Bombing of Stalingrad

Luftwaffe General Martin Fiebig's Fliegerkorps VIII was tasked in July 1942 with providing air support for the German 6th Army and 4th Panzer Army as they captured Stalingrad and secured the northern flank of the German advance to the Caucasus oilfields. Luftflotte 4, commanded by Fiebig's superior, Generaloberst Wolfram von Richthofen, held a 1,600-kilometer eastern frontage in July and concentrated its efforts on Stalingrad, with low priority given to air support missions in the Caucasus under Kurt Pflugbeil's Fliegerkorps IV and in the Battle of Voronezh. Logistics for Fliegerkorps VIII received the highest preference, as Richthofen saw the capture of Stalingrad as the key to German success on the entire Eastern Front. Richthofen requested additional Junkers Ju 52 transport groups from Oberkommando der Luftwaffe and transferred Pflugbeil's groups, as well as his road transport companies, to the administrative authority of a new, specially created "Stalingrad transport region". He also ordered better procedures and greater efforts to maximize efficiency. His activities bore fruit as the Luftwaffe constantly lifted ammunition, provisions, and fuel to the front. The army (Heer) implemented its own initiatives to increase supply effectiveness, the insufficient perfection of which had undermined the speed of the German advance since the beginning of Case Blue in June. By the third week of August, the 6th Army and Fliegerkorps VIII were receiving sufficient supplies to undertake without undue difficulties their primary mission of capturing Stalingrad. ==Prelude==

During the Battle of Kalach, Fliegerkorps VIII provided the German XIV and XXIV Panzer Corps with decisive air support as the Soviet 62nd Army was encircled and destroyed west of Kalach from 8–11 August through the application of superior German firepower from all sides and especially from above. Fifty thousand prisoners were taken by the Germans, 1,100 Soviet tanks were destroyed or captured, and the road to Stalingrad was clear. LI Army Corps penetrated across the Don north of Kalach on 21 August, forcing the outmanouvred Red Army formations to the south to fall back on Stalingrad. XIV Panzer Corps crossed the Don the next morning across two large pontoon bridges created by German engineers. Fiebig's air corps shot down 139 Red aircraft in three days and inflicted significant damage on Soviet ground forces. On 21 August, Kampfgeschwader 76's Junkers Ju 88 medium bombers decimated two Soviet reserve divisions on open fields 150 kilometers east of Stalingrad. Within two days of crossing the Don, Gustav Anton von Wietersheim's XIV Panzer Corps rolled forth to reach the Volga river at Spartanovka in the northern suburbs of Stalingrad at 16:00 on 23 August. Stavka was surprised by the speed of Wietersheim's advance. It was accomplished largely thanks to German airpower. Fliegerkorps VIII flew 1,600 unbroken sorties, blasting a path for the Panzer spearheads by dropping 1,000 tons of bombs on 23 August. Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers, Focke-Wulf Fw 190 ground attack aircraft, and Heinkel He 111 and Junkers Ju 88 medium bombers bombed and strafed the paralyzed Soviets, landed, refueled, restocked their ordnance, and flew more missions. Fliegerkorps VIII lost three aircraft that day, while destroying 91 Soviet aircraft and inflicting major damage on the Soviets on the ground. ==Destruction of Stalingrad==

This was the first half of the attacks by Fliegerkorps VIII of 23 August; the second air offensive that day was carried out against the city of Stalingrad itself. From 3:18 pm on 23 August 1942 and through the night into 24 August, units of Richthofen's Luftflotte 4 constantly attacked the city. Medium bomber strength was employed, and included elements of KG 27, KG 51, KG 55, KG 76, and I/KG 100. During 23 August Luftflotte 4 flew approximately 1,600 sorties and dropped 1,000 tons of bombs on the city, effectively destroying it, while three aircraft were lost. Buildings crumbled under the blast effects of high explosives, while the extensive use of incendiaries torched factories, schools, and houses. Wooden houses were incinerated, leaving only their chimneys. In the first few hours of bombing, the headquarters of the city's air defenses were bombed. Stalingrad was enveloped in dense black smoke clouds that stretched 3.5 kilometers upwards. Oil storage containers and fuel tankers were destroyed, spilling their contents of burning oil into the Volga's surface. The city was quickly turned to rubble, although some factories survived and continued production whilst workers militia joined in the fighting. After 23 August, Stalingrad was bombed block-by-block for a further five days. According to official statistics, the Soviet fighter defences of 8 VA and 102 IAD PVO claimed 90 German planes shot down, in addition to 30 by anti-aircraft defense. The Soviet Air Force in the immediate area lost 201 aircraft from 23–31 August; despite meager reinforcements of some 100 aircraft in August, it had 192 serviceable aircraft, which included 57 fighters. The burden of the initial defense of the city fell on the 1077th Anti-Aircraft (AA) Regiment. By the morning of 24 August, the destruction was obvious, as William Craig states that "the city of Stalingrad looked as though a giant hurricane had lifted it into the air and smashed it down again in a million pieces. The downtown section was almost flat, with nearly a hundred blocks still engulfed by raging fires." Stalin resisted the evacuation of civilians, in part due to the importance of the city's factories to the war effort. Initial Soviet reports stated the water supply and electricity grid as knocked out. Air-raid shelters in the city were extremely inadequate for the Soviet population, and large portions of the suburban buildings were made of easily flammable wood. On 26 August a detailed Soviet Urban Committee of Defence report gave the following casualty figures: 955 dead and 1,181 wounded. Due to the fighting that followed and the high death toll, it is impossible to know how many more were killed in aerial attacks. It is generally estimated that more than 40,000 people, mostly civilians, lost their lives during the attack, with one estimate as high as 70,000. However, historian Richard Overy considers this exaggerated. It is also estimated that 150,000 were wounded as a result. The death toll and destruction from the bombing was comparable to the British bombing of Darmstadt on 11/12 September 1944, when 900 tons of bombs from 226 Avro Lancaster heavy bombers killed 12,300 German citizens (or possibly even twice that). ==Further operations==

Wietersheim's isolated Panzer Corps was subjected to heavy Soviet counterattacks, which threatened to destroy it. Fliegerkorps VIII airstrikes helped stop these attacks. Richthofen demanded an immediate, all-out attack to take the city. Hermann Hoth's 4th Panzer Army, stopped for days far to the south of Stalingrad due to a lack of fuel, recommenced its offensive on 28 August with strong support from the Stukas and Fw 190s of Fliegerkorps VIII. Hoth's Panzer Divisions outflanked the Soviets on 29 August, who fell back on Stalingrad. On 30 August Richthofen, believing the fall of Stalingrad to be imminent, ordered fresh attacks on the city to break the Soviet will to resist. That day and the next, Fliegerkorps VIII launched full-scale bombing operations against the city, also attacking Soviet airfields east of the Volga to maintain German air superiority. Luftflotte 4 defeated the VVS in the airspace above the city, restricting the Soviets to night operations. The Germans obtained daylight air superiority over the Stalingrad area and exploited their edge to devastating effect. From 5 to 12 September, Luftflotte 4 conducted 7,507 sorties (938 per day). From 16 to 25 September, it carried out 9,746 sorties (975 per day). On 14 October it launched 1,250 sorties against Soviet positions west and east of the Volga and Soviet traffic along the river. That same day, its three Stuka Geschwader mounted 320 sorties against the Soviet positions on the west bank, dropping 540 tons of bombs on them. Over the course of the battle through to late 1942, the Germans flew 70,000 sorties dropping over a million bombs. ==Notes==