Paulus saw that Manstein did not agree with his plan. As a general, he certainly had no right to order Marshal Manstein.
But Paulus didn't want to let it go.
He did not argue with Manstein, but immediately sent a telegram to Hitler's Wolfsburg.
"Your Majesty the Führer!" Paulus said: "Perhaps you already know that the Russians have issued an amnesty order! This shook the morale of the 6th Army. The officers and soldiers hoped to make a decision during the amnesty order: either give them hope, or give them hope.
Let them surrender! Otherwise, only death awaits them... They are brave and fearless warriors. I always believe this. As long as there is still a little hope, they are willing to fight for the empire to the end. However, if we are unable to change the situation of the war,
, then please allow them to live with dignity!"
These words are not so much the voices of the officers and soldiers of the army as they are the voices of Paulus himself. Even Paulus's words have a bit of a coercion: If there is no hope of breaking out, we will surrender.
Who was Hitler? Of course he could see the hidden meaning in this telegram.
Although Hitler was angry when he saw this telegram, he did not dare to say anything... At least so far, there were very few things that Hitler did not dare to say or do, but on the issue of Paulus, he could only
Swallow this breath.
The reason is very simple. Paulus's words clearly smacked of surrender.
So Hitler had no money to get angry with Paulus. If Hitler sent orders and criticisms in the telegram... Paulus only needed to throw away the telegram, reply "Bye bye", and then lead the 6th Army
If everyone surrenders to the Soviet army, Hitler will become a joke.
In particular, what Paulus said makes sense. Europeans' view of war originally does not believe that surrendering when unable to change the situation is a shame. Therefore, the actions of Paulus and the officers and soldiers of the 6th Army even won some European support.
people’s understanding and recognition.
The reason why I say "partially" here is because Paulus was not recognized by the Germans after he returned to Germany in his later years (195)... Thousands of people cursed him and asked why Paulus failed to keep the 6th place.
The lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the group army.
This is actually somewhat pointless.
No commander has the obligation or responsibility to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of his subordinates in this situation, because he can't even save his own life. This is completely beyond Paulus' ability.
The reason why these "thousands" of people who cursed Paulus asked this question was because they could not ask "Why did you surrender?", "Why didn't you commit suicide to apologize?"... These are not in line with European values, so
They could only find a seemingly high-minded and irrefutable reason: "It was you who killed hundreds of thousands of men in the 6th Army!"
However, was it really Paulus who killed hundreds of thousands of his subordinates?!
In fact, everyone knows the answer to this question, they just pretend not to know.
You can never wake up a person who is pretending to sleep, so Paulus's son tried his best to restore Paulus's reputation but was unable to do so. In the end, he chose to pull out a gun and commit suicide.
These are all things for later. At this time, Hitler could only offer Paulus as a sacrifice and coax him to treat him with caution.
"My general!" Hitler called back: "I have no doubt at all about the courage of you and all the officers and soldiers of the 6th Army, but you have to believe that the war situation is developing in a direction that is beneficial to us. All we need is time, time! And,
The Don Army Group is already organizing a rescue for you, and you will soon hear the sound of the Dora Cannon exploding in Karachi, which is the most powerful evidence!"
Then, Hitler said nothing more and immediately called Manstein: "The Don Army should launch an attack on Karachi immediately!"
"But Your Excellency the Head of State..."
"No but!" Hitler interrupted Manstein: "You only have five hours to prepare and launch the attack as soon as it gets dark!"
"Yes, Your Excellency the Führer!" Manstein replied helplessly.
After putting down the phone and being silent for a while, Hitler said to the staff beside him: "Promote Paulus to Field Marshal immediately, immediately!"
"Yes, Your Excellency the Head of State!"
Therefore, the result of this contest was that Paulus won, and he successfully forced Manstein to attack.
But in fact it was Shulka who won, because the Germans had to launch an attack without sufficient preparation.
Although the German army was unable to rescue the 6th Army when it launched an attack with sufficient preparation, it certainly could not rescue the 6th Army when it was insufficiently prepared... This was just a desperate struggle of the German army.
Then the next day, as soon as it got dark, bursts of artillery shells roared from the sky above the Miloway defense line. At the same time, batches of German fighter planes and bombers swooped down from the sky to bomb and strafe the Soviet defense line.
Occasionally, a loud "boom" like thunder can be heard in the artillery fire.
It doesn't sound so obvious in the sound of artillery. Only those on the front line can realize its difference... that is the shell fired by the Dora Cannon.
You must know that the aerial bombs carried by the German "Stuka" bombers are only half a ton, while the shells fired by the Dora cannon weigh 8 to 10 tons, which is nearly 0 "Stuka" aerial bombs.
If it were just weight, then it would be second, because at worst if a dozen "Stukas" were to drop 0 bombs on a certain place at the same time, the total weight would reach the weight of a giant cannon shell.
The problem is that the shells of the Dora Cannon are not thrown from the sky, but fired from dozens of kilometers away. Such a large shell flies in the air at high speed, then plunges into the ground and explodes below the ground.
...Just this momentum can stir up a flood of mud, not to mention the power of its explosion.
Shulka did not experience this power personally on the front line, because he and his 8th Infantry Regiment were deployed on the second line.
This was mainly because the Soviet army knew that the German army would launch an attack soon, and the initial stage of the attack would be a large-scale bombing.
Therefore, elite troops are usually not placed on the front line to be bombed in the early stages of the battle... There is not much difference between new recruits and veterans in front of the batches of artillery shells. If there is any difference, it is that the new recruits will be frightened and run around while the veterans
No, so the survival probability of veterans will be slightly higher.
But the Soviet army obviously will not put veterans on the front line just for this survival rate.
Whether it is to avoid the enemy's edge, or to train new recruits, most of the troops deployed on the front line to face the German artillery are newly added troops. (To be continued)