HITLERS STRATEGIC BOMBING OFFENSIVE
ON THE
EASTERN FRONT
HITLERS STRATEGIC BOMBING OFFENSIVE
ON THE
EASTERN FRONT
BLITZ OVER THE VOLGA, 1943
DMITRY DEGTEV AND DMITRY ZUBOV
HITLERS STRATEGIC BOMBING OFFENSIVE ON THE EASTERN FRONT
Blitz Over the Volga, 1943
First published in Great Britain in 2021 by Air World Books,
an imprint of Pen & Sword Books Ltd, Yorkshire Philadelphia
Copyright Dmitry Degtev and Dmitry Zubov, 2021
ISBN: 978 1 52678 989 1
ePUB ISBN: 978 1 52678 990 7
Mobi ISBN: 978 1 52678 990 7
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their gratitude for the help and assistance provided by the military historian Sergey Bogatyrev, the Luftwaffe historian Mikhail Zefirov, and Walter Waiss of the Kampfgeschwader 27 archive (Boelcke Archiv).
Introduction
During the Second World War, the Luftwaffe conducted two major strategic operations aimed at destroying the industrial and the economic capabilities of the opponents of the Third Reich. One of these, the Blitz, which was directed against the United Kingdom from the autumn of 1940 through to the spring of 1941, is well known. Day and night, German bombers headed out over the English Channel and attacked British cities and factories. Through these raids alone, Hitler hoped to undermine the military power of Great Britain and force it to seek terms for surrender. While the Blitz undoubtedly resulted in great destruction and many thousands of casualties, it did not deliver the intended result. The reason for this failure, however, lies chiefly not in German equipment or technology, which at that time was excellent, but in the incompetent leadership of the Third Reich.
As the geographic area of the war expanded, the Luftwaffe found itself drawn into an increasing number of missions to support the Wehrmachts troops in widely different parts of Europe and Africa. As the burden on the aircrews increased, and losses mounted, attacks by German bombers on key strategic targets became fewer in number and less concentrated. Consequently, the results of the bombing operations gradually lessened. Parallel attempts to create strategic aviation forces and introduce heavy bombers suffered a natural collapse, a situation directly related to the nature of the Nazis system of command and control.
In 1942 and 1943, the Third Reich itself began to suffer under the weight of the strategic bomber offensive unleashed by the RAF and the USAAF. In June 1943, the Luftwaffe decided to utilise its experiences of being on the receiving end of the British and American assault and strike back. It duly conducted its second large-scale strategic operation of the war, but this time the target was not Britain.
The situation in the war had changed dramatically. On the Eastern Front Hitlers forces found themselves facing the sheer might and resourcefulness of Stalins Red Army. To try and stem the seemingly endless supply of the enemys weapons and war materiel to the front, the Luftwaffe drew up plans to launch a new offensive at the Soviet war industries located along the Volga River.
The attacks took place on the eve of Operation Zitadelle the campaign undertaken against Russian forces in the Kursk salient that initiated the Battle of Kursk. The Luftwaffes headquarters staff hoped to destroy the main factories involved in the production of tanks, aircraft and fuel. For these complex and risky night missions all the Junkers Ju 88 and Heinkel He 111 bombers available to Hitler in the East were used.
The operation, mysteriously called Carmen II , lasted for a month and covered a vast target area that stretched from the Rybinsk reservoir (often informally called the Rybinsk Sea) to the Caspian Sea. Yet, despite it being the Luftwaffes largest single campaign on the Eastern Front, little is known about the operation.
In this book, we set out to explore a completely new chapter in the history of the Third Reichs air war on the Eastern Front, and in doing so provide comprehensive answers to many important questions. What targets, for example, were attacked during the operation? How did the German bombers operate at the limit of their range? What was the Russian response? What damage did the Soviet war industries suffer, and, most importantly, how did this ultimately affect Operation Zitadelle ?
Dmitry Degtev and Dmitry Zubov ,
Russian Federation, 2020
Chapter 1
The Fhrers Nazgl
The Russians are coming
In early 1943, despite the recent disaster at Stalingrad, Adolf Hitler was relatively optimistic. The encirclement of the 6th Army seemed temporary, and new units, primarily the II SS Panzer Corps, were due to arrive on the Eastern Front. The captured regions in the Caucasus had to be evacuated, the armies of the allies of the Third Reich on the Don were defeated, but on other parts of the huge front, at Leningrad, Demyansk and Rzhev, German troops firmly held their positions. The situation in North Africa had also been stabilised. Submarines in the Atlantic continued to sink British and American ships, and the devastating raids of British bombers on German cities were still sporadic. Hitlers vast empire, stretching from the Bay of Biscay and the Mediterranean Sea to the Arctic Ocean, Lake Ladoga and the Black Sea, still looked to be in good shape.
The main thing was to stop the Russian offensive in the south at any cost and to gain a foothold in the new impregnable positions before quietly preparing for another summer offensive. The Fhrers hopes were for new tanks, new bombers, jet fighters and missiles. Hitler wanted to stall for time, and then attack his enemies with all the power of the Wunderwaffe.
