A shameful capitulation, the terrible tragedy of the soldiers. The dispatch came early this morningit was the last one.'. 1955 wurde er aus der Gefangenschaft entlassen. He was a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union for twelve years, and was released following West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer's visit to Moscow in 1955. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. The appearance of the Red Army soldiers seemed symbolic. eMedals, Web. He was considered a promising officer; by the time World War II broke out he had been promoted to major general. But as soon as a tank passed over an entrenchment, our men - soldiers, sergeants and officers - got up again and opened fire on the departing armored vehicles.. Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus (* 23.September 1890 in Guxhagen; 1. [36], After Voikovo, Schmidt was held in the Lubyanka prison. Later, Paulus briefly commanded a motorized battalion (193435) before being named chief of staff for Panzer headquarters in October 1935. German soldiers fighting at Stalingrad, December 1942. Following his release, Schmidt remained bitterly hostile to those German officers who had co-operated with the Soviets in the National Committee for a Free Germany. Most significantly, he promoted Paulus to field marshal. the confines of the Kessel: he was ordered to He was not able to walk anymore and was brought to the divisional doctor, Oberstarzt Dr. Karl Uhrmacher (missing in Stalingrad since end January 1943). Stalingrad archive of Geert Rottiers, Private Manage all your favorite fandoms in one place! Paulus requested permission from Hitler to surrender. Land Forces of the National People's Army, Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, The Honour Cross of the World War 1914/1918, "The Battle of Stalingrad | Doomed from the start? No sensible person can understand why Dr. Adenauer, under American influence, strongly opposes exploiting the opportunities for the resumption of economic and cultural relations with the peoples of the East. He handed the colonel general a piece of paper and said: 'Congratulations. The basement was literally packed with soldiers - there were hundreds of them here. Realizing their blunder, the Soviet military command ordered the 2nd Guards Army under the command of Lieutenant-General Rodion Malinovsky to the battle zone. Schmidt continued: 'At the same time I have to inform you that the Russians are at the door.' Hitler for permission for Paulus to. [citation needed], Many English-language sources and publications from the 1940s to the present day give Paulus' family name the prefix "von". Paulus didnt greet us but he sat up. German troops during the Operation Winter Storm. He also criticized United States foreign policy as aggressive and called for a reconciliation between the Germans and the French: American policy today calls itself "power politics". Hitler did not consent to this request. German 6. Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus (23 September 1890 - 1 February 1957) was a German field marshal during World War II who is best known for commanding the 6th Army during the Battle of Stalingrad (August 1942 to February 1943). Georgy Lipskerov//DF/russiainphoto.ru, 3 reasons why the Red Army won the Battle of Stalingrad, How the Germans tried to rescue their troops at Stalingrad (PHOTOS), What did Stalingrad look like before World War II? I recorded Paulus's new rank in his military document, stamped it with the seal then threw the seal into the glowing fire. And the mission would have had to be accomplished by troops who were thoroughly weary through lack of food and whose mobility had been almost completely lost. You will go in your personal car.' He died a few months later, in Dresden, on 1 February 1957, aged 66, exactly 14 years and one day after his surrender at Stalingrad. [16] However, on 24 November Sixth Army received a further Fhrer order relayed from Army Group B, ordering them to stand firm. According to Pois and Langer: [Paulus's] chief of staff, Arthur Schmidt, a committed National Socialist to the end, seemed to represent Hitler for Paulus, indeed, probably was Hitler at Stalingrad. After leaving university without a degree, he joined the 111th Infantry Regiment as an officer cadet in February 1910. [32] When their baggage was searched for sharp metal objects, Schmidt, referring to Paulus, snapped at the Soviet officers: "A German Field Marshal does not commit suicide with a pair of scissors. https://books.google.com/books?id=OWOQAv01lYEC, https://books.google.com/books?id=inwd2rDaLm4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=isbn:1874622469&cd=1#q=schmidt, https://books.google.com/books?id=xg8QrmsLK-kC, https://books.google.com/books?id=qWuWOFS4o7AC&dq=%22arthur+Schmidt%22+stalingrad, "A Desperate Struggle to Save a Condemned Army: a critical review of the Stalingrad airlift", http://www.stormingmedia.us/44/4497/A449793.html, "Photographs of Schmidt at a Sixth Army reunion, Wiesbaden 1969", http://www.stalingrad.net/german-hq/members-aok-6/members_aok_6_a.htm, Pages containing cite templates with deprecated parameters, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, Lieutenant generals of the German Army (Wehrmacht), Recipients of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross, German prisoners of war in World War II held by the Soviet Union, German commanders at the Battle of Stalingrad, Knights of the House Order of Hohenzollern, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. The governments responsible for this have both put their armed forces in front of insoluble problems. In the meantime, he kept his entire army in fixed defensive positions. The Red Army fighters looked fresh and wore warm winter uniforms. List of important officers and commanders of the German Wehrmacht, the Russian Red Army, Romanian Army, Italian army and Hungarian Army in the Battle of Stalingrad . "[33], Prior to Paulus's interrogation, Paulus asked Schmidt how he should respond, to which Schmidt replied, "Remember you are a Field Marshal of the German Army," apparently (according to the Soviet interrogator) using the intimate "du" form of address, although Captain Winrich Behr, who was familiar with the relations between the two men, considered this unlikely. Our soldiers were not beaten, let alone shot. A German officer who met the Soviet soldiers told them through an interpreter: Our top commander wants to talk to your top commander. To that, Ilchenko retorted: Well, our top commander has many other things to attend to. While in Soviet captivity during the war, Paulus became a vocal critic of the Nazi regime and joined the Soviet-sponsored National Committee for a Free Germany. [33], Of all the senior German officers held at Zavarykino, Schmidt was the most disliked by the Soviets; on one occasion he apparently reduced a mess waitress to tears during lunch, for which a Soviet officer, Lieutenant Bogomolov, made him apologise. Behrs instructions were to ask World War II "[33], Prior to Paulus's interrogation, Paulus asked Schmidt how he should respond, to which Schmidt replied, "Remember you are a Field Marshal of the German Army," apparently (according to the Soviet interrogator) using the intimate "du" form of address, although Captain Winrich Behr, who was familiar with the relations between the two men, considered this unlikely. In this it would constantly face the danger that its southwesterly push could stall or the enemy could overwhelm its rear guard or flank defenses. "[31] Schmidt, together with Paulus and Colonel Adam, were taken to Don Front HQ at Zavarykino, where they were interrogated. . Analyse und Dokumentation einer Schlacht, in the evening of 13 January 1943 - ordered to, during the night of 19 and 20 January 1943 - I placed my revolver on the table. That danger is real. He lived out the rest of his life in Dresden. In November 1942, when the Soviet Red Army launched a massive counter-offensive, code-named Operation Uranus, Paulus found himself surrounded by an entire Soviet Army Group. When presented with the commander of 51st Corps General Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach's 25 November memorandum to Paulus, detailing plans for a breakout, Schmidt said: "We don't have to break the head of the Fhrer for him, and neither does General von Seydlitz have to break the head of [General Paulus]. Armee war diary and its annexes. Then Manstein switched the direction of his main strike to the south, to a less reinforced area near the town of Kotelnikovo, from which it was over 120 km to Paulus forces. If using any of Russia Beyond's content, partly or in full, always provide an active hyperlink to the original material. It was still dark but day was dawning almost imperceptibly. Get the week's best stories straight to your inbox. On December 12, as part of Operation Winter Storm, the German Army Group Hoth (named after its commander, Colonel-General Hermann Hoth) launched a surprise attack and crushed the Red Armys outnumbered 302nd Rifle Division, subsequently embarking on a rapid advance in the direction of Stalingrad. on New Years Day 1943, In the morning of 19 Telling Hitler that collapse was "inevitable," Paulus stressed that his men were without ammunition or food, and he was no longer able to command them. Maybe since the last time we met - more than 10 years ago - our views on specific issues differed, but I know in general, through his writings, with what sense of responsibility, how restlessly he refused to align himself with the Federal Chancellor's European Defence Community policy. A firefighter by profession, he volunteered into the German army in 1939. On 30 January, Paulus informed Hitler that his men were only hours from collapse. He is Lieutenant General Mikhail Malinin, chief of staff for the Stalingrad front and one of the men responsible for putting into operation plans for the encirclement of the German 6th Army. He attained the rank of Generalleutnant during World War II, and is best known for his role as the Sixth Army's chief of staff in the Battle of Stalingrad in 194243, during the final stages of which he became its de facto commander, playing a large role in executing Hitler's order that it stand firm despite being encircled by the Red Army. Tired of waiting for Friedrich Paulus himself to finally appear, the Soviet commanders went into his room. Paulus was born in Guxhagen and grew up in Kassel, Hesse-Nassau, the son of a treasurer. who took the 6. The battle of Stalingrad, fought between Stalin's Red Army and Hitler's forces from 23 August 1942 to 2 February 1943, is considered one of the major confrontations of World War II. 139142; other examples are Allen and Muratoff's The Russian Campaigns of 19411943, published in 1944[5] and Peter Margaritis (2019). [37] He died in Karlsruhe on 5 November 1987. He was, in any case, a defender of a united and sovereign Germany. was the 01 of 6. [13], The decision not to negotiate with the Soviet envoys who bore an ultimatum to Paulus on 8 and 9 January 1943, was, for example, made by Schmidt, not Paulus, as Colonel Wilhelm Adam told one of the envoys, Captain Nikolay Dyatlenko, during his post-battle interrogation. Life. Description On 26 January 1943, the German forces inside Stalingrad were split into two pockets. We reacted to this order with astonishment, since we had expected some sort of discussion with the Army Group, and were fairly certain of the breakout. He led the drive to Stalingrad but was cut off and surrounded in the subsequent Soviet counter-offensive. [29] The signal sent from Sixth Army HQ on the evening of 30 January, that stated that soldiers were "listening to the national anthem for the last time with arms raised in the German salute", was, according to Beevor, much more likely to have been written by Schmidt than by Paulus. [c], Lieutenant General Friedrich Paulus (June 1942). Schmidt joined the army as a one-year volunteer on 10 August 1914, attaining the rank of Leutnant on 8 May 1915. Paulus relied greatly on his judgement, and as a result he played a large, some say an excessive, role in determining the course of events later that year. pocket and became General Officer [37] He died in Karlsruhe on 5 November 1987. We Germans have seen that in the 20th century, such "power politics" that a strong and rich country seeks to pursue at the expense of other countries is doomed to failure. Paulus fought in World War I and saw action in France and the Balkans. In late 1956, he was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and became progressively weaker. [6] Many false reports of the massing of Soviet forces were received from the Romanian sector, so when Stck radioed at 5 a.m. on 19 November that an offensive (marking the start of Operation Uranus, the Soviet encirclement of Axis forces) was about to begin, Schmidt, who was furious when disturbed by false alarms, was not informed,[7] although he was awoken twenty minutes later when it became clear that this was no false alarm. Schmidt was not a man of great tactical skill, daring or initiative; rather he was characterised by a stubborn optimism, tenacity and a willingness to obey the orders of his superiors without question. Calender - November1942 during the battle for Stalingrad November 1942 . In 1953, Paulus moved to East Germany, where he worked in military history research. Every day that the army holds out longer helps the whole front and draws away the Russian divisions from it. Following his orders, Paulus prepared to break out of Stalingrad. [2] On 26 January 1942 he was awarded the German Cross in Gold.[3]. This website uses cookies. Pages in category "German commanders at the Battle of Stalingrad" The following 25 pages are in this category, out of 25 total. It appears the Storks only had the range to fly one way. What happened to the first German Field Marshal made prisoner?On January 31, 1943, in the basement of the Univermag department store, Field Marshal Paulus su. But it was precisely during those days, when everyone was still waiting, believing and hoping, that the approaching formations tasked with releasing the 6th Army from its encirclement were halted and then pushed back by Russian forces without reaching their objective.. report to Hitlers headquarters to personally The battle ended in disaster for the Wehrmacht when Soviet forces encircled the Germans within the city, leading to the ultimate death or capture of most of 265,000 6th Army personnel, their Axis allies and collaborators. Fortress Stalingrad. He attained the rank of Generalleutnant during World War II, and is best known for his role as the Sixth Army's chief of staff in the Battle of Stalingrad in 194243, during the final stages of which he became its de facto commander, playing a large role in executing Hitler's order that it stand firm despite being encircled by the Red Army. Paulus remained absolutely firm in obeying the orders he had been given. Military Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. He remained there until 1955, when a visit to Moscow by West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer led to his release, together with the remaining high-ranking German prisoners.[35]. After the Soviet troops opened intensive fire from machine guns and mortars on the building at about six oclock in the morning, the shooting from the German side stopped. On the afternoon of 22 November, Schmidt flew with Paulus to the new Sixth Army HQ at Gumrak. He is not here. Paulus also forbade his soldiers from standing on top of their trenches in order to be shot by the enemy. It now seemed more impossible than ever to act against an order of the High Command or Army Group.[17]. The German German officers who flew out of the Stalingrad Only if that happens is there a chance of the war going well for Germany. In deciding to promote him, Hitler noted that there was no known record of a Prussian or German field marshal ever having surrendered. It was some time before I could break out of the maze of thoughts and strange dreams that depressed me so greatly. Janaury 1943, Stalingrad - Oberst - In der Endphase der Schlacht bernahm er von Paulus weitgehend die Fhrung der Armee. [22] The envoys were even fired on; Paulus denied that he had ordered this, so it is possible that Schmidt might have issued the order. Schmidt kmpfte im Ersten Weltkrieg als Zugfhrer und Kompaniechef im Infanterie-Regiment Frst Leopold von Anhalt-Dessau (1. Hitler, leery of the reasons for Paulus' transfer to Nizhne-Chirskaya, orders him to move his HQ again. We were in frenzied spirits and, had it made sense, we would have been shouting Hoorah! We were firing at every target that appeared, operating our machine guns to their very limit The Russian infantry dispersed in all directions; they must have thought we were madmen, is how 1st Lieutenant Horst Scheibert remembered the launch of Operation Winter Storm that aimed to break through to Friedrich Pauluss 6th Army encircled at Stalingrad. Schmidt joined the army as a one-year volunteer on 10 August 1914, attaining the rank of Leutnant on 8 May 1915. That would be a Napoleonic ending. [26] Schmidt addressed Thiel in the same vein: "[] here you come trying to justify the Luftwaffe, that has committed the worst treason, that has ever occurred in German history [] An entire army, this wonderful 6th Army, must go to the dogs like this. After the Armistice, Paulus was a brigade adjutant with the Freikorps. Schmidt, confident of his own abilities, put many backs up within Sixth Army headquarters, although he also had his supporters. Armee. In dieser Funktion wurde er am 1. Wilhelm Adam (28 March 1893 - 24 November 1978) was an officer in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II. [9] At Nizhne-Chirskaya on 22 November, Schmidt told 8th Air Corps's commander, General Martin Fiebig, that Sixth Army needed to be resupplied by air. (PHOTOS). [11] Schmidt maintained that the army, which would adopt a "hedgehog" defence, must be resupplied, but that the situation was not yet so desperate as there were plenty of horses left that could serve as food. The rank of field marshal has been conferred upon you. This plan was to be successfully implemented in early 1943. After his return to the German Democratic Republic in 1953, Paulus gave a press conference in Berlin on 2 July 1954 in the presence of Western journalists, titled "On the vital issues of our nation". His final plan was to have two Stork aircraft towed by larger aircraft to Stalingrad, land and pick him up, then fly out of the pocket back to German lines. How can he surrender himself to the Bolshevists?! Januar 2022 um 19:24 Uhr bearbeitet. Schmidt, confident of his own abilities, put many backs up within Sixth Army headquarters, although he also had his supporters. Manstein, Erich von; Powell, Anthony G. (2004). XIV. sick. [4], Despite Lieutenant-Colonel Niemeyer's frank and pessimistic area briefings, Schmidt severely underestimated the build-up and capabilities of Soviet forces at Stalingrad following the initial Axis successes, a failing that he unlike Paulus subsequently did not attempt to excuse. Captured German generals before meeting with commander of the 64th Soviet Army general N. Shumilov. Soviet and German soldiers, who just a few hours earlier had been shooting at one another, now stood quietly together in the yard. After all the formalities had been settled and the Field Marshal had received guarantees of his personal safety, he was led out of the basement, along with his staff officers. Interrogation of captured German officers led Soviet commanders to realise that, because of the toll of events on Paulus's nerves, Schmidt was the real commander of the defending forces. Am 6. was sent by VIII Air Corps to assess the runway at Gumrak and see whether further landings by Luftwaffe supply aircraft would be possible. Schmidt and Paulus set up their HQ in the Kessel underneath the Univermag department store on the city's Red Square. In November 1941, after German Sixth Army's commander Field Marshal Walter von ReichenauPaulus' patronbecame commander of the entire Army Group South, Paulus, who had never commanded a larger unit than a battalion, was promoted to General der Panzertruppe and became commander of the Sixth Army. The following excerpt covers the last two days in Stalingrad as Adam began to have doubts about the Chief of Staff to the 6th Army, Lieutenant-General Schmidt: Was Lieutenant-General Schmidt playing a double game?