The 6th Army received adequate air supply at Stalingrad

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Carl Schwamberger
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Re: The 6th Army received adequate air supply at Stalingrad

#61

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 23 Aug 2018, 15:48

There was the use of air transport to supplement Italian cargo ships supplying the Tunisian enclave. Anyone have numbers for what was used there Nov 42 - April 43 ?

ljadw
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Re: The 6th Army received adequate air supply at Stalingrad

#62

Post by ljadw » 23 Aug 2018, 21:54

Following operation Flax :by Junkers 52 88,5 ton a day/by Me 323 29,5 ton a day .
But : for how long ?


Gooner1
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Re: The 6th Army received adequate air supply at Stalingrad

#63

Post by Gooner1 » 24 Aug 2018, 11:34

Carl Schwamberger wrote:
23 Aug 2018, 15:48
There was the use of air transport to supplement Italian cargo ships supplying the Tunisian enclave. Anyone have numbers for what was used there Nov 42 - April 43 ?
According to the British Official History, the strength of the German air transport fleets in the Mediterranean was 673 on 10th November 1942.

ljadw
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Re: The 6th Army received adequate air supply at Stalingrad

#64

Post by ljadw » 24 Aug 2018, 14:27

Whatever it was, the supplies transported by aircraft were almost meaningless compared to those transported by ships: between November 1942 and May 1943 306,721 tons of supplies and 72246 men arrived in Tunesia,some 51000 tons per month .

Carl Schwamberger
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Re: The 6th Army received adequate air supply at Stalingrad

#65

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 26 Aug 2018, 19:53

ljadw wrote:
23 Aug 2018, 21:54
Following operation Flax :by Junkers 52 88,5 ton a day/by Me 323 29,5 ton a day .
But : for how long ?
I'd have to check the dates but the 'air bridge' was pretty much hors combat in mid April. There were some confirmed shoot downs of transports by Allied bombers during late March or April. Illustrating how vulnerable the the air transports were, & how desperate the Axis were.
ljadw wrote:
24 Aug 2018, 14:27
Whatever it was, the supplies transported by aircraft were almost meaningless compared to those transported by ships: between November 1942 and May 1943 306,721 tons of supplies and 72246 men arrived in Tunesia,some 51000 tons per month .
Again, the exact dates are outside my reach today. Sometime in late March or April the Allied naval and air forces halted useful sea shipments as well.

Playing around with the numbers, "306,721" it comes out to to 300 to 500 ton per division daily, depending on the actual time and number of divisions you are counting. This is ok for Axis size divisions, tho it is reduced some when the corps/army overhead is factored in, plus a allocation for Axis air units based in Tunisia. Since the Axis were primarily on the defense for the six months 400 tons daily per 'division slice' might be plenty. Some years ago I tried to locate actual consumption during specific parts of the campaign. Came up dry on that one, no surprise.

maltesefalcon
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Re: The 6th Army received adequate air supply at Stalingrad

#66

Post by maltesefalcon » 03 Sep 2018, 17:45

I re-read the entire thread and I'm intrigued by earlier posts that indicate the Army played its part in the fiasco by being lax in getting its supplies to the airfields.
I'm beginning to wonder if the Wehrmacht even had the supplies in the first place?
Just asking-anyone have any stats on that?


Heres an interesting article I found on the subject:

http://greyfalcon.us/The%20Battle%20Of%20Stalingrad.htm

ljadw
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Re: The 6th Army received adequate air supply at Stalingrad

#67

Post by ljadw » 03 Sep 2018, 19:09

From what I have read (source : Schienenstrang nach Stalingrad ) it was so that already before Uranus, there were very big problems to send the needed supplies (1500-2000 tons daily ) to 6th Army, which was one of the reasons wht there were relatively few forces at Stalingrad .The difficulties were caused by the long didtances from Germany to Stalingrad, the lack of rail stations (there was only one railstation in the 'Kessel '' and the fact that the region was logistically a bottleneck .
Thus it was not so that there were sufficient supplies waiting to be transported by the LW to the encircled troops, because of the failures of the LW, but that empty aircraft were waiting on the arrival of the needed supplies ,and that if more aircraft would be available, there still would be insufficient supplies .

Carl Schwamberger
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Re: The 6th Army received adequate air supply at Stalingrad

#68

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 04 Sep 2018, 02:43

In respect to supplies and transport, Kesselring was lucky, he had a better transport system bringing the material to the Italian ports, and efficient water transport. The commander of Army Group South had a second rate railway, that was further damaged by war, & nasty winter weather.

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