Hubertus Hitschhold (7 July 1912 – 10 March 1966)[1] was a German general and ground-attack pilot during World War II.

The Oberkommando der Luftwaffe (High Command of the Air Force) was created to control all aspects of aerial warfare.

[7] Hitschhold's group assisted in the destruction of the Łódź Army's cavalry brigades alongside Richthofen's forces.

Over the winter, 1939, Hitschhold's gruppe trained to knock out Belgian fortresses at Liège and opposite Maastricht, in the Netherlands in preparation for Fall Gelb.

StG 2 remained under Richthofen's air corps command, part of Luftflotte 2, belonging to Albert Kesselring.

[17] The Belgian defences in the region crumbled the following afternoon, after the French 7e Division d'Infanterie failed to relieve them under attack from StG 2 and Lehrgeschwader 2.

Five Ju 87s were shot down near Tirlemont 42 km east-south-east of Brussels in combat with Hawker Hurricanes of the RAF Advanced Air Striking Force.

[17] The capture of Liège airfield permitted close air support units to focus on the Battle of Sedan.

[28] In a major action, Dinort led 39 Ju 87s and two gruppen in an attack on Admiral James Somerville's forces off Calais on 24 May.

[29] From 29 May Hitschhold led his formation in the Battle of Dunkirk until 2 June 1940, attacking shipping and Royal Navy vessel supporting Operation Dynamo.

[17] In July 1940 the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht initiated plans for Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of the United Kingdom.

The Luftwaffe began bombing British convoys in the English Channel to draw Fighter Command into battle and deplete its strength.

I./StG 2 took off, led by Geschwaderkommodore Oskar Dinort and Hitschhold, from Falaise, Calvados with 24 Ju 87s, escorted by a Staffel of fighters from I./JG 1.

SS Empire Crusader, in the lead, was hit by StG 2 and sank several hours later; four ships were sunk and four were damaged in the attacks.

I./JG 53 flew a fighter sweep ahead of the bombers from Poole to Lyme Regis in order to tempt the RAF into battle.

[43] The group bombed British Army concentrations in Arta, Greece from 9 April and supported the advance on Salonika and Skopje.

[43] Through the remainder of April 1941, Hitschhold supported the advance on Olympia, Larissa, Volos, and the German land forces at the Battle of Thermopylae.

[43] Hitschhold's men probably sank the Greek destroyer Hydra at Piraeus naval base, which lost 23 vessels in two days.

[52] On 30 May Rear Admiral Irvine Glennie's Force D, consisting of the cruisers HMS Dido, Orion and Ajax were intercepted by Hitschhold's unit, which was now operating from Rhodes.

[54] Hitschhold departed Rhodes for Cottbus, and then moved eastward to Przasnysz, 88 km north-east of Warsaw in German-occupied Poland.

StG 2 remained with Richthofen's Fliegerkorps VIII, subordinated to Kesselring's Luftflotte 2 in preparation for Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union.

[43] Hitschhold's group assisted the breakthrough at Suwałki on 25 June, and engaged in anti-tank operations 80 km south of Grodno.

The group supported the breach of the Velikaya River line, and the advance to Staraya Russa near Lake Ilmen.

[56] During these combat operations, one of Hitschhold's men, a then unknown Hans-Ulrich Rudel, sank the Soviet battleship Marat at the cost of several Ju 87s.

[58] Hitschhold was moved to the 1st Dive-bomber school as an instructor,[55] and on 31 December 1941 he was awarded the 57th Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves with a promotion to Major for his service as Gruppenkommandeur of I./Sturzkampfgeschwader 2 "Immelmann".

On 8 July was ordered to attack the airfield at Kamesnk to relieve pressure on the army from the Red Air Force.

The offensive broke through north and south of Axis lines around Stalingrad and encircled the German, Italian, Hungarian and Romanian armies in and around the city.

[65] Among the successes, was the repulse of a tank attack by the 1st Guards Army against Antonovka near Millerovo on 2 January 1943; which was defeated largely because of the tank-busting formations from II./SG 1.

[66] In 1943 Hitschhold's main successful contribution was the support of the Waffen SS at the Third Battle of Kharkov, which allowed the Germans to recapture the city and Belgorod.

Elements moved southwest of Rostov-on-Don, and fought in the Taman Peninsula, at the Kuban bridgehead[68] in support of the 17th Army.