Paulus' Fateful Command of Sixth Army

Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Paulus was born in September 1890, near Breitenau, a little country town deep in Hesse, Germany. Paulus, the son of a school teacher, tried unsucessfully to secure a cadetship in the German navy. He later briefly studied law at Marburg University, but he soon left when recruited into the German Army in 1910. The following year he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 3rd Baden Infantry Regiment. He married Elena Rosetti-Solescu, a beautiful young woman one year his senior, who came from a wealthy and aristocratic Romanian family, in July 1912.

By the outbreak of WWI, Paulus was adjutant of his Regiment's 3rd Battalion which took part in the thrust into France, seeing action in the Vosges and around Arras during 1914. Paulus had to leave the front in November because of illness and following this his next posting was as Regimental Staff Officer to the 2nd Prussian Jager Regiment. Paulus was later moved to Corps headquarters, having reached the rank of captain. His Corps served in Romania and Macedonia in 1915 and in early 1916 in the later stages of the Battle of Verdun. Its final major action was during the spring of 1918 on the Somme.

Following the end of the war, Paulus remained in the scaled down Reichswehr and was assigned to the 13th Infantry Regiment as a Company commander. However Paulus spent more time engaged on Staff duties than with troops and following one exercise his superiors noted: 'This officer lacks decisiveness.' His commanding officer also remarked: 'A typical staff officer of the old school....modest, perhaps too modest, amiable, with extremely courteous manners and a good comrade. Anxious not to offend anyone.' In 1922 he was given general staff training and the following year joined Army Group 2 at Kassel. From 1924 to 1927 he was a General Staff officer with Wehrkreis V at Stuttgart. One senior officer commented that Paulus was, 'slow, but very methodical'. However, his promotion continued and in 1930 he became a tactics instructor with the 5th Infantry Division.