3. The Tank Raid That Sealed the Fate of the Germans in Stalingrad
The Tatsinskaya Raid – also known as the “Christmas Raid” – was a Soviet armored raid on December 24th, 1942, at the height of the Battle of Stalingrad. It sought sought to destroy the Tatsinskaya airfield, from which the Germans were frantically airlifting supplies to their besieged 6th Army. The airfield and its planes were the surrounded Germans’ sole lifeline, thus the need to destroy it and its irreplaceable Ju 52 transport planes. The Red Army’s 24th Tank Corps hit the airfield from three sides and caught the Germans by surprise.
T-34 tanks clattered down the tarmac, machine gunning and shelling buildings and equipment, and destroying precious planes – some still in crates on railway cars. When the tanks ran low on ammunition, they simply rammed the airplanes, smashing through their aluminum frames and crushing them and their engines beneath tons of armor. German pilots and crews were gunned down or run down and mangled beneath the T-34s’ treads. The raiders were eventually encircled, and sustained heavy losses. It was still a Soviet strategic victory: the attackers claimed 300 planes destroyed, while the Germans admitted to losing 72 irreplaceable Ju 52 transports. Whatever the number, the destruction of the airfield and the loss of the transport planes and their trained pilots, crews, and maintenance personnel, doomed the 6th Army in Stalingrad.
