Friedrich Paulus

Friedrich Paulus is sadly associated with one of the worst defeats of the German military. He fought in the very beginning of World War I, and rejoined after an injury in 1915 as a staff officer with the elite mountain troops. Paulus continued to assume various staff positions from 1921 through 1933. And in 1939 he advanced to brigadier general and chief of staff for the 10th Army. Paulus was called to assist in drawing up plans for Operation Barbarossa (Hitler’s invasion of the USSR) and was appointed commander of his old Sixth Army in 1942. He began his combat career by defeating the Soviet offensive in 1942. During the Battle of Stalingrad, Paulus’ 6th Army was trapped in the city. The Russian General Zhukov devised an ingenious pincer movement. Out of his original troops, almost 700,000 were killed or injured and about 91,000 were captured. Paulus desperately contacted Hitler to discuss a breakout but Hitler refused, even promoting Paulus to Field Marshall. Several days later, 91,000 hungry and undersupplied troops surrendered. Fewer than 6,000 Germans ever saw home again.

Georgi Zhukov

The general who led Russian offensive to take back the city was Goergi Zhukov. Zhukov joined the Russian army in 1915 and then the new Red Army in 1918 where he served as a squadron commander until 1920. He continued to attend military schools throughout the 1920's, and during the 1930's he somehow avoided being killed during Stalin’s purges of the Soviet military leadership. In February of 1941, Zhukov was made chief of the Soviet General Staff and Deputy Commissioner for Defense. He then went on to coordinate the Soviet victory at Stalingrad 1942. After the German troops had almost eliminated the Soviet defenders of the city, Zhukov’s troops broke through the German lines and proceeded to form a ring around the city, trapping the Germans with their backs to the Volga River. Zhukov’s troops closed in and eventually, the battered Germans surrendered.

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