Stalingrad – The Air Battle: 1942 through January 1943

During the spring of 1942, the German armed forces renewed their offensive operations across the entire Eastern Front. Following significant advances, particularly in the southern sector of the front, they reached the River Volga and the outskirts of the city of Stalingrad. In one of the crucial turning points of the Second World War, Adolf Hitler decided to take the city which bore his adversary’s name.

But after months of fighting and having suffered fierce resistance, appalling weather and exhaustion, the Germans were forced to concede defeat. For German arms – as yet largely unbeaten – the battle would result in catastrophe with the loss of an army.

The Führer would never again achieve victories on the scale of the earlier war years.

Understandably, historians have tended to record the events of the land battle at Stalingrad in great detail, while the air battle has been less well documented, although air power played a very important role in determining the fate of the city and the opposing combatants.

This book focuses on the important air battles which took place over Stalingrad between August and November 1942 and the (in)famous and desperate airlift operation mounted by the Germans in the winter of 1942/43 intended to relieve the trapped Sixth Army which fought so doggedly in the frozen ruins of the city. In essence, the Russians turned the battle over Stalingrad from a potentially debilitating defeat in the air to the Soviet Air Force’s most important victory during the entire war. It was a pivotal period which saw the Soviet Air Force’s capability and effectiveness improve significantly.

The book also covers the air war during the subsequent weeks after the fall of the city to the Russians and Soviet counter-offensive operations, in which the Luftwaffe played a pivotal role in preventing total German collapse.

In this study, the eminent air historian, Christer Bergström, uses rare archival and first-hand sources to present an important, detailed, convincing and engaging account of the air battle of Stalingrad. His work is augmented by carefully selected photographs, separate descriptions of key phases of the battle, data tables and appendices.