Eagles of the Third Reich: Men of the Luftwaffe in WWII (Stackpole Military History Series) by Mitcham Samuel W

Author:Mitcham, Samuel W. [Mitcham, Samuel W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780811744515
Publisher: Stackpole Books
Published: 2007-07-01T05:00:00+00:00

In mid-1942, as it prepared for the summer offensive, the Luftwaffe had four major commands (north to south): 5th Air Fleet (Stumpff), 1st Air Fleet (Keller), Luftwaffe Command East (Greim), and 4th Air Fleet (Loehr). To support Army Group South, the main thrust, Loehr had 1,593 aircraft (1,155 serviceable)—as many as the other three commands combined. In the Far North (including northern Russia, Finland, and Norway), Stumpff had only 182 frontline aircraft, while Keller had only 375 with which to support Army Group North. In the central sector, Greim had 600 frontline aircraft. All totalled, including aircraft not assigned to the four major commands, the Luftwaffe’s strength in the East was 2,750 combat airplanes—out of a total of 4,262 in the entire air force. More than 64 percent of the Luftwaffe’s combat aircraft were on the eastern front. The Red Air Force still outnumbered it three to one.38

To reach even this strength, Jeschonnek had to dip into the training establishment once more. This time he sent fighter training units and their instructor pilots to the front. Adolf Galland, the general of fighter forces, protested and called upon him to increase the number of fighter training units, not to decrease them. “If you reduce them now instead of forcing them up, you are sawing off the branch on which you are sitting,” Galland told him.

Jeschonnek listened quietly, without interrupting. He did not try to dispute the validity of Galland’s arguments. When Galland was finished, he spoke “without vehemence, presumption or demagogy.” He told the general of fighters that he understood the seriousness of his decision, but the rapid annihilation of the Soviet Union was an essential prerequisite for the continuation of the war. This was the Fuehrer’s goal in the summer offensive of 1942, and all forces, including the Luftwaffe, now had to be concentrated for this decisive blow. “He was fully aware of the deathly crisis in which the Luftwaffe stood because of the war in the east,” Galland recalled.39

Operation “Blue”—the German summer offensive on the eastern front in 1942—was to be directed by Army Group South (Field Marshal Fedor von Bock) and essentially consisted of three phases. In the first phase, Col. Gen. Baron Maximilian von Weichs’ Second Army, on the left wing, was to drive southeast from the Livny sector toward Voronezh. Hoth’s Fourth Panzer Army, the center formation of Army Group South, advancing from Kurst, was to execute a wide sweep to the south, and was then to turn east and north, linking up with Weichs at Voronezh, trapping several Soviet armies in a huge pocket east of Voronezh. To the south (on the army group’s right wing), Col. Gen. Friedrich Paulus’ Sixth Army was to launch attacks in support of Fourth Panzer Army. Phase two would begin after the Voronezh Pocket had been cleared. Fourth Panzer and Second armies were to execute a bold dash along the western side of the Don River, while Sixth Army drove northeast to meet them, forming another large pocket west of the Don.

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