Friedrich Paulus
Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus (Guxhagen, Hesse, September 23, 1890 - Dresden, February 1, 1957) was a German general during World War II. He was in charge of the German Sixth Army and led the frustrated German invasion of the Soviet city of Stalingrad. He was promoted by Adolf Hitler to field marshal so that he would not surrender, since no marshal had ever surrendered in German history. But after months of resistance and after the death of most of his army, totally surrounded, sick, without provisions and in the middle of the Russian winter, he surrendered to the Soviets, thus ending the bloodiest battle in the history of mankind and that would mark the end of the German advance in the East and the first setback that would mark the future Allied victory.
Biography
Son of the Chief Treasurer of Hesse-Nassau, he tried unsuccessfully in 1909 as a cadet in the Imperial Navy; he did not succeed because the sons of aristocrats were preferred. He began law studies at the University of Marburg, which he left to enlist in the imperial army in February 1910. He entered the 111th Infantry Regiment as an officer cadet. Through his friendship with some noblemen, Constantino and Efraín Rosetti-Solescu met and two years later, on July 4, 1912, he married the aristocrat Elena Rosetti-Solescu (1889-†1949), of Romanian descent. noblewoman who was colloquially called Coca. Paulus was known among his peers by the nickname The Lord, due to the extreme grooming of him, the aristocratic manners adopted by him; but he was also known for his closeness to the troops and his good manners. Until the start of World War I he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the 3rd Baden Infantry Regiment. When the war began, he was trained as an adjutant in the III Battalion on the Western Front, where he fought in the Vosges and near Arras in the autumn of 1914. After a long absence due to illness, in 1915 he was assigned to the 2nd Prussian Hunter Regiment and two years later he was assigned as a Section Officer to the Alpine Corps, serving in Macedonia, France and Serbia.
Promoted to captain, Paulus continued in the decimated Reichswehr army resulting from the Treaty of Versailles. He fought alongside the Freikorps during the Spartacus Uprising.
Appointed adjutant to the 14th Infantry Regiment in Konstanz, he was later assigned to the 13th Infantry Regiment in Stuttgart as a company commander. He joined II Army Group at Kassel, and in 1930 was assigned as a tactical instructor to the 5th Infantry Division.
Wehrmacht
In the Wehrmacht, he served in various sections between 1921 and 1933. In 1934 he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and commander of the 3rd Motor Transport Section. In September 1935 he took over from Guderian as Section Chief of the Mechanized Troops (panzer ). Strictly monolithic in mind, Paulus was a man who lacked the ability of a strategist, but was considered a tireless, conscientious and talented worker, extremely diligent in carrying out the directives imposed on him, incapable of taking initiatives against his superiors and inexperienced in commanding large units of the Heer. Heinz Guderian had a special appreciation for him.
Considered an expert in motorized warfare, he was promoted to Major General and training adviser for the four light divisions in 1939, which comprised two motorized infantry regiments, one reconnaissance regiment, and one motorized artillery regiment. He was a companion, in the first phase of the campaign in Russia, of Claus von Stauffenberg, who tried to attract him to his coup convictions without success (attack on July 20, 1944).
A few days before the start of World War II, he was appointed Section Chief of the X German Army, under the command of Walter von Reichenau who appreciated him for his military skills. He took part in the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 and in the campaigns in the Netherlands (where Tenth Army was renamed Sixth Army) and Belgium.
In June 1940, he was promoted to Lieutenant General, becoming Chief of Staff of the Reichenau Army in September.
From that position, he was summoned by Hitler to collaborate in the design of Operation Barbarossa aimed at the invasion of the Soviet Union, an operation that Paulus considered crazy but which he complied with with military stoicism. During the development of this operation, he advised to cut off the Russian withdrawal, avoiding their retreat inland. He also raised with Hitler the need to find winter clothes for the soldiers, in case the war spread, but Hitler forbade him to mention the subject again. The main objective of the operation would be the conquest of Moscow.
Commanding the 6th Army
Appointed commander of the German 6th Army in December 1941, thanks to a recommendation by Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau, he took command of it on January 1, 1942 with the rank of General. He fought the first battle at Dnipropetrovsk, where his advance was checked, forcing him to make tactical withdrawals for several months.
On May 9, 1942, it was attacked in Volchansk by an army of 640,000 men under the command of Semyon Timoshenko. Paulus made a new tactical retreat in the direction of Kharkov, before being rescued by Ewald von Kleist and his I Panzer Army, which attacked the southern flank of Timoshenko's troops.
He launched a counterattack on May 20, 1942, wiping out all Soviet resistance before the start of June. Enemy casualties numbered 240,000 men, earning him the Knight's Cross.
Stalingrad
In the summer of that same year, he advanced on Stalingrad, a large industrial city that stretched some 50 km along the right (west) bank of the Volga. It was an important railway junction on the Moscow-Black Sea section. It lacked bridges with the opposite bank of the river. It was defended with 400,000 men, 7,000 cannons, and half a thousand battle tanks.
The rationed supply of fuel slowed down the advance of the German army, to the detriment of Army Group A. On August 23 it reached the city on the Volga, at whose gates it stopped waiting for the bombardment of the Luftwaffe. At the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad, German progress was so remarkable that Hitler considered it conquered. Indeed, the speed with which the Germans attacked was so surprising that the Soviets lost almost 80% of the city in less than two weeks. They only needed to take the fortified buildings on the banks of the Volga to achieve complete success.
In mid-September, General Vassili Chuikov, Zhukov's subordinate, appeared on the scene, commanding the Soviet 62nd Army. With iron leadership, he organized the defense of what was left of the city, in cold blood and with steely relentlessness. His determination saved Stalingrad from falling into German hands at the last moment, by overcoming the resistance of their enemies.
The capture of the city became a duel of wills between Hitler and Stalin. The Führer insisted on the symbolic importance of the square, while Stalin promised to turn it into a tomb for the Wehrmacht. The fight then became a guerrilla war, house to house, factory to factory, with snipers playing an important role in this. On the Soviet side, several rose to fame, including Vasily Zaitsev, who caused 149 German casualties. The German casualties from the conquest of the city were terrifying, some companies were reduced to less than 40% of their strength in a few hours of combat. Attempts were made by all means to capture the docks on the north bank of the Volga, but the action was aborted by Siberian battalions and Katyusha rockets fired from the eastern bank of the river.
At the beginning of November 1942, German troops occupied 90% of the city. Battalions of Siberian troops were transferred from Moscow. This new reinforcement was significant, as it stopped the intentions of the Germans to seize the north bank of the Volga. It was the moment chosen by the Soviets under the command of Zhúkov to launch Operation Urano, a counterattack directed against the flanks of Paulus. These, protected by Italian, Hungarian and Romanian troops, poorly equipped and not trained to face armored divisions, gave way to the Soviet push, and the 6th Army was surrounded in a few days.
Hitler refused to give Paulus leeway, who wished to withdraw, instead ordering him to resist "at any cost". In December a last attempt to free him by Army Group Don under the command of Marshal Manstein, the so-called "Operation Winter Storm", failed miserably.
The end of the 6th Army
Hitler promoted Paulus to the rank of field marshal on January 30, 1943, hinting that no officer of that rank had ever surrendered to the enemy. The implication of the Führer's promotion was clear: Paulus had to give up his own life before allowing himself to be captured.
The view before the soldiers bagged in the kessel or 'cauldron' It couldn't be more disastrous: there were hungry soldiers, wounded, with typhus, numb with cold. When they lost the only supply track it was the end; most had locked themselves in a supermarket with subways called Univermag. The soldiers no longer had combative morale. In addition, the city already had the appearance of a tomb, with a smell of cadaverous decomposition that covered it completely, 90% of the buildings were destroyed, the setting was gruesome. Finally, some Soviet soldiers descended into the underground where Paulus and the rest of the Sixth Army were and offered him surrender. Paulus accepted on February 2, 1943. It should be noted that during the Battle of Stalingrad Paulus fell ill with dysentery but refused to be replaced in his duties.
Before marching into captivity, German soldiers had to clear the rubble in the city, collect their dead comrades, and arrange them in piles on the outskirts of the city to be cremated. Then they were transferred by train to Siberia, a large number of the soldiers dying during the trip and, later, in the concentration and labor camps.
About 150,000 German soldiers were killed during the battle and some 90,000 were taken prisoner. After the war, only 6,000 of them survived and returned to Germany.
The Gestapo in retaliation for the surrender, took her children Ernst and Olga prisoner and they were sent to an alpine prison and released in 1945, the widow was ordered to renounce her married name, but she refused.
Captivity, release and death
Paulus was taken prisoner by the Soviets. During his captivity, he criticized the Nazi regime and joined the National Committee for a Free Germany, calling on the Germans to surrender. He acted as a witness in 1946 during the Nuremberg Trials.
End Life
Freed definitively by the Soviets in 1953, two years before the repatriation of the last German prisoners of war, he lived in the city of Dresden (then East Germany); a couple of years after his liberation, serving as civilian head of the GDR's "Military Historical Research Institute", an occupation he held until the end, his wife Elena Rosetti-Solescu had died 4 years before the release from him. He developed progressive bulbar palsy, a form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, which caused his death in a Dresden clinic on February 1, 1957.
Offspring
Paulus had three children with Elena Rosetti-Solescu, namely Olga (1914-†2003), and the twins Ernst Alexander (1918-†1970) and Friedrich (1918-†1944), the latter killed in action in the Battle of Anzio.
Clarification on the name
Paulus was also known as "von Paulus". This prefix “von” of noble origin in his name is not authentic, but rather a confusion, probably based on the fact that the career of an officer in the German armed forces was traditionally popular in noble families, for at least one of their children. Many German officers and generals had the title "von" in their names. Paulus, on the contrary, was not of noble origin, he was the son of a minor officer, which is why he was promoted by Hitler to the rank of general, since he saw himself reflected in Paulus -a military genius- (from the point of view of the Führer) born in humble surroundings.
Awards
- Cross of Iron 2.a Class 1914 (Eisernes Kreuz 1914, II. Klasse)
- Iron Cross 1.a Class 1914 (Eisernes Kreuz 1914 I Klasse)
- Order of Military Merit 4.a Class with Bavarian Swords (Bayersiche Militärverdienstorden, 4. Klasse mit Schwertern)
- 2.a Class Knight Cross with swords of Order Zähringer Löwen (Orden vom Zähringer Löwen Ritterkreuz 2. Klasse mit Schwertern)
- Cross to the Merit of 2.a Mecklenburg-Schwerin Class (Militärverdienstkreuz, 2. Klasse (Mecklenburg-Schwerin)
- Cross to the Military Merit of 1st Class Mecklenburg-Schwerin (Militärverdienstkreuz, 1. Klasse (Mecklenburg-Schwerin)
- Cross by Sachsen-Meiningen War Merit (Verdienstkreuz im Krieg (Sachsen-Meiningen)
- Brooch of the Iron Cross 1939 of 2.a Class (1939 Spange zum Eisernen Kreuzes II. Klasse 1914) – 21 Set 1939
- Brooch of the Iron Cross 1939 of 1.a Class (1939 Spange zum Eisernen Kreuzes I. Klasse 1914) – 21 Dec 1939
- Mention in the Armed Forces Report (Namentliche Nennung im Wehrmachtbericht) – 30 May 1942
- Mention in the Armed Forces Report (Namentliche Nennung im Wehrmachtbericht) – 11 Aug 1942
- Mention in the Armed Forces Report (Namentliche Nennung im Wehrmachtbericht) – 31 Jan 1943
- Mention in Armed Forces Report (Namentliche Nennung im Wehrmachtbericht) – 01 Feb 1943
- Mention in the Armed Forces Report (Namentliche Nennung im Wehrmachtbericht) – 03 Feb 1943
- Order of Miguel el Valiente 3.a Clase (Romania) Ordinul Mihai Viteazul Clasa 3) – 05 Feb 1943
- Order of Michael the Valiente 2.a Clase (Romania) Ordinul Mihai Viteazul Clasa 2) – 05 Feb 1943
- Order of Miguel el Valiente 1.a Clase (Romania) Ordinul Mihai Viteazul Clasa 1) – 05 Feb 1943
- Cross of Knights of the Iron Cross (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) – 26 Aug 1942
- Robles leaves for RK No. 178 (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub Nr. 175) – 15 Jan 1945
- 1.a-Class 25-year Armed Forces Service Medal (Wehrmacht-Dienstauszeichnung 1. Klasse, 25 Jahre)
- Front Warrior Honorary Cross 1914-1918 (Ehrenkreuz für Frontkämpfer)
- Medal of the annexation of Austria (Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 13. März 1938)
- Medellla de Anexión de los Sudetes (Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 1. Oktober 1938)
- Brooch of the Sudden Medal (Spange zur Medaille zur Erinnerung an den 1. Oktober 1938)
- Order of Freedom of Finland, Cross of 1st Class with Brides (Suomi Vapaudenristin Suurristi, VR 1 rt mk)
- Order of Michael the Valiente 1.a Clase (Romania) Ordinul Mihai Viteazul Clasa 1)
- Cross to the Military Merit of Austria-Hungary (Militärverdienstkreuz 3. Klass Österreich-Ungarn)
- Military Order 1.♪ Grade with Roble leaves of Croatia (Hrvatska Vojnički red Željeznog Trolista 1 Stupnja s hrastovim lišćem)
Contenido relacionado
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Annex: Annual table of the fourteenth century
Aquatint engraving