up Soviet counters. On 5 September, the Soviet 24th and 66th Armies began an offensive against XIV Panzer Corps. The Soviets withdrew after only a few hours. Of the 120 tanks the Soviets had committed, 30 were lost to air attack. On 18 September, the Soviet 1st Guards and 24th Army attacked at Kotluban. The Stukas claimed 41 of the 106 Soviet tanks knocked out that morning. On 25 September III./StG 2 experienced a reverse when the 283 IAD intercepted it with 20 Yak-1 fighters. Three Ju 87s were destroyed and seven damaged. Acting group commander Günther Schwarzel, in the absence of Preßler, returned to base at Oblivskaya but died of wounds later. III./StG 2 served on the central sector as the battle in Stalingrad intensified. Gustav Preßler's formation supported the 2nd Panzer Army's Operation Wirbelwind east of Roslavl. III./StG 2 claimed the destruction, with the army, of 385 Field artillery guns and 550 tanks. The group supported the defence against the Soviet Kozelsk Offensive and the Battle of Rzhev, Summer 1942. Of the recorded losses, from 15 August to 17 December 1942 on the central sector the group suffered eight aircraft lost and three damaged. In mid-January 1943 it moved south due to the deteriorating German position at Stalingrad. The condition of the formation on 20 September was 29 aircraft with 25 operational. A report on 1 January 1943 simply listed 23 aircraft on strength. The Ju 87 units flew an average of 500 sorties per day over Stalingrad through to November 1942, losing an average of only one Stuka per day. The Battle of Stalingrad marked the high point in the fortunes of the Stuka. First group fought over Stalingrad continuously. By 20 September it had only 16 operational Ju 87s from 25. In late September it was withdrawn to Stalino to rest and refit. In mid-October, after receiving reinforcements from the Caucasus theatre, the Luftwaffe intensified its efforts. Luftflotte 4 flew 1,250 sorties on 14 October and its Stukas dropped 550 tonnes of bombs. StG 1, 2, and 77 largely silenced Soviet artillery on the eastern bank of the Volga before bombing shipping that tried to reinforce the pockets of resistance. The German attacks forced the defenders a strip of land on the western bank;, over 1,208 Stuka missions were flown in an effort to eliminate them. The previous day, II./StG 2 lost its future commander Martin