Russia honours Biju Patnaik: What did he do during Battle of Stalingrad?

Here’s the story.

The Battle of Stalingrad

On June 22, 1941, the Wehrmacht, at the time in control of almost all of western Europe, launched a massive invasion of the Soviet Union — Operation Barbarossa. By the spring of 1942, much of what is now Belaruss and Ukraine were under Nazi control.

After the Red Army managed to rebuff German advances toward Moscow, the Wehrmacht looked southwards. And the city of Stalingrad was chosen as a major objective.

Rechristened Volgorad in 1961, Stalingrad was a major industrial centre on the Volga, and home to the Red Army’s artillery production centre. The River Volga itself made up one of the USSR’s most important shipping routes, connecting western Russia to the Caspian Sea and the country’s vast eastward expanse. More importantly, given that the city bore the name of Josef Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, it was also a target of great symbolic significance.

The 6th Army of the Wehrmacht, under Gen Friedrich Paulus began the assault on Stalingrad on August 23, 1942. The fighting got very bloody, very quickly. The Red Army, suffering massive losses, slowed down the German advance into the city. But it could not stop it.

By the fall of 1942, constant artillery shelling and bombing by the Luftwaffe had turned Stalingrad into a pile of ruins. And the Germans controlled almost 90% of the city. But the Russians kept fighting, even as Stalin instructed his forces to take “not one step back”.

The tide of the battle turned in November, when the Soviets launched a counterattack called Operation Uranus. Gathering all available troops in the region, the Red Army effectively formed a defensive cordon around the city, trapping the nearly 300,000 Axis troops. And then the Russian winter set in.

With supply lines cut off and unprepared for a protracted winter war, the Germans were slowly pounded into submission by Red Army forces surrounding them. And even though they “controlled” most of the city, Russian resistance within Stalingrad — now a stuff of legend — continued to inflict heavy losses.

Gen Paulus surrendered on January 30, 1943. By February, the Red Army had retaken Stalingrad, capturing nearly 100,000 German troops in the process. The defeat in Stalingrad all but turned the tide for the Allies in World War II. The Wehrmacht lost all of its momentum, and never set a foot further in the east.

The Red Army, on the other hand, was galvanised. Over the two-and-a-half years, it fought its way towards Germany, ultimately arriving in Berlin on May 2, 1945. The Germans formally surrendered on May 9, which is till date observed as Victory Day in Russia.

The bravery of Biju

“Flying is my first love and though it has dimmed with age, it still remains so,” Biju Patnaik had once reminisced during an interview. Born in Cuttack in 1916, the man who would later become the Chief Minister of Orissa, had always been fascinated with aviation.

Patnaik joined the Royal Indian Air Force in 1936, mostly flying supply and transport planes such as the Douglas C-47 Skytrain, more commonly known as ‘Dakota’.

As World War II heated up and Imperial Japan advanced through Southeast Asia, Biju flew numerous sorties rescuing British officials and their families. He was integral in the evacuation of British officials from Rangoon. Patnaik also flew supply missions to assist China’s Chiang Kai-Shek.

He would do the same in Stalingrad. The Russian Ambassador Denis Alipov wrote to Naveen Patnaik, “Among the heroes who we pay tribute to is your late father, Honourable Shri Biju Patnaik ji, a towering personality and a valiant pilot of the Indian National Airways, who had participated in the Stalingrad Operation, supplying weapons to the besieged Red Army,” the PTI reported.

While the specifics of the operation in which Biju Patnaik participated are not available, he was likely one of the many Allied pilots to brave the Luftwaffe and German anti-aircraft batteries to supply the Red Army inside Stalingrad.

After all, while the troops encircling the city were well-supplied, those inside were in the same boat as their German counterparts, cut-off from the rest of the world. And like their German counterparts, the Russian civilians and troops inside the city were completely dependent on aerial supplies to continue their war efforts.

Note that this is not the first time the Russians have recognised Biju Patnaik’s contribution. In 1995, on the 50th anniversary of the War’s end, the Russian Embassy in New Delhi had honoured the then Chief Minister of Orissa. After his passing in 1997, his coffin was wrapped in the national flags of three different countries: India, Indonesia (whose Independence effort he had aided), and Russia.