Foreign News: Stalingrad Story

To Germany from Moscow last week went a Christmas parcel wrapped in propaganda TNT. It was a big enough parcel to touch the hearts of 250,000 families bereaved by the debacle at Stalingrad. The card enclosed was signed by Lieut. General Walther von Seydlitz, a veteran of Stalingrad and now vice chairman of the Free German Committee.

Seydlitz had a story to tell: On Nov. 19, 1942 the Red trap was sprung on the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad. Its ambitious commander, Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus, at once asked Hitler’s permission to fall back from the untenable positions on the windswept steppe. On Nov. 20, Hitler called an emergency conference at his headquarters, 1 ,400 miles away.

Hitler presided. He flatly refused to allow Paulus to retreat. The Sixth Army, he shouted, should form a gigantic “hedgehog,” capable of beating back all attacks until succored by an army pushing from the Caucasus. Air transport would supply the hedgehog with food and ammunition.

The generals were flabbergasted. Luftwaffe experts agreed that lack of airfields, shortage of transports, bad weather made it impossible to supply the hedgehog. There was one exception, one man who invariably said what his-master liked to hear. That man stood up and said: “My Fuhrer, I take over the responsibility of supplying the Sixth Army.” It was Reich Marshal Hermann Goring.

Paulus was ordered to hold on. The following night he reported to Hitler that adequate defenses could not be erected. Hitler was adamant.

Seydlitz himself asked Paulus’ permission to ignore Hitler’s order and break through the Russian ring while it could still be done. On Nov. 24, he filed a written protest against Hitler’s decision. But it was already too late.

Last week, 13 months after the debacle, Seydlitz delivered the verdict: “From a conference table 1,400 miles away, without any investigation or discussion on the spot . . . 22 of the best German divisions were ordered to form a hedgehog. Hitler alone is responsible for accepting the encirclement. He prevented an immediate possible break-through … Goring supported Hitler with an irresponsible promise. Hitler and Goring must forever be haunted by the 250,000 dead German soldiers of Stalingrad.”