Miller returned to the headquarters and told Strekel the contents of his meeting with Chuikov. Strekel fell silent.
The chief of staff of the army on the side was worried that Strekel would change his mind and quickly reminded him: "Your Excellency, General, since we have negotiated the surrender with the Russians, we should resolutely implement it. If we change our mind at this moment, I am afraid that something will happen to us.
The Russians’ crazy revenge.”
"Don't worry, Chief of Staff." Strecker saw the Chief of Staff's worry and comforted him: "Now that I have made a decision, I will not change it easily. When the agreed time comes, I will naturally go out and ask for help.
The Russians surrendered. But now I am worried that Lensky will interfere with it, and it will cause trouble."
"Your Excellency, General, I think it is better to summon all the division commanders here." The army chief of staff suggested to Strecker: "Then inform them of the surrender. If anyone disagrees, arrest them on the spot. Anyway, they
There are no soldiers around, so even if we shoot all these opponents, it will not cause any chaos."
"You are right." Strekel agreed with the proposal of the Army Chief of Staff: "Call the division commanders immediately and ask them to rush to my headquarters immediately."
Half an hour later, the division commanders who received the notice came to Strecker's headquarters.
When Lensky came in, he was still mumbling, "What the hell, what happened to have to summon us all here so late?"
The other division commanders did not speak. They all muttered to themselves: Why did Strecker summon him in the middle of the night? Did something happen?
Seeing that everyone had arrived, Strecker coughed twice, cleared his throat, and said to everyone: "Gentlemen, there is no point in continuing to fight. In order to save more lives,
, I am ready to order the troops to surrender to the Russians."
Although before everyone came to the meeting, they had guessed that Strecker had summoned them urgently to decide whether to fight or surrender. At this moment, hearing Strekel give the final answer, some people felt relieved.
Some people felt that Strecker had finally made the right choice; others were uneasy and worried about whether their surrender would harm their families back home.
After hearing this, Lensky became furious. After slapping the table, he stood up, pointed his finger at Strecker and said sternly: "Your Excellency, why do you want to surrender? We clearly have tens of thousands more people."
You can definitely continue to fight the Russians. Have you forgotten the head of state’s order and want to fight the Russians until the last moment?”
"As soldiers, we have done our duty." Faced with Lensky's accusation, Strecker said calmly: "The only thing left to do is to find ways to save more living people, so that
They will have the opportunity to return to their homeland in the future."
Seeing that Strekel had made up his mind to surrender, Lensky's face turned black and purple with anger. He pointed his finger at Strekel and shouted angrily: "You traitor to the German motherland, how dare you disobey the Führer?"
I'm going to kill you." As he said that, he reached out and drew the gun from his waist.
But as soon as his hand touched the holster, Aaronstorff, the commander of the 60th Motorized Rifle Division sitting next to him, grabbed his hand and prevented him from pulling out the pistol.
When the army chief of staff saw that Lensky was actually preparing to shoot Strekel, he quickly retreated to the door and shouted outside: "Come here, come here, there is an assassin!"
Following his shout, a dozen soldiers carrying submachine guns rushed in from outside. The officers present recognized these people from their clothes as members of the military guard regiment.
Lensky looked at the dark muzzles of the guns pointed at him, fearing that the other party would fire at him. He quickly released his hand on the holster, looked at Strekel and gritted his teeth and said: "Streckel
General, are you really prepared to become a traitor to the motherland?"
Strekel stood up and said calmly: "I just want to save more living people. As for whether I will become a traitor to the motherland, I don't care at all."
When the Army Chief of Staff heard what Strecker said, he immediately told the soldiers with confidence: "Take Lensky away quickly."
The soldiers swarmed forward, first handed over Lensky's gun, and then pushed him out of the headquarters with his hands behind his back.
After Lensky was taken away, Strecker looked at the remaining division commanders and asked, "Does anyone have any objections?"
The division commanders who were originally hesitant saw Lensky being dragged out of the headquarters by the soldiers. They knew that if they went against Strekel, they would probably end up in the same fate, so they quickly replied in unison: "No more."
"Okay, since everyone has no different opinions, let's stay here." After Strecker finished speaking, he turned around and shook his head at the military chief of staff and said: "Give them the order to sign."
When everyone saw the document handed to them by the army chief of staff, they discovered that it was an order for the troops to surrender. Although Strecker could directly issue a surrender order to all troops, he still asked the division commanders to sign it.
Let’s share the responsibilities together.
With Lensky's lesson learned from the past, naturally no stubborn person would come out to confront Strekel, and everyone honestly signed their names on the surrender order.
Seeing everyone signing, Strecker couldn't help but secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He called the chief of staff, handed him the signed order, and said at the same time: "Chief of Staff, order all troops to, after dawn,
Cease all hostilities against the Russians, lay down your arms and surrender to them."
According to Strecker's idea, after this order was issued, there would definitely be a lot of opposition, so he did not dare to put back the division commanders who participated in the meeting, lest they secretly disobey the order and continue to fight against the Russians.
Bringing disaster to other troops.
Unexpectedly, after the order was issued, not only did the imagined opposition not appear. On the contrary, the hungry German officers and soldiers began to cheer and cheer: "Finally there is no need to fight anymore, we can go home alive."
"If we become prisoners of the Russians, we should be provided with food and winter clothing. In this way, many fewer people will die of cold and starvation."
Some German officers and soldiers who were close to the Soviet positions were even more straightforward. They couldn't wait for the agreed surrender time, so they came out of their positions holding white flags and lined up neatly to surrender to the Soviet troops on the opposite side.
The German army surrendered so quickly that Chuikov had no time to notify all the troops below. When the Soviet commanders and fighters in the bunker saw the groups of German officers and soldiers walking towards them, they immediately issued a battle alarm. They were still in the concealment department.
When the sleeping soldiers heard the sirens outside, they immediately rushed out of the hiding place with their weapons in hand and quickly entered the position.
Through the burning fires on the battlefield, the soldiers could see clearly that the approaching German soldiers did not look like an attack, but like they were marching. They all rushed there and were puzzled. Moreover, the enemy stopped when they were two hundred meters away from their position.
, all stood there like telegraph poles, except for one soldier at the front, desperately waving the white flag in his hand.
The commanders and soldiers were worried that it was a German conspiracy and quickly reported the matter to their superiors. In this way, what happened on the front line was reported to Chuikov at all levels. After reading the report, Chuikov said in surprise: "Hell, it's not after dawn.
Are you going to surrender again? Why did you surrender so quickly?"
Sokov, who had just arrived from Mamayev Heights, heard what Chuikov said and immediately analyzed to him: "I guess the German commander gave the order to the troops to surrender, and if these soldiers continue to delay, maybe they will
He would be killed in the battle, so he rushed over and surrendered to our army."
"Comrade Commander," Krylov asked Chuikov for instructions: "What should we do? Order the soldiers to accept the enemy's surrender?"
"Wait a moment," Chuikov said, waving his hands: "We still don't know whether the enemy is really surrendering or pretending to surrender. If they take advantage of the time we are receiving prisoners to sneak into our defense area and cause damage, I'm afraid
It will cause chaos. I think the soldiers on the position should be on standby and not accept prisoners for the time being."
"But, are we going to allow so many enemies to stay in front of our position?"
"Chief of Staff, please tell the forward commanders that it's not that we won't accept German prisoners, but that it's still dark and letting so many people enter our positions may cause chaos." Chuikov told Krylov: "We must accept them.
Prisoner, let’s wait until daybreak before we talk.”
In this way, Krylov issued Chuikov's order to each division, and the commanders of each division were given the same order to the forward troops. The forward troops who received the order immediately shouted to the German prisoners who came to surrender: "German troops
Soldiers, we are ordered to accept your surrender after daybreak. Before daybreak, if anyone tries to approach our position without authorization, we will shoot without hesitation."
Hearing the shouts of the Soviet army, the German officers and soldiers arrayed in front of the position reacted numbly. Since the Russians asked us to wait here until dawn, then we will wait here until dawn. No one turned around and left the team, and no one looked for someone.
In a sheltered place to avoid the cold wind, just stand there and don't move.
After a long wait, it finally dawned. Groups of Soviet commanders and fighters left their positions and ran toward the German officers and soldiers in formation. They were ready to start accepting prisoners. However, they soon discovered that there were some soldiers with relatively weak constitutions.
The first one was frozen stiff, and the rest were shivering with cold.
Strecker, who was staying in the headquarters, saw that it was already dawn outside, so he said to the division commanders sitting at the conference table: "Gentlemen, it is already dawn, and we should go out and surrender to the Russians."
."
Rokossovsky, who was at the rear, received a call from Chuikov and learned that the German troops surrounded in the factory area had begun to surrender. He almost jumped for joy. But he quickly recovered.
Calmly, he said into the phone: "Comrade Chuikov, since the Germans surrendered on their own initiative, you should accept their surrender in person."
"Understood." Chuikov immediately replied: "I will rush over immediately to accept the surrender of Strekel and his men."
After Rokossovsky put down the phone, he called Malinin in front of him and said to him: "Comrade Chief of Staff, the enemies surrounded in the factory area north of Stalingrad have begun to surrender. You should immediately surrender to the people in the nearby area."
The troops issued orders to quickly move in this direction and assist the comrades of the 62nd Group Army in receiving the prisoners."
Strecker and a group of his mid-level and senior officers left the headquarters and headed towards the barricade factory, preparing to surrender to the Lyudnikov Division stationed here. But when they saw a group of Soviet officers
When walking towards him, Strekel's men couldn't help but froze, because he spotted several generals among them.
The army chief of staff approached him and said in a low voice: "Your Excellency, General, it looks like Chuikov is here in person."
The two sides stopped four or five meters apart. Chuikov walked out of the crowd and said loudly to the opposite side: "I am Lieutenant General Chuikov, commander of the 62nd Army. Where is your General Strekel?"
After listening to the translation, Strekel also walked out of the crowd, raised his hand in salute, and said respectfully: "Hello, General Chuikov, I am Strekel, commander of the 11th Infantry Corps. I am very happy to be here.
See you here."
Chuikov did not return the salute, but looked at the other party and said expressionlessly: "General Strekel, I have been ordered to come to accept your surrender."
Hearing what Chuikov said, Strekel quickly took out his pistol, held it in both hands and handed it to Chuikov. Chuikov casually took the pistol from the opponent's hand and put it into his pocket, which was the end of the surrender ceremony. He said to Shi
Strekel said: "General Strekel, you can rest assured that I will fulfill my promise to provide your soldiers with necessary food and medicine, and to treat the sick and wounded."
The roar of aircraft engines came from the sky. For these battle-hardened officers and soldiers from both sides, everyone immediately recognized the sound of a German transport plane. Chuikov sneered and said: "General Strekel, I guess this is coming."
Airdrop aircraft for you. Unfortunately, except for food and medicine, you will not be able to use the rest of the airdrop supplies."
Strecker did not speak, but gave a wry smile. He thought to himself: Even if dozens of transport planes were airdropped, let alone a few transport planes, the airdropped food would probably not be able to feed these tens of thousands of mouths. He said in a low voice.
He said to Chuikov: "General Chuikov, my troops have been without food for a long time. All the soldiers are hungry. If they don't eat anymore, I'm afraid they won't be able to survive."
"Don't worry, General Strekel, we keep our word." Chuikov raised his hand and looked at his watch, and then said: "Before twelve o'clock at noon, all officers and soldiers will have the necessary food. With any luck,
Officers and soldiers can even enjoy a bowl of hot beetroot soup."
The German transport plane was frightened by the Soviet ground anti-aircraft fire. The pilots did not dare to lower the altitude easily, so that they could not figure out what was happening on the ground. Seeing the dense crowd below, the pilots immediately opened the door and put the cabin into the cabin.
The supplies dropped down. Countless white umbrella flowers instantly filled the sky. They dragged the heavy supplies and staggered to the ground.
This chapter has been completed!