The next morning, Rokosovsky sent someone to send a letter of surrender he wrote, to be precise, an ultimatum to Paulus.
The person who came to send the ultimatum was Lieutenant Colonel Chernyakov, a deputy of the Rokosovsky. After shook hands with Sokov, he said straight to the point: "Col. Sokov, the commander sent me to you an ultimatum to Paulus. Are the personnel sent to the enemy's positions ready?"
"Yes, comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I have arranged the personnel who went to the enemy's position to persuade him to surrender." Sokov said politely: "Please give me the ultimatum that the commander of the front army gave to Paulus."
Lieutenant Colonel Chernyakov took out two pieces of paper from his briefcase and handed it to Sokov, saying, "Col. Sokov, I strongly recommend that you copy this ultimatum immediately and make it into leaflets, and place it on the enemy's positions in various ways so that more German officers and soldiers can see it, which will help to disintegrate their military morale and morale."
Sokov took the paper from the other party and saw that it was written in German. He couldn't help but say awkwardly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, this is all German."
"The paper on the top is German, and the paper on the bottom is Russian." Chernyakov explained to Sokov: "The ultimatum of German is for German officers and soldiers; and the Russian is for our own commanders and soldiers."
Sokov removed the paper above and saw that the following one was indeed written in Russian. Seeing that others were eager to know the above, he read loudly: "To General Paulus, the commander of the 6th German Army, besieged under the city of Stalingrad:
The 6th German Army Group, the 4th Tank Armies Corps and its affiliated reinforcements have been completely surrounded since November 23, 1942.
...
...
The situation of your besieged troops is very difficult. They are enduring hunger, disease and cold. The severe winter in Russia has arrived, the cold cold, the biting cold wind and blizzard are coming, but your soldiers are not in winter clothes and are in a harmful environment.
As commander, you and the officers of the besieged troops are very clear: it is impossible for you to break through, your situation is hopeless, and it is meaningless to continue to resist. Given that you are in a dilemma, in order to avoid unnecessary casualties, I hope you will accept the following conditions of surrender:
1. All besieged German troops led by you and your headquarters must stop resisting.
2. You must organize the entire army, weapons, all technical weapons and military supplies to us intact. We guarantee the safety of the lives of all officers, military and soldiers who give up resistance. After the war, you can return to Germany or choose where you want according to the wishes of the prisoners of war. Keep the uniforms, symbols, medals, personal items and valuables of all the personnel of the surrendered troops, and keep the cold weapons of senior officers. All surrendered officers, sergeants and local soldiers will soon receive normal meals. All wounded and sick and frostbite will be treated.
If you receive this ultimatum, please send a representative to take a car with a white flag on January 9, 1943, and send a written reply along the road from Konai Station - Stluban Station. Your representative will be welcomed by the Soviet representatives in the area 0.5 kilometers southeast of the 564 Station.
If you refuse to surrender, our Red Army and Red Army Air Force will be forced to wipe out the besieged German troops. You will bear all the consequences. Hereby warn us.”
The signatures behind are: Representative of the headquarters of the Supreme Command of the Red Army, Artillery General Voronov, and Lieutenant General Rokosovsky, commander of the Don Front.
After seeing this ultimatum to Paulus, Sokov handed it to Anisimov and said to him: "Comrade Political Commissar, arrange the manpower immediately and print this ultimatum into a leaflet with two words in Russian and German. We must destroy the enemy's morale and morale through possible means."
After Anisimov left with an ultimatum, Sokov nodded at Cidolin and said, "Comrade Chief of Staff, call Lieutenant Colonel Papchinko and let him release all the prisoners prepared."
Lieutenant Colonel Chernyakov, who was sitting next to him, asked curiously after Sokov issued the order: "Col. Sokov, I don't understand why you released the German prisoners at this time?"
"The reason is very simple. Let them go back to report the news." Sokov was afraid that the other party would not understand, so he explained specifically: "If we rashly send people to persuade the surrender, the sent comrades might be shot by the Germans. Now some German prisoners are released and they are asked to go back to inform their superiors, saying that some of us are going to go over to negotiate, so that the enemy can avoid shooting at the negotiator."
"Col. Sokov, you are very thoughtful." Chernyakov nodded and said with praise: "In this way, the Germans knew that we would send people to negotiate with them, and that when we saw our negotiators appear in front of their positions, we would not fire casually."
Although Anisimov quickly arranged the manpower to print the flyers, it took more than two hours to complete the printing of the flyers. Just when he came back to report to Sokov, Rokosovsky called Sokov and said to him: "Col. Sokov, have your people sent out?"
"Not yet, Comrade Commander of the Front." Sokov heard that it was Rokosovsky's call and quickly replied respectfully: "We have just finished printing the leaflets, and I'm afraid we will have to wait a while before we can send people to the German positions."
"Then you need to speed up a little bit," Rokosovsky said on the phone. "I have sent two reconnaissance planes with tweeters to broadcast the ultimatum I wrote to Paulus over the enemy's defense zone."
After Sokov finished his call with Rokosovsky, he took the ultimatum written by Rokosovsky from Anisimov and handed it to Guchakov who was standing next to him: "Captain, this is the ultimatum given to Paulus by General Rokosovsky, the commander of the front army. If possible, I hope you can hand it to Paulus."
"Comrade Commander, please rest assured." Guchakov straightened his body and promised Sokov: "I will definitely complete the task you assigned me successfully."
According to Sokov's idea, he had ordered people to release a group of German prisoners and let them go back to inform the German command, and then sent Guchakov and Ernst to take a jeep holding a white flag to the enemy's position. It would be very smooth.
Unexpectedly, less than half an hour after Guchakov and his friends set out, he received a call from Bere from the position: "Misha, your comrade who sent to the German position to negotiate seems to be in trouble."
"What, are you in trouble?" Sokov suddenly seemed a little panicked when he heard Beret say this: "Col. Beret, what trouble did they encounter?"
"I don't know if it was the released German prisoners who did not convey our meaning to their superiors, or if the enemy did not want to negotiate with us." Berre said on the phone: "The car that Captain Guchakov was riding in was bombarded by German mortars twice since he left our position. However, the enemy did not seem to want to hurt them. The shells were at least fifty meters away from their cars, and I'm afraid they were warning them not to get close."
"Supervise closely," Sokov said to the microphone. "If you have any latest information, report it to me immediately."
After putting down the phone, Sokov said to Chernyakov with a serious expression: "Lieutenant Colonel, the Germans do not seem to want to negotiate with us. They bombarded the jeeps in the negotiator and warned them not to get close."
"Col. Sokov, I think there may be some misunderstandings." Chernyakov disagreed with Sokov's statement: "Maybe the enemy thought we were going to attack them, so he used a mortar to test-fire."
"No, the prisoners we put back should report our intentions to their superiors." Sokov replied: "And the enemy's shells are still far from the jeep. It should be just a warning, not a desire to hurt them. I think we'll wait a little longer to figure out what's going on."
For more than ten minutes, the phone ringing rang again. The person who called this time was Guchakov. He reported with a frustration: "Comrade Commander, I'm sorry, our mission failed."
"Failed?" Although Sokov had long realized that the success rate of this mission was not high, it was still difficult for him to accept that it failed so quickly. "Tell me what happened?"
"I am now in the 122nd Regiment command post, and Colonel Bere and Lieutenant Colonel Papuchinko are by my side." Guchakov first reported his location and continued: "The jeep we were riding in was bombarded by German mortars as soon as we left the 122nd Regiment's position. At that time, I found that the enemy's shells were all far away from the car. I guessed that they must have just warned us and did not harm our target, so I asked the driver to continue driving forward.
When we advanced to a place that was only more than fifty meters away from the German position, the enemy used two machine guns to cross-fire and block the road where the jeep was advancing. When we stopped, the enemy also stopped shooting, and a German soldier shouted at us with a horn: Russians, please pay attention to Russians, our commander does not want to negotiate with you, please leave immediately. Otherwise, we will open fire on you.
Seeing that it was impossible for me to move forward again, I got out of the car and put the ultimatum for Paulus on a tree stump. In order to prevent the wind from blowing away, I specially found a block of soil to press it on it. Before leaving, I asked Ernst to tell the other party that the letter from the commander would be placed on the stump and asked them to come and pick it up later. Then we took the car back to the position of the 122nd Regiment."
"Captain Comrade." Lieutenant Colonel Chernyakov took the phone from Sokov and asked Guchakov with a stern face: "Have the enemy taken the ultimatum?"
"Take it away, comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Guchakov heard a relatively unfamiliar voice and immediately remembered the lieutenant colonel sitting in the division headquarters. He quickly replied respectfully: "I saw two German soldiers come out of the position and take the ultimatum I placed there from the tree stump."
"Good job, comrade Captain." Lieutenant Colonel Chernyakov said with satisfaction after hearing Guchakov's answer: "I will report your brave behavior to the commander of the Front."
…………
After the ultimatum was delivered, it was like a rock sinking into the sea, without any movement.
On the afternoon of January 9, Chief of Staff Malining called the officer responsible for receiving German negotiators and asked: "Did you see the German representatives coming to negotiate?"
The officer replied: "No, Comrade Chief of Staff. The enemy's position was quiet and there was no movement at all."
Malining lowered the phone and reported to Rokosovsky: "Comrade Commander, I have asked the officer responsible for receiving the German negotiators. He said that he has not seen any movement on the German positions so far. Obviously, Paulus did not take your ultimatum seriously."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, I have already said it." Rokosovsky waved his hand and said disapprovingly: "Since the enemy does not surrender, we will completely destroy him. Immediately notify the commanders of the army group that the 'Ring Operation' will be carried out on time. We must let Paulus understand in the shortest time that he will be waiting for him. "
Chapter completed!