[4] He tried, unsuccessfully, to secure a cadetship in the Imperial German Navy and briefly studied law at Marburg University. [5] Ignoring Hitler's 'Fhrer instruction' of 30 June 1942 that Axis formations should not liaise with their neighbours, Schmidt authorised an officer from Sixth Army, Lieutenant Gerhard Stck, to be issued with a radio and join up with Romanian forces to the north-west of Stalingrad to help with intelligence gathering. For the next two months, Paulus and his men fought on. There are still many people today who wonder how Germany, which no doubt possessed a highly trained army, could be defeated in two wars. 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. He also said that 18,000 men were wounded and were in immediate need of medical attention. jaundice. Had the Germans succeeded in their Operation Winter Storm (Operation Wintergewitter), all the efforts and sacrifices of the Soviet troops which had been heroically defending Stalingrad would have been in vain. And, until now, the 6th Army was regarded as the best field army in the Wehrmacht. Schmidt was appointed chief of staff to General Friedrich Paulus in Sixth Army on 15 May 1942, replacing Colonel Ferdinand Heim after the counter-attack against Marshal Semyon Timoshenko at the Second Battle of Kharkov. We must hold them here to the last so that the eastern front can be stabilized. You will go in your personal car.' A shameful capitulation, the terrible tragedy of the soldiers. Even the best army is doomed to fail when it is required to perform impossible tasks, that is, when it is ordered to campaign against the national existence of other peoples.[23]. Okay, October. exact date unknow end Nov. - early December 1942, flew out : in the evening of 22 January 1943 - ordered to. It was involved in heavy action against the French VIII Cavalry Corps and fought in Belgium at Namur on 23-24 August and again at St. Quentin. [citation needed], Many English-language sources and publications from the 1940s to the present day give Paulus' family name the prefix "von". Nevertheless, the hope of a restoration of freedom and of deliverance from death or captivity would have given the troops the strength to make the impossible possible!. He was considered a promising officer; by the time World War II broke out he had been promoted to major general. 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]. Contents 1 German 2 Soviet Red Army 3 Romanian 4 External links German Soviet Red Army Romanian External links Persons Battle of Stalingrad" (nl.) [35] Together with most German officers, Schmidt was moved to Camp 48 at Voikovo, although he was kept away from Paulus by the NKVD, apparently because he was considered to be a bad influence on him. [12] All the while, Paulus remained silent; the only time he spoke during the conference "was to agree with his chief of staff".[13]. The German He was told that "The Luftwaffe doesn't have enough aircraft. Later, Paulus briefly commanded a motorized battalion (193435) before being named chief of staff for Panzer headquarters in October 1935. "[27], Thyssen comments that both Paulus and Schmidt seemed to have forgotten Fiebig's statements on 21 and 22 November that the Luftwaffe would not be able to supply Sixth Army in the Kessel.[28]. Arthur Schmidt (general) View source Arthur Schmidt (25 October 1895 - 5 November 1987) was an officer in the German military from 1914 to 1943. Upon finding out about Paulus' "surrender", Hitler flew into a rage and vowed never to appoint another field marshal again. Oktober 1895 in Hamburg; 5. When I say that we Germans must focus above all on the unity and independence of Germany, on the affirmation of the vital national rights of our nation, I realize that in this way we are best serving the cause of peace, of international dtente and reconciliation between peoples. But the city held, aided by the very destruction heaped on it by the Luftwaffe and Nazi tanks and artillery. At 9.00 sharp the HQ commander of the 6th Army arrived to take the commander of the vanquished German 6th Army and its staff towards the rear. February 9, 1943 The Russian blow at Kursk was so fierce and the threat of encirclement so great that the Germans fled frantically, throwing away quantities of equipment. Karl Uhrmacher (missing in Stalingrad since end Hearing the sound of gunfire, Ilchenko made a grab for his holster, but it only turned out to be suicides. By the end of the war, he was a captain. Gaunt, pale and emaciated, the commander of the Wehrmacht's 6th Army looked like a hunted animal to the Soviet military commanders. They knocked out and set on fire the enemys tanks and armored vehicles, they brought down the enemy infantry. Establishing good neighborly relations with the countries that surround us from east and west is crucial for our national existence. My God, what a contrast between the two sides! 1955 wurde er aus der Gefangenschaft entlassen. The question cannot be answered in military terms. 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. Paulus and I came separately to the same conclusion. Finally, he supported former German Chancellor Heinrich Brning's appeal for a betterment of relations between West Germany and the Eastern Bloc, agreed with Brning's criticism of West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer's overtly pro-American policy, and expressed his hope for a German reunification: Chancellor Brning took a clear stand against Chancellor Adenauer's rigid orientation to the West, and practically against the EDC and the Bonn conventions. In these last days Schmidt also developed a lively busy-ness in other respects. 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. [c], Lieutenant General Friedrich Paulus (June 1942). (PHOTOS). [1] Am 17. [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. On 4 July 1912 he married the Romanian Constance Elena Rosetti-Solescu, the sister of a colleague who served in the same regiment. In an attempt to distance himself in every possible way from the capitulation, Paulus delegated the right to negotiate to Roske and Schmidt. Newspaper clippings about Friedrich Paulus, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Friedrich_Paulus&oldid=1149650806, This page was last edited on 13 April 2023, at 15:20. [14][15] Schmidt contacted his corps commanders and, in defiance of Hitler's order to stand firm, they agreed with Schmidt that a breakout to the south was desirable. Hitler awarded the Knight's Cross to Schmidt on 6 January 1943 on the same day that Paulus signalled to General Kurt Zeitzler: "Army starving and frozen, have no ammunition and cannot move tanks any more" [25] and made him Generalleutnant on 17 January. brought to the divisional doctor, Oberstarzt Dr. Russians consider it to be one of the greatest battles of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. sick. In June 1942, Nazi Germany was looking forward to victory. However I'm not going to do them such a favour.' [15] Paulus and Schmidt started planning for the breakout that evening, despite receiving another message from Hitler that they must stand firm and await relief. Click here to find out more. Rudolf Schmidt (12 May 1886 - 7 April 1957) was a general in the Wehrmacht of Nazi Germany during World War II who commanded the 2nd Panzer Army on the Eastern Front. [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. That would be a Napoleonic ending." Am 6. This is the precondition for collective security in Europe and at the same time for a happy future for our own nation. Schmidt and Paulus set up their HQ in the Kessel underneath the Univermag department store on the city's Red Square. Janaury 1943, Stalingrad - Oberst - 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.. So war er von Oktober 1940 bis 25. After a leave of absence due to illness, he joined the Alpenkorps as a staff officer, serving in France, Romania and Serbia. [8], Paulus and Schmidt realised that Sixth Army was encircled on 21 November. Paulus claimed that "I didn't surrender. The governments responsible for this have both put their armed forces in front of insoluble problems. [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. Snow fell from our vehicle tracks. 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 was a First Lieutenant in the 71 st Infantry Division that spearheaded the attack into Stalingrad in September 1942. Believing that an attempt to break the encirclement would be made here, the Soviet command attached special importance to the sector and intensively reinforced it. with these words he opened the door and a Soviet general and his interpreter entered the room. 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. This plan was to be successfully implemented in early 1943. Paulus was promoted to lieutenant general in August 1940. He had not seen her since 1942 and would not see her again, as she died in 1949 while he was still in captivity.[20]. [2] On 25 October 1940 he served as chief of staff in 5th Army Corps, a position he held until 25 March 1942, when he moved to the Fhrerreserve at Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH). In 1920s, as part of the military cooperation between Weimar Republic and Soviet Union to escape Treaty of Versailles, Paulus presented guest lectures in Moscow, Soviet Union.[8]. [6] This is incorrect, as Paulus' family was never part of the nobility,[citation needed] and Antony Beevor refers to his "comparatively humble birth" (like Rommel's family; their "sole similarity").[7]. [14] That evening the Soviet encirclement of Axis forces was confirmed in a signal Paulus sent to Hitler. Amidst the ruins of their city which the Germans had destroyed, Soviet soldiers would pull a piece of bread or cigarettes or tobacco out of their pocket and offer them to the weary, half-starved German soldiers., Sergeant Pyotr Alkhutov was present when the German commander was taken prisoner: Paulus was haggard and clearly ill.
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