Use of Foreign Transports

[ralphwiggum]

Did the Luftwaffe use any Foreign cargo planes during the Stalingrad airlift - Captured or allied air forces like Italy
The more I read on this site, I realize I'm way out of my league You folks really know your stuff!!

 

[Shortround6]

Planes don't work very long without spare parts and maintenance. Much less time than trucks or cars.

French planes might have been OK in France were they were close to the source of spare parts.

Trying to use non-standard airplanes (French, Italian, or?) even in small numbers is going to mean some cargo soace taken up with getting the needed spare parts to the airfield they are based at.

They may have used a few, stranger things have happened. But they would have contributed very little real results.

 

[davebender]

An excellent paper on the Stalingrad airlift.
http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA397944
320 x Ju-52
40 x Ju-86
190 x He-111
plus 7 x Fw-200, a few Ju-290 and a few He-177s.

Fw-200 was the best performer, averaging 5 tons of cargo per aircraft over a distance of 300 miles from Stalino. In addition Fw-200 had plenty of range so it could operate from airfields not in immediate danger of ground attack. But seven Fw-200s were a drop in the bucket.

If all 550 cargo aircraft had been Fw-200s things might have turned out differently. To make that happen RLM would need to procure more then the historical four Fw-200s per month.