Junkers Ju-52/3m Shot Down Over Stalingrad

Junkers Ju-52/3m of 4.Luftflotte (4th Air Fleet) goes down in flames over Stalingrad. From November 24, 1942, when 6th Army was surrounded, until January 31, 1943, when supply operations were suspended, 4th Air Fleet lost 488 transports, not including the 87 aircraft lost in Soviet Red Army Air Force attacks on German airfields supplying the pocket. Over 1,000 Luftwaffe personnel were killed. 266 Junkers Ju-52s, 165 Heinkel He-111s, forty-two Junkers Ju-86s, nine Focke-Wulf Fw-200s, five Heinkel He-177s, and one Junkers Ju-290 were lost. 5,227 metric tons (5,761 short tons) were landed at Pitomnik, Bolshaia Rossoshka, Stalingradski, Gumrak, Basargino, Voroponovo and Karpovka airstrips, some of which were little more than ice fields. 4.Luftflotte flew from Morozovskaya, Tatsinskaya, Sverovo, Salsk, Stalino-nord, Novotsherkassk, Lugunsk, Gorlokova, Makejevka, Konstantinovka and Rostov airfields outside of the Kessel ("Caldron"). Tatsinskaya, the closest airfield, was 75 minutes away from Pitomik, but it was overrun by the Red Army on December 24, 1942. From then on, transports had much further to fly to Stalingrad - some three hours. 4.Luftflotte managed to deliver the minimum requirements of 6th Army - 300 metric tons (330 short tons) only a few times during the airlift.