USSR 1941

Paulus gave an impatient "hmm".

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

Paulus was taken aback when the adjutant handed the flyer in front of him, then raised his head in surprise and asked, "You mean, this is the flyer dropped by the Russians?"

"Yes, General!" replied the adjutant.

Paulus tensed up instantly.

The reason is that he has never told the troops the truth, he can't tell the troops... The situation of Manstein's Don Army is not optimistic either. Enemy 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 simply neglected.

But could 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, and after thinking about it, he ordered: "Don't get too nervous, tell them it's just a Russian lie!"

"Yes, General!"

Paulus's approach was correct, because the more calm he behaved at this time, the more deceitful he would be, and the more stable the morale of the troops would be.

The problem is that it's not just Paulus' troops that are in Stalingrad,

There was also the SS special operations unit led by Major General Hartmann, which was independent of the Wehrmacht and not under the command of Paulus.

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

This is a bit like "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, German soldiers were not stupid, and the SS special operations team had a bad reputation. If they said "yes", the answer was often "no".

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

Secrets are like that sometimes, if you don't care about it then it's not a secret.

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

For example, there were immediately rumors among the German soldiers that "Army Don was about to be surrounded" and "Manstein was about to retreat", even though the fact was that Manstein was 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.

On the contrary, the Soviet army has become extremely silent these days.

Prior to this, the frontline 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 all disappeared, and the entire battlefield has suddenly fallen into a depressing atmosphere, as if there are crises everywhere, and there is a tendency of a storm that is about to come.

The German'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, don't say too much, 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 resist 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!" said Zolotarev with a lingering look in his eyes, as if a day had been cut off from him with a knife.

But Shulka remained unmoved.

Only when 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 pricked 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 soon drifted towards Stalingrad like snowflakes, and at the same time, the front-line horns that had been silent for a long time rang 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 in the German army. 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 this battle and we are powerless to change it, 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 time for the amnesty is over, there will be no such opportunity!"

...

"Do you believe this amnesty?" 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?!"