Stalingrad Airlift

[kolya1]

Sorry to answer so late. As for the Italian losses, my source is the same as Laurent's and I could only find mention of 6 Italian transport aircraft losses (including Pezzi's) at the time of the airlift missions, 3 of them to AAA. At least one plane was also damaged (19/12/1942 : one S.81 had its fuel tanks perforated by bullets fired from the ground while evacuating the airfield near Kantemirovka).

Additionally :

- 04/12/1942 : 116 recon esc. BR.20 crashes on landing while evacuating wounded German officiers : 2 crewmembers killed, 1 crewmember mortally wounded, 1 crewmember wounded + 3 of the evacuated Germans killed. But it's not clear wether the plane came from the zone held by the surrounded Axis troops in Stalingrad or elsewhere.

I looked only for the tranport missions, and it's worth noting that bomber units also suffered a number of losses on recon or offensive missions (at least 3 BR.20s were lost on these).

There are also 2 other cases you could be interested in :

- 09/01/1943 : 116 recon esc. Italian bomber (probably BR.20, I don't think Ca-311s were considered as bombers) is rammed by German Ju-52/3m at Millerovo airfield.

- 16/01/1943 : 116 recon esc. plane flown by Lt Nicola di Feo is missing. The type of mission is not specified.

For the last two cases, one doesn't know if they are relevant here because 116 esc. flew Ca-311s as well as BR.20s and its main mission was reconnaissance but it also flew bombing missions and, as seen in the 04/12/1942 incident, occasionally transport ones... But I'd say that it's probable the 16/01/1943 loss was not transport related as these missions were apparently not the most numerous.

Hope this can still help you,

Kolya.

[edwest]

Though not immediately relevant to the discussion here, this link provides an article and extensive Notes at the end that include references that may be helpful for further research.


http://www.joelhayward.org/stalingradairlift.htm




Ed

[Brian Bines]

Ed and kolya,

Thanks for your posts the, Italian losses and the reference for further research are really help,

All the best

Brian bines