PAULUS: No, I cannot say that. The information which reached us about the Soviet Union and their forces was so extraordinarily scarce and incomplete that for a long time we had no clear picture at all.
DR. EXNER: But did not Halder at that time talk to the Führer frequently about the strength and deployment of the Russian forces?
PAULUS: That is possible, but I cannot remember it, because I had nothing to do with these questions after that time—with the theoretical development of our ideas. In December the operations department of the Army took the work over.
DR. EXNER: At this time you had theoretical war exercises?
PAULUS: That was in the beginning of December.
DR. EXNER: Then you probably used, as a basis of these exercises, information you had about the actual strength of the enemy?
PAULUS: That was just what we assumed about the strength of the enemy.
DR. EXNER: Well, you have collaborated intensively with that operational plan. You have tried it out by theoretical war exercises. Tell me, what was the difference between your work and Jodl’s at that time?
PAULUS: I do not think I am able to judge that.
DR. EXNER: I do not understand. That was General Staff work, was it not?