Some interesting tidbits I've compiled from several books....
January 9 1943 Saturday: A new sight greets the defenders of the city. At 0930 hours the first of seven Fw 200 'Condor' four-engined aircraft lands in the snow at Pitomnik airfield. The 'Condors' are from a group of eighteen reconnaissance bombers, taken from KG 40 on the Atlantic coast and thrown into the Stalingrad airlift with the designation Kampfgruppe ZbV 200, led by Major Hans Jurgen Willers. The reconnaissance aircraft-turned-transports are based at Stalino, some 300 miles away from the battle area. The seven Focke-Wulf converted transports bring four and a half tons of fuel, nine tons of ammunition and twenty-two and a half tons of provisions on their first flight. On the return flight they take out 156 wounded. But the 'Condors' suffer losses. One aircraft has to return with engine trouble, and another is unable to take off. Two more 'Condors' are hit by Russian anti-aircraft fire and a fifth goes missing with twenty-one wounded on board.
January 10 1943 Sunday: In a desperate gamble to increase the airlift to Stalingrad, Major Willers of the new KGzbV 200 makes use of two Ju 290 heavy bombers, known as 'flying furniture vans'. The first flight into the city is made by Hptm. Hanig who returns successfully. These large aircraft are able to bring ten tons of supplies and take out about eighty wounded men.
January 13 1943 Wednesday: At Pitomnik airfield, a Ju 290 heavy bomber takes off from the airbase with eighty wounded on board, rolls over and crashes. Only one person survives. The survivor explains to officials that as the plane took off in the steep climb from the airfield, the unstrapped wounded men inside slid to the back of the aircraft and overloaded the tail, making it uncontrollable.
January 16 1943 Saturday: The Luftwaffe abandons Pitomnik airfield as the Russian offensive advances. Six Ju 87 Stukas and six Bf 109s, volunteers from JG 3 acting as airfield defense, are able to take off as the airfield is attacked by Soviet infantry. The fighters, led by Hptm. Germeroth and Hptm. Kurt Ebener, are ordered to the airfield at Gumrak. But the airfield is not ready for the fighters and as they land, disaster strikes. The first Messerschmitt overturns in a snow drift. Four more of the fighters hit bomb craters as they land, leaving only one flyable Bf 109 left, flown by Oblt. Lukas. Lukas decides that the airfield is too dangerous and flies off to the west.
Gumrak airfield is also supposed to be the airfield for the numerous transports bringing supplies. But the wreck-strewn airbase forces the Ju 52 Gruppen, led by Oberst Morzik, to land in a maize field near Sverevo. A bombing attack on the field later by the Russians destroys fifty-two of the transports on the field.
Back at Pitomnik airfield, the Russians use abandoned German direction finding equipment to mislead the German aircrews. Several pilots are deceived into landing at the airfield and are taken prisoner.
January 18 1943 Monday: Lt. Hans Gilbert, flying one of the remaining Fw 200 'Condors', lands at snowbound Gumrak airfield. Although he breaks his tail skid on landing, he is able to take off with General Hube of the armoured force, as per his orders to evacuate the General. Later a He 111 lands at Gumrak with Major Thiel, Gruppenkommandeur of III / KG 27. He is sent by VIII Fliegerkorps to report on the condition of the airbase – described by radio message's as "day-and-night operational." Major Thiel reports,
"The airfield is easy to pin-point from 4,500 – 5,000 feet owing to its rolled runway, its wreckage and the numerous bomb craters and shell holes. The landing cross was covered with snow. Directly my machine came to a standstill the airfield was shot up by ten enemy fighters – which, however, did not come lower than 2,500 – 3,000 feet owing to the light flak that opened up on them. Simultaneously it was under artillery zone fire. I had just switched off the engines when my aircraft became an object for target practice. The whole airfield was commanded by both heavy and medium guns situated – so far as one could judge from the open firing positions – mainly to the south-west . . .
"Technically speaking, the airfield can be used for daylight landings, but at night only by thoroughly experienced aircrews. . . Altogether thirteen aircraft wrecks litter the field, in consequence of which the effective width of the landing area is reduced to eighty yards. Especially dangerous for night landings of heavily laden aircraft is the presence of the wreck of a Bf 109 at the end of it. Immediate clearance of these obstacles has been promised by Oberst Rosenfeld. The field is also strewn with numerous bomb canisters of provisions, none of them saved, and some already half covered with snow . . .
" When I returned to my aircraft (after reporting to General Oberst Paulus) I found that it had been severely damaged by artillery, and my flight mechanic had been killed. A second aircraft of my section stood off the runway in like condition. Though I had landed at 1100 hours, by 2000 hours no unloading team had appeared, and my aircraft had neither been unloaded nor de-fueled despite the crying need for fuel by the Stalingrad garrison. The excuse given was the artillery fire. At 1500 hours Russian nuisance planes (U-2s) began to keep watch on the airfield in sections of three or four. From the outset I made it my business to look into the air control system and established that before 2200 hours it was quite impossible to land a single plane. . . If one approached, the seven lamps of the flare path would be switched on, offering a target visible for miles, whereat it would be bombed by the nuisance raiders above. The only possible measure was a short flash to enable the aircraft to position its bomb canisters . . ."
