"Stop screaming, Your Excellency Commander." Seeing Paulus shouting loudly outside, Kurtzbach said coldly: "Even if you scream at the top of your lungs, no one will come to save you."
"Yes, Your Excellency Commander." Schmidt was worried that Kurtzbach would be unfavorable to Paulus, so he quickly stood up and said: "Your security forces have been transferred. No matter how much you shout, no one will come. Save you."
"What did you say, my security force was transferred?"
"Yes." Schmidt replied with a face of shame: "I ordered them to switch defenses with the troops of the 100th Jäger Division. Now the officers and soldiers of the 100th Jäger Division are serving as guards outside."
"Okay, Chief of Staff." Seeing that Schmidt was actually involved in the conspiracy against him, Paulus said angrily: "You are the person I trust most. I didn't expect you to be involved in this shameful conspiracy."
"Your Excellency, Commander, I actually don't agree with them using such extreme measures." Facing Paulus's accusation, Schmidt quickly defended: "But in order to save more people's lives, I still choose to stand with them. "Your Excellency, Commander, we can't continue the fight. It's better to quickly order the troops to stop resisting and let them surrender as soon as possible."
I learned that Kurtzbach and others took such extreme measures just to make themselves surrender. Paulus fell weakly on his seat and said with a gloomy face: "It's useless for you to do this. Even if you implement military remonstrance, the head of state will not agree to our surrender."
"Your Excellency, Commander," Sannei saw that Paulus' tone had softened, and he immediately saw a glimmer of hope. He quickly stepped forward, raised his hand, lowered the muzzle of Kurtzbach's gun, and said to Paulus, "What are you going to do?" No more sending a telegram to the Führer, reporting our plight here to him in the hope that he will change his mind.”
After Paulus heard Sannei's proposal, he didn't say anything and just looked at Schmidt on one side. As Paulus's chief of staff, Schmidt immediately understood the intention of the other party's look and quickly ordered a soldier: "Go find a radio station and come here. Your Excellency, the commander, will report to the Führer here."
The soldier who heard the order did not move, but turned his questioning eyes to Kurtzbach. After seeing the other man nodded slightly in agreement, he turned and left the room.
A few minutes later, a radio station was placed on the conference table, and a skilled operator sat in front of the radio, quietly waiting for the commander to dictate the content of the transmission.
Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Paulus stood up with a wry smile, staggered behind the operator, and said to him: "Operator, send a message to Berlin."
After the operator was ready to send the message, Paulus began to dictate the telegram to Berlin. He finally said: "... there is no point in continuing to resist. Tragedy is inevitable, in order to save the living. I request that you immediately Approving our surrender is also to save our nation and people. Paulus."
The officers and soldiers present quietly listened to Paulus's dictated orders, and their hearts were full of hope. They knew very well that their commander had given up any hope of continuing to resist. As long as Berlin agreed, the remaining troops of the entire army group could justifiably lay down their weapons and surrender.
A few minutes later, Berlin's call back arrived.
After the telegraph operator finished copying the telegram, he was about to hand it to Paulus, but he waved his hand and refused: "Give the telegram to the chief of staff and ask him to read it out in public."
In full view of everyone, Schmidt stepped forward to take the telegram from the operator's hand. When he quickly read the above content, his face turned livid. From his expression, Paulus guessed what Berlin's reply was, and said to him in a stern tone: "Chief of Staff, read the telegram to everyone."
Schmidt did not dare to neglect, and quickly raised the telegram and began to recite loudly: "I will never allow surrender. The troops of the Sixth Army must hold their position until all ammunition is exhausted. Hitler."
The hopes in everyone's hearts were shattered like a crystal glass falling to the ground with this message sent by Hitler himself. Some people who were originally opposed to the military advice began to waver in their hearts and felt that they should not do such wrong things. As a result, they failed to achieve their goals in the end.
"Gentlemen!" Paulus said to everyone when he saw everyone looking downcast: "You have all heard the Führer's reply. What are you going to do next? Continue to follow Kurtzbach's nonsense , or return to your respective units and command your men to fight the Russians? You make your own choice."
"I'm sorry, General Kurtzbach." Sanneh pulled out his pistol and pointed it at Kurtzbach. The soldiers who followed Kurtzbach in saw Sonne draw his gun and pointed their guns at him. At Kurtzbach's order, they beat him into a sieve. Sannei did not pay any attention to the gun pointed at him, but continued: "It is the duty of soldiers to obey orders. Since the head of state ordered us to continue fighting, we can only obey his order."
The soldiers holding guns showed hesitant expressions on their faces when they heard Sannei mentioning the head of state, and they also lowered their guns aimed at Sannei. Paulus saw that the opponent's military morale was in chaos, so he came out to make up for it in time: "Soldiers, if you put down your weapons now and commit the following crimes against you, I will let it go, otherwise..."
What would happen otherwise? Paulus didn't say anything, but the soldiers obediently threw their weapons on the ground. Sannei walked to the door and shouted outside. Soon, messy footsteps and shouts came from outside.
Hearing the sound coming from outside, Paulus frowned and asked Schmidt: "Chief of Staff, what happened outside?"
Schmidt also knew nothing about what was happening outside. He could only shake his head and replied truthfully: "I'm sorry, Commander, I don't know what happened outside."
It wasn't until an officer carrying a submachine gun entered the room that Sannei came to Paulus and reported to him: "Your Excellency, Commander, I have deployed a company in a nearby room. Now they have put Kur The people brought by General Zibach have all disarmed, what should we do with them?"
"Lock them all up." If the following crimes had occurred in the past, Paulus would not hesitate at all and ordered them all to be shot. But these are extraordinary times. In order to avoid causing unnecessary panic, Paulus could only treat them lightly. He ordered Sannei: "Lock up General Kurtzbach as well, and tell the police what he did." The entire army unit will be notified. If similar incidents occur again, they will be killed without mercy."
In this way, the military remonstrance initiated by Kurtzbach ended comically because of a reply from Hitler. General Kurtzbach, the instigator, was also locked in a separate room, waiting for Paulus's disposal.
Sokov naturally had no way of knowing what happened at the German headquarters. He was also explaining the attack after dawn to several division commanders over the phone.
Just before dawn, the phone in the headquarters rang.
The call came from Rokossovsky, who was far away in Moscow. He asked on the phone: "Colonel Sokov, are you ready?"
"Yes, Comrade Commander of the Front Army." Sokov replied respectfully: "We are ready to launch an attack on the department store."
"I have already told Malinin. If you have any needs, just call him and he will try his best to help you." Rokossovsky said: "I wish you good luck!"
The time for the attack had come. As Sokov's order was issued, each participating unit launched an attack on the German army in their respective areas.
"Comrade division commander," Sidorin asked Sokov curiously after confirming that all divisions had launched an attack: "How many days do you think our troops can capture the department store?"
"It's hard to say." Sokov knew very well in his heart that even though the main target of this attack was a department store, the German firepower points in the surrounding buildings were a tough nut to crack for the attacking troops. Although there were as many as three infantry divisions, two tank brigades, and artillery regiments attacking at the same time, Sokov still had no idea at all: "We can only do our best."
Since the attack carried out by Sokov did not carry out any artillery preparations before the attack, it also caught the German troops who were holding the position by surprise. The 41st Guards Division, which attacked from the southwest, took the lead in breaking through the German defensive positions and rushed Entering a community controlled by the German army, we started a battle with the enemy in the building.
Knowing that his troops had rushed into a community controlled by the enemy, Sokov quickly called Ivanov over and said to him: "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, our troops are making good progress at present. But in order to prevent the appearance of four regiments each In order to fight, if there is a lack of coordination between them, you need to rush over immediately and implement unified command over them."
"Don't worry, comrade division commander." Although Sokov is the commander of the combat group, Ivanov and others still like to call him division commander, and Sokov has not corrected this title. When Ivanov learned that he had another chance to show off his talents, he immediately said excitedly: "I will let our troops be the first to rush into the department store."
The battle that took place near the department store concerned not only Rokossovsky in Moscow, but also Chuikov in the city, Shumilov of the 64th Army and Bartov of the 65th Army. In order to avoid affecting Sokov's command, they did not call to ask about the battle situation. Instead, they each sent their own reconnaissance troops to conduct reconnaissance in the combat area in order to feed back the battle situation in a timely manner.
There were more than 10,000 German troops deployed around the department store, including infantry, artillery and tanks. Facing the overcoming Soviet troops, the German artillery and tanks did not consider the issue of saving ammunition at all. They desperately bombarded the Soviet offensive line with artillery shells and intercepted the attacking troops with fire.
The 41st Guards Division is Sokov's unit. Faced with the enemy's fire interception tactics, it knows how to disperse in time and use craters or ruins to approach the enemy's position. The other two infantry divisions still maintained a dense formation, braving fierce artillery fire and bravely rushing towards the enemy's position.
Sokov became a little anxious when he learned that the attacking force of the 23rd Infantry Division had lost a battalion to artillery fire in less than ten minutes. He quickly answered the phone at the division headquarters and said loudly to the person who answered the phone: "This is Sokov, let Colonel Sivakov answer the phone."
Sivakov's voice soon came from the receiver: "Comrade Commander, what are your instructions?"
"It's hard to say." Sokov knew very well in his heart that even though the main target of this attack was a department store, the German firepower points in the surrounding buildings were a tough nut to crack for the attacking troops. Although there were as many as three infantry divisions, two tank brigades, and artillery regiments attacking at the same time, Sokov still had no idea at all: "We can only do our best."
Since the attack carried out by Sokov did not carry out any artillery preparations before the attack, it also caught the German troops who were holding the position by surprise. The 41st Guards Division, which attacked from the southwest, took the lead in breaking through the German defensive positions and rushed Entering a community controlled by the German army, we started a battle with the enemy in the building.
Knowing that his troops had rushed into a community controlled by the enemy, Sokov quickly called Ivanov over and said to him: "Comrade Deputy Division Commander, our troops are making good progress at present. But in order to prevent the emergence of four regiments each In order to fight, if there is a lack of coordination between them, you need to rush over immediately and implement unified command over them."
"Don't worry, comrade division commander." Although Sokov is the commander of the combat group, Ivanov and others still like to call him division commander, and Sokov has never corrected him for this title. When Ivanov learned that he had another chance to show off his talents, he immediately said excitedly: "I will let our troops be the first to rush into the department store."
In the battle near the department store, not only Rokossovsky in Moscow was concerned, but also Chuikov in the city, Shumilov of the 64th Army and Bartov of the 65th Army. In order to avoid affecting Sokov's command, they did not call to ask about the battle situation. Instead, they each sent their own reconnaissance troops to conduct reconnaissance in the combat area in order to feed back the battle situation in a timely manner.
There were more than 10,000 German troops deployed around the department store, including infantry, artillery and tanks. Facing the overcoming Soviet troops, the German artillery and tanks did not consider the issue of saving ammunition at all. They desperately bombarded the Soviet offensive line with artillery shells and intercepted the attacking troops with fire.
The 41st Guards Division is Sokov's unit. Faced with the enemy's fire interception tactics, it knows how to disperse in time and use craters or ruins to approach the enemy's position. The other two infantry divisions still maintained a dense formation, braving fierce artillery fire and bravely rushing towards the enemy's position.
Sokov became a little anxious when he learned that the attacking force of the 23rd Infantry Division had lost a battalion to artillery fire in less than ten minutes. He quickly answered the phone at the division headquarters and said loudly to the person who answered the phone: "This is Sokov, let Colonel Sivakov answer the phone."
Sivakov's voice soon came from the receiver: "Comrade Commander, what are your instructions?"
