Joel Hayward, "Stalingrad: An Examination of Hitler's Decision to Airlift"

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DISTRIBUTION A: Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. Airpower Journal - Spring 1997

Stalingrad

An Examination of Hitler's Decision to Airlift JOEL S. A. HAYWARD

AFTER FEBRUARY 1943, the

shadow of Stalingrad ever

lengthened ahead of Adolf

Hitler. The battle for that

city had ended in disas­

trous defeat, shattering the

myth of his military “Midas touch,” ending

his chances of defeating the Red Army,

per ma nently damaging relations with Italy,

Rumania, Hungary, and other allied nations,1

and, of course, inflicting heavy losses on his

eastern armies. More than 150,000 Axis sol­

diers, most of them German, had been killed

or wounded in the city's approaches or ru­

ins; 108,000 others stumbled into Soviet

captivity, 91,000 in the battle's last three days alone. (Although Hitler never learned of their fate, only six thousand ever returned to Germany.) The battle has attracted considerable schol­ arly and journalistic attention. Literally scores of books and articles on Stalingrad have ap­ peared during the 50 years since Stalin's ar­ mies bulldozed into Berlin, bringing the war in Europe to a close. Most have been pub­ lished in Germany and, to a lesser degree, Russia, where the name “Stalingrad” still conjures up powerful and emotional imagery.2 Comparatively few have been pub­ lished in the English--speaking world, and 21


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