Hitler promoted Friedrich Paulus, commander of the 6th Army at Stalingrad—to the rank of field marshal via field radio on 30 January 1943, a day before his army's inevitable surrender in order to encourage him to continue to fight until death or commit suicide. In the promotion Hitler noted that no German or, before that, Prussian field marshal had ever been captured alive. Paulus surrendered the following day anyway, claiming "Ich habe nicht die Absicht, mich für diesen bayerischen Gefreiten zu erschießen" ("I have no intention of shooting myself for this Bavarian corporal"). A disappointed Hitler commented, "That's the last field marshal I make in this war!" But in fact, he appointed seven more, three on the very day after Paulus surrendered, Ernst Busch, Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist and Maximilian von Weichs (All members of the Heer) and later that same month Hitler promoted Luftwaffe General Wolfram von Richthofen to the rank for his service in the Crimean campaign and the later part of the Battle of Stalingrad.