We were suddenly fired on again that afternoon from behind and everyone started running. I could only get at most thirty men into position. Heavy mortar fire drove both friend and foe under cover. I was wounded again by a mortar splinter in my lower left leg; a splinter went in above the ankle between the shin and fibula. We also came under fire from Stalin-Organs during the night of 30 April–1 May.[31]
And an armourer with V SS Mountain Corps reported:
We reached the village of Halbe at about 1300 hours on 29 April. On the through road towards Baruth we came up against a Russian anti-tank barrier, where hundreds of German dead lay, sometimes two or three on top of each other, including some police in their green uniforms. It was horrible. The anti-tank barrier was blown up. We had a few tanks with us, including Tigers, which formed our spearhead, drawing many civilians, including some French prisoners of war, along with the big crowd.[32]
The chaos in the original pocket had now become even worse, with continuous attacks from Soviet aircraft, mortars and rockets. That evening several composite groups tried to break out once more, together with countless refugees and uniformed marauders. This time the route was to be via the forest warden’s lodge at Massow, where only weak Soviet forces were thought to be, but this was a fallacy, and all these groups were wiped out.[33]
Those elements of the Panzergrenadier Division Kurmark which had formed the northern wedge, and covered the main breach from the north, fought hard to get through north of Halbe, then followed the Halbe–Teupitz road to the autobahn. With them were some elements of the 10th SS Armoured Reconnaissance Battalion Frundsberg which had been holding the perimeter in the Köris area, but this battalion’s 3rd Company had been cut off during the break-out by the Russian forces filling the woods and only very few of them were to survive.
Further north, near Töpchin, SS-Second Lieutenant Porsch’s Tank-Hunting Company Dora II met its fate, as he later recorded:
Our little gang was getting smaller and smaller, again and again a few good comrades were being left lying. The dead had to be buried quickly, as we had to keep on fighting and pushing forward without rest.
Then we were trapped in a clearing between Märkisch Buchholz and Töpchin, an enemy battalion having caught us in its clutches and surrounded us. We held out against all attacks for two days with our 42 men and then mounted a final counterattack. Without a round in the chamber, the last eleven climbed out of their holes and followed me with my Wolchow club raised high against the attacking Soviets. We were then overcome in close-quarter fighting, my Wolchow club breaking on a Russian helmet, and the fight was over.
At my request, the Russian regimental commander, who had personally led the last attack against our little gang, granted me three hours in which to bury our dead. We dug a long pit and laid them down, one after another, with their faces to the east towards the rising sun, as all the dead of my company were put to rest. When we went to lay their weapons beside them, as was the custom in our unit, some officers protested, but with a wave of his hand their commander, an elderly colonel, silenced them and let us continue. Once we had smoothed over the grave, we formed a half-circle in front of it and sang our farewell tribute with hoarse voices.
The Soviets stood there silently, side by side, and listened. Then we had to make our way into captivity. I was soon separated from my men and never saw any of them again.[34]
However, XI SS Panzer Corps’ greatly reduced rearguard, under SS-Major May, managed to get through the same area and pushed through westwards north of the main group, meeting up with it in the Trebbin Forest the following night.[35]
The condition of the troops in his break-out group was now such that General Busse signalled General Wenck:
The physical state and morale of the officers and men, as well as the states of ammunition and supplies, permit neither a new attack nor long resistance. The misery of the civilians who have fled out of the pocket is particularly bad. Only the measures taken by all the generals have enabled the troops to stick together. The fighting capacity of 9th Army is obviously at an end.[36]
This bitter struggle continued for two days. The Soviets then claimed to have killed 60,000 and captured 120,000 prisoners, 300 tanks and self-propelled guns and 1,500 pieces of artillery. In the obscurity of the woods the Soviets may well have been misled, at least temporarily, into thinking that they had caught the bulk of 9th Army and later, having realized their error, were happy to prolong the myth.
Marshal Koniev then reinforced his defence sectors and ordered attacks on the various German groups, in all deploying 15 infantry regiments or armoured brigades with about 150 tanks and SPGs, and 1,000 artillery pieces, mortars and anti-tank guns. He had 13th Army’s 395th Rifle Division redeploy from the Golssen–Baruth sector to the Mückendorf area, while 117th Guards Rifle Division of the same army was ordered to attack towards Kummersdorf Gut to prevent a breakthrough to Luckenwalde, which 68th Independent Guards Tank Brigade was ordered to block off. Then, to block the route to Beelitz, he had 63rd Guards Tank Brigade and 7th Motorcycle Regiment of 10th Guards Tank Corps of 4th Guards Tank Army deploy from the Michendorf area to Trebbin, where these forces were to control the traffic junctions. The 71st Mechanized Brigade, which was deployed along the Zossen–Kummersdorf Gut railway line in the Sperenberg area, was reinforced by two regiments of 61st Rifle Division of 28th Army. 3rd Guards Rifle Corps, also of 28th Army, was given the task of destroying the German troops in the Mückendorf woods with a double thrust from the Lindenbrück–Zesch sector to the south and from the Radeland–Baruth sector to the north.[37]
Meanwhile Zhukov’s armies narrowed down the remaining pockets of resistance east of Halbe during the day, their advance reaching the line Halbe–Löpten–Hammer–east bank of the Dahme, while 1st Ukrainian Front’s 3rd Guards Army maintained pressure along the line Teurow–Märkisch Buchholz.
From the Prieros area we have the following account:
On 29 April 1945 at about 0400 hours I was wounded while manning a forward position near Prieros, apparently by Seydlitz-Troops. My sleeping comrade was not hit by their fire, and I had to wake him from his exhausted sleep to bandage me. Neither had our company, 200 metres back, noticed, although I had thrown two hand grenades. The mill that I was told was our main dressing station turned out to have been vacated and I had to fight for a place on the trucks heading back, eventually finding a place on a mudguard. Ever more wounded had to be taken aboard and any combat-capable soldiers were obliged to get off, most of them being unarmed.
Even when the trucks were more than overloaded with wounded, there were still more waiting on the roadside. A young army doctor had to decide who among the wounded being transported had to get off. I watched him closely and noted that the decision over life and death was not an easy one for him.
As I was travelling on the mudguard, I was told, since I was fit enough, to look out for enemy aircraft as we drove along. Many times we had to take cover on the side of the road, for which the many foxholes dug there provided a good service. As yet again more ground-attack aircraft approached, I could only see one such foxhole some distance away. I ran to it and dived in at the same time as another soldier, who had the same intention as myself. It turned out to be a happy surprise, for the other soldier was a chap I had known from Stralsund who had been in the same company, and from then on we stayed together.[38]
34
Wilke archives. The ‘Wolchow club’ was made of hard wood and was a souvenir of Porsch’s involvement in close-quarter fighting in the area of that name (usually spelt as Volkhov in English) east of Leningrad.