 At the beginning of 1943 Korten was promoted to General and in the summer replaced Alfred Keller at Luftflotte 1 (1st Air Fleet).A few weeks later, on 25 August he accepted the position of Chief of the General Staff of the Luftwaffe, after the former Chief of the General Staff Hans Jeschonnek committed suicide.Korten was seriously wounded in the "Wolfsschanze" near Rastenburg during the 20 July Plot in 1944, in which Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg attempted to assassinate Hitler with a bomb.