Helmut Jurisch, a radio operator in the Kurmark Panzergrenadier Division’s Brandenburg Panzer Regiment, also reported his experience here:
Of the 14 Panthers surrounded in the Halbe pocket, only nine survived 28 April, including the one in which I served as radio operator. With three other Panthers we crossed the autobahn unscathed in the night, guided by our guardian angel, and that morning reached the railway running alongside Reichsstrasse 96 between Wünsdorf and Baruth. While we were crossing the railway embankment there was an explosion inside the tank and stabbing flames and spraying sparks forced us to bail out. As the Panther rolled back down again it burst into flames; we picked ourselves up, slightly singed. The other Panthers were engaging the anti-tank barrier that had knocked us out. A trick of fate had spared our lives, for, as the tank climbed the embankment, the shell aimed centrally at the front of the tank had passed underneath and exploded against the gearbox located between the driver’s and radio operator’s seats.[13]
SS-Lieutenant Bärmann also fought here:
We were still stuck on the Zossen–Baruth road. The situation was obscure. Some infantry overtook us and we drove on to the south after the infantry. After a few hundred metres we realised that we had fallen into a trap set up by the Seydlitz people. We were met by a belt of anti-tank guns, several T-34s and trees full of snipers, so we drove back to the start point.[14]
SS-Grenadier Muhs had a similar experience:
An army officer took over command and tried to establish some sort of order in our mob. We followed him, thinking that it would soon be over, home, no more bloodshed. Then I saw some badly camouflaged Russian trucks and tanks in the background, and I realised what the game was. We were in a trap set by Seydlitz-Troops. During a general palaver, I and a few others disappeared into the undergrowth. One has to be prepared for anything![15]
The lead tanks reached the Wunder forest warden’s lodge and SS-Lieutenant Klust reported:
We drove up to the Wunder forest warden’s lodge. A few shells from my Tiger at some T-34s ensured that the Russians left. German soldiers approached from all directions and a heated discussion started.[16]
SS-Lieutenant Bärmann continued:
About eighty men and seven SPGs of my battalion reached the Wunder forest warden’s lodge. SS-Lieutenant Hörl took over the command. SS-Second Lieutenant Stachon appeared with his APC, which was filled with our wounded, who were being tended to by SS-Sergeant-Majors Everding and Wahl. I went with Hörl as his gunner. Our radios were all unserviceable, so we had no long-range communication. We set off again at about 1930 hours. Shortly before dark there was an attack by Russian bombers, which fortunately failed to hit us.[17]
SS-Grenadier Tag also reached the rendezvous:
Another big group assembled at the Wunder forest warden’s lodge, including Waffen-SS Tigers, members of the Luftwaffe, elements of the Panzergrenadier Division Kurmark with the remains of Second Lieutenant Dahlinger’s 11th Company. During the conference an unidentified colonel appeared and broke into the conversation, imploring those standing around to follow him as he knew a safe way out. And the talking continued. Then came the word Seydlitzmann and some catch questions were asked. There were some shots and the colonel collapsed. Similar incidents occurred elsewhere, where an NCO and a sergeant were identified as Seydlitz people and shot. We now paid more attention to the uniform; good, clean uniforms were a clue to Seydlitz people.[18]
SS-Lieutenant Klust was still with the leaders in his Tiger:
As the gathering was quite large and Russian aircraft were crossing over us, bombs could be expected to fall at any moment. Without waiting for orders, I had my Tiger drive off, knowing the rest would follow.
The column moved off towards Kummersdorf.[19] We were ashamed to see more civilians carrying weapons than soldiers. A large meadow-plain was enclosed by the edge of the woods opposite. Three Tigers and a few SPGs shot up some identified T-34s and anti-tank guns. Some soldiers and civilians charged across on a wide front, and the Russians fled.[20]
SS-Lieutenant Bärmann resumed:
We passed the village of Horstwalde. After a broad meadow valley, the land began to rise. Suddenly everything stopped. Of all things, the leading Jagdpanzer had run out of fuel at a tree barrier. Then, in this situation, the cry went up: ‘Ivan is attacking!’ Meanwhile it had become dark, so who on earth could tell where and who Ivan was? Firing everywhere. We towed the Jagdpanzer back out of the barrier with our SPG and syphoned off the last drops of fuel before blowing it up.[21]
Several wheeled vehicles had their fuel tanks emptied at Wunder before being destroyed, enabling the armoured vehicles to continue to lead the break-out. The march resumed through the woods in various-sized groups to Kummersdorf Gut, where the artillery ranges were reached during the night and the railway station, farm and military installations taken by storm. However, an advance by 71st Mechanized Brigade on Kummersdorf Gut with attacks on the flanks of the leading elements by the 50th and 54th Guards Rifle Divisions resulted in the formation of a third pocket near Klausdorf–Kummersdorf Gut–Horstwalde. This remained connected to the second pocket by a narrow corridor, but a certain number of soldiers became separated from the main party, were forced to the south, surrounded and taken prisoner.[22]
Willi Klär described events at Kummersdorf Gut:
On 26 and 27 April the Red Army deployed artillery pieces facing today’s demolition area from the forest warden’s lodge as far as the blown bridge where the road forks off to Fernneuendorf, as well as along the edge of the woods as far as Mönninghausen. Then, on the evening of Sunday, 29 April, Russian soldiers entered our homes and ordered the inhabitants to go to the cellar of the old folks’ home: the ‘Germanskis’ were coming.
The din started at about 2200 hours with bangs and flashes. There were screams and suddenly there were wounded German soldiers in the cellar. They belonged to General Busse’s 9th Army, which had been surrounded in the Spreewald, and were now trying to reach the west via Halbe, Zesch, Mückendorf, the forest warden’s lodge at Wunder and the Kummersdorf Ranges towards Trebbin. Those troops who survived the encirclement intact would join up with General Wenck’s 12th Army.
There were several wounded from explosive bullets among the civilian population, including a ten-year-old, Fritz Feldner, who received a splinter in his thigh that hit the artery. He died from loss of blood within a short time, as there were no doctors available.[23]
Erwin Bartmann, a sergeant from the SS Grenadier Regiment Falke, recounted his experiences on this day:
Once more we were without an officer and we set off again to the west. We then met a long column of soldiers and refugees trying to save their skins, and followed them. We came to the weapon-proving ranges at Kummersdorf, where we had to fight the Russians yet again. Beyond Kummersdorf, I and a few Waffen-SS comrades found ourselves in an unending column of soldiers of all arms of the Wehrmacht, generals and senior officers with their staffs. Again we came up against Seydlitz-Troops as we went through the woods. As was later discovered, the Seydlitz-Troops were under the command of Russian commissars. We were attacked in the woods by Russian infantry and Seydlitz-Troops. As we went along a firebreak they moved parallel to us and then attacked us from the flank. The Seydlitz-Troops wore German uniforms but were armed with Russian sub-machine guns. They kept on attacking us, mixing in with the column. When one appeared with an armband in his pocket with the words Komitee Freies Deutschland, one of the officers came up shouting: ‘Where are the SS? This man must be executed.’ I personally would have nothing to do with this big shot. We told them to do it themselves if they wanted someone killed. (I disliked these gentlemen of the senior staff intensely. At that time all they were doing was thinking of saving their own skins.) We moved from place to place, from south to north, and back to the south. The long procession of human beings went from one road junction to another, meeting up with other units.[24]
19
A distinction has to be drawn between the village of Kummersdorf and the artillery proving ranges at Kummersdorf Gut with their own railway station six kilometres to the south. In all the soldiers’ accounts ‘Kummersdorf’ means the artillery ranges complex, not the village proper.