poor photographic interpretation of targets, though he later claimed Luftflotte 3's operations were decisive in achieving air superiority. Kesselring's Luftflotte 2 achieved far greater success. Only 29 of the 42 airfields bombed were being used. Three RAF Advanced Air Striking Force bases were struck. Sperrle's men claimed 240 to 490 aircraft destroyed, mostly "in hangars"—Allied losses were actually 40 first-line aircraft. The penalty for failing to neutralise Allied fighter units cost Sperrle 39 aircraft. Loerzer lost 23—the highest loss of any air corps on the day.
  Weiss' Flakkorps repulsed the RAF ASSAF attacks against the German advance, inflicting a 56 percent loss rate. From 10–13 May 1940 Sperrle's air fleet was credited with 89 aircraft destroyed in dogfights, 22 by flak, and 233 to 248 on the ground. The most successful day recorded was on 11 May; 127 aircraft were claimed—100 on the ground and 27 in the air. In a notable incident, 8./KG 51—one of the air fleet's units, bombed Freiburg in error causing 158 civilian casualties and killing 22 children. To cover up the mistake, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels blamed the British and French for the "Freiburg massacre".
  Sperrle's bombers did lay the foundations of a break-through. Loerzer and Grauert's air corps ordered their reconnaissance aircraft to range approximately 400 kilometres into French territory. They avoided the Sedan area so not to attract the attention of the French to German forces advancing on it, they carefully monitoried the Allied reactions. Sperrle's air corps commanders targeted air interdiction operations and ordered, attacks on rail communications to prevent the westward deployment of the French Army from the Maginot Line and to pin down Allied reserves by disrupting communications across the Meuse. 26 French rail stations were bombed as were 86 localities from 10 to 12 May. Sperrle maintained the pressure on airfields—44 were struck on the 11–12 May. Loerzer and V. Fliegerkorps, under Greim, also bombed road traffic around Charleville-Mézières.
  On 13 May, Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist's 1st Panzer Army was poised to cross the Meuse at Montherme, with Heinz Guderian's XIX Army Corps at Sedan. To support the breakthrough, Generalleutnant Wolfram von Richthofen's VIII. F
caption: Sperrle (right), with staff officers in France
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