Early the next morning, Rokossovsky sent someone to deliver a letter of surrender written by him. To be precise, it was an ultimatum to Paulus.
The person who came to deliver the ultimatum was Lieutenant Colonel Chernyakov, Rokossovsky's adjutant. After shaking hands with Sokov, he said straight to the point: "Colonel Sokov, Comrade Commander sent me to deliver it to you.
Are the ultimatum given to Paulus and the personnel sent to the enemy positions ready?"
"Yes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, I have already arranged the personnel to go to the enemy's positions to persuade them to surrender." Sokov said politely: "Please give me the ultimatum given to Paulus by the commander of the front army."
Lieutenant Colonel Chernyakov took out two pieces of paper from his briefcase, handed them to Sokov, and said: "Colonel Sokov, I strongly recommend that you copy this ultimatum immediately and
Make leaflets and drop them on enemy positions in various ways so that more German officers and soldiers can see them, which will help undermine their military morale and morale."
Sokov took the paper from the opponent's hand and looked at it. It was all written in German. He couldn't help but said awkwardly: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, these are all written in German."
"The top piece of paper is in German, and the bottom piece of paper is in Russian." Chernyakov explained to Sokov: "The German ultimatum is for German officers and soldiers; and the Russian one is for German officers and soldiers.
The copies are for our own commanders and soldiers to see."
Sokov removed the paper above and saw that the bottom one was indeed written in Russian. Seeing that others were eager to know the content, he read loudly: "To the German troops besieged under the city of Stalingrad."
General Paulus, Commander of the 6th Army and Deputy Commander:
The German 6th Army, the 4th Tank Arms Corps and their associated reinforcements have been completely surrounded since November 23, 1942.
…
…
The situation of your besieged troops is very difficult. They are suffering from hunger, disease and cold. The harsh winter in Russia has arrived. The icy cold, biting cold wind and blizzard are coming, but your soldiers do not have winter clothes yet.
, and are exposed to an environment that is harmful to health.
As the commander, you and the officers of the besieged troops are very clear: it is impossible for you to break through, your situation is hopeless, and it is meaningless to continue to resist. In view of the dilemma you are in, in order to avoid insecurity
Necessary casualties, I hope you will accept the following surrender conditions:
1. All besieged German troops led by you and your headquarters must stop resisting.
2. You must hand over all troops, weapons, all technical weapons and military supplies to us in an organized manner intact. We guarantee the life safety of all officers, soldiers and soldiers who give up resistance. After the war, they can return to Germany or
The prisoners of war will choose where to go according to their own wishes. The uniforms, symbols, medals, personal belongings and valuables of all the surrendered troops will be retained, and the cold weapons of senior officers will be retained. All surrendered officers, sergeants and soldiers will soon receive normal meals. All injuries and illnesses
Soldiers and those with frostbite will be treated.
If you receive this ultimatum, please send a representative to ride in a car with a white flag at 15:00 Moscow time on January 9, 1943, along the route of the Connet station - Struban station.
The highway will send a written reply. Your representatives will be greeted by representatives of the Soviet Army in an area 0.5 kilometers southeast of the 564th concession station.
If you refuse to surrender, our Red Army and Red Army Air Force will be forced to annihilate the besieged German troops, and you will be responsible for all the consequences. This is a warning."
The signatures at the back are: Artillery General Voronov, representative of the headquarters of the Red Army High Command Headquarters, and Lieutenant General Rokossovsky, Commander of the Don Front.
After seeing this ultimatum to Paulus, Sokov handed it to Anisimov and said to him: "Comrade political commissar, immediately arrange for manpower to print this ultimatum into Russian and German.
With leaflets in two languages, we must use possible methods to undermine the enemy's military morale and morale."
After Anisimov left with the ultimatum, Sokov nodded to Sidorin and said: "Comrade Chief of Staff, call Lieutenant Colonel Papuchenko and ask him to release all the prisoners he has prepared.
.”
Lieutenant Colonel Chernyakov, who was sitting nearby, waited for Sokov to give the order and asked curiously: "Colonel Sokov, I don't understand why you released the German prisoners at this time?"
"The reason is very simple, let them go back and report the news." Sokov was afraid that the other party would not understand, and specifically explained: "If we rashly send people over to persuade them to surrender, the comrades sent there may be shot by the Germans. Now we are releasing some
The Germans took prisoners and asked them to go back and inform their superiors that someone of ours was going to negotiate, so as to avoid the enemy shooting at the negotiators."
"Colonel Sokov, you are very thoughtful." Chernyakov nodded and said approvingly: "In this way, the German army will know that we will send people to negotiate with them and see our negotiators appear.
When we are in front of their positions, we won’t shoot at them casually.”
Although Anisimov quickly arranged for manpower to print the leaflets, it still took more than two hours to complete the printing of the leaflets. Just when he came back to report to Sokov, Rokossovsky
Called Sokov and said to him: "Colonel Sokov, have your men been sent out?"
"Not yet, Comrade Commander of the Front Army." When Sokov heard the call from Rokossovsky, he quickly and respectfully replied: "We have just finished printing the leaflets, and I'm afraid it will take a while before we can send them out.
The men headed for the German positions."
"Then you need to speed up a little bit," Rokossovsky said on the phone: "I have sent two reconnaissance planes carrying loudspeakers to broadcast the last message I wrote to Paulus over the enemy's defense area.
Ultimatum."
After Sokov ended the call with Rokossovsky, he took the ultimatum written by Rokossovsky from Anisimov's hand and handed it to Guchakov who was standing next to him.
: "Comrade Captain, this is the ultimatum given to Paulus by the commander of the front army, General Rokossovsky. If possible, I hope you can hand it over to Paulus personally."
"Comrade Commander, please rest assured." Guchakov straightened his body and assured Sokov: "I will successfully complete the task you assigned me."
According to Sokov's idea, he had ordered someone to release a group of German prisoners and let them go back to inform the German command. Then he sent Guchakov and Ernst to go there in a jeep with a white flag.
The enemy's position will definitely go smoothly.
Unexpectedly, less than half an hour after Guchakov and the others set off, he received a call from Bely from the position: "Misha, the comrade you sent to negotiate with the German position seems to be in trouble."
"What, are they in trouble?" Sokov suddenly seemed a little flustered when he heard what Bely said: "Colonel Bely, what trouble have they encountered?"
"I don't know whether the released German prisoners did not convey our intentions to their superiors; or the enemy did not want to negotiate with us." Bely said on the phone: "The car in which Captain Guchakov was traveling left us.
From the beginning of the position, they were bombarded by German mortars twice. However, the enemy seemed not to want to harm them. The shells were at least fifty meters away from their car, probably to warn them not to get close."
"Monitor closely," Sokov said into the microphone: "If you have any latest information, report it to me immediately."
After Sokov put down the phone, he said to Chernyakov with a serious expression: "Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, the Germans don't seem to want to negotiate with us. They shelled the jeep of the negotiators and warned them not to get close."
"Colonel Sokov, I think there may be some misunderstanding." Chernyakov disagreed with Sokov's statement: "Maybe the enemy thought we were preparing to attack them, so they used
Let’s test-fire the mortar.”
"No, the prisoners we put back should have reported our intentions to their superiors." Sokov replied: "And the location where the enemy shells fell is still far away from the jeep. It should be
It's just a warning, not an attempt to hurt them. I think we should wait a little longer to figure out what's going on."
Ten minutes later, the phone rang again. This time the caller was actually Guchakov. He reported with a depressed look: "Comrade division commander, I'm sorry, our mission has failed."
"Failed?" Although Sokov had long realized that the success rate of this mission was not high, it was still difficult for him to accept its failure so quickly. "Tell me what happened?"
"I am now at the regiment command post of the 122nd Regiment. Colonel Bely and the regiment leader Lieutenant Colonel Papuchenko are by my side." After Guchakov first reported his location, he continued: "We took the
As soon as the jeep left the position of the 122nd Regiment, it was shelled by German mortars. At that time, I found that the enemy's shells fell far away from the car. I guessed that they were just warning us and had no intention of harming us.
, and asked the driver to continue driving forward.
When we advanced to a place only more than fifty meters away from the German position, the enemy used two machine guns to cross-fire and block the path of the jeep. When we stopped, the enemy also stopped shooting, and a German soldier used a trumpet at us.
Shout: Russians, please pay attention, Russians, please pay attention, our commander does not want to negotiate with you, please leave immediately. Otherwise, we will open fire on you.
Seeing that it was impossible to move forward, I got out of the car and put the ultimatum to Paulus on a tree stump. In order to prevent it from being blown away by the wind, I also found a clod of earth to press it on top. Before I left,
, I asked Ernst to tell the other party that the letter for their commander was placed on the tree stump and asked them to come and pick it up later. Then, we took the bus back to the position of the 122nd Regiment."
"Comrade Captain." Lieutenant Colonel Chernyakov took the phone from Sokov and asked Guchakov with a straight face: "Has the enemy taken the ultimatum?"
"Took it away, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel." Hearing a relatively unfamiliar voice, Guchakov immediately remembered the Lieutenant Colonel sitting at the division headquarters, and quickly and respectfully replied: "I saw two German soldiers with my own eyes.
Come out of the position, go to the tree stump and take the ultimatum I left there."
"Well done, Comrade Captain." Lieutenant Colonel Chernyakov said with satisfaction after hearing Guchakov's answer: "I will report your brave behavior to the commander of the front army."
…………
After the ultimatum was sent, it was like a stone sinking into the sea, with no movement at all.
On the afternoon of January 9, Front Army Chief of Staff Ma Lining called the officer responsible for receiving the German negotiators and asked: "Have you seen the German representatives who came to negotiate?"
The officer replied: "No, Comrade Chief of Staff. The enemy's position is very quiet, there is no movement at all."
Malinin put down the phone and reported to Rokossovsky: "Comrade Commander, I have asked the officer responsible for receiving the German negotiators, and he said that so far, he has not seen any movement on the German positions. Obviously
, Paulus did not take your ultimatum seriously."
"Comrade Chief of Staff, I have already said it." Rokossovsky waved his hand and said disapprovingly: "Since the enemy will not surrender, then we will completely eliminate him. Immediately notify the commanders of all group armies, "Operation Ring"
'Proceeding on time, we must make Paulus understand in the shortest possible time what kind of fate awaits him if he refuses to surrender."
"Understood, Comrade Commander." Malinen replied with a smile: "This time, we can have a complete end to the besieged Germans."