Stalingrad
The Air Battle: November 1942-February 1943
By Christer Bergström
Midland Publishing, ©2007
ISBN 978-1-85780-276-4
Hardbound, 144 Pages
Available from Specialty Press
for $49.95
Reviewed by Chris Banyai-Riepl
The battle at Stalingrad in 1942/43 was a turning point for the war in Europe, and as such the ground struggle has been covered in great depth. The air battle, in contrast, has been glossed over until recently. New research, though, has brought about a newfound view of the air war over Stalingrad, and this book leads the forefront of that research.
Like the earlier book on the opening moves on the Eastern Front, Barbarossa, this book draws heavily on archival references from both German and Russian sources. By carefully examining both sides and correlating them together, the author is able to paint a complete picture of the aerial events between November 1942 and February 1943. These include the famous airlift aimed at supplying the trapped Sixth Army, as well as many of the other lesser known battles.
What is interesting is not so much the description of the battles, but what the examination of the evidence revealed. The failure of the Luftwaffe over Stalingrad is known, although the extent might not be common knowledge. Roughly one third of the Luftwaffe’s Ju 52 fleet was lost at Stalingrad, and the overall loss rate for transports was right around ten percent. The Soviet archives reveal that their claims closely match the Luftwaffe loss records, indicating that there were no inflated claims on the Russian side.
The changes in the VVS capabilities is also apparent here, mainly through operational methods rather than any large improvement in aircraft type. The Il-2 crews honed their attack methods to greatly improve their lethality, as well as made improvements in their defensive methods. Similar improvements showed up in the Pe-2 fleet as well, and the fighter units also improved their capabilities. The VVS was still plagued by quality issues, though, and while the pilots were making the best with the equipment they had, they still needed that significant improvement in aircraft performance to really turn the tide in the air war. This improvement was coming, though, with the Lavochkin radial-engined fighter family and the later versions of the Yakovlev line.
This is a well-researched book that does a great service towards explaining the events on the Eastern Front around Stalingrad. The careful research of the author pays off, and the result is what is easily the most complete history of the air war over Stalingrad in print. My thanks to Specialty Press for the review copy.
