Stalingrad Airlift

[Laurent Rizzotti]

The Italian air force had on the Eastern Front transport aircraft (S.81) and also used bombers on the transport role.

In the Stalingrad pocket period (19/11/42-4/2/43), the Air Mag Hors-Série n° 5 (subject: the Italian air force on the Eastern Front. In French, writen by Dmitryi Karlenko) lists the following Italian aircraft lost during transport sorties:

4 Dec 1942: a BR.20 of 116a Squadriglia returning from a wounded evacuation sortie crashed on landing at Voroshilovgrad. The pilot, Aurelio Sanarica, the navigator, Felice Scognamiglio, and at least three of the German wounded aboard, Lt Otto Kral and Fronober and Uffz Erwin Florkowski, were killed. 1.Av Marc. Guiddo Autorino and Av. Sc. Eligio Bernardis were wounded and the latter died of his wounds sometime later in hospital.

Coming back with German wounded may indicate a flight to Stalingrad pocket, but it is far from proven.

after the Soviet attack against the 8th Italian Army on 16 December and the collapse of the front some days later, the S.81 were busy supplying the retreating Italian units with ammunitions, food and medical supplies, bringing back wounded on the way back. The text says at least 6 Italian transport were lost, but only gives details for one:

29 December 1942: the commander of the Italian air force in Russia, General Enrico Pezzi, took off with a S.81 to supply Axis troops (7000 Italian and 4000 German) surrounded by the Soviet 1st Guard Army. It flew with no porblem to Chertkovo, landed there and unloaded food and medical supplies, before taking off loaded with wounded, but never returned to Voroshilovgrad. Despite all efforts, nothing will be found and this aircraft and all the men aboard are still missing.

[Juha]

Hello Brian
Manfred Kehrig: Stalingrad.Analyse und Dokumentation einer Schlacht. Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt,1979. 3.Auflage.
Beiträge zur Militär-und Kriegsgeschichte, Band 15.Herausgegeben vom Militärgeschichtlichen Forschungsamt.
680 Seiten und 13 Beilagen im Anhang( komplett).
At least one of that edition seems to be in sale at e-bay. It's not a history of the air-lift, it's POV is that of ground war but in it there is plenty of info on supply situation of 6th Army. Very thorough study maybe possible to loan one by inter-library loan.

Juha

[Nikita Egorov]

Brian,

I also work with GQ loss returns from Stalingrad airlift and combat operations, that were shared by one of the fellow researchers. I suppose they are from microfilm of IWM in London. Being deep into Stalingrad research for more than five years, I think this list is not fully complete. I failed to find some cases clearly described from Soviet side. To my mind, mess that started from the end of november hampered officials to report losses correctly.

BR.

[Gianandrea Bussi]

The italian BR.20M mentioned by Laurent was coming from Kantemirowka and not from Stalingrad.

Gianandrea

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Gianandrea, if you have any of the following details about the 4 Dec 1942 loss I will be interested:

_ serial of the BR20
_ ranks of the pilot and navigator
_ while a Lt Krall and an Uffz Florkowski are listed by Volksbund as dying at Voroshilovgrad airfield on 4 Dec 1942, there is no Lt Fronober in their database. I tried without success variations of this name. Just wondering what name you may have in your source ?

Thanks in advance

[Gianandrea Bussi]

Laurent:

Tenente Pilota Sanarica Aurelio
Tenente Oss. R.E. Scognamiglio Felice (R.E.= Regio Esercito)

Leutnant FRONOBER Enz (Heinz?)

The name of 1° Av. Marc. Autorino was Guido (not Guiddo).

ciao

Gianandrea

[byron-]

here a page of Morziks book refering the transport plane losses in Stalingrad

[Laurent Rizzotti]

Originally Posted by Gianandrea Bussi

Laurent:

Tenente Pilota Sanarica Aurelio
Tenente Oss. R.E. Scognamiglio Felice (R.E.= Regio Esercito)

Leutnant FRONOBER Enz (Heinz?)

The name of 1° Av. Marc. Autorino was Guido (not Guiddo).

ciao

Gianandrea

There is a Heinz Fronober listed by the Volksbund, missing since 1 Dec 1942 in Bogutschary / Romanowsskaja area. From past experience, missing people with date as the 1st of the month in the Volksbund database were often posted missing later during the month, this only meaning the day is not known. I already found him but I just found curious the fact that the two other German losses are listed with the right death date and location (including the fact that they died on the airfield) and not him... With your return, it is probably him.

[kolya1]

Here is what I could find about bomber/transport losses of the Rumanian air force during the air bridge (though, as far as the bombers are concerned, I don't know wether they were on a bombing or a transport sortie) :

- 27/11/1942 : Grupul 1/Esc. 71 loses Savoia JIS-79 n° 117 to Soviet fighters.

-29/11/1942 : Grupul 1 : Savoia JIS-79 n°134 is mistakenly shot down by German Bf-109G fighters.

- 30/11/1942 : Grupul 5 : He-111 n°20 is damaged by Soviet fighters (reportedly Yak-9s) then crashes on landing back at its base.

- 22/01/1943 : Grupul 5 : He-111 (flown by the crew of A/C Petcu) lost to Soviet fighters (reportedly P-39s). the plane crash-lands in friendly territory, crew is safe.

- dates unknown : Escadrila 105 : 3 Ju52s lost at Stalingrad.

I don't know about the He-111s, but the Savoias were at least partly used for evacuation flights from the pocket.

As for the Italians, it seems they lost 5 S-81s in all on supply flights, I'll see if have more about that.

Hope that can help you,

Kolya

[Brian Bines]

Thanks to eveyone for the help on this one, Kolya the info on the Rumanian losses greatly appreciated if you can find the S-81 losses that be be great, I noted the one by Laurent with Gen. Pezzi. I will try to hold of some of the books mentioned by Juha and others, thanks again to all,

Regards

Brian Bines