Germany during the Second World War was strong, really strong, how strong was it? The annexation of Czechoslovakia and Hungary, the partition of Poland with the Soviet Union, the surrender of the powerful army in less than a month in blitzkrieg, and the fact that there were hundreds of thousands of British troops in France at the time; although the attack on Britain failed, it caused the British a lot of losses, and then attacked the Soviet Union strongly, once near the Soviet capital Moscow.
The reason why Germany is so strong, in addition to the developed industry, advanced equipment, elite soldiers, but also has an inseparable relationship with a large number of officers in Germany at that time; the well-known German generals are Manstein, Guderian, Rommel, Lundstedt, Modell, Bock, Keitel, Jodel, Redell, Dönitz, there are many inconspicuous officers, although their fame is not so prominent, but it does not mean that their ability is not strong.
For example, here is the Frédéric William Paulus, who is not a military school graduate, has been a staff officer since joining the army, and when the German army was carrying out the campaign against Poland, he served as the chief of staff of the main force, the 10th Army, and he cooperated very well with the commander of the 10th Army, Reichenau; after the Polish campaign, he participated in the battles against Belgium and France, and achieved very prominent results, and Paulus was promoted to lieutenant general and the officer to the deputy chief of the general staff of the German army.
But Paulus, like Manstein, had always been eager to personally command his army on the front lines, rather than spending all day in the house calculating and calculating; so after he drafted and directed the "Barbarossa Plan" (the plan to invade the Soviet Union), on the recommendation of Reichenau, who had been promoted to field marshal, he took over Reichenau's post as commander of the 6th Army and was one of the main forces invading the Soviet Union, and Paulus was honored by this new appointment.
After the official launch of the war against the Soviet Union, Paulus's military talents outside the strategic planning were excavated, and he achieved the brilliant record of capturing 240,000 Soviet troops, destroying and capturing 2,026 tanks and 1249 cannons in the first battle, and he himself was rewarded with the Knight's Cross, to know that Germany only issued 7361 Knight's Cross during the entire World War II period, which is extremely precious compared to Germany, which has 17 million troops before and after. Only those who have made great achievements and have been recognized are eligible for it.
But the highlight of Paulus's life is actually during the Battle of Stalingrad, although the population of Stalingrad is only about 600,000, but the city's strategy is extremely high, because Stalingrad is not only an important port on the Volga River, but also a railway transportation hub and an important industrial city in the south of the Soviet Union, in addition to Stalingrad's own many particularities, it is also a traffic throat to important economic areas in the south of the Soviet Union, so the strategic location is extremely important.
If the Germans occupied the region, the Soviet Union would lose the oil, food, and important industrial base needed for the war, and Germany was in dire need of these resources. So before launching the offensive, Adolf had said to Paulus: "If I can't get the oil from Maykop and Grozny, then I have to end this war." So Paulus was not at all careless about this upcoming brutal war, and he perfectly combined his strategic thinking and command ability to make the 6th Army the most difficult army.
At first the battle went very smoothly, Paulus led the 6th Army into the south of the Soviet Union like a sharp knife, and the other armies also looked for targets to attack; the German attack was very successful, and after eliminating a large number of Soviet resistance forces, Paulus's army soon appeared near Stalingrad, and the most fertile areas of the Don Ande and Donbas Basin fell into German hands. However, because it went so well, Adolf felt that the capture of Stalingrad did not require so many troops, so he transferred the 4th Panzer Army to assist Paulus.
At that time, Paulus's Sixth Army had 6 corps, including 2 panzer corps, about 270,000 people in 14 divisions, nearly 500 tanks, 3,000 artillery and mortars, supported by 1,200 combat aircraft of the 4th Air Force; in fact, this force was not much stronger than the defensive force in Stalingrad, the ratio of strength between the two sides was 1:1.2, tanks 1:2, aircraft 1:3.6, artillery and mortars were roughly equal, and the German army was superior. But the Soviet hierarchy had already given orders to hold Stalingrad to the death, and the retreaters were shot and killed.
And there are constant reinforcements rushing to Stalingrad, this battle can not be delayed for a long time, so Paulus decided to fight a quick decision, but the stubborn resistance of the Soviet army made the 6th Army gradually slow down after gaining the early advantage; the top level of the two sides invariably sent troops to Stalingrad, according to statistics, Germany invested a total of 2 million troops in Stalingrad, while the Soviet Union invested a total of 3 million troops, which was a super battle of up to five million, and it was also the peak battle in the history of human warfare. There were 600,000 more people than the Battle of Moscow.
The Germans once reached the west bank of the Volga River in the central dock area of Stalingrad, and although the Soviets were tenacious, they were still defeated; but at this critical moment, two factors gave Paulus a fatal blow, the first was the shortage of materials, especially the fuel had been exhausted, but could not be replenished; the second was that the weather gradually became colder, but a large number of German troops did not get winter combat equipment supplies, and a large number of soldiers were frostbitten, and even froze to death, which greatly affected morale and combat strength.
At this time, the Soviet army had surrounded the German troops attacking Stalingrad, although Manstein did his best to rescue, but in this battle, the Soviet generals were also famous generals, such as Zhukov, such as Vasilevsky, such as Rokossovsky, such as Vatutin, etc. These Soviet generals not only surrounded the German army, including the 6th Army, but also tried their best to resist Manstein's attack, so that the encircled German army could not break through.
The point was that Adolf did not allow them to break through and retreat, when Paulus saw that the situation had appeared, he sent several telegrams to Adolf to ask for a breakthrough, but Adolf did not agree, Adolf asked them to hold their positions and wait for rescue; but the rescue never came, and the situation was becoming more and more unfavorable to the Germans. Most of the generals at the time insisted that a breakthrough was imperative, even if it was against Adolf's strict orders, but Paulus still strictly obeyed Adolf's orders, and he believed very much in Adolf and that air supplies would come.
And until the end of the Battle of Stalingrad, he did not wait for Adolf's air supply and rescue troops; what changed Paulus's insistence? It was Adolf's marshal appointment, he wanted rescue, not a meaningless marshal appointment at the moment, he knew that it was pointless to hold on, and in the time they waited, they had lost the best time to break through, even if they wanted to continue to fight and be loyal, but because of the lack of ammunition, the lack of fuel, the lack of food, so they could not do it.
There were only two options left for Paulus, the first was to wait for the butcher's knife of the Soviet army to arrive, and the second was to surrender; Paulus, who had already figured everything out, could not bear and did not want his old subordinates who had followed him for many years to die in vain, and after a difficult choice, he led the remaining German army in Stalingrad to surrender to the Soviet army. In this battle, the Germans suffered a total of 1.5 million casualties, while the Soviets suffered more than 2 million casualties. In fact, Paulus had a chance to win the Battle of Stalingrad, but Adolf temporarily changed his plans, so that he lost the opportunity to win.
He could have been a general on a par with Manstein, Guderian, and Rommel, and Germany should have been the "four great generals," but because of the defeat at the Battle of Stalingrad, because of his surrender, it all came to naught; there is a saying that "as much as you love, how much you hate," it is no exaggeration to say that Paulus, because after the surrender, he became the backbone of the opposition to Adolf, and even went to the military court to testify.