one Stuka per day. On 19 November 1942 the Soviets launched Operation Uranus which cut off the entire German Sixth Army. Göring assured Hitler that the Luftwaffe could airlift in supplies to the surrounded Army. Hans Jeschonnek also convinced Hitler that if both bombers and transports were used and the airfields in and outside the pocket were maintained the operation was possible. The Luftwaffe tried to fulfill these grand promises, but failed to deliver the required tonnage and the German Sixth Army surrendered on 2 February 1943. The Luftwaffe had managed to evacuate 30,000 wounded German soldiers, and supply the Army with 8,350.7 tons of food and ammunition. However some 488 aircraft, including 266 Junkers Ju 52 transports (one-third of the Luftwaffe's Eastern Front strength) and 165 Heinkel He 111s were lost. The Luftwaffe also suffered casualties of nearly 1,000 airmen, many highly experienced bomber pilots. The Soviet losses in aircraft in 1942 had totalled 14,700, along with thousands of pilots. The Battle at Stalingrad had turned the tide of the war in the east in favour of the Soviet Union. 1943 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.Bergström 2007, p. 123–125 (Kursk title) 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