Analyse und Dokumentation einer Schlacht, in the evening of 13 January 1943 - ordered to, during the night of 19 and 20 January 1943 - Magdeburgisches) Nr. A candle-end was burning on the table, illuminating an accordion lying on the couch. In an attempt to distance himself in every possible way from the capitulation, Paulus delegated the right to negotiate to Roske and Schmidt. Im Zweiten Weltkrieg hatte Schmidt mehrere Stabspositionen inne. General Schmidt; an ardent Nazi, that the Luftwaffe would not be able to supply an encircled 6th army from the air alone. Paulus also forbade his soldiers from standing on top of their trenches in order to be shot by the enemy. [36], After Voikovo, Schmidt was held in the Lubyanka prison. Januar 1943 erhielt er das Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes. The basement was literally packed with soldiers - there were hundreds of them here. 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? It now seemed more impossible than ever to act against an order of the High Command or Army Group.[17]. 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. 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 . [20]:207208,212215 Beevor comments, "Whether this was a ploy to allow Paulus to distance himself from the surrender, or a further example of Schmidt handling events because Paulus was in state of nervous collapse, is not clear. The carnage of the Battle of Stalingrad finally came to an end in February 1943, when the German Sixth Army Commander, Gen. Friedrich Paulus, surrendered the remaining ninety thousand troops of his army to the Soviet Forces. 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. The German soldiers - ragged, in thin greatcoats over threadbare uniforms, as thin as skeletons - presented emaciated figures exhausted half to death, with sunken, unshaved features. 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 Army's. Dyatlenko had no doubt that Schmidt was "the eyes and hand of the Nazi Party" in the Sixth Army, because captured officers reported that "Schmidt was commanding the Army and even Paulus himself."[21]. The recently formed Army Group Don under the command of Field Marshal Erich von Manstein, reinforced with divisions transferred from the North Caucasus and Western Europe, was tasked with opening a corridor to the city. That would be a Napoleonic ending. Description On 26 January 1943, the German forces inside Stalingrad were split into two pockets. 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]. So war er von Oktober 1940 bis 25. Guderian described him as "brilliantly clever, conscientious, hard working, original and talented" but had severe doubts about his decisiveness, toughness and lack of command experience. Intensive talks started between Mansteins and Pauluss HQs about the need to embark on the implementation of Operation Thunderclap - a breakthrough by the 6th Army to meet Army Group Hoth. Facing Stalingrad Interview of Gerhard HindenlangMedia Sources and CreditsInterview of Gerhard HindenlangSenior copyright holder: Facing Stalingrad Project, . While the Field Marshal was tidying himself up in the room next door, the Soviet negotiators presented his generals with an ultimatum: The encircled grouping must immediately stop any resistance, lay down its weapons and surrender to the Soviet troops in an orderly manner. [23] When General Hans-Valentin Hube flew into the Kessel [the encircled pocket of Axis forces in Stalingrad] on the morning of 9 January with Hitler's message to stand firm, "this strengthened General Schmidt's intransigent position at Sixth Army's headquarters."[21]. It formed part of the German Third Army that enacted the attack on France and Belgium in August 1914 as part of the pre-war Schlieffen Plan. 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.. [34] Unlike many German prisoners of war, such as Paulus himself and von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, Schmidt refused to co-operate with the Soviets, despite the NKVD's attempt to ingratiate themselves by serving him caviar and champagne in a luxury railway coach. Am 6. said Paulus after reading the dispatch. World War II Armee whrend der Schlacht von Stalingrad.Paulus war von 1943 bis 1953 in sowjetischer Kriegsgefangenschaft und lebte danach bis zu seinem Tod in der DDR 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. "Photographs of Schmidt at a Sixth Army reunion, Wiesbaden 1969", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arthur_Schmidt_(general)&oldid=1145006784, 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, Short description is different from Wikidata, All articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from August 2013, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 16 March 2023, at 19:24. Paulus radioed Hitler once again for permission. A Gnther Angern D Alexander Edler von Daniels Heinrich-Anton Deboi Moritz von Drebber F Max Fremerey G Eccard Freiherr von Gablenz H Alexander von Hartmann Walter Heitz Speaking about the surrender of Paulus, Hitler told his staff: In peacetime Germany, about 18,000 or 20,000 people a year chose to commit suicide, even without being in such a position. Schmidt kmpfte im Ersten Weltkrieg als Zugfhrer und Kompaniechef im Infanterie-Regiment Frst Leopold von Anhalt-Dessau (1. From right to left: Friedrich Paulus, General-Feldmarshal, commanding general of 6th Army, Arthur Schmidt, General-lieutenant, Chief of the 6th Army Staff; Wilhelm Adam, Colonel, Adjutant for Gen. Paulus He crossed the Meuse river at Dinant. For example: Mark Arnold-Forster's The World At War, companion volume to the documentary of the same name, Stein and Day, 1973, pp. have Handlungsfreiheit (freedom of action). Fortress Stalingrad. General Kurt Zeitzler, chief of the Army General Staff, was in a panic because hundreds of Soviet tanks had just smashed through the Romanian Third Army's lines northeast of Stalingrad, threatening communication and supply lines to the German Sixth Army. pocket and became General Officer When World War I began, Paulus' regiment was part of the thrust into France, and he saw action in the Vosges and around Arras in the autumn of 1914. ", "Battle of Stalingrad a summary History in an Hour", " . : (02/07/1954)". Kommandeur Infanterieregiment 191, Stalingrad Oberstleutnant - Kommandeur January 1943). 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. November 1987 ebenda) war ein deutscher Generalleutnant. Get the week's best stories straight to your inbox. [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]. The German soldiers, ragged and in light coats, looked like ghosts with hollow, unshaven cheeks. Janaury 1943, Stalingrad - Oberst - It now seemed more impossible than ever to act against an order of the High Command or Army Group.[17]. Aggressively ideological, his aggression would translate into a passive kind as he functioned as his chief's alter ego [] As late as mid-December, Paulus, even as illusions had all but vanished, would still not contradict Schmidt when he presented his tragically absurd hypotheses to visitors to the besieged and starving Sixth Army.[24]. The dispatch came early this morningit was the last one.'. In these last days Schmidt also developed a lively busy-ness in other respects. [10] He re-emphasised that before Sixth Army could break out to the south: "We must have fuel and ammunition delivered by the Luftwaffe." "[31] Schmidt, together with Paulus and Colonel Adam, were taken to Don Front HQ at Zavarykino, where they were interrogated. However I'm not going to do them such a favour.' Schmidt, confident of his own abilities, put many backs up within Sixth Army headquarters, although he also had his supporters. A shameful capitulation, the terrible tragedy of the soldiers. This is the precondition for collective security in Europe and at the same time for a happy future for our own nation. [19] Beevor states that it is unclear what happened at the meeting, except that Paulus, who still believed in the chain of command, refused to break out without a clear order to do so from a superior, something that the politically deft Manstein refused to give.[19][20]. 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. 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. Armee unterzeichnet hatte, geriet Schmidt am 31. He served in various staff positions for over a decade (192133). Er wurde am 15. 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. He led the drive to Stalingrad but was cut off and surrounded in the subsequent Soviet counter-offensive. 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. His troops fought Soviet forces defending Stalingrad for over three months in increasingly brutal urban warfare. He handed the colonel general a piece of paper and said: 'Congratulations. Thus, another prominent and experienced German politician stressed that a final implementation of the EDC agreement would be dangerous for the German nation. The main entrance to the cellar was closed and guarded by the Soviet soldiers. Other historians, such as Mitcham, agree: As the situation in Stalingrad deteriorated, Paulus's self-confidence declined, and he allowed himself (and 6th Army) to be more and more guided by his chief of staff, until Arthur Schmidt was virtually conducting the battle for the German side. 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. 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? He later acted as a witness for the prosecution at the Nuremberg Trials. Adolf Hitler prohibited attempts to break out or capitulate, and German defence was gradually worn down. The tanks opened up their devastating fire and the assault rifles of the Hitlerite infantry stuttered and rattled. I was going to get up quietly when someone knocked at the door. Soviet soldiers, who seized the headquarters of Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus. These characteristics of Paulus and Schmidt would prove fatal to the trapped garrison of Stalingrad. Hitler expected Paulus to commit suicide,[3] repeating to his staff that there was no precedent of a German field marshal ever being captured alive. [11], Paulus followed Adolf Hitler's orders to hold his positions in Stalingrad under all circumstances, despite the fact that he was completely surrounded by strong Soviet forces. Career [ edit] Schmidt joined the Prussian Army in 1906 and served during World War I. Januar 2022 um 19:24 Uhr bearbeitet. They knocked out and set on fire the enemys tanks and armored vehicles, they brought down the enemy infantry. [14], On 7 January 1943 General Konstantin Rokossovsky, commander of the Red Army on the Don front, called a cease-fire and offered Paulus' men generous surrender terms: normal rations, medical treatment for the ill and wounded, permission to retain their badges, decorations, uniforms and personal effects. 'Meeting The Victors', Sputnik Magazine, 1968, USSR; (English-language article). At the same time, Paulus declined to order the northern pocket to surrender on the grounds that, since January 30, its commander, Col-Gen Karl Strecker, was directly accountable to Hitler. 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. After leaving university without a degree, he joined the 111th Infantry Regiment as an officer cadet in February 1910. You will go in your personal car.' As a result of the talks, the southern pocket of German troops, commanded by General Roske, was to capitulate. With a reunited Germany having good relations with the two great powers, not only can peace not be disrupted in Europe, but the basis for the development of general prosperity is laid. He took with him 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. Ahead for Friedrich Paulus lay Soviet camps, work in the anti-fascist National Committee for a Free Germany and life in the GDR for the short time left to him. The German The Red Army fighters looked fresh and wore warm winter uniforms. 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. Gerhard Hindenlang was born 1916 in Berlin. [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. The Germans started to withdraw, pursued by Malinovskys 2nd Guards Army which had begun a counterattack on December 24. [37] He died in Karlsruhe on 5 November 1987. The enemy wanted to start negotiations. sick. The northern pocket was tactically commanded by General Strekker while the southern pocket was commanded by General Roske. German officers who flew out of the Stalingrad "[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. As part of his communication, Rokossovsky advised Paulus that he was in an impossible situation. Youll have to talk to me.. Lasting from August 1942 to February 1943, the Battle of Stalingrad was the largest battle of World War II and in the history of warfare. But it is a misconception and dangerous idea that the age of nations is over simply because a power, the United States, relies on this position so that it can bend over and dominate other nations at the lowest cost to it. The main reason was the extremely low stocks of fuel, which would have allowed his hundred tanks or so to travel only 30 km, whereas the relief forces were almost 50 km away. Schmidt commented: Early on the 24th November, while Paulus and I were preparing the necessary measures for a breakout to the south, we received a 'Fhrer decision' from Army Group [] It said that the Sixth Army was to stay in Stalingrad and wait to be relieved. Schmidt commented: Early on the 24th November, while Paulus and I were preparing the necessary measures for a breakout to the south, we received a 'Fhrer decision' from Army Group [] It said that the Sixth Army was to stay in Stalingrad and wait to be relieved. On that frosty morning in Stalingrad, it dawned on all the men of the Red Army and the overwhelming majority of the German soldiers that this was the beginning of the end for them and the start of our Victory.. Stalingrad cover The novel begins with a meeting between fascist dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini on April 29, 1942, in which they discuss the progress of the war. Get the week's best stories straight to your inbox. 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. German 6. Manstein told Paulus that the relief would need assistance from the Sixth Army, but the order to initiate the breakout never came. The Soviets held higher ground to the west, meaning that Sixth Army would be exposed to their guns if it attempted to break out. [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. 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". [10] He re-emphasised that before Sixth Army could break out to the south: "We must have fuel and ammunition delivered by the Luftwaffe. Battle of Stalingrad, (July 17, 1942-February 2, 1943), successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd), Russia, U.S.S.R., during World War II. 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. Once again, Hitler rejected Paulus' request out of hand, and ordered him to hold Stalingrad to the death. "[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. 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]. Upon finding out about Paulus' "surrender", Hitler flew into a rage and vowed never to appoint another field marshal again. Panzerkorps war diary and its annexes. [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. [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 Dyatlenko was born in 1914 in the village of Kulichka in the Lebedin region, in present-day Sumy Oblast, Ukraine. 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]. On 4 July 1912 he married the Romanian Constance Elena Rosetti-Solescu, the sister of a colleague who served in the same regiment. If using any of Russia Beyond's content, partly or in full, always provide an active hyperlink to the original material. Diese Seite wurde zuletzt am 24. jaundice. Paulus didnt greet us but he sat up. They need these forces for a big offensive against Army Group 'A' in the Caucasus and along the still-unstable front from Voronesh to the Black Sea. Schmidt joined the army as a one-year volunteer on 10 August 1914, attaining the rank of Leutnant on 8 May 1915. Then they left the room. Climbing out of the cellar, I stood dumbfounded. Other historians, such as Mitcham, agree: As the situation in Stalingrad deteriorated, Paulus's self-confidence declined, and he allowed himself (and 6th Army) to be more and more guided by his chief of staff, until Arthur Schmidt was virtually conducting the battle for the German side.

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