USSR 1941

  Chapter 814 Amnesty

  Paulus gave an impatient "hmm".

  It was nothing new for the Russians to airdrop leaflets. He didn't understand why the adjutant was so nervous.

  Until the adjutant handed the leaflet in front of him, Paulus couldn't help being taken aback, then raised his head in surprise and asked, "You mean, this is the leaflet dropped by the Russians?"

   "Yes, General!" replied the adjutant.

  Paulus suddenly tensed up.

The reason is that he has never told the troops the truth, and he cannot tell the troops... The situation of Manstein's Don Army is not optimistic. They are under the attack of the enemy's powerful Southwest Front Army and the South Front Army. The planes have been bombing and harassing the German supply lines, and the guerrillas are not idle, but almost all of the German air power is invested in the direction of Stalingrad for the so-called "air transportation", so it is completely neglected.

   But, can Paulus tell the troops this?

  If the troops are told the truth, I am afraid that the whole army will immediately lose the confidence to resist and surrender.

Therefore, Paulus confidently told his subordinates, even his own staff: "Manstein is winning, you know, Marshal Manstein has never failed, as long as he wants to capture the goal Sure! He just needs time to gather his forces before Karachi will be run over by his tanks and we will return home safe and sound!"

The German army believed in Paulus's words, so Stalingrad remained relatively stable. Even when there was a serious shortage of supplies and even some troops did not even have bullets, they had to collect the enemy's guns and ammunition to fight. Even in this case, the German army could still fight. Launched a counteroffensive against the Russian forces at Stalingrad and made some progress.

   But now the Russians have airdropped the defense map to Stalingrad...

  Although this is just a simple defense map, it can even be said to be very rough and small, only the size of a palm.

  However, it ruthlessly smashed Paulus' lies.

  Paulus knew what this meant, he thought for a while, and ordered: "Don't be too nervous, tell them it's just a Russian lie!"

   "Yes, General!"

  Paulus's approach is correct, because the more calm he behaves at this time, the more deceitful it will be, and the more stable the morale of the troops will be.

  The problem is that not only Paulus's troops are located in Stalingrad, but also the SS special operations team led by Major General Hartmann, and this unit is independent of the Wehrmacht and not under the command of Paulus.

  Major General Hartman was not as calm as Paulus. As soon as he got the defense map, he ordered the action team to search around and destroy these leaflets.

   This is a bit like "there are three hundred taels of silence here", although Major General Hartman also asked the members of the action team to search under the name of "Russian lies".

   However, the German soldiers were not stupid, and the SS special operations team had a bad reputation. When they said "yes", the answer was often "no".

  So this can be said to have helped the Soviet army a lot...

  Sometimes secrets are like that, if you dismiss it then it's not a secret.

  But if someone wants to cover it more, because of the curiosity, the German officers and soldiers will want to know more, so they will try to find it and even spread it by word of mouth.

  For example, there were immediately rumors among German soldiers that "Army Don is about to be surrounded" and "Manstein is about to retreat", although the fact is that Manstein is preparing to attack.

  At the same time, this secret cannot be kept secret, because another batch of leaflets fell from the sky that night, and it was still a defense map.

   Instead, the Soviet army has become extremely silent these days.

  Before this, the front-line propaganda units of the Soviet army would propagate to the German army through loudspeakers almost every day:

   "Surrender, you are doomed to fail, you will not end well if you resist!"

   "We have surrounded you, put down your weapons if you want to survive!"

  …

  But in the past two days, the sound of these trumpets has disappeared, and the entire battlefield has suddenly fallen into a depressing atmosphere.

  The German army's guess about this phenomenon is: "The Russians don't expect us to surrender anymore, because it doesn't make much difference to them if we surrender, they have already won!"

   "They may prefer to kill us all, in the not-too-distant future!"

   "We're screwed!"

  …

   This is exactly what Shulka wanted.

  When playing psychological warfare, don't let the enemy know too much, and don't say too much. You should let the enemy give full play to their imagination and try their best to stimulate their inner fear.

   Facts have proved that few people can withstand this kind of psychological torture, because the number of captives who choose to surrender gradually increased the next day.

   "Is it possible to issue an amnesty now!" asked Zolotarev.

   "Wait!" Shulka replied: "We still have time!"

   "Only seven days left!" Zolotarev said with reluctance in his eyes, as if one day was missing, it was as if a piece of flesh had been plucked out of him with a knife.

   But Shulka remained unmoved.

   Until there were only six days left, Shulka said: "It's almost there, let's issue an amnesty!"

   Zolotarev jumped up from his chair as if being stabbed by a needle, and said to the correspondent: "Immediately, airdrop the amnesty order! At the same time, front-line propaganda!"

"yes!"

  So the amnesty order quickly drifted towards Stalingrad like snowflakes, and at the same time, the front-line horns that had been silent for a long time sounded again:

"German soldiers, this is the last chance. Comrade Stalin personally signed the amnesty. Anyone who surrenders during this period, including General Paulus, we promise to guarantee your personal safety and give humanitarian treatment! Attention, you There are still six days! Six days!"

   This immediately caused a commotion among the German troops. Almost all German soldiers were discussing the amnesty order in a low voice, and some soldiers even discussed with the officers:

   "Sir, if we are doomed to lose in this battle and we are powerless to change, why not choose to surrender while the amnesty is still in effect?"

  "We have tried our best, but the current situation cannot be changed!"

   "This is the only correct choice. Once the amnesty is over, there will be no such opportunity!"

  …

   "Do you believe this amnesty order?" Some officers asked back: "Do you believe what the Russians say? Don't forget that they have few truths!"

   "But does it make a difference?" the soldier asked back, "I mean they're telling lies... We're all going to end up the same. So, why don't we take a gamble?!"