Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus
Friedrich Paulus surrendered the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad and afterwards worked for the Soviets. Born in 1890 in Hesse, the son of a prison bookkeeper, he was refused a naval commission on grounds of birth, studied law briefly, and entered the army in 1910, serving through the First World War as a staff officer. He was a planner rather than a fighting commander for almost his entire career, and was among the principal drafters of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. He was given command of the Sixth Army in January 1942, his first field command, and led it into the Caucasus campaign and then into Stalingrad. The city was reduced to rubble that autumn in fighting of extraordinary intensity. On 19 November 1942 the Soviets launched Operation Uranus against the Romanian and Hungarian armies on the flanks, and encircled some 250,000 men within four days. Paulus asked for permission to break out. Hitler refused, ordered him to hold, and was assured by Göring that the army could be supplied by air — which delivered a fraction of what was needed. Through the winter the trapped army starved, froze and ran out of ammunition. On 30 January 1943 Hitler promoted him to field marshal, noting that no German field marshal had ever been captured, which was an instruction to kill himself. Paulus surrendered the next day. About 91,000 went into captivity and some 6,000 returned. He joined the Soviet-sponsored National Committee for a Free Germany, testified at Nuremberg, and lived in Dresden until his death in 1957.
- Lived: 1890 CE – 1957 CE
- Nationality: German
- Roles: field_marshal
