Prestien, Fritz.

Prestien, Fritz, born 06-03-1887 in Gotha, Thüringen, joined the Army Service after his education to Cadet on 10-03-1904, age 17, with the 9^th Lothringisches Infanterie-Regiment Nr. 173,

  as a Fahnenjunker. Promoted to Leutnant on 18-08-1905. He in spring of 1913 was transferred to the Air Force starts a pilot training. He was in the air of the first war with the 5^th Field Flyer Squadron and promoted to Oberleutnant and he ends the war as a Hauptmann. On his marriage a guest was his best friend, the flying ace Manfred von Richthofen. 

Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen  known in English as Baron von Richthofen or the Red Baron, was a fighter pilot with the German Air Force during World War I. He is considered the ace-of-aces of the war, being officially credited with 80 air combat victories.

It was almost certainly during this final stage in his pursuit of May that a single .303 bullet[g] hit Richthofen through the chest, severely damaging his heart and lungs; it would have killed Richthofen in less than a minute. His aircraft stalled and went into a steep dive, hitting the ground at 49°55′56″N 2°32′16″E in a field on a hill near the Bray-Corbie road, just north of the village of Vaux-sur-Somme, in a sector defended by the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). The aircraft bounced heavily upon hitting the ground: the undercarriage collapsed and the fuel tank was smashed before the aircraft skidded to a stop. Several witnesses, including Gunner George Ridgway, reached the crashed plane and found Richthofen already dead, and his face slammed into the butts of his machine guns, breaking his nose, fracturing his jaw and creating contusions on his face. Duration: 22 seconds.0:22Australian soldiers and airmen examine the remnants of Richthofen’s triplane.Australian airmen with Richthofen’s triplane 425/17 after it was looted by souvenir hunters No. 3 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps was the nearest Entente air unit and assumed responsibility for the Baron’s remains. His Dutch  Fokker    Dr.I 425/17 was soon taken apart by souvenir hunters.

In 2009, Richthofen’s death certificate was found in the archives in Ostrów Wielkopolski, Poland. He had briefly been stationed in Ostrów before going to war, as it was part of Germany until the end of World War I. The document is a one-page, handwritten form in a 1918 registry book of deaths. It misspells Richthofen’s name as “Richthoven” and simply states that he had “died 21 April 1918, from wounds sustained in combat”.

Prestien retired from the Army Service on 30-09-1919 and in spring of 1933 he as an instructor is assigned to the Commercial Flying School , in Braunschweig. He changed to the Flyer School in his hometown Gotha as an instructor, on 01-06-1934 and becomes the commander of the School in Gotha on 01-10-1934. He is accepted in Hermann Göring’s (did you know)

   Luftwaffe as a Supplement Officer on 01-03-1935 and appointed as a Major as Fliegerhorst Commander Gotha. At the beginning of World War II he as an Oberstleutnant is the Quartermaster II with Air Region Command IV. On 01-02-1940 promoted to Oberst and on 01-12-1943 to Generalmajor. In the spring of 1944 he is appointed as Airport Area Commander 4/III. He is released of this position 11-02-1945 and placed to the disposal of the Flying Replacement Division.

Death and burial ground of Prestien, Fritz.

Fritz Prestien not a battlefield General was retired on 28-02-1945, age 57, not useful anymore. Living in Bensheim, Prestien died at the old age of 84 and is buried with his wife Wally, born von Minckwitz, who died old age 95, in 1988, on the cemetery of Schönberg, Bensheim.