This is episode 34 – the final in this series. A big thank you to my listeners who have posted reviews as well as comments over the past 9 months.
And those who have sent me email and twitter notices of support thank you so much too.
So to the story at hand.
Last episode you remember that Field Marshal Paulus surrendered with the men in the southern pocket inside Stalingrad. That was not the end of it all. We left off with Russian Generals Voronov and Rokossovsky interrogating Paulus.
Before we continue with their attempts at getting Paulus to order the Germans in the northern pocket in Stalingrad to surrender, we must quickly return to the Wolf’s Lair in east Prussia.
Hitler took the news of the surrender far more calmly than most would have forecast. Sitting in front of a huge map of Russia in the main conference room, he spoke with Zeitzler, Keitel and others about the debacle.
The Wolf’s Lair in the middle of the Prussian forest was once described by General Jodl as a cross between a monastery and a Concentration Camp. Hitler didn’t bother banging the table or conducting his usual screaming and haranguing technique this time. He seemed resigned.
“They have surrendered there formally and absolutely. Otherwise they would have closed ranks, formed a hedgehog and shot themselves with their last bullet…”
“That Schmidt will sign anything..” Hitler was referring to the ardent Nazi and Paulus chief of staff.
“A man who doesn’t have the courage in such a time to take the road that every man has to take sometimes, doesn’t have the strength to withstand that sort of thing …” he droned on
“he will suffer torture in his soul…”
Hitler was disgusted. Zeitzler was his usual toadying self - coddling Hitler’s ego …
“I still think … the Russians are only claiming to have captured them all ..”
“No ..” Hitler shouted “In this war no more Field Marshals will be made. I won’t go on counting my chickens before they are hatched..”
The Führer kept returning to the fact that Paulus failed to kill himself. In his mind he’d built up the moment as one of heroic courage, something he could draw on to rally his Reich.
Nobody was more shocked than the Japanese. When their military officials were shown a Soviet propaganda film featuring Paulus and the other captured generals, they wondered why all had not committed suicide rather than be paraded like common criminals.
The final number of casualties on the Russian side topped 1.1 million, with a similar number on the German side.
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This is episode 34 – the final in this series. A big thank you to my listeners who have posted reviews as well as comments over the past 9 months.
And those who have sent me email and twitter notices of support thank you so much too.
So to the story at hand.
Last episode you remember that Field Marshal Paulus surrendered with the men in the southern pocket inside Stalingrad. That was not the end of it all. We left off with Russian Generals Voronov and Rokossovsky interrogating Paulus.
Before we continue with their attempts at getting Paulus to order the Germans in the northern pocket in Stalingrad to surrender, we must quickly return to the Wolf’s Lair in east Prussia.
Hitler took the news of the surrender far more calmly than most would have forecast. Sitting in front of a huge map of Russia in the main conference room, he spoke with Zeitzler, Keitel and others about the debacle.
The Wolf’s Lair in the middle of the Prussian forest was once described by General Jodl as a cross between a monastery and a Concentration Camp. Hitler didn’t bother banging the table or conducting his usual screaming and haranguing technique this time. He seemed resigned.
“They have surrendered there formally and absolutely. Otherwise they would have closed ranks, formed a hedgehog and shot themselves with their last bullet…”
“That Schmidt will sign anything..” Hitler was referring to the ardent Nazi and Paulus chief of staff.
“A man who doesn’t have the courage in such a time to take the road that every man has to take sometimes, doesn’t have the strength to withstand that sort of thing …” he droned on
“he will suffer torture in his soul…”
Hitler was disgusted. Zeitzler was his usual toadying self - coddling Hitler’s ego …
“I still think … the Russians are only claiming to have captured them all ..”
“No ..” Hitler shouted “In this war no more Field Marshals will be made. I won’t go on counting my chickens before they are hatched..”
The Führer kept returning to the fact that Paulus failed to kill himself. In his mind he’d built up the moment as one of heroic courage, something he could draw on to rally his Reich.
Nobody was more shocked than the Japanese. When their military officials were shown a Soviet propaganda film featuring Paulus and the other captured generals, they wondered why all had not committed suicide rather than be paraded like common criminals.
The final number of casualties on the Russian side topped 1.1 million, with a similar number on the German side.
Episode 16 - Sergeant Pavlov, Railway Crows and the Sixth Army targets the Red October plant
The Battle of Stalingrad
18 minutes 34 seconds
5 years ago
Episode 16 - Sergeant Pavlov, Railway Crows and the Sixth Army targets the Red October plant
This is episode 16 which deals with the fighting in the city in the last week of September and first week of October 1942.
Remember last episode we covered the ongoing battles around the Nail Factory, Mamaev Hill and the Grain elevator. The 62nd Army had experienced panic in the last week of September as the German divisions pushed hard against the Volga River bank, cutting off parts of the army.
But reinforcements from Siberia had been rushed across the Volga River into Stalingrad and arrived in the nick of time, bolstering the defenders.
Another famous soldier had also arrived in the city in mid-September, and that was Sergeant Jacob Pavlov.
He’d jumped off the lorry which had brought him and his companions to within six miles of Stalingrad on the East Bank of the Volga. Sergeant Pavlov was part of the unit reinforing Major-General Alexander Rodimtsev’s much depleted 13th Guards Division which was concentrated around the Lazur Chemical Factory – an area known as the ‘tennis racket’ due to a rail track that ran around the area which was shaped exactly like a tennis racket.
Pavlov was a short broad-shouldered man with penetrating grey eyes that surprised journalists who interviewed him after the war as they exuded warmth, rather than the thousand yard stare usually associated with veterans.
He became known as the House Owner and ended the war with the Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union. That’s double ironic because Pavlov never owned property his entire life.
But he was a hero.
The clue to his remarkable story is why he was dubbed with this nickname – and indeed his story stands out in the annals of all those told about Stalingrad. Pavlov was born in a village not far from the source of the Volga River far to the north in the province of Leningrad.
He’d faced Hitler’s forces in Poland in the early days of Operation Barbarossa – particularly those of Field Marshal von Bocks’ central group. Since June 1941 he’d experienced nothing but fighting retreats. Now he was facing Hitler’s Nazi war machine at a place marking their most eastern advance which was a further irony considering what he was going to do.
There would be no more retreating for Sergeant Pavlov. I’ll come back to his story through this series.
The Battle of Stalingrad
This is episode 34 – the final in this series. A big thank you to my listeners who have posted reviews as well as comments over the past 9 months.
And those who have sent me email and twitter notices of support thank you so much too.
So to the story at hand.
Last episode you remember that Field Marshal Paulus surrendered with the men in the southern pocket inside Stalingrad. That was not the end of it all. We left off with Russian Generals Voronov and Rokossovsky interrogating Paulus.
Before we continue with their attempts at getting Paulus to order the Germans in the northern pocket in Stalingrad to surrender, we must quickly return to the Wolf’s Lair in east Prussia.
Hitler took the news of the surrender far more calmly than most would have forecast. Sitting in front of a huge map of Russia in the main conference room, he spoke with Zeitzler, Keitel and others about the debacle.
The Wolf’s Lair in the middle of the Prussian forest was once described by General Jodl as a cross between a monastery and a Concentration Camp. Hitler didn’t bother banging the table or conducting his usual screaming and haranguing technique this time. He seemed resigned.
“They have surrendered there formally and absolutely. Otherwise they would have closed ranks, formed a hedgehog and shot themselves with their last bullet…”
“That Schmidt will sign anything..” Hitler was referring to the ardent Nazi and Paulus chief of staff.
“A man who doesn’t have the courage in such a time to take the road that every man has to take sometimes, doesn’t have the strength to withstand that sort of thing …” he droned on
“he will suffer torture in his soul…”
Hitler was disgusted. Zeitzler was his usual toadying self - coddling Hitler’s ego …
“I still think … the Russians are only claiming to have captured them all ..”
“No ..” Hitler shouted “In this war no more Field Marshals will be made. I won’t go on counting my chickens before they are hatched..”
The Führer kept returning to the fact that Paulus failed to kill himself. In his mind he’d built up the moment as one of heroic courage, something he could draw on to rally his Reich.
Nobody was more shocked than the Japanese. When their military officials were shown a Soviet propaganda film featuring Paulus and the other captured generals, they wondered why all had not committed suicide rather than be paraded like common criminals.
The final number of casualties on the Russian side topped 1.1 million, with a similar number on the German side.
