With the town still besieged and engulfed in fierce street battles, General Georgi Zhukov brought in large reinforcements that began a massive counterattack on November 19. The massive Soviet offensive that commenced that morning took the Third Romanian Army by surprise and caught it unprepared. The next day, a further Soviet offensive found the German army surprised. The two offensives, 100 miles apart, merged into a single, grand movement of forces that ringed and, within four days, trapped the German army under Friedrich von Paulus. Hitler’s generals urged the Fuehrer to allow them to break through the noose and retreat while this was still possible. Hitler refused, ordering von Paulus to continue fighting with no change in direction. The bitter winter cold—30 degrees below zero—assailed the stricken German forces, which lacked appropriate equipment for these extreme conditions. The fighting continued until January 31, when von Paulus and his forces—exhausted, starved, and depleted—surrendered. Hitler never forgave von Paulus for laying down his arms; he expected him to fight to the last soldier and then to commit suicide. The German army never recovered from its defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad.