The Battle of Stalingrad was a turning point in the Second World War, and in terms of numbers, the number of casualties was large, the battle was very bloody, and the Battle of Stalingrad was also a relatively rare defeat in the history of German warfare.
From the Soviet side, the defense of Stalingrad was a great victory. In addition to the particular heroism of the Soviet army, the defeated German side is particularly worth mentioning, especially the commander of the Sixth Army, Paulus. Although he was defeated, he was declared a martyr by Germany, and was awarded an epaulette by the marshal, and the whole country mourned for him, which was not the case.
Paulus was a man who was admired and given an aura, and was Hitler's most trusted general, and a famous figure in Germany. He made the Barbarossa Plan, and at the Battle of Kharkov, he destroyed 250,000 Soviet troops, and made such a great achievement, he was about to reach the peak of his life, but he did not obey Hitler's orders when he was in Stalingrad, led the army to surrender, and spent the rest of his life with countless controversies.
Although Paulus was so powerful, had won many battles, and had considerable experience in leading troops, in fact he did not have a professional military education, and if he had not undergone the education of the day after tomorrow, then he was indeed very talented in military affairs. After the First World War, several countries signed the Treaty of Versailles, and it was this treaty that limited the development of the German army, which could not have too many army reserves, and the army could only retain 100,000 people. But at that time, the German Army had millions of people, the elimination rate was very high, and the people who could stay in the army at that time were elites, people who had very good performances in the First World War, but Paulus at that time had no merit in the First World War, he stayed in the army, which also reflected how good Paulus was in the military.
In 1933 Hitler became the Führer of Germany, competing with the German legions of nobility for leadership of the army. At that time, it was to disintegrate their power, so it was necessary to promote a group of officers who were not nobles. Of course, Paulus was one of them, and because Paulus was very good at military planning, he became an important staff officer at Hitler's side. Hitler was given a lot of battle plans, such as the German invasion of Poland and Belgium, France and other places. Later, he served as deputy chief of the General Staff of Germany, participated in and formulated the battle plan for the invasion of the Soviet Union, and there was the battle of Stalingrad later, which defeated Stalingrad.
Paulus was besieged while fighting the Soviets at Stalingrad. He immediately sent a telegram to Hitler saying that "the final collapse will not last more than 24 hours" was about to be overwhelmed, and Hitler was particularly anxious at that time and immediately called Back Paulus. He was also awarded the rank of Field Marshal, and the other officers were promoted one rank each. Hitler told the soldiers around him that no field marshal had ever been captured alive in German history.
Paulus pinned his hopes on Manstein's rescue, but Manstein's attack was not smooth sailing, he could only retreat to Rostov, the army group at that time was also in contact with the outside world, had been cut off, the house and ammunition were gone, there was not enough food and ammunition, the soldiers could not eat enough every day, and could only rely on 100 grams of bread to survive, because there was too little food, and the soldiers had fallen to the point of eating grass roots and bark. There must be casualties in battle, and the wounded and sick in the army cannot be treated in time, but can only die, and the wounded are killed every day.
However, the encirclement of the Soviet army continued to shrink, the army could only withdraw to the city of Stalingrad, Paulus repeatedly sent telegrams to Hitler, requesting retreat, all of which were rejected by Hitler, paulus was extremely disappointed in his heart.
Hitler ordered Paulus not to retreat, much less surrender. For military personnel, carrying out orders is the duty of military personnel. But if they do not surrender, they have been resisting, and finally there is only one way to die, in the last moment, in fact, Paulus is very clear in his heart, they are going to die, but he still hopes that there will be reinforcements to save them, at this time the Soviet army has launched a general offensive, the situation for Paulus is getting more and more unfavorable, the casualties are huge, even has reached 100,000 people, and at this time Paulus once again applied to Hitler to retreat, but Paulus got the reply that the army would fight to the last bullet. Hitler even sent someone to give Paulus the marshal's medal by airdrop, and Hitler's meaning was very clear, that is, to let him and his army be martyred for the country. Paulus did not heed Hitler's orders and surrendered. In fact, Paulus had strictly obeyed Hitler's orders in this campaign, but did not obey them in the final surrender. Hitler knew that Paulus was particularly angry after his surrender, and could only quickly find a way to reverse the defeat and reduce the negative effects. For soldiers and the country, the surrender of the field marshal is a very serious matter, which is detrimental to the morale and morale of the army. Paulus, on the other hand, became the first German field marshal to be captured in World War II.
Now that it had surrendered, the Germans had to find countermeasures to reduce the negative information. The first was the declaration that Marshal Paulus had died in battle, a funeral was held for him, and even Hitler himself put his "body" in a coffin, and the whole of Germany mourned for him. At the same time, Hitler sent a secret army to rescue Paulus, the prison where Paulus was imprisoned had a secret army every day, the Soviet Union was very cautious, the German rescue failed, the Soviet side soon transferred Paulus to Moscow, armed rescue is an impossible thing. So Hitler came up with another method, to exchange prisoners, and he contacted the Red Cross and offered to exchange the captured Stalin's eldest son with Paulus. Stalin, of course, refused, who said: "I will not exchange an enemy marshal for a soldier." This response is really domineering.
For Hitler, Paulus was just a pawn on the chessboard, and success was a useful pawn, and vice versa was abandonment. As for the rescue later, it may be afraid of Paulus's rebellion, after all, his military planning is very powerful.