Leaflets falling from the sky were scattered deep within the German defenses. Through the leaflets, more German officers and soldiers learned that their situation was very bad, which had a negative impact on military morale and morale.
After Schmidt received this information, he immediately reported to Paulus: "Your Excellency, Commander, the Russians are spreading leaflets everywhere, trying to use this method to undermine the morale of our army. It seems that we must take measures.
To counter this Russian propaganda offensive."
"Do you have any ideas?" Paulus asked.
"There is a way, Your Excellency Commander." Schmidt took out two documents from the briefcase tucked under his arm, handed them to Paulus, and said respectfully: "This is what General Holt said a few days ago.
If the battle report is released to the entire army, it should be able to boost morale and stabilize the morale of the military."
Paulus took it and took a look. It turned out to be the battle report of the 6th, 23rd and 17th Armored Divisions commanded by Hoth, which successfully broke through the Soviet defenses and moved closer to the besieged troops. After reading it, he handed the battle report back to
Schmidt said approvingly: "Yes, Chief of Staff, immediately announce General Hott's battle report to all officers and soldiers, let them know that our people are coming to rescue us, and strengthen their confidence in continuing to fight.
"
After Schmidt and Paulus unified their propaganda, they went on to talk about another major issue related to the life and death of the army: "Your Excellency, Commander, in addition to the Russian propaganda offensive, what affects the morale and morale of our army is also supplies.
question."
"According to our original idea, the Air Force should replenish us with one thousand tons of supplies every day. However, Goering said that the Air Force cannot complete such a huge transportation volume, so we can only reduce the daily supply of supplies to 600 tons." Paulu.
Si said displeasedly: "What, the Air Force can't even guarantee such a quantity?"
"Yes, Your Excellency Commander, the Air Force cannot provide us with sufficient supplies through temporary airports during the severe winter season." Schmidt reported: "The Air Force does not have enough transport aircraft, so it can only use some bombers to replace them. But these bombers
The weight of the materials they carry is far less than that of transport aircraft. And as these bombers are converted into transport aircraft, we have lost our local air superiority..."
"Okay, don't talk about that." Paulus interrupted Schmidt before he finished speaking, and said impatiently: "You just need to tell me the current supply situation."
"The situation is very bad, Your Excellency Commander." Schmidt sighed and said frustratedly: "So far, the Eighth Air Force, which is responsible for the airlift mission, has only twice delivered nearly three hundred tons of materials. The first time was
On December 7, 188 planes landed at Pitomnik Airport and delivered 282 tons of supplies; on December 20, a plane carrying a large amount of Christmas supplies delivered 291 tons of supplies at the airport. Yesterday, 154 planes landed at the airport.
The plane delivered 289 tons of supplies and carried away 1,300 wounded people."
Before Schmidt finished speaking, the phone on the table rang. Schmidt grabbed the phone and put it to his ear and said, "I am Chief of Staff Schmidt, where are you?"
"Your Excellency, Chief of Staff," the caller reported to Schmidt: "I am the person in charge of Pitomnik Airport. A transport plane just landed at the airport..."
When he heard that a transport plane had landed, Schmidt said disapprovingly: "Is it a plane transporting supplies? You can just handle this kind of thing. There is no need to call and harass the commander."
"No, Your Excellency, Chief of Staff." The other party replied timidly: "There is a special envoy sent by Head of State Manstein on the plane. He said he was ordered to see His Excellency the Commander."
Schmidt quickly covered the microphone with his hand, lowered his voice and said to Paulus: "Your Excellency, Commander, the person in charge of Pitomnik Airport called and said that a special envoy of Marshal Manstein has arrived."
"The marshal's special envoy?" Paulus couldn't help but frowned slightly, "What is he sending the special envoy to do at this time? Is it to persuade us to break out of the encirclement?"
"Then what should we do?" Schmidt asked Paulus: "Let him come over?"
"Let him come over." Paulus said helplessly: "In any case, he is the marshal's special envoy. Let's listen to what he has to say."
"Your Majesty the Commander has an order," Schmidt released his hand covering the phone and said to the officer on the other end of the phone: "Send someone immediately to send the special envoy to the headquarters."
"Yes." The officer agreed, "I will send someone to send him there immediately."
About half an hour later, a young major appeared in front of Paulus and Schmidt. He raised his hand in salute, introduced himself and said: "Your Excellency, Commander, I am the intelligence officer of the Don River Army Group."
Major Eismann, as the special envoy of Marshal Manstein, is here to see you."
Paulus nodded at the other party and said with a cold expression: "I wonder what orders Mr. Marshal has for me?"
Major Eismann quickly took out a tightly sealed briefcase from his briefcase and handed it to Paulus: "Your Excellency, Commander, this is the secret letter the marshal asked me to give you."
Paulus took the briefcase, untied the rope around it, took out a letter from the bag, and read it carefully. Schmidt, eager to know the contents of the letter, also leaned over, tilted his head, and
Watch with Paulus.
Major Eisman stood in front of the two of them like a telegraph pole. After guessing that they had finished reading the letter, he took the letter from Paulus' hand, took out the lighter from his pocket, and lit it.
A letter. Regarding his rude behavior, not only Paulus but also Schmidt were silent, because they saw the words "Burn after reading" at the bottom of the letter. Eisman burned it
This is a top-secret letter and I don’t want more people to see it.
"Major," Schmidt and Paulus exchanged glances and asked, "So, Mr. Marshal is planning for us to disobey the orders of the High Command in Berlin and evacuate the Stalingrad area without permission?"
"That's right, Chief of Staff." Eisman replied respectfully: "Our troops were stubbornly blocked by the Russians and it was difficult to advance forward, so the marshal decided to retreat. And Huo Huo, who was operating in the southwest of you,
General Special, you are now being attacked by more and more Russians. If you do not retreat, you will face the risk of being surrounded. The marshal gives you two choices: one is to disobey the orders of the Supreme Command and follow the orders of the Russians.
The second is to obey the orders of the Supreme Command and the Head of State and remain in Stalingrad until they are completely annihilated."
"Major, although you are sent by the Marshal, for the sake of safety, I need to contact the Marshal personally." After thinking for a long time, Paulus said, "Can you do it?"
"No problem." Major Eismann nodded, kicked a box he had just brought in, and said to Paulus and Schmidt: "We can use this teletype transmitter to communicate with the marshal.
Contact." Perhaps seeing the confused looks of the two people, he explained, "This teletype transmitter is similar to the Russian Bodo transmitter. The signal cannot be intercepted, although it is not very convenient to operate.
, but with excellent confidentiality.”
"Major, please install this machine immediately." Schmidt said to Eisman in a commanding tone: "We need to speak to the Marshal as soon as possible."
Five minutes later, the teletype transmitter was installed. Eisman kept sending signals: "Is there anyone? Is there anyone?"
Not long after, the transmitter buzzed and a long message came out: "Marshal Manstein is at the transmitter. Where is General Paulus?"
"Major, please reply." Paulus said to Eismann: "Just say that Paulus and Chief of Staff Schmidt are also at the transmitter and ask the marshal for instructions."
"You should have finished reading my order. What are you going to do? Should you hold on or break through."
"Breakout."
"Is there any specific plan?"
Although Paulus kept saying that he would obey the orders of the High Command in Berlin and hold on tenaciously in the Stalingrad area, in private, he and Schmidt formulated several breakout plans. See Manstein
When asked, he quickly replied: "Yes, Your Majesty Marshal."
"Report it to me immediately."
"Chief of Staff," Paulus turned to Schmidt and said, "immediately report our breakout plan to Marshal Manstein."
Schmidt hurriedly ran to come up with a breakout plan and began to dictate to Eisman: "We currently have three plans. The first plan is to leave the infantry as a cover and use only armored forces to break through to the southwest and rush over to meet Huo Huo.
General special meets.
The second plan is to carry out a breakout with the entire army. In order to break through the Russian encirclement as soon as possible, we will choose a weak environment and may not necessarily join General Holt. This plan has the highest success rate, but the disadvantage is that it will cause technical equipment
serious losses.
The third option is to obey the orders of the Supreme Command and continue to defend in the existing area. But based on the current supply situation, continuing to hold on may not last long."
After Eismann sent the plan read by Schmidt verbatim, he waited a few minutes for Manstein's reply to arrive: "There is no longer any need to hold on to the Stalingrad area, so a decisive breakout action must be taken."
.How long will it take you to launch the second option?”
After seeing Manstein's question, Paulus did not answer immediately. Instead, he looked sideways at Schmidt, waiting for his answer. After Schmidt understood what Paulus meant, he quickly replied: "
It will take three to four days at the earliest.”
"How much fuel, ammunition and food are needed?"
"There are about 2.78 million troops currently surrounded by the Russians. We need to prepare at least ten days of rations before we can successfully break through the Russian siege."
After the telegram was sent, Manstein waited for half an hour before a new reply came: "In order to ensure the success of your breakout, I can order Holt to continue to stick to the existing area. You should immediately transfer all technologies to
The equipment is concentrated in the southwest to ensure that during a breakout, more useful technical equipment can be taken away instead of leaving it with the Russians or destroying it on the spot."
At the end of the final contact, Paulus asked cautiously: "Mr. Marshal, I think the breakout plan should be reported to Berlin, otherwise the head of state will be blamed in the future. Neither you nor I can bear this responsibility."
After a long time, Manstein finally recovered: "As you wish, I will report the matter to Berlin."
After ending his communication with Manstein, Paulus called his adjutant and asked him to arrange for Eismann to rest. After only himself and Schmidt were left in the room, Paulus spoke again: "Chief of Staff
, do you think the Führer will agree to our withdrawal from the Stalingrad area?"
"I think it's impossible." Schmidt said what he was thinking. "Not only do we think the head of state will not agree, but even Marshal Manstein feels that the head of state will not agree. That's why he gave us
In the secret message, we were asked to withdraw the troops trapped in the Stalingrad area in stages to avoid being noticed by the Führer.”
"Chief of Staff, you are right." Paulus nodded and said: "If Head of State Manstein ordered our entire army to break out from the beginning, then the Head of State would most likely immediately cancel the order he issued. And we
If we adopt the method of retreating in batches, when the head of state knows that we are retreating, he can only hold his nose and admit what we did."
"Then what should our armored division do?" Schmidt asked Paulus for instructions: "You know, not long ago, they were still attacking the position held by Sokov's troops."
"Let them withdraw." Paulus ordered without explanation: "In our next breakout battle, these armored divisions will play a vital role without consuming unnecessary directions."
"Understood, Commander, I immediately gave the order to the armored division to withdraw from the battle immediately." Schmidt said: "And rush to the southwest as soon as possible to prepare for a breakout operation there."
After the order was issued, the two German armored divisions that had been staying near Mamaev Hill began to regroup and prepare to move southwest.
The enemy's actions were quickly noticed by the scouts sent by Sokov. The scouts captured a German staff officer. From the captured documents, they learned that the German armored division would move to the southwest. The scouts felt that this
The situation was very important, and the enemy situation was immediately sent back to the division headquarters through the radio.
"No, the Germans are trying to escape." As soon as Sokov read the intelligence sent by the scouts, he immediately judged Paulus's intention and quickly ordered Sidorin: "Chief of Staff, you immediately call the Army Headquarters
Make a phone call and report the enemy's new movements to the commander, asking them to decide what to do next."
"Don't worry, Comrade Division Commander, they can't escape." The Cidolin Alliance nodded and replied, "I will report this information to Comrade Commander immediately."