Reply #23: "Kessel" is a pot. [View All]

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

It was used to describe the completely encircled German Sixth Army during the Battle of Stalingrad, kind of like a pot on a fire. With the Sixth Army completely cut off, Hitler and Goering devised a plan to resupply the 6th army with a convoy of supply planes, flying day and night. The plan was unsuccessful, futile really, and the 6th army ended up surrendering to the Red Army. The flight in and out of Stalingrad, i.e. the Kessel Run, would have been fraught with danger due to anti-aircraft fire, Soviet fighters, bad weather, etc.

Lucas, having already borrowed heavily from WWII (the TIE fighter attack on the Millenium Falcon was based almost shot for shot on bomber footage, the "trench run" was based on an attack on a dam, the ceremony scene at the end was from The Triumph of the Will), probably just through in the term "Kessel Run" from something he'd read.