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    A Desperate Struggle To Save A Condemned Army - A Critical Review Of The Stalingrad Airlift
    A Desperate Struggle To Save A Condemned Army - A Critical Review Of The Stalingrad Airlift
    A Desperate Struggle To Save A Condemned Army - A Critical Review Of The Stalingrad Airlift
    Ebook79 pages51 minutes

    A Desperate Struggle To Save A Condemned Army - A Critical Review Of The Stalingrad Airlift

    By Major Mike Thyssen

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    About this ebook

    Stalingrad is often described as the turning point of the German war with the Soviet Union, or perhaps even the entire European war. This paper argues that the actual turning point was probably earlier in the Barbarossa campaign, and that the decision to hold Stalingrad, while a serious mistake, followed several other strategic blunders of Adolf Hitler.
    Given that, this essay reflects a study of primary source material collected from key German commanders, as well as numerous documents collected in 1956 as part of the “Karlsruhe Collection.” The focus was to determine where the airlift failed, why it failed, and what could have been done better.
    Ultimately the failure could be attributed to the lack of a survivable and more capable transport aircraft, difficulties operating out of poorly prepared airfields which were under constant threat from the Red Army, the absolutely miserable weather which frequently prevented any flying at all, enemy action which prevented daylight flights by much of the fleet, supplies which were not ideally suited for airlift, and finally difficulties organizing the airlift at both ends. Many commanders involved knew it was bound to fail and warned Hitler and Paulus, to no avail. In the end, what could have been a tremendous feat ended as tragic folly.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherVerdun Press
    Release dateAug 15, 2014
    ISBN9781782898269
    A Desperate Struggle To Save A Condemned Army - A Critical Review Of The Stalingrad Airlift

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      Book preview

      A Desperate Struggle To Save A Condemned Army - A Critical Review Of The Stalingrad Airlift - Major Mike Thyssen

      This edition is published by PICKLE PARTNERS PUBLISHING—www.picklepartnerspublishing.com

      To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – picklepublishing@gmail.com

      Or on Facebook

      Text originally published in 1997 under the same title.

      © Pickle Partners Publishing 2014, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      A DESPERATE STRUGGLE TO SAVE A CONDEMNED ARMY—A CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE STALINGRAD AIRLIFT

      by

      Major Mike Thyssen

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Contents

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 4

      Preface 5

      Abstract 6

      Chapter 1 — Introduction 7

      Chapter 2 — ...there he remains. 9

      Chapter 3 — To Save an Army 11

      The Airlift 11

      The Requirements 11

      The Assets 12

      The Problems 13

      The Aircraft 13

      The Airbases 15

      The Weather 16

      The Enemy 17

      The Supplies 18

      The Organization 19

      Chapter 4 — The Alternatives 21

      von Manstein 21

      Milch 21

      Pickert 22

      Paulus 22

      Fiebig 23

      von Richthofen 23

      Chapter 5 — Where did it go Wrong? 25

      Appendix A — The Leaders 27

      Appendix B — The Chronology 28

      Appendix C — The Requirements 30

      Appendix D — The Weather 31

      Appendix E — The Area 33

      Translation of German terms 33

      Appendix F — The Accomplishments 34

      Translation of German terms 34

      REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 36

      Bibliography 37

      Books 37

      Periodicals 38

      Primary Source Material 39

      Preface

      I embarked on this project because I have long been interested in the most traumatic battle experience for the German soldier of World War II. In only three months, a single battle cost the German nation five or six times the casualties the United States suffered during the entire war in Vietnam. Considering Germany had less than half the population, a comparable loss would approach a million casualties for the U.S. The terrible trauma of Southeast Asia shook this nation deeply and one can only imagine the effect of Stalingrad on Germany in 1943. Few German families were left unscathed by this tragedy—fortunately mine was one.

      My ancestors, none of whom actually fought in the war, are from eastern and central Germany. My father and his family endured and survived the Allied Combined Bomber Offensive, while relatives on my mother’s side suffered the wrath of the advancing Red Army. My intention is not to downplay the atrocities committed by Germans during the war, which were clearly unpardonable, but to remind the reader that millions of innocents also died on the Axis side. Among them were thousands of young soldiers whose only crime was patriotically fighting for their Vaterland. Trapped, frozen, and starving, they suffered in Stalingrad during the terrible winter of 1942/43. Almost all who survived and were captured later died in Soviet captivity. This is the story of the brave men who struggled to save them.

      This paper frequently refers to statistics collected by the Germans during the campaign, including casualties, numbers of sorties flown, and tonnage of supplies delivered. The astute reader will notice that many of these conflict between credible primary sources, including the records of Milch, Fiebig, Pickert, and von Rohden. Many of the variances can probably be attributed to different methods regarding the accounting of the loads (much of which was presumably estimated), the differences in what was sent and what was actually received at the other end (losses due to crashes, airdropped but unrecovered

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