A Desperate Struggle To Save A Condemned Army - A Critical Review Of The Stalingrad Airlift
()
About this ebook
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.
Major Mike Thyssen
See Book Description
Related to A Desperate Struggle To Save A Condemned Army - A Critical Review Of The Stalingrad Airlift
Related ebooks
Retreat through the Rhone Valley: Defensive battles of the Nineteenth Army, August–September 1944 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWar Dairies from Inside Hitler's Headquarters Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStalingrad And The Turning Point On The Soviet-German Front, 1941-1943 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBusting The Bocage: American Combined Arms Operations In France, 6 June-31 July 1944 [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStalingrad to Berlin: The German Defeat in the East - History of the Turning Point in World War II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Battle At St. Vith, Belgium, 17-23 December 1944: An Historical Example of Armor In the Defense Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTHE BATTLE OF ALAM HALFA - A BATTLE REPORT [Illustrated Edition] Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/51918: The Year of Victories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGerman Air Force Airlift Operations Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRome to the Po River: The 362nd Infantry Division, 1944–45 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler's Air Defences Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNormandy 1944: German Military Organization, Combat Power and Organizational Effectiveness Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Germany in the Great War: Verdun & Somme Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler's Strategic Bombing Offensive on the Eastern Front: Blitz Over the Volga, 1943 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFighting the Bombers: The Luftwaffe's Struggle Against the Allied Bomber Offensive Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHitler's Paratroopers in Normandy: The German II Parachute Corps in the Battle for France, 1944 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Army into the Reich Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPanzers in Normandy: General Hans Eberbach and the German Defense of France, 1944 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Soviet Partisan Movement, 1941-1944 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Germans and the Dieppe Raid: How Hitler's Wehrmacht Crushed Operation Jubilee Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPaths of Armor: The Fifth Armored Division in World War II Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMac, Brandy and Me World War Ii: Memories of a Soldier Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe German Army at Ypres 1914 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Panzer Aces III: German Tank Commanders in Combat in World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Torpedo Bombers Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5The Devil's General: The Life of Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz, "The Panzer Graf" Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Perfect Sturm: Innovation and the Origins of Blitzkrieg in World War I Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRise and Fall of the German Air Force (1933 to 1945) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSS Victory in the West The Battle of the Bulge Against all Odds A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsZeppelin Inferno: The Forgotten Blitz, 1916 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
European History For You
Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oscar Wilde: The Unrepentant Years Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dry: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Time Traveler's Guide to Medieval England: A Handbook for Visitors to the Fourteenth Century Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise of the Fourth Reich: The Secret Societies That Threaten to Take Over America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 2]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book: The Script Book Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mein Kampf: English Translation of Mein Kamphf - Mein Kampt - Mein Kamphf Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Anarchy: The East India Company, Corporate Violence, and the Pillage of an Empire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jane Austen: The Complete Novels Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Victorian Lady's Guide to Fashion and Beauty Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Book of English Magic Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Law Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Celtic Mythology: A Concise Guide to the Gods, Sagas and Beliefs Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Psychedelic Gospels: The Secret History of Hallucinogens in Christianity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Violent Abuse of Women: In 17th and 18th Century Britain Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Six Wives of Henry VIII Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Freedom: Harry and Meghan and the Making of a Modern Royal Family Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Iron, Fire and Ice: The Real History that Inspired Game of Thrones Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Anglo-Saxons: A History of the Beginnings of England: 400 – 1066 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for A Desperate Struggle To Save A Condemned Army - A Critical Review Of The Stalingrad Airlift
0 ratings0 reviews
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