[30] When the forces defending Sixth Army HQ surrendered on the morning of 31 January, Schmidt discussed surrender terms with officers from General Shumilov's HQ, while Paulus waited unaware in a room next door. On 30 January, Paulus informed Hitler that his men were only hours from collapse. Paulus fought in World War I and saw action in France and the Balkans. Lt-Gen Konstantin Rokossovsky (L) and Friedrich Paulus. Kurt Zeitzler, the newly appointed chief of the Army General Staff, eventually got Hitler to allow Paulus to break outprovided he continue to hold Stalingrad, an impossible task. 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. Kommandeur Infanterieregiment 191, Stalingrad Oberstleutnant - Kommandeur Like many West German economists and politicians, he was in favor of taking advantage of the slightest opportunity to negotiate with the East. STALINGRAD: BREAKOUT AND AIRLIFT OPERATION - Academia.edu 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. He attained the rank of Generalleutnant during World War II, and is best known for his role as the Sixth Army's chief of staff in the Battle of Stalingrad in 194243, during the final stages of which he became its de facto commander, playing a large role in executing Hitler's order that it stand firm despite being encircled by the Red Army. Following his orders, Paulus prepared to break out of Stalingrad. The Germans had already had the successful experience of using an air bridge to resupply the 100,000-strong II Army Corps cut off near Demyansk at the beginning of the same year and successfully releasing it from its trap after several months of encirclement. General Schmidt surrendered the headquarters. 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. In 1920s, as part of the military cooperation between Weimar Republic and Soviet Union to escape Treaty of Versailles, Paulus presented guest lectures in Moscow, Soviet Union.[8]. Magdeburgisches) Nr. 26, https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Arthur_Schmidt_(Offizier)&oldid=219508932. He was a prisoner of war in the Soviet Union for twelve years, and was released following West German chancellor Konrad Adenauer's visit to Moscow in 1955. wounded, in the evening of 19 January 1943 - ordered to, became We must hold them here to the last so that the eastern front can be stabilized. Paulus radioed Hitler once again for permission. After the Soviet troops opened intensive fire from machine guns and mortars on the building at about six oclock in the morning, the shooting from the German side stopped. Hitler implied that if Paulus allowed himself to be taken alive, he would shame Germany's military history.[16]. "[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]. During his captivity, according to General Max Pfeffer, Paulus said, "I have no intention of shooting myself for this Bohemian corporal." The last German success in Operation Winter Storm was reaching the Myshkova River 48 km from Stalingrad on December 19. Paulus was promoted to lieutenant general in August 1940. Marshal Paulus and his generals after capture at Stalingrad - YouTube He led the drive to Stalingrad but was cut off and surrounded in the subsequent Soviet counter-offensive. In der Endphase der Schlacht bernahm er von Paulus weitgehend die Fhrung der Armee. He handed the colonel general a piece of paper and said: 'Congratulations. That would be a Napoleonic ending." "[10] Later that day, Schmidt and Paulus held a conference attended by General Hermann Hoth and Major-General Pickert,[10] during which Schmidt "did much of the talking". [13], The decision not to negotiate with the Soviet envoys who bore an ultimatum to Paulus on 8 and 9 January 1943, was, for example, made by Schmidt, not Paulus, as Colonel Wilhelm Adam told one of the envoys, Captain Nikolay Dyatlenko, during his post-battle interrogation. Rudolf Schmidt - Wikipedia 1955 wurde er aus der Gefangenschaft entlassen. 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. 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. Paulus also forbade his soldiers from standing on top of their trenches in order to be shot by the enemy. Schmidt joined the army as a one-year volunteer on 10 August 1914, attaining the rank of Leutnant on 8 May 1915. [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]. As part of his last will and testament, his body was transported to Baden-Baden, West Germany, to be buried at the Hauptfriedhof (main cemetery)[24] next to his wife, who had died eight years earlier in 1949, not having seen her husband since his departure for the Eastern Front in the summer of 1942. Nikolay Dyatlenko - Wikipedia [4] The British historian and author Antony Beevor offers the following description of Schmidt: [He was] a slim, sharp-featured and sharp-tongued staff officer from a Hamburg mercantile family. But, the enemy kept pressing home their attack, their tanks and armored vehicles reached our dug-in positions and then started to steamroll them. on New Years Day 1943, In the morning of 19 Military Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. 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.. Following his release, Schmidt remained bitterly hostile to those German officers who had co-operated with the Soviets in the National Committee for a Free Germany. It now seemed more impossible than ever to act against an order of the High Command or Army Group.[17]. https://books.google.com/books?id=OWOQAv01lYEC, https://books.google.com/books?id=inwd2rDaLm4C&printsec=frontcover&dq=isbn:1874622469&cd=1#q=schmidt, https://books.google.com/books?id=xg8QrmsLK-kC, https://books.google.com/books?id=qWuWOFS4o7AC&dq=%22arthur+Schmidt%22+stalingrad, "A Desperate Struggle to Save a Condemned Army: a critical review of the Stalingrad airlift", http://www.stormingmedia.us/44/4497/A449793.html, "Photographs of Schmidt at a Sixth Army reunion, Wiesbaden 1969", http://www.stalingrad.net/german-hq/members-aok-6/members_aok_6_a.htm, Pages containing cite templates with deprecated parameters, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, 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, Knights of the House Order of Hohenzollern, Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Its appalling pronounced Paulus somberly. Armee. had been ordered to fly out by Heeresgruppe Don German hopes for the rescue of the encircled grouping were finally dashed by the Soviet Operation Little Saturn that started on December 16. [8], Paulus and Schmidt realised that Sixth Army was encircled on 21 November. [2] On 25 October 1940 he served as chief of staff in 5th Army Corps, a position he held until 25 March 1942, when he moved to the Fhrerreserve at Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH). 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.
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