Map of the Stalingrad airlift

  Source :

  Joel S. A. Hayward, STOPPED AT STALINGRAD:

  THE LUFTWAFFE AND HITLER'S DEFEAT IN THE EAST 1942-1943.

  Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 1998.
  Second ed 2001. ISBN: 0-7006-1146-0.
  http://www.joelhayward.org

 

November 22nd, 23rd and 24th the German High Command decided to supply the encircled Sixth Army near Stalingrad by air. Luftwaffe Commanders, Sixth Army Commanders and even members of the High Command (like Kurt Zeitzler) were completely against the idea of an airlift. Richthofen said : 'There is no hope of supplying an army of 250.000 men in this filthy weather.'  All of them suggested that a break-out was the best solution.  Hitler would not hear of it.It would mean that he had to leave Stalingrad and the Volga. Göring said to Hitler that his 'Luftwaffe' could manage an air-lift and Hitler decided to supply 6th Army by air.