During the last phases of a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad which general lead a raid that was designed to force the Germans to divert forces?
Tatsinskaya Raid The Tatsinskaya Raid was a Soviet armoured raid deep into the German rear conducted by 24th Tank Corps under the command of Major General Vasily Mikhaylovich Badanov in late December 1942, during the last phases of the Battle of Stalingrad (Operation Little Saturn). It was designed to force the Germans to divert forces attempting to relieve the 6th Army trapped in Stalingrad. The Soviet force captured its objective, the Luftwaffe's airfield at Tatsinskaya, destroying over 72 aircraft on the ground, but was left cut off and without supplies. Despite the loss of most of the tank corps during the ensuing breakout, the raid was a great operational victory.
Noel Stephen Paynter Air Commodore Noel Stephen "Peter" Paynter, CB, former chief intelligence officer of Bomber Command, (26 December 1898 – 16 March 1998). Paynter was a senior member of the team which ran RAF Bomber Command under its formidable C-in-C, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, throughout the last three years of the Second World War. His reports, as head of intelligence, lay behind many of the raids on German cities, which remain the subject of controversy. Paynter insisted to the end that reliable sources had led them to believe that the Nazis had hidden large munitions stores in such historic towns as Dresden; Hitler thought that the Allies would not attack them.