6. Deployment of flying units
During the fighting for Velikiye Luki, the flying units of Luftwaffenkommando Ost[25] faced the difficult task of supporting the ground forces in the defence and later in the attack. In addition to this task, the supply of the encircled garrison still took place, which, as a result of the development of the situation, increasingly forced the mass of the combat forces to be used for the supply mission. […]
E) Air supply
aa) Supply by bomber formations
Since the encircled parts of Velikiye Luki urgently needed supplies, a large part of the bomber formations were used to drop weapons and ammunition, medical supplies and rations. In every possible type of weather, by day and night, supply containers were dropped over the city, [and] later on the citadel and eastern railway station. All the crews who were deployed to drop supply goods achieved unparalleled performances through their missions, despite low-altitude flights often carried out against the heaviest defence. Heavy losses occurred during the attempts to drop supplies to the garrisons of the citadel and the eastern railway station, which were compressed into a narrow space. All possibilities (air drops using the lower cloud cover until the approach run, approaches by low level flight with a steep climb shortly to the air drop altitude before the target, twilight and night drops, targeted air drops of supply containers [food, medicine, infantry ammunition] without parachute) were exhausted. In doing so, it turned out that the dropping of supply containers on small-area targets like the citadel (250m x 120m) represents a task which cannot be solved by horizontal dropping. With the approach of the supply aircraft, the enemy, who had worked all the way up close to the ramparts of the citadel, fired a blocking barrage over the airspace of the citadel with infantry and anti-aircraft weapons of all calibres, which was broken through by the He 111 at air drop altitudes of 80-200m to carry out their missions.
bb) Supply by Stuka
In addition to the bomber formations, Stuka formations were also deployed for air drops for the first time. This use became necessary due to the strong defence and the small drop targets. During the dive, ‘supply bombs,’ were dropped, with and without parachutes, into the smallest areas – i. e. into single ‘hedgehogs’. All the supply bombs dropped without a parachute hit the target area, but they were partly broken by the hard impact and often could not be found due to the absence of smoke signals. The supply containers dropped with parachutes drifted for the most part and fell into enemy hands.
cc) Supply by cargo-carrying gliders
The use of the tow-planes to Velikiye Luki resulted in excellent successes despite the strong enemy defence and bad weather situation. For the use of gliders it was necessary to land a glider guide in Velikiye Luki, who was able to check the suitability of the landing field and to take all necessary measures for the landing of the cargo-carrying gliders. A daylight mission of cargo-carrying gliders with tow-planes up over the target could only promise little success with the strong defences appearing around Velikiye Luki. In spite of this, 4 missions were successfully carried out during the day.
With missions at dawn and dusk the disadvantages of the night take-off or, to be more precise, night landing had to be accepted, since the advantages of the unseen approach offered a greater guarantee for the successful execution of the orders. Eight Go 242s[26] were dragged to the target in night missions and landed there with the help of paths of positioned flare and flare signals.
In an action that recklessly disregarded [the enemy defence], the garrison of Velikiye Luki was supplied by the landing of 17 cargo-carrying gliders with ATGs with crews, assault groups, machine gun ammunition, flamethrowers, rations, medical equipment and mail. Due to the lack of any news of their fate, it must be concluded that two cargo-carrying gliders landed in enemy territory.
The landing on the County Fair Street in Velikiye Luki, and later on the area of the Eastern railway station demanded great skill and quick decisiveness. Due to the inadequate landing possibilities in such a confined space, a partial destruction of the supply equipment which had already been brought into the target area by crash landings could not be prevented.
In heroic, voluntary efforts, the glider pilots have brought material and moral support to the units fighting on the ground for further stubborn defence.
The long endurance of the garrison of Velikiye Luki under the toughest conditions of combat and weather was made possible only by the air supply of the combat transport and gliders formations, which was carried out with the greatest grit and highest commitment. Without their commitment, the defensive power of the encircled units would have soon come to a standstill as a result of the loss of weapons and a lack of ammunition. […]
G) Numerical overview of missions, successes, losses
16) Missions and dropped bombs: In the period from 25.11.42-19.1.43, 298 reconnaissance aircraft, 1,393 bombers, 46 nuisance raiders, 403 Stuka, 1,554 fighter, 310 bombers and 94 Stuka with supply missions, [and] 25 gliders were deployed. A total of 4,163 aircraft. Dropped bombs: 1,450.1 tons.
17) Successes
[…]
291.27 tons supply goods, 12 mortars, 4.36 cbm of fuel dropped by aircraft
23.6 tons supply goods, 4 guns, 17 machine guns, 74 soldiers (gun crews and assault groups), 12 flame-throwers, 3 mortars transported by gliders
[…]
18) Losses
Materiaclass="underline" Aircraft: Total losses: 1 Ju 87, 4 Fw 189, 1 Ju 52, 6 DFS 230, 6 Bf 109, 11 Go 242, 17 He 111, 1 FW 190 = 47 aircraft
[…]
Crashes 60-100%: 2 Ju 87, 3 He 111, 2 Bf 109, 1 HS 126 = 8 aircraft
[…]
Crashes below 60%: 3 Ju 87, 19 He 111, 3 Bf 109, 1 DFS 230 = 26 aircraft[27]
Total losses of aircraft from 25.11.42-15.1.43: 81 aircraft
19) Personnel losses:
A) Flying personneclass="underline" […] 17 officers, 133 NCOs and men
The small target areas were the main issue, a problem that had already been under discussion in winter 1941. Soviet fire concentrated over such small target areas made air drops nearly impossible and caused heavy losses. Tests with Stukas failed to achieve a positive result and the problem was never solved by the Luftwaffe. One possible solution – if the target area was not too small – was the use of gliders. As mentioned in the report, this solution led to a host of new problems. The training of glider pilots, who were often lost in the operations as few strongpoints were relieved, was demanding. Once again, a lack of resources was compensated for by a man’s commitment and courage.
The source also mentioned the constant dilemma of the command: how to divide its aircraft between the two tasks of supporting ground forces and supplying the encircled troops. In the case of the operations in Velikiye Luki, this became more pressing, when from late December on, German relief actions were in need of all available air support, while at the same time supply stocks in the city were depleted. On a strategic level, the lack of adequately trained crews and the demands for multiple air-supply operations led to trainer crews from flight schools flying supply missions at the front, which had an adverse effect both on the quantity of trained pilots and on the quality of their training. This was a decisive factor in the weakening of the Luftwaffe in 1942/43.[28]
25
This was the command agency responsible for all
26
The Go 242 was a transport glider built between 1941 and 1944, which could transport up to 23 men or an equivalent of cargo.
27
The Junkers Ju 87 was the famous Stuka. The Bf (Bayrische Flugzeugwerke) 109 (better known as Messerschmitt Me 109) and Focke-Wulf FW 190 were the standard German fighter planes, while the Heinkel He 111 and the Junkers Ju 88 the were the standard German bombers and the Junkers Ju 52 was the standard transporter. The Focke-Wulf FW 189 and the Henschel Hs 126 were reconnaissance planes and the DFS (