Read this!
Horns began honking when 22 Russian T-34 tanks were spotted arriving at the eastern corner of the airfield. Baur ordered the engines warmed up and just then Hitler and his entourage rode up in cars and clambered on board. The three Condors raced down the field and took off just as two huge six-engine Messerschmitt Me323 "Gigant" transports landed.
They learned later what happened and how close they had come to disaster. The Red Army tanks had stopped at the edge of the airfield and viewed the frantic activity on the airfield with amazement. Thinking that such a busy facility with so many airplanes would be heavily defended, they withdrew to a defensible area nearby without firing, where they ran out of gas. They could have obtained plenty of fuel on the airfield, but soon German reinforcements arrived and made use of the cargo of anti-tank weapons that had been carried aborad the Messerschmitt Me323s. What would the Russians have done if they had known that Adolf Hitler was boarding his airplane on the other side of the airfield? When Hitler was informed later about the events that morning, he simply shrugged and said, "pure luck."
True story.
Crazy huh?
