I need to know if anyone out there has any information on this Major who was in the Russian Army at Stalingrad. He IS the man who instigated Paulus in surrendering his forces at Stalingrad.

__________________
Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Captain N.D. Dyatlenko, a German-speaker in the NKVD, was transferred to the 7th Department of Stalingrad Front in order to interrogate German POWs in the Autumn of 42. In the first week of January 43 Dyatlenko and Major A.M. Smyslov of Red Army intel were ordered by Voronov to deliver the note to Paulus asking the German 6th Army to surrender. They crossed the lines under a flag of truce on Jan 8th but were repulsed by sudden bursts of gunfire; the next day they drove to the Marinovka sector and tried again, this time also accompanied by a trumpeter, who called himself "Commander of the musical platoon Siderov". This time they crossed the lines and after some friendly chit-chat were told that they would not be able to see Paulus or leave their note of surrender.
Dyatlenko also wrote the leaflet that led a battailon of the 295th InfDiv to surrender en bloc in early 43, the first such surrender of a German unit in the war. Finally, Dyatlenko, recently promoted to major, was the interpreter used by Rokossovskiy and Voronov during the surrender negotiations with Paulus and he also interviewed most of the 6th army's officer corps after the surrender.

I hope this helps you, I basically summed up the info from A. Beevor's "Stalingrad".

Miro, thank you VERY much for this info on Maj. Dyatlenko. Last I heard anything about him was more than a year ago and that he was reported to be ill at that time.

I used to have a contact that said he could get me in touch with him but, I never heard anything more. THTH sure would have been nice--to be in touch with someone like him that was in the Soviet Forces at Stalingrad.

__________________
Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Miro:
I hope this helps you, I basically summed up the info from A. Beevor's "Stalingrad".<hr></blockquote>

Great work Miro. I'm glad you cited your source as well, many people don't, but it is important if someone actually want to do some research. Thanks and keep it up.

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Thanks for the praise guys, I appreciate it.
Carl, if you want to interview Major Dyatlenko, the easiest way I can think of is through the guys at the Russian history pages. They have been doing some nice work on their databases of Red Army soldiers stories and you might be able to talk them into trying to contact and interview Major Dyatlenko. I would certainly be interested in hearing his stories, particularly the ones from the fighting around Stalingrad/Volgograd, that is, if he is still alive.

Cheers
mIRO

That's OUTSTANDING Miro, thanks. Do you have a site address for them or an email address? if so please send it to me and I'll start talking to them. Last I heard, Dyatlenko was ill but still living, but alas, that was about 2 years ago.

__________________
Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.

Sure, the address is [url=http://history.vif2.ru]
It is a good site, but I sometimes cannot log on to it for some freaky reason, probably the ".ru" plays its part [img]smile.gif[/img]
I shall hope you fare better with the Russian server and wish you good luck with Major Dyatlenko.

Keep me posted
mIRO

[ 31 January 2002: Message edited by: Miro ]</p>

Thank you Miro, I will check them out within a few dyas--when I finally have a bit more time to. Too much to splain on events today.

__________________
Lost are only those, who abandon themselves) Hans-Ulrich Rudel.