Some 15 or 20 tanks of the 219th Tank Brigade, 2nd Guards Tank Army thrust almost unopposed into the town. Their first shot on approaching Küstrin wrecked a light 75mm infantry gun that had been deployed on the town boundary next to an unfinished anti-tank ditch. In fact the shot had been unnecessary, for there was no ammunition with the gun. The main body of 10 to 15 tanks clanked along the Drewitzer Unterweg, where some remained while others continued down Drewitzer Strasse. One of these diverted towards Strasse 42 but turned over while making a tight turn and was abandoned, two men escaping unhurt. The smaller group of tanks approached Schlageterstrasse, where they encountered two platoons of Panzergrenadiers, wiping out one platoon for the loss of a tank and the infantry riding it.[1]
Sergeant Horst Wewetzer, who had arrived in Küstrin that morning, was probably one of the first of the garrison to see the Soviet tanks:
A sentry directed us to the Stülpnagel Barracks, from where we were sent on by the artillery chief of staff, Captain Langenhahn, to the Fortress Company, which was deployed in the north of the Neustadt in the Reserve Field Hospital area. As we arrived, the last nurses, medical orderlies, etc., were already leaving the hospital. The town’s streets were full of men and vehicles. Our troop leader was off looking for an observation post. Telephone cables were laid out and we deployed our guns in position. At this moment the first enemy tank rolled into Küstrin. I had the impression that the leading Russian tank was racing ahead.
Subsequently we made our observation post on the roof of the empty hospital. From here we had to direct the fire not only of our own mortars, but also that of the two light infantry guns belonging to another unit deployed close to our mortars.[2]
Panzergrenadier Johannes Diebe and his platoon were still trying to dig foxholes on Schlageterstrasse as the Soviet tanks went past:
At lunchtime a tank with infantry seated on top raced past us at an incredible speed on the street leading into town. No one could have stopped it. Even our sergeant was struck speechless. It was not long before other tanks, again with infantry aboard, raced past in the same direction. The same thing occurred twice more. That they were not concerned about us came as something of a shock.
When there was a break our sergeant shouted: ‘There are more coming. I am going to take a Panzerfaust and see if I can knock one out.’ With my comrades I had gone behind an almost collapsed wall to find firing positions for our rifles. This was necessary as our whole bodies were shaking with excitement.
It was not long before another tank with infantry sitting on it followed and stopped near us. The Russians jumped off and went to the foxholes of our neighbouring section on the far side of the street. Their sergeant opened fire and shot one of the attackers. We were petrified when we saw the sergeant fall to a burst of machine-gun fire and our ten comrades fall to shots in the neck.
When the tank was about to move off, there was an explosion and a track came off. Our sergeant had made good what he had said. However, he was unlucky, as he had been standing in a doorway between two doorposts and the blast from the Panzerfaust had rebounded off the doorposts behind him and burnt his back. The Russians jumped off and fled towards the town, but a brave machine-gunner cut them down.
An ambulance came and took away our wounded sergeant. We laid him down on a stretcher on his stomach. The medical orderly thought that it was a wound that would get him discharged from the service. Our section was then taken over by the staff corporal.
When we wanted to cross the road to the dead on the other side, we could not believe our eyes when the tank turret turned and a shot came from the gun. The shell went through the wall behind which I was standing with my comrade from Guben. Our staff corporal jumped on the tank, pulled out a hand grenade and threw it in the turret. After the explosion it was quiet.
We buried our fallen comrades. It was our first mass grave. A simple cross with a steel helmet indicated that here a sergeant and his Panzergrenadiers had found eternal peace. So that was a hero’s grave!
On the company commander’s orders we all received a cup of schnapps. This was to calm us and let us think about other things. We all became tipsy from it.[3]
Meanwhile Flak Auxiliary Fritz Oldenhage was manning his field telephone exchange in the Cellulose Factory:
A group of enemy tanks drove along the Drewitzer Unterweg towards the town. I cannot remember the exact number, but believe it was between 10 and 15. We could see them quite clearly across the open terrain. Some of the tanks drove into the town while the others stood still. Several tanks turned their turrets with their guns in our direction, but only fired with their machine guns.
The firing was not directed at us in the Cellulose Factory, where we remained hidden and quiet, but at the area in front of the premises where some of the fleeing civilians with their horses and carts fell victim to the enemy fire.
Our section leader, an experienced Austrian sergeant, radiated confidence, conveying it to us and showing us how to behave cleverly.
As one of the enemy tanks left the rest of the group on the Drewitzer Unterweg and steered across the meadows towards the factory gate we withdrew to another industrial property and the Warthe goods station. In this hurried, short retreat we left our packs and personal belongings behind in the Cellulose Factory. Even I was almost forgotten as I was sitting at my switchboard again.
It was grotesque as the tank climbed the rising exit from the meadows to the road in a curve and tipped over sideways. Two Russians climbed out and ran safely back across the meadows, leaving the tank lying there. We did not fire so as not to betray our position and because the stationary tanks on the Drewitzer Unterweg had a good field of fire in our direction.
At the Warthe goods station we took cover among the installations and goods wagons standing there. More important, however, was the presence of a small but experienced infantry unit who accepted us with kindness. Under their protection we felt able to sleep deeply and securely that night while they, unnoticed by us, repelled a Russian attack from the Cellulose Factory.[4]
Fifteen-year-old Hitler Youth Hans Dalbkermeyer also saw the Soviet tanks going past from his location in the Oder Potato Meal Factory:
Next morning, the 31st January, two close friends from my class, Fred Chmilewski and Helmut Blauberg, appeared, as well as two other students from the 5th and 6th Forms, Erdmann and Specht. It was a great pleasure, but sadly none of them returned from the war.
After lunch we six were sitting together at the table when suddenly firing was heard. Startled, we ran out on to the factory yard and saw Russian tanks going past the factory gate. We quickly left our quarters and headed towards the Warthe. Which road we took I no longer know, but our way took us over one of the Warthe bridges, through the Altstadt and over the Oder. On the streets a column of pedestrians, some with handcarts, refugee treks with horse-drawn wagons, as well as soldiers with and without vehicles, rolled forward.
In this confusion we lost our school comrade Erdmann. Finally the shooting died down. The Russian armoured thrust ended between the Warthe bridges and the Stern in the Neustadt. Four tanks were destroyed. One of them on Plantagenstrasse directly under the railway bridge was smoking all day long, emitting a frightful stench.[5]
It was only in the middle of the Neustadt that the tanks came up against any resistance. Even they could not get through the Stern, the intersection of the most important streets, where wild panic had created an impenetrable barricade of cars, horse-drawn wagons and sledges blocking the exits and obstructing the only street leading to the Warthe bridges about 400 metres away. The tanks had to turn back out of the unexpected cul-de-sac they found themselves in. Without local knowledge and prior reconnaissance, the tank crews were unaware that they could turn into Plantagenstrasse just before the level crossing gates and from there thrust through to the river crossings across undeveloped land. It was at this juncture that the tanks lost contact with their infantry escort. One of them stopped and fired at the traffic jam in front of the bridges. Then, annoyed and frustrated, the tank crews withdrew the way they had come. Meanwhile, behind them the Germans’ surprise and initial confusion were overcome when it was realised that this group was operating well ahead of the rest, and the tanks came under hefty Panzerfaust fire in the streets. The first one to fall was a Sherman. Eventually only two of the tanks got away. It was said that the remains of their infantry escort had withdrawn to Loeber’s restaurant in the woods.[6]
The town hospital had been cleared during that morning, bedridden patients being driven to the goods station for loading on a train, while the others had to walk there escorted by some nursing sisters. But it was too late. The Oder bridges were already under enemy shellfire, so the sick had to be taken off the train again. They were supposed to return to the hospital but on the Pferdemarkt (Horse Market) their allocated bus, marked with a Red Cross, was suddenly confronted by Soviet tanks. The emergency stop caused its engine to fail and the bus had to be towed back to the bus depot, where the patients were hastily accommodated, unmolested by the Russians. It was late evening before the patients could be taken back to the railway station and early the next morning before they finally left the town on a hospital train that was already laden with many wounded. The train was repeatedly diverted and eventually the Küstrin patients ended up in Straubing, where they were unloaded and provisionally accommodated in an auxiliary hospital set up in a monastery.[7]
Sapper Ernst Müller saw the Soviet tanks arrive at the Stern. He had only been in Küstrin since the day before, having just endured a six-day rail journey in open wagons with 150 other members of Armoured Engineer Replacement Battalion 19. Müller had been seriously wounded in Russia and was not yet fully recovered, but had been ordered back to active duty. He reported: