page_title: Operational history of the Luftwaffe (1939–45)
section_title: 1943
hierarchical_section_title: Operational history of the Luftwaffe (1939–45) / Soviet-German war / 1943
caption_attribution_description: English: “IL-2 attacking”.. Soviet IL-2 combat aircraft attack an enemy formation. The Kursk Bulge (Operation Citadel), The Voronezh Front, Russia. Deutsch: “IL-2 Angriff”.. Sowjetische Iljuschin-Il-2-Schlachtflugzeuge greifen deutsche Bodentruppen an. Schlacht um Kursk (Unternehmen Zitadelle), Woronescher Front. Русский: «ИЛ-2 атакует». Советские летчики на самолетах ИЛ-2 атакуют колонну противника. Курская дуга. Воронежский фронт. Россия, Курск, Курская область
context_page_description: During the Second World War the German Luftwaffe was the main support weapon of the German Army. It fought and supported the Wehrmacht's war effort throughout the six years of conflict and contributed to much of Nazi Germany's early successes in 1939–1942. After the turn in Germany's fortunes, it continued to support the German ground forces until the German surrender in May 1945.
context_section_description: Despite the disaster at Stalingrad the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht decided to launch another offensive in the summer of 1943 in which Hitler had hoped would cut off the large salient now protruding into the German front, eliminating the large Soviet Forces within it and turning the tide once more into the Wehrmacht's favour. This new operation was named Operation Citadel, which became the Battle of Kursk. To support the ground forces the Luftwaffe committed I. Fliegerkorps and VIII. Fliegerkorps under Luftflotte 6 and Luftflotte 4 (under the command of Generalfeldmarschall Robert Ritter von Greim and Generalfeldmarschall Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen respectively). Some 2, 109 machines were allotted to the air fleets, 65 percent were operational.
  On 5 July the Germans began the offensive. The Luftwaffe rendered more invaluable support to the Army despite the operations failure. By the 12 July I. Fliegerkorps flew 37,241 sorties dropping 20,000 tons of bombs destroying 1,735 Soviet aircraft, 1,100 tanks, 1,300 vehicles for the loss of 64 of its own. Its Kampf and Jagdgruppen flew between six and seven sorties per day over Kursk. Examination of Soviet archive records indicate the loss of 677 aircraft in the southern sector of the Kursk salient, for the period 5–31 July. On the Northern Sector Soviet losses were 439. The Luftwaffe Generalquartiermiester reported a loss of 687 machines with 420 totally destroyed, 220 of them on the northern sector. In the following month Soviet losses were to reach 1,104 for 12 July–18 August.
  Attritional air battle alarmingly depleted the Luftwaffe's strength. 911 aircraft were lost in July, while inflicting much heavier losses on the Soviet Air Forces, whose strength appeared to be undiminished. The Soviet 11th Guards Army initiated an offensive aimed at cutting off the 2. Panzerarmee and German 9th Army. The Luftwaffe was called upon to rescue the situation in a huge aerial counter-offensive lasting from 16 July–31 July against a Soviet offensive at Khotynets and saved two German armies from encirclement, reducing the attacking Soviet 11th Guards Army to just 33 tanks by 20 July. The Soviet offensive had been completely halted from the air Model sent a message to von Greim thanking him, stating "the Luftwaffe's  intervention was absolutely decisive to prevent a second, more disastrous Stalingrad".
  By October 1943 with the Soviet forces pushing the Wehrmacht back toward the Dnieper, the Luftwaffe had some 1,150 of its aircraft, 60 percent of its eastern front strength concentrated around Kiev. By December the Luftwaffe had just 425 operational fighters alone on the eastern front.
caption: Soviet Il-2 planes attacking a German column during the battle of Kursk
exif: {}