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00:30The razor's edge was ground from the German aerial sword by the hard and
00:35determined Russian armed forces. The struggle between Germany and Russia
00:39spanned 47 months. It involved tens of thousands of aircraft and hundreds of
00:44thousands of miles of territory.
00:51German expectations were high in June 1941. The Luftwaffe had finished the most
00:56massive of its redeployments. It had pulled resources from all over Europe to
01:01be poised along the borders of the Soviet Union.
01:06The Soviet Air Force, like all of Russia's armed forces, had suffered Stalin's
01:11paranoid purges in the 1930s. They deprived the Air Force of an astonishing
01:16seventy-five percent of its leadership. They also paralyzed the remaining
01:20leaders with the legitimate fear of the firing squad.
01:24Neither past heroism nor devotion to the party was considered. Stalin gained
01:30control of his armed forces by the simplest of means. He killed most of the
01:35leaders and terrified the rest.
01:40The reign of terror reached deep down within the Air Force. It took all Corps and
01:46military district commanders. It took most of the divisional and brigade
01:50commanders. It even took half the regimental commanders. The madness also
01:55ravaged the Soviet aviation industry. It did even more damage there because there
02:01was a much smaller pool of replacements for the victims. Everyone was suspect. If
02:07an experimental aircraft didn't meet its design goals, sabotage was proclaimed.
02:13Bureau designers were imprisoned, including such major figures as A.N.
02:18Tupolev. The fear even extended to flying training. Pilots were reluctant to fly
02:25because they might have an accident and be accused of sabotage.
02:35In June 1941, the Soviet Air Force, the VVS, was divided into five components.
02:42The long-range Air Force of the high command employed bombers and transporters.
02:48Fronts for each military district had fighter and short-range bomber divisions.
03:02There was a newly conceived composite division of fighters, bombers, and ground
03:08attack aircraft to support each land army. The military service Air Force,
03:14equivalent to observation units in other armies, was used for communications and
03:19liaison. The Soviets saw the Air Force as a substitute for, or a component of, the
03:28artillery. It might have served well in an offensive campaign where the Soviet
03:33Union maintained the initiative, but in the face of the German onslaught, it
03:38would prove to be terminally flawed. The Soviet Air Force almost caught the tide
03:44of equipment change perfectly. An accidental result of Stalin's purges was
03:50the establishment of new leaders of design bureaus to replace those who had
03:55become politically suspect. A series of new aircraft emerged with names that
04:02would become familiar to two generations of Western observers, Ilyushin, Mikoyan,
04:08Gurevich, Yakovlev, and Lavochkin. But in June 1941, only a handful of the 4,000
04:15fighters and bombers stationed at airfields within reach of the Luftwaffe
04:19came from the new designers. The Polikarpov I-15 and I-16 were obsolete
04:26fighters from the early 30s. The I-15 was a biplane, and the I-16 was a monoplane.
04:42The Tupolev SB-2 was an obsolete bomber. In the first half of 1941, the first of a
04:55new wave of fighters appeared. They were modern, low-wing monoplanes with
05:01retractable landing gear and enclosed cockpits, but their designs were still
05:06not very satisfactory. None were equivalent to the Messerschmitt Bf-109Fs
05:12opposing them.
05:18The airplane that Stalin claimed was as vital as air or bread to the Soviet
05:24army was the Ilyushin Il-2. It became famous as the Shturmovy ground attack
05:34aircraft. The Germans would come to call it Black Death, and it would be built in
05:39quantities greater than any other warplane in history. The Il-2 was built
05:48as a single armored unit from the cockpit forward. Both engine and pilot
05:53were well protected. The rear of the fuselage was a wooden monocoque
05:58construction. The wings were all metal. Armament was heavy, with two machine
06:04guns and two cannon. The only new bomber in the Soviet Air Force at the time of
06:11the German invasion was the Pitlikov B-2. It was an elegant twin-engine
06:17combination attack plane and dive bomber. In fact, the Soviet Union had achieved
06:22virtual parity with Germany in the performance of its major aircraft types.
06:27There was still room for development, and the Soviet Union was gearing up for a
06:32much higher level of production.
06:36But reports of Soviet air strength from responsible German leaders were ignored
06:55by the Luftwaffe intelligence. Hitler grandly titled the invasion of the
07:00Soviet Union Operation Barbarossa. It was named after Friedrich I, Redbeard,
07:07who had marched into the Holy Land in the 11th century crusades. Operation
07:14Barbarossa was Hitler's great crusade to achieve Lebensraum, living room, for
07:19Germany. He planned a six-week campaign to destroy the Soviet armies with his
07:25tried-and-proved blitzkrieg techniques. After that, there would be a leisurely
07:30follow-up to prepare once again for an attack on Great Britain. Hitler's forces
07:35were massive. He had more than three million men in 162 divisions. The
07:42Luftwaffe had deployed 2,770 first-line aircraft out of its 4,300 total. The
07:50basic types of aircraft were the same as those employed in Western Europe and
07:54against Britain, but most were now the latest model. The fighter units had the
08:02Messerschmitt Bf 109 F2, perhaps the best of the long line of the 109 series.
08:13The bomber Staffeln had Junkers Ju 88As and Heinkel He 111Hs.
08:22Early in the morning on June 22nd, 1941, 30 German bombers, Junkers, Dorniers and
08:30Heinkels, crossed the Russian frontier at high altitude. As dawn broke, they attacked
08:37ten Soviet airfields. The Soviet bases were completely unprepared for the
08:42attack. The aircraft were drawn up in long rows, wing to wing. They were perfect
08:47targets. When dawn broke, hundreds more German aircraft bombed and strafed
08:53another 66 Russian airfields.
09:00Even Hermann Göring could not believe the results of the attack. 1,800 Soviet
09:06aircraft were destroyed on the first day. The Germans lost 32 planes. Over the next
09:14four days, another 2,000 Soviet aircraft were destroyed. Thus began the killing
09:20that would allow the greatest aces of the Luftwaffe to run up victory scores
09:25of hundreds of aircraft.
09:30Ironically, it was Stalin who was the agent of this mass destruction. He had
09:35known about the German reconnaissance overflows. He had been warned by Britain
09:40that an attack was imminent. He had even been given the exact date of the attack.
09:45Yet, until the very end, he suppressed all attempts at readiness, hoping somehow to
09:51buy more time from the Germans.
09:59As the bombs rained down and the tanks raced forward, the bombers of the Soviet
10:04Air Force were ordered to strike the invading German forces.
10:12The inexperienced Soviet pilots flew in tight formations, maintaining their course
10:17and altitude.
10:22They were shut down in droves, often without even getting near the target.
10:29The situation was so desperate that the Soviet bombers were sent not only
10:35without fighter escort. Often, they had no gunners either. The lone pilots were more
10:41terrified of the firing squad than the Luftwaffe. The majority of the Soviet
10:46fighters were the stubby little I-16s that had just managed to survive against
10:51the early model Messerschmitts in the Spanish Civil War. Against the new
10:55Messerschmitts' 109Fs, they had no chance at all.
11:11Most Russian pilots were inexperienced. Their tactics were poor. Their leadership
11:17was non-existent.
11:26With air superiority temporarily achieved, the German ground advance went
11:30like clockwork. The German forces pressed on in great slicing maneuvers that
11:35enveloped whole Soviet armies.
11:43In mid-July, Minsk fell. Smolensk fell a week later. Chief of the German general
11:51staff was General Franz Halder. He was not a supporter of Hitler, but he
11:57recorded in his diary that the campaign had been won in the first two weeks of
12:02battle. But he also wrote that for every dozen Soviet divisions destroyed, another
12:09dozen materialized as if from thin air. The slaughter in the sky continued. The
12:17Luftwaffe ground crews demonstrated their proficiency at using advanced
12:21airfields to support the bombers and fighters.
12:36Dive bomber pilots routinely flew from dawn to dusk. They flew a dozen sorties
12:42a day. Their missions were 15 minutes over, bomb and strafe, then 15 minutes
12:48back to rearm for another attack with their engines running.
12:58Yet the incredible mobility of the Luftwaffe was also a sign of its
13:02weakness. Like a too small blanket, pulling it to one section of the front
13:08merely uncovered another sector.
13:12Units that had swarmed towards Smolensk in July were switched to the Leningrad
13:17front in August, then to Kiev in September.
13:20In the midst of the chaos, the Russians manufactured a miracle. They moved
13:43almost 1,500 industrial facilities of the aviation industry almost brick by
13:49brick to new locations behind the Ural Mountains. The 10 million members of the
13:54workforce rode on freight trains with equipment. The conditions were sub-human.
14:08Aircraft were again coming down production lines. And these production
14:13lines were now safely out of reach of German bombers.
14:20During the move, aircraft production fell by 30%, but within 90 days it had
14:28increased above previous levels. It was some time before quality caught up, but
14:34at least the airplanes were coming.
14:37As time passed, the German penetration spread out. It became deeper and wider
14:51along all three main axis of attack. Then it began to wane for lack of supplies.
14:56Hitler did not press the attack on Moscow in August. He waited, vacillating
15:08about what to do next.
15:11He waited for six critical weeks, from mid-August until October the 1st, 1941.
15:16Then he ordered an all-out attack on Moscow.
15:21The Luftwaffe had gathered 1,320 aircraft in Luftflotte 2. The experienced
15:30German air and land teams surged forward. Two Panzer armies tore the Red Army apart
15:37so effectively that all communication with Moscow was lost.
15:40But the offensive bogged down in the torrential rains of November. The Russian
15:50roads became a sea of mud, impassable to wheeled vehicles.
15:59Difficulties in supply and Hitler's greediness to conquer more territory than
16:03originally planned brought the massive campaign to a halt.
16:06New demands from the Mediterranean theater now forced Hitler into a major
16:12blunder. To meet Rommel's requirements against the Allies in North Africa, he
16:19transferred Luftflotte 2 to Sicily. The timing could not have been worse. It
16:25deprived the German army facing Moscow of the air power it so desperately needed.
16:37The German offensive reached to within 19 miles of Moscow. Then it died in its
16:45tracks.
16:52A Russian aerial strength grew. The Soviet Air Force flew 51,000 sorties in
16:58defense of Moscow. 45,000 of them were in ground attack.
17:07The Soviet army began a massive Russian counter-offensive on December 5th on a
17:18560-mile front from Yeretz to Kalinin.
17:22In the worst winter for 20 years, the German Air Force watched its strength
17:39dwindle in a nightmare of shortages and malfunctions. Only 15 percent of the
17:44100,000 Luftwaffe vehicles in Russia were operational. German combat aircraft
17:51stood hangar-less in open fields. They were cold-soaked for days in sub-zero
17:57weather. They could only be started by desperate means, including building an
18:02open fire under the engine. The few heaters and blowers meant to warm
18:07engines were used instead to free mechanics' hands, frozen to their tools.
18:12But unlike the German army, at least the Luftwaffe personnel had winter clothes.
18:20Luftwaffe strength in Russia dropped to 500 operational planes. The Russians had
18:281,000 planes operating from good fields on the Moscow front alone. The Soviet Air
18:34Force was well used to cold weather. It continued to function. For the first time,
18:39its aircraft could operate with impunity. They supported the advance of the ground
18:45forces and kept the relatively few German sorties from reaching their
18:49targets. Through January and February 1942, the Soviets attacked all along the
18:55front, regaining large amounts of territory. The disaster at Moscow made
19:02one fact clear to the Germans. Even Hitler realized that the number of
19:07aircraft being produced for the Luftwaffe was insufficient. The German
19:11aviation industry now became a system of rings of small factories making
19:17components. These components were then assembled in huge factories.
19:27The spring thaw of 1942 immobilized even the Russians. Hitler decided to make a
19:34small-scale attack on Leningrad, but he would concentrate most of his forces for
19:39an attack to the south. There, he hoped to gain control of the Soviet oil fields
19:45in the Caucasus and obtain the oil supplies he needed so desperately.
19:53Hitler had lost almost half his entire invasion force.
20:03The loss of vehicles was so great that many mechanized divisions were no longer
20:08mobile. Germany turned again to horses, using more than three million.
20:22Production efforts intensified. Resources were shifted from other fronts. 51
20:28divisions from satellite countries were incorporated into the German army.
20:32Strength was built up for the attack on the Caucasus.
20:40It was an impossible task for the means Hitler had in hand. His senior advisors
20:45recommended a pullback.
20:51Relatively, the Luftwaffe was in better shape than the army. Its strength had
20:56been rebuilt to 2,750 aircraft, almost the number it had before the invasion.
21:02Hitler continued to leave the operations of the Luftwaffe alone. He
21:12selected the objectives, but allowed the Luftwaffe commanders to run their own
21:16show. For almost two months, it appeared that Hitler might be right after all.
21:23Sevastopol fell with 150,000 prisoners.
21:33German tanks gobbled up miles of territory, but very few Russians. The
21:42Soviet army had learned from previous campaigns and now pulled back where
21:46necessary. Hitler's interpretation was that the Soviet army was disintegrating
21:53and had no more men to lose. Again, the Luftwaffe wrought havoc with the Soviet
21:59Air Force. There was a substantial change in air operations. There was less
22:06emphasis on close air support. More was placed on long-range bombers attacking
22:11Russian formations behind the lines.
22:23But Hitler became greedy. He expanded the original southern thrust and split it
22:29into three directions. One went east to Stalingrad. Another went west to the
22:36Black Sea. A third pushed south to Baku on the Caspian Sea.
22:46Hitler began to intervene more deeply in the operation of the army. Not content
22:53with being chief of state, commander-in-chief of the armed forces and
22:57commander-in-chief of the army, he now assumed command of Army Group A, the one
23:02pushing for the Caspian Sea.
23:08Army Group B began the attack on Stalingrad on August 10th, 1942. Resistance
23:16stiffened quickly. It became apparent that the Russians were going to make a
23:21stand. The Luftwaffe began concentrating its aircraft in this area, building to a
23:28strength of 1,000. Stalingrad was a city of half a million people on a great bend
23:35in the Volga River. It was a major railroad center and had huge tank and
23:40armament factories. Its site made it a natural fortress. It was protected by
23:46hills rising out of the flat plains to the west. The Germans penetrated the
23:53burnt-out wooden edges of the city. Here they entered a world of broken brick
23:58factories. They joined bitter hand-to-hand battles, not for a mile of
24:03land, but for a room or a storeyard.
24:08The Germans called this basement-to-basement struggle Rattenkrieg,
24:16the War of the Rats.
24:22At first, the Germans outnumbered the defenders of Stalingrad three to one.
24:27They had far more armor and artillery. But the Soviets simply would not give up.
24:36By enduring, they triumphed. Marshal Georgy Zhukov, who had saved Moscow, kept
24:42the numbers of Russians within Stalingrad at a minimum. All the while,
24:46he readied vast forces for a massive counter-attack.
24:53Zhukov's German counterpart, General Friedrich von Paulus, played directly
24:58into Zhukov's hands. He threw his army against the rough barricades by frontal
25:04tactics. These included sending infantry in front of the tanks to draw fire and
25:10reveal the Soviet positions.
25:18In the early stage, the standard Luftwaffe ground attack tactics worked
25:23well. But eventually, there were a few identifiable targets to hit. One clump of
25:29rubble resembled another, and the Soviet troops scampered between them like
25:34malevolent mice. The Luftwaffe might have made a difference if it had been
25:39employed in the interdiction of Soviet supply lines. From early August, all
25:46available Luftwaffe elements were fully employed in the battle for Stalingrad.
25:51By October 1942, the Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-52s had already flown 21,500 sorties.
26:00They had carried 43,000 tons of troops, fuel, and equipment.
26:07Marshal Zhukov lured the German 6th Army ever deeper within the city of
26:13Stalingrad. He saw that the weakest link in the enemy front was the northern
26:18sector, held by the Romanian army. Against them, Zhukov concentrated a great
26:24force. There were half a million infantry troops. There were 230 regiments of
26:30artillery. There were 900 T-34 tanks, the best in the world at the time.
26:48For the first time since the start of the summer offensive, the Soviet Air
27:01Force now reached numerical superiority over the Luftwaffe. It had 1,500 planes
27:07against the Luftwaffe's 1,200. More than 60% of them were the hard-hitting
27:17Sturmovik attack aircraft, and two of the most important Soviet fighters, the
27:22Lavochkin La-5 and the Yakovlev Yak-9. Both were faster, more maneuverable, and
27:29had a greater rate of climb than the Messerschmitt.
27:34Stalin had insisted that the Il-2 Sturmovik, originally a two-seater, be
27:49made a single-seat aircraft. Now he permitted the introduction of an
27:53improved two-seat design. It was a costly surprise to the Germans. For a brief
27:58period, they continued to make tail attacks at it, unaware of the stinger in
28:03the rear cockpit. Operation Uranus, the Soviet counter-attack at Stalingrad,
28:16began on November 19th, 1942. The massive Soviet forces brushed the
28:22Romanians aside and swept south. One day later, a southern pincer swept first
28:31west and then north. Within five days, the Germans were entombed in Stalingrad.
28:38Hitler immediately proclaimed Stalingrad to be a fortress. Goering
28:44pledged that his Luftwaffe could deliver the 750 tons of supplies a day that were
28:49necessary to support the German army. It was an optimistic promise. Reality soon
28:58forced the target down to 500 tons a day. It was just enough to maintain the
29:03trapped armies, but not enough to sustain them in combat. The senior officers of
29:09the army and the Luftwaffe said it was an impossible task. They suggested that
29:14General von Paulus should fight his way west to meet a German relief force.
29:19Hitler rejected the suggestion. Having said the city was captured, he would not
29:26give it up. 850 transport aircraft were assembled for the relief effort.
29:31Junkers Ju-52s formed the bulk of the fleet, but there were also Heinkel He-111s
29:38which were badly needed for bombing duties. And there was a ragtag collection
29:43of anything else that could fly. But in Stalingrad there were no adequate
29:49landing fields, no normal approach lights, no radio facilities, no handling and
29:55storage equipment. There was plenty of bad weather and an ever-increasing
30:00quantity of Soviet anti-aircraft guns, and there were more and better Soviet
30:05aircraft.
30:15The Soviet Air Force had also been drastically reorganized. It was now made
30:21up of 13 mobile air armies. Each was controlled by an air commander who could
30:26work with any army commander to whose front he was assigned. The air armies
30:32were composite forces of fighter, bomber and ground-attack aircraft. Each air army
30:38was outfitted with sufficient support equipment for sustained independent
30:42operation. Behind these mobile air armies was the Reserve Air Corps. It brought new
30:49aircraft and air crews to a central area for training and dispatch to combat
30:54units.
31:08In effect, the Luftwaffe offensive action over Stalingrad served the unintended
31:15function of training the Soviet Air Force. As more and more Soviet aircraft
31:20were dedicated to the Stalingrad theater, the pilots became adept at
31:24countering German tactics. The Soviets planned to counter the German airlift by
31:29an aerial blockade. A series of concentric circles was drawn around the
31:35German forces. In the outer circle, two entire air armies were dedicated to
31:40intercepting incoming German aircraft. Any German transports would have to fly
31:46over this circle at some point. The second circle closely surrounded the
31:51trapped Germans. Inside it was an anti-aircraft zone that could put up a
31:56veritable curtain of fire. The area between the first and second circles was
32:02divided into five sectors. Each one had airfields for bombers and fighters.
32:11The task of the Luftwaffe in penetrating this blockade was virtually impossible.
32:16But the Germans set about it with vigor.
32:22Every day, German fighters contested the Soviet Air Force for air superiority in
32:33the narrow corridor used by the transports. The German transports were
32:38loaded at airfields far to the west of Stalingrad. The last leg of their journey
32:42into the German pocket was a flight of about 120 miles. In ideal conditions, the
32:50Germans might have been able to supply between 250 and 300 tons daily. But the
32:56weather went from bad to worse. Takeoff and landing points became strewn with
33:01wrecked aircraft.
33:06Soviet fighters looked on their Ju-52s as cold meat. Even the Sturmwaffik
33:12turned from tank-busting to hunting transports. By December, only 100 tons a
33:20day were reaching the trapped Germans. By January, all the airfields inside the
33:26German pocket had been captured by the Russians.
33:32Throughout the battle, the Soviet Air Force became increasingly aggressive. They
33:37harassed the German transports in spite of their fighter escorts. They struck
33:42out to attack the German takeoff points. They fought by night and day.
33:51Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes, many of them piloted by women, droned endlessly over
33:58the lines, dropping small bombs. The women who flew these Po-2s became known as
34:06the night witches. Women also flew fighters. They were more involved in
34:14combat than the women of any other country.
34:20The Soviet Air Force overwhelmed the Luftwaffe, flying twice as many missions
34:25as the Germans. The tide of the air war had turned in terms of equipment, numbers,
34:33and even training.
34:37Between the German invasion in June 1941 and February 1943, the Soviet Union built
34:4441,000 aircraft. It trained 131,000 aircrew members. And the Soviets had
34:51caught the tide of technical change in the midst of the war. The aircraft
34:55flowing from the factories were all new types. They were to be used with new
34:59tactics the Soviets were learning from the Germans.
35:22The Germans in Stalingrad surrendered on January 3rd, 1943. Almost 160,000
35:29of the 284,000 men in the pocket had died in the miserable cold and filth of the
35:36city. In the air they lost 495 transports and 200 fighters. The Luftwaffe was now
35:47like a hammer-aging patient. It was sustained only by the continuous
35:51infusion of new blood. Its strength was maintained and even increased by new
35:56planes and new crews. But the new crews died within days of their arrival.
36:08The Iron Corps veterans became more expert even as they became smaller in
36:13number. These old stages had more combat experience than any fliers in any Air
36:19Force in World War Two. They survived because they were good and lucky.
36:32The disruption to the Luftwaffe of the Stalingrad campaign was very great. So
36:38much so that after Stalingrad had fallen, strength could be directed elsewhere. For
36:44a while the ailing Luftwaffe seemed to gain new life. But for all essential
36:51purposes the air war in Russia was decided. There would still be 27 months
36:56more of hard fighting but the issue was no longer in doubt.
37:14The Soviet Air Force grew better every day. It learned from the Germans and
37:27developed its own specialized techniques.
37:36But the Luftwaffe continued to do well. This was due to men like General Wolfram
37:43von Richthofen. He established a unified command over the whole of the Southern
37:48Front. The Luftwaffe's mode of operation was about to change. From having the
37:55initiative, able to operate offensively, it was now forced into a defensive
37:59posture.
38:06Now it would do what it had to do, which was to provide Army support. And then it
38:12would degenerate again until it was in a position to only do what its limited
38:15strength permitted.
38:21From April 17th to June 7th, 1943, a relatively obscure but important battle
38:28took place on the Kuban Peninsula of the North Caucasus.
38:43It ended in a stalemate on the ground. But in the air, the Russians demonstrated
38:51for the first time a parody with the Luftwaffe in terms of aircraft
38:54performance, tactics, and individual pilot ability. Given that Soviet aircraft
38:59production was far outstripping that of Germany, this could only mean disaster
39:03for the Germans.
39:12The Russians deployed 800 aircraft. Most were the new generation Soviet fighters.
39:25But for the first time, a sizable number of land-lease aircraft were present.
39:33There were B-25 bombers and P-39 fighters from America. And there were
39:43Supermarine Spitfires from Britain. By this time, the Soviet Union had received
39:48more than 3,000 planes, 2,400 tanks, and 80,000 vehicles via land-lease.
40:03Over the Kuban, the Soviet ace, Alexander Pokryshkin, adapted the two- and
40:09four-plane German fighter formations for Soviet use. He insisted on tight
40:19discipline and on closing to short range for firing. He introduced vertical
40:26maneuvering into the Russian tactics.
40:33Pokryshkin scored 20 of his 59 victories in the Kuban campaign, flying a Bell P-39
40:45Air Cobra. By late 1944, the Luftwaffe's situation on the Eastern Front had
40:53deteriorated so badly that the Luftwaffe could no longer win even local air
40:57superiority when it concentrated all its available forces. The Russian enemy had
41:04become too strong and too skilled. Like a losing poker player who has no choice
41:12except to play the final hand, Hitler allowed himself to undertake a last great
41:17offensive. Hitler had doubts about Operation Citadel, and his generals
41:22advised him against it. The 1942 winter offensive had resulted in a huge salient
41:29in the German lines around Kursk, a small city 300 miles south of Moscow. Although
41:36his resources were limited, Hitler knew that he held a wolf by the ears. He
41:42realized that he must retain the initiative and score a last great
41:47victory before the Russian buildup inevitably swamped him. The Kursk salient
41:53was huge, 100 miles wide and 150 miles long. Hitler decided on an attack that
41:59would pinch it off. The removal of the Kursk salient was an attempt to shorten
42:04the front lines and savage a large concentration of Russian armies.
42:12The Russians had time to prepare eight concentric rings of defenses. They were
42:17eager to have the Germans wear themselves down upon it, and then
42:21counter-attack. Within their eight rings, the Russians had nine field armies, 20,000
42:28artillery pieces, and 920 Katyusha rocket projectors.
42:36As the battle opened, the Soviet Air Force had almost 2,900 planes. More than
42:451,000 of them were fighters, and 940 were Sturmoviks.
43:05The Luftwaffe had drawn from other sectors of the front and from the west.
43:22It had built up surprising strength. It had almost 2,000 aircraft, but only 600
43:29of them were fighters.
43:36The first day of the Kursk battle was almost like the happy hunting days at
43:45the beginning of Operation Barbarossa. The Luftwaffe won by a tremendous margin.
43:51At the end of the first day, 432 Russian planes were claimed versus a loss of
43:59173.
44:10There were corresponding victories on the Russian side. The later Sturmoviks
44:14decimated the Panzer divisions with circle of death tactics. The Sturmoviks
44:20would circle over a German tank column so that the attack was directed at the
44:25thin-skinned rear of the tanks. Pass after pass would be made until all the
44:31tanks were destroyed or their ammunition was gone.
44:43For eight long hours, the greatest tank battle in history was fought. Each side
44:47was aided by its attack planes. When evening fell, the Germans crept away from
44:53the battlefield.
44:59The Battle of Kursk had been a titanic struggle. Two million men, 5,000 aircraft,
45:04and 6,000 tanks were engaged. The prepared Soviet defenses, the minefields, and the
45:10tanks held up the German Panzers. Vastly improved control of Sturmoviks and
45:16fighters by radio helped the Soviet Air Force overpower the Luftwaffe.
45:24At Kursk, it was obvious that the day of Blitzkrieg was over for the Germans, but
45:34it was just beginning for Russia.
45:37After the Battle of Kursk, the Soviet Union never relaxed the pressure. It kept
45:55pressing forward with a series of offensives somewhere in the winter that
45:59kept the Germans entirely on the defensive.
46:07The Luftwaffe had no margins of reserve.
46:37It was switched from point to point along the front to meet Soviet initiatives. It
46:42was totally subordinated to the Army's immediate emergency needs.
46:55By the time the red tide rolled toward Berlin, the Soviet Army was protected by
47:00no less than 7,500 aircraft on that front alone.
47:05It was faced by just 400 Luftwaffe fighters. The Soviet Air Force was now in
47:11a position to employ air power as the Russian Army had traditionally employed
47:15artillery in massive quantities and without regard to losses.
47:20In hindsight, it is clear there's little the Luftwaffe could have done against the
47:36Soviet Union to change the outcome of the struggle on the Eastern Front.
47:40Hitler's reckless gamble in attacking the Soviet Union embroiled his country
47:47in a war that could not be won. The Luftwaffe performed its tactical role almost
47:51flawlessly throughout the war, even under the most difficult circumstances, but the
47:56odds against it were overwhelming.
48:04At last, the edge of Hitler's Luftwaffe sword was blunted.
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