Although Captain Guchakov, who sent the ultimatum to Paulus, was unable to enter the German position due to the obstruction of the German soldiers, the ultimatum he left in front of the position was still handed over to Paul by the German soldiers. Sri Lanka.
Paulus was silent for a long time after reading Rokossovsky's ultimatum, and then asked Schmidt: "Chief of Staff, we are now facing a terrible situation of insufficient fuel, insufficient ammunition, and insufficient food. There is no fuel and ammunition. , our soldiers can continue to fight with the Russians; but if there is no food, people will starve to death. If there is no food, the Russians don’t even need to launch an attack, they only need to adopt a siege method, and they can kill us all Starve to death.”
"Your Excellency, Commander, you are right." Schmidt echoed: "Before Christmas, the rations for the officers and soldiers were one hundred grams of bread per person per day; but after Christmas, due to the shortage of food, the rations had been reduced. It has reached 50 grams. If it continues to develop, I estimate that after a while, even this last ration will only be distributed to troops directly fighting."
"Chief of Staff," Paulus looked at Schmidt and asked with a strange expression: "How long do you think we can last in the Russian encirclement?"
"It's hard to say." Schmidt smiled wryly and shook his head. "We lost 80,000 people throughout December, and the army dropped sharply to 250,000 people. If it weren't for Marshal Manstein and General Hoth. The Russians launched an attack from the rear and tied up a large number of their troops. I estimate that our army's losses will be even greater."
"Eighty thousand people were lost in one month, and the remaining 250,000 people could only last for three months after full attack." As soon as Paulus said this, he immediately denied it: "No, no, eighty thousand people were annihilated. In December of this year, the combat effectiveness of our troops was still far higher than that of the Russians. At the same time, there were Marshal Manstein and General Hoth who came to rescue outside. Now they have been repelled by the Russians, and the combat effectiveness of our troops is , has also been greatly weakened due to lack of ammunition and food. In other words, we cannot sustain it for three months at all, and at best we can last until the end of February."
Schmidt judged from Paulus's tone that his commander was not optimistic about the future of continuing the fight, so he asked tentatively: "Your Excellency, commander, if we surrender to the Russians now, at least we can save two people." The lives of more than 100,000 soldiers. You should think about it carefully."
"Let me think about it again." Paulus glanced at the deadline stipulated above, sighed softly, and then told Schmidt: "Wait until the 9th, convene a meeting with the commanders of all armies, and take a look What do they mean?"
On the morning of January 9, Paulus summoned several of his military commanders to his headquarters for a meeting. After circulating Rokossovsky's ultimatum to the military commanders, he asked: "Gentlemen, military commanders, what do you think?"
"Your Excellency, Commander," Kurtzbach, commander of the 51st Army, was the first to speak. He stood up and said: "If the Air Force can provide us with enough supplies and provide us with the necessary air cover, then we can stick to Stalinger's position. Le area, it is still possible.
However, the current situation is that the supplies that are supplied to us every day are not even enough to maintain basic survival, let alone fight. In addition, in order to ensure the safety of transport aircraft, the Air Force used a large number of fighter jets for escort, so that the skies over the Stalingrad area were already in the hands of the Russian Air Force.
Therefore, I strongly suggest to you, Commander, that you agree to the Russian ultimatum and surrender to them. "
If it were in the past, whoever dared to propose surrender to the Russians at such an important military meeting would definitely be unanimously condemned by other colleagues. But after Kurtzbach finished expressing his opinion, the whole room was unusually quiet. Everyone was frowning and thinking hard. Should they obey Berlin's orders and continue to fight the Russians? Or should we assess the situation, accept the advice of this ultimatum, and surrender to the Russians?
Seeing that no one was talking in the room, Schmidt became a little anxious. He stood up and said to everyone: "Generals and gentlemen, the commander called you here today, not to let you be in a daze, but to come up with ideas." .Tell me, what are you thinking?"
"Let me say a few words." After Schmidt finished speaking, General Max Pfeffer, commander of the Seventh Infantry Corps, stood up and said in a solemn tone: "Today's weather has reached minus 30 degrees, and in Berlin What about the tens of thousands of sets of winter clothing provided to us by the Soviet Union? But at Morozovsk and Tachinskaya stations, as well as some rear bases in small towns, this batch includes fur coats, felt boots, cotton hats and earmuffs. All winter clothing has fallen into the hands of the Russians. Therefore, the vast majority of our officers and soldiers will survive this unbearable Russian winter without winter clothing."
"I want to ask," Commander Pfeffer had just finished, and Commander Strekel of the 11th Infantry Corps also raised his own question: "I remember that before the Russian National People's Congress counterattack began, most of our troops They are equipped with winter clothes. But where have all the military coats worn by the soldiers gone?"
When Schmidt heard Strekel raise this question, he secretly groaned. He knew that the soldiers' military coats were thrown into the fire and burned when they were ordered to retreat. And this order was precisely issued by Paulus himself. Seeing the anger on Paulus's face, he quickly stood up and smoothed things over: "General Strekel, where the soldiers' coats went is not the key. What we want to discuss now is how to treat Russia. A human ultimatum?”
"Needless to say, in our current state, can we continue to fight against the Russians?" Strecker said angrily: "I think it's better to surrender to the Russians. In this way, at least we can Preserve the names of more than 200,000 people.”
After several days of repeated consideration, Paulus also realized that surrendering to the Soviet army was the best way out. However, he did not know the opinions of his subordinates, so he convened this military meeting. At this moment, he saw several military commanders speaking, all advocating surrender to the Russians. He chose to feel a huge stone in his heart. He stood up and said: "I ask one last time, if you are against surrendering to the Russians, please raise your hands."
But after he finished speaking, the military commanders just looked at him, but no one raised their hands. Even if one or two people wanted to raise their hands, they changed their minds when they saw their colleagues sitting there as steady as a rock.
"Well, since no one objects," Paulus continued, seeing that everyone remained silent, "then I now officially declare: we accept the Russian ultimatum and send Kurtzbach to fight with The Russians negotiate..."
Before he could finish his words, the phone on the table next to him suddenly rang, interrupting his subsequent words. Schmidt walked over, picked up the microphone, listened for a while, and then handed the microphone to Paulus: "Your Excellency, Commander, General Hube, commander of the 14th Tank Army, has arrived outside the headquarters. He said that he has something important to do. You will be notified immediately.”
Paulus keenly discovered that when Schmidt mentioned Hube to him, he used the word "report" instead of "report." He immediately realized the seriousness of the problem and quickly ordered Schmidt: "Chief of Staff." , please invite General Hubei over."
Not long after, Hube, accompanied by Schmidt, walked into the building from the outside. He gave Paulus a quick salute and lowered his hand. After scanning the people attending the meeting in the room, he said to Paulus: "Your Excellency, Commander, I came to see you today to bring you a warrant from the head of state."
Paulus, who was about to arrange for Kurtzbach to negotiate with the Soviet army, was immediately frightened into a cold sweat when Hube said that he had brought a warrant from the Führer. He quickly asked: "Where is the warrant?"
Huber took out an envelope from his briefcase and handed it to Paulus. Paulus unfolded it and saw an order written by Hitler: "Paulus, I order you not to surrender. Every day your army holds its ground, it will be a support for the entire front line. You can contain at least a few Russians." The strength of the army group.”
After reading the warrant, Paulus knew that his intention to surrender had been guessed by Hitler, so he had such a warrant. He handed the order to Schmidt and told the other party: "Chief of Staff, read the order of the Führer to everyone."
After Schmidt finished reading Hitler's order, the military commanders collectively lost their voices again. The most disappointed person was Kurtzbach. He originally thought that Paulus would send him to contact the Soviet army, but everything was disrupted by Hitler's order. The next thing to do is to continue fighting the Soviet army until the entire army is destroyed.
"Generals and gentlemen, the meeting is over. Everyone should go back to their respective units." Paulus said to his subordinates with difficulty: "Whether we accept the Russian ultimatum or not, they will definitely launch another fierce attack. You need to prepare your troops for combat."
