Stalingrad 05 - Soviet Airforce and evacuation of industries

Let's Go - The Red Army Choir
Stalingrad 05 - Soviet Airforce. Evacuation of all important industries to the Urals and Siberia

By mid-October, the Luftwaffe intensified its efforts against remaining Red Army positions holding the west bank.
By now, Soviet aerial resistance had ceased to be effective.
Luftflotte 4 flew 2,000 sorties on 14 October and 600 tons of bombs were dropped while German infantry surrounded the three factories.
Stukageschwader 1, 2, and 77 had silenced Soviet artillery on the eastern bank of the Volga to a large degree before turning their attention to the shipping that was once again trying to reinforce the narrowing Soviet pockets of resistance.
The 62nd Army had been cut in two, and, due to intensive air attack against its supply ferries, were now being paralyzed.

With the Soviets forced into a 1,000-yard (910 m) strip of land on the western bank of the Volga, over 1,208 Stuka missions were flown in an effort to eliminate them.
Despite the heavy air bombardment (Stalingrad suffered heavier bombardment than that inflicted on Sedan and Sevastopol), the Soviet 62 Army, with just 47,000 men and 19 tanks, prevented the VI Armee and IV Panzerarmee from wrestling the west bank out of Soviet control.

The Luftwaffe retained air superiority into early November, and Soviet aerial resistance during the day was nonexistent, but after flying 20,000 individual sorties, its original strength of 1,600 serviceable aircraft had fallen 40% to 950.
The Kampfwaffe (bomber force) had been hardest hit, having only 232 out of a force of 480 left.
Despite enjoying qualitative superiority against the VVS and possessing eighty percent of the Luftwaffe's resources on the Eastern Front, Luftflotte 4 could not prevent Soviet aerial power from growing.

The Soviet bomber force, the Aviatsiya Dalnego Destviya (ADD), having taken crippling losses over the past 18 months, was restricted to flying at night.
The Soviets flew 11,317 sorties in this manner, from 17 July to 19 November over Stalingrad and the Don-bend sector.

In one of the greatest feats of war logistics, industries were evacuated on an enormous scale, with 1523 factories dismantled and shipped eastwards along four principal routes to the Caucasus, Central Asian, Ural and Siberian regions.
In general, the tools, dies and production technology were moved, along with the blueprints and their management, engineering staffs and skilled labour.

The whole of the Soviet Union become dedicated to the war effort.



The Evacuation of Industry:
http://www.jstor.org/pss/151494


Battle of Stalingrad:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stalingrad

Eastern Front (World War II):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Front_(World_War_II)

Soviet Women Pilots in the Great Patriotic War:
http://mysite.pratt.edu/~rsilva/sovwomen.htm

http://english.pobediteli.ru/
http://english.pobediteli.ru/flash.html?DR=1

THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR IN PHOTOS:
http://www.vor.ru/55/Photo_Exhibition/Pic_eng.html

MIA: History: Soviet History: Great Patriotic War:
http://marxists.catbull.com/history//ussr/great-patriotic-war/index.htm

Timeline of the Eastern Front of World War II:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_Eastern_Front_of_World_War_II

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