Stalingrad

by Stalingrad- The City that Defeated the Third Reich (epub)

  Major General Ivan Dmitrievich Burmakov (Commander of the 38th Motor Rifle Brigade): We opened fire, and then Ilchenko called me out of nowhere to say that Paulus’s aide had asked for the most senior officer for negotiations.

  “And you’re not important enough to negotiate?”

  “No,” he said, “they only want to talk with someone from army headquarters.”

  “If they don’t want to talk, tell the bastards we’re going to throw everything we have at them! Their building will be isolated. Try to get the negotiations started, but if it comes down to it we can talk with grenades, semiautomatics, and mortars.”

  Colonel Ivan Burmakov and his political deputy, Colonel Leonid Vinokur, in front of the Stalingrad department store, February 1943.

  “Understood!” said Ilchenko.

  I called Shumilov right away and told him what was going on. He said: “Stay at your command post for now. Colonel Lukin and chief of staff Laskin156 are on their way.”

  That was when Vinokur rushed in. “I’m off!”

  “Get going already! Paulus needs to be captured. Do whatever is necessary as the situation unfolds.”

  I’ve always been able to rely on Vinokur.

  He drove off, and I stayed to wait for Lukin. Just as Lukin arrived I got a call from Ilchenko: “We’re already in the department store basement. They’re asking for a cease-fire.”

  I said: “Go ahead and instruct them to cease fire, and I’ll call Shumilov.”

  We stopped firing, and I called Shumilov: “Paulus is asking for a cease-fire. He’s also going to order his men to stop.”

  Shumilov said: “I’ll send out the order right away.”

  But during the negotiations there was still some activity from airplanes and mortars.

  Lieutenant Colonel Leonid Abovich Vinokur (Deputy commander for political affairs): When we were surrounding the department store our command post was by the train station. Once we had them surrounded, we decided to ask for the German garrison’s immediate surrender. We kept shooting a few shells at a time, and we sent an envoy with a white flag. We knew from prisoner interrogations that the 6th Army’s headquarters was there, as was Schmidt, the chief of staff. Ilchenko went as our envoy with a white handkerchief and demanded that they surrender. He went with a translator, one of theirs. They refused. Then the brigade commander ordered three shots from our mortars. The building was already surrounded by all our battalions. Including the 1st Mortar Battalion. They let off three warning shots. We did, of course, do a lot of damage ourselves. The Regional Committee building, for example. We had shelled it very heavily. About fifteen minutes later their representative came and asked for a representative from our high command. Ilchenko told me this on the phone right away. And I headed over there right away. I told Burmakov: “You call Shumilov’s staff. I’m going over there now.”

  Junior Sergeant Mikhail Ivanovich Gurov (Submachine gunner and signaler, 38th Motor Rifle Brigade): They called us from the battalion and said our guys had the building surrounded. Me and the colonel and the political chief got in a car and went over there. We were on our way, and then—Bam!—we’re out of gas. It was around nine or ten in the morning, maybe eight. We had a spare can in the trunk. We filled her up and drove over there fast. Then we stopped the car, didn’t know where to go. We found some of our men who showed us the way.

  Major General Ivan Dmitrievich Burmakov (Commander of the 38th Motor Rifle Brigade): Shumilov gave his order and said that Laskin was coming and that I was to go with him. I waited for Laskin. They called me for the third time. Our men had stopped shooting, but the 57th was still at it. Paulus had asked for a cease-fire. And Vinokur still wasn’t there yet. Again I called Shumilov, asked him to make sure the whole front got the message so the 57th would stop shooting. Until that got through to them. [ . . . ]

  The telephone operators were sitting all around us listening, and then they were hearing from everyone: “Paulus! The 38th has got Paulus!” Where? In the basement of the department store. I waited for Laskin.

  Lieutenant Colonel Leonid Abovich Vinokur (Deputy commander for political affairs): I got there. Our forces had encircled the entire building. Ilchenko explained the situation. I came because they’d asked for a representative from high command. I brought along Ilchenko, Yegorov, Rybak, Morozov, and a few submachine gunners. We entered the courtyard. We didn’t have any white flags. I wasn’t about to go there with a flag. We went into the courtyard. As you can see, there’s the entrance to the basement. They had submachine gunners posted in the courtyard. They let us past, but kept their weapons at the ready. I’ve got to admit, I was thinking to myself: Now they’ve got you, you fool. There were machine guns at the entrance, where some of their officers were standing.157

  Junior Sergeant Mikhail Ivanovich Gurov (Submachine gunner and signaler, 38th Motor Rifle Brigade): There were German soldiers there, all of them armed. Not many of our guys at all. Ours were down the way a bit. Ilchenko brought us here. We went into the basement. It was almost all officers speaking German. And of course I don’t know a word of German. All of them up top were armed, and the ones down in the basement all had guns too.

  Major Alexander Georgievich Yegorov (Chief of the political section): At seven or eight in the morning on January 31, Lieutenant Ilchenko called to say they’d started surrounding the department store building, which, according to our intel, was the location of Paulus’s headquarters. There was fierce shooting from their side. The building was nearly encircled. We were going to try to negotiate. The deputy commander [Vinokur] said: “Let’s go.” We got in the car and headed over there. We couldn’t get all the way there in the car, so we got out and walked. When we got to the department store, Lieutenant Ilchenko told us that one of their staff officers had come out and said that Paulus wanted to negotiate, that he wanted someone who could speak on behalf of Rokossovsky. Ilchenko was too junior to negotiate with them. I went with the colonel and posted sentries—both us and them had sentries standing there. We put together a group of officers, eight men. We had grenades in our pockets. We went into the courtyard. It was full of men and officers, lots of them. They stopped us at the entrance to the basement. It was impossible to go any farther. The colonel said: “Negotiations are all very well—but we need to be careful. Make sure that the entire building is surrounded. I’ll go.”

  He walked over and introduced himself as an envoy from Rokossovsky. They asked him for identification. But his papers said that he was Rokossovsky’s deputy, a political officer. The Germans questioned this. “These papers,” he said, “are out of date. Rokossovsky himself authorized me to conduct negotiations under the terms dictated in the ultimatum. Is that clear?”

  What was clear was that this question had already been answered, given the hopeless position they were now in. They gave in. Colonel Vinokur had a report sent back immediately. We had about a battalion’s worth of men. The report was sent to the brigade commander and army headquarters.

  Lieutenant Colonel Leonid Abovich Vinokur (Deputy commander for political affairs): Through the translator I demanded the immediate presence of a representative from their command. The representative came and asked who we were. “I am the representative of the high command, the political department.”

  “Are you authorized to negotiate?”

  “Yes.”

  He left and passed this on. After a few minutes they brought me in. It was dark in there. They had a generator from the power station. There was a large radio station in their headquarters. When I went in I said to the adjutant through the translator: “Where are we going? How much farther?”

  The adjutant took me by the arm and guided me. I had four submachine gunners with me, plus Ilchenko. The gunners stayed in the corridor.

  Junior Sergeant Mikhail Ivanovich Gurov (Submachine gunner and signaler, 38th Motor Rifle Brigade): I went with the commissar to where Paulus was.158 Then they all got up and said something. The commissar answered them. I don’t remember what he sai
d. Then he told me to leave the room. I had an F-1 grenade in my pocket and a German Browning. I thought, “What can I do if they come at us?” The officers couldn’t see me. One of them came out of the room, with a medal of some kind, said something. Then he went down to the other end, reported something, and went back to the room. He did this a lot. I figured it wouldn’t be a good thing if I tried to stop him. My first thought was that maybe he was running away or something, maybe the commissar would be angry if I let him go. I decided not to do anything. Let him do what he wants, I’m just going to stand here quietly.

  But I was still worried about the commissar. I could tell that they were up to something. I wasn’t concerned for myself, I don’t value my own life very highly.

  Lieutenant Colonel Leonid Abovich Vinokur (Deputy commander for political affairs): I went into the room with Ilchenko, we didn’t have anyone else. A round table, four chairs, a radio, two telephones. I was greeted by Roske: a short man, very thin, maybe forty-four or forty-five. I could see he was nervous. General Schmidt was sitting on his left. The entire staff was there. When I entered the room, Roske stood up and greeted me. I answered him.159 He asked if I wanted to take off my coat. I was wearing a sheepskin coat. Even though it was warm in that room, I declined. I said it didn’t feel too warm. Then we started talking. Roske let us know right away that he was not negotiating on behalf of the field marshal. Those were literally his first words.

  Paulus’s room was dark. The filth was unbelievable. Paulus stood up when I went in. He hadn’t shaved in a few weeks and he looked defeated.

  “How old would you say he is?” Roske asked me. I said:

  “Fifty-eight.”

  “No. He’s fifty-three.”

  I apologized. The room was filthy. He was lying on the bed when I went in. He immediately got up when I got there. He’d been lying there in his coat and cap. He handed over his sidearm to Roske. That was the same weapon I gave to Nikita Sergeyevich [Khrushchev] when he arrived.

  Roske did most of the negotiating. Their telephones were working all the time. People had been saying that all their lines had been cut. But none of that was true. We took the telephones ourselves. The station still worked, so we passed it along to the front. The Germans wrote that their garrison was destroyed—none of that was true. [ . . . ] Roske looked very sharp and clean. He made the best impression of the group.

  They didn’t say why they were surrendering. On the contrary, he said that they could still resist, that they still had men. But he didn’t want any more bloodshed, and in his order he said that he came to this decision because some units had betrayed them.

  Chief of staff Schmidt, who looked very neat and tidy, ran back and forth between Roske and Paulus, keeping him informed of the course of the negotiations. I didn’t get a good look at him—he was there for three or four minutes at most. All of Roske’s other aides looked neat. All of them with dozens of medals. When I asked them to surrender their weapons, Roske gave me his own, Paulus’s, and Schmidt’s.

  Major Alexander Georgievich Yegorov (Chief of the political section): I was in the room with Roske. How did he behave? They knew how to behave. It wouldn’t be right to say that his will was broken. He had a great sense of dignity.

  Captain Yakov Mironovich Golovchiner (Chief of the political section’s 7th Section, 64th Army): Roske was sitting at the table facing us. On his left was General Schmidt, Paulus’s chief of staff, sitting on a bed. Facing them was the translator and another one of Paulus’s aides and his entire retinue, all in full dress. Vinokur and Lukin were sitting across the table from Roske, and Colonel Lutovin, the deputy political chief, was standing on the left.

  What was Roske like? A tall and slender man, with Aryan blue eyes, a rather decisive character, very energetic. He was wearing a general’s dress uniform with a Knight’s Cross around his neck. He made an impression. Roske was the commander of the 71st Division.

  When we all sat down, he took out a pack of cigars and offered them around. The negotiations had begun.

  General Schmidt is tall. He doesn’t have a very lively face. I’d even say he looked weak-willed. He’s maybe fifty-four, dark-haired, unshaven. Paulus could have done with a bit more life in his chief of staff. He kept trying to get one over us during the negotiations, but it didn’t work.

  Captain Lukyan Petrovich Morozov (Deputy commander for political affairs, 1st Battalion): [ . . . ] It was the colonel who finally captured General Paulus. Before then they had been asking for a cease-fire. “Who’s shooting?” Comrade Bukharov took a car. A German officer was sent with him. They drove around the district trying to get people to stop shooting. Wherever they had a guard posted, we put three or four men with a machine gun. They warned us that they had mines all around: “We’ll all get blown sky-high.” But that didn’t scare us. When the colonel arrived, the whole courtyard was crowded with our men and commanders. General Laskin came later. He arrived when all of this was being wrapped up. Later Paulus and his staff were put in cars and driven away.

  Captain Ivan Zakharovich Bukharov (Political section instructor, 38th Motor Rifle Brigade): Then I saw him coming—comrade Vinokur, the political chief. They told him that Paulus had asked for our men to cease fire during the negotiations. Our guns and mortars were still shooting. Paulus asked for our men to stop, and in turn they were telling their own men to stop. Major Yegorov sent me: “Comrade Bukharov, get going.” The Germans provided us with an officer, their translator, and a car and driver. We got in the car and drove off. They all had revolvers. We hadn’t taken them. I was alone with the three of them. We hadn’t thought to take a white flag. We just got in and left. We drove past our troops, and they stayed put. Then this one machine-gunner fired at us. I told the translator to stop the car. I said: “What are you shooting for?”

  “Comrade Commander, we thought these Germans had captured you and were taking you away, so I started shooting.”

  I said: “You’ve got to stop shooting. We’re telling people to cease fire because of the negotiations. We’re trying to find a peaceful solution without more bloodshed.” We drove over to Major Telegin. We talked, and he came with me. We left the car and went on foot. I said that we’d been instructed by army headquarters to call a halt to our attacks and cease fire because they were in negotiations with Paulus. I drove around to the other units. They had a garrison located in two buildings by the railroad. We drove there. The strip of land between our units and theirs was under fire. But we made it through unharmed. The German major called for an officer and gave him the order. Their sentries were standing behind a wall. I didn’t go down to the basement. There were a lot of soldiers. There were machine guns, submachine gunners—and everything was aimed at us. He gave the order to cease fire. Of course, on both sides there were individual snipers and submachine gunners who kept shooting, because they hadn’t all gotten the message. After that we drove back.

  Major General Ivan Dmitrievich Burmakov (Commander of the 38th Motor Rifle Brigade): Vinokur began the negotiations. Vinokur organized a tour of the units. He sent Bukharov to take care of that. Bukharov said that he’d been put in a terrible position. I told him I understood the dangers. This is war. He went in a German car with two German officers and a driver, and he was sitting in between them. Our guys would see this, think that he was either a prisoner or a traitor, and shoot. [ . . . ] Laskin arrived. We went over there together. Our men were everywhere. There were loads of soldiers in the courtyard. We got there around 7:00 or 7:30 in the morning—probably more like 7:00. We went into the basement. It was dark.

  A crowd of soldiers was in the courtyard. I didn’t like this, all of them were armed. I said: “Would you stop here, I have orders for you.” I told Laskin to break up the group of German soldiers in the courtyard immediately and to get some of our own submachine gunners in there in case things got out of hand, so we had them covered from all sides.

  We went to see Roske. We were introduced, and comrade Vinokur reported the terms of surren
der he had given them. Laskin, as the senior officer, gave his consent. They had requested that they retain their sidearms. Vinokur had allowed this. But Laskin did not agree—they needed to hand them over. Then we went to see Paulus. We were told in advance that Paulus was no longer in command. When we arrived we said that the Northern Group should surrender. Vinokur said he’d already brought this up. They said that they had nothing to do with the Northern Group. As of yesterday the field marshal was no longer in command. The group was now operating independently. The field marshal had given up his command, and no one had authority over them.

  I went out to the courtyard to check that the submachine gunners were all still at their posts. I could see that my instructions had been carried out. Our men divided them into groups. They divided them into three groups, each of which was surrounded by our men.

  Other units had arrived by then. But the very moment the negotiations had been concluded, the 29th Division launched an attack to the right of the hotel building. Our men in the department store yelled out: “What are you doing?”

  No one had been shooting, but the Germans had gone onto the attack, opening fire and almost getting some of our men in the department store.

  People started gathering on the square.

  Even before they had an order I immediately took steps to disarm these groups. But they didn’t want to hand over their weapons without an order. I asked Roske to order them to hand over their weapons immediately. He gave the order. They began handing them over. I tried to get rid of these people as soon as possible. I told my men: “If you’ve got a group together, take them away, push them back to the rear!”

  I asked Roske how many men they had. Around seven thousand. I said: “Write out an order to the units and send it out.” The translator told him. The order was typed up. The translator came. Roske stood up and asked me through the translator to let his officers to distribute the order. Their officers were afraid of our submachine gunners. I told the translator: “Tell the general that his request will be granted. My officers will be here soon, and they’re not afraid of going to the Germans’ units.”