We reached Märtensmühle and Ruhlsdorf. Women came towards us from the first houses. ‘For goodness sake, you’re still in uniform! Come quickly into the yard and we’ll give you some civilian clothing!’ So the three soldiers became civilians again at the next farm.
On the morning of 3 May the new mayor came and told us to use our common sense and find our way home by the shortest route.[3]
Meanwhile in the main group, SS-Lieutenant Bärmann was still pushing on:
At dawn we came to the station for the Kummersdorf Training Area. Again anti-tank guns were everywhere. The station, workshops and fuel depot were on fire. We broke through to the station, the dead remaining where they fell. A couple of lads rolled up a barrel of fuel. We still had five tanks left and each needed its share. One tank commander who had lost his vehicle, appropriated a T-34, marked it with a swastika flag and SS pennant and took over the lead.
We went round the ranges in a big curve and hid ourselves in the woods. A bit of peace at last, but nothing to eat.[4]
Individual groups were involved in heavy fighting in this area. SS-Captain Lobmeyer reported:
We fought our way across the Kummersdorf ranges, having to deal with some Seydlitz units, who kept pressing us to surrender, but we fought on to the west. More and more tanks and other vehicles had to be blown up and abandoned due to fuel or ammunition running out.[5]
As day broke, the last Tigers of 502nd SS Heavy Panzer Battalion moved across the eastern firing range and then crossed over to the western firing range and stopped in the Trebbin Forest north of Schöneweide. There was an industrial railway track on the second firing range, so the wounded were loaded on wagons and towed along to the end of the ranges by a Tiger.
The exhausted troops needed a rest and the various combat teams, all that remained of the original battlegroups, wanted a chance to reorganise. A security screen was established and reconnaissance patrols sent out, which reported back that there was a strong Russian cordon with tanks and anti-tank guns deployed along the line of the Trebbin–Luckenwalde road (Reichsstrasse 101). Once more the fuel tanks of other vehicles were emptied to keep the last Tigers mobile and in action, for which SS-Captain Klust was given a written authority by General Busse.
There was a surprise addition to the group with the arrival of XI SS Panzer Corps’ rearguard, commanded by SS-Major May, who had fought their way through from Halbe along a route to the north of the main body. SS-Colonel Kempin, commander of 32nd SS Panzergrenadier Division who was with the rearguard, later commented:
Before we reached the 12th Army’s rearguard near Beelitz we attacked a Russian artillery position, with the help of some armed women. The guns were aimed to the west and they were unable to bring them to bear on us. We were totally exhausted, as for two weeks we had had neither sleep nor rations, nor any kind of supplies.[6]
The lead was handed over to V Corps, as communications with XI SS Panzer Corps had now been lost. Command and control – according to various reports from the few sources – was now reduced to having groups stay within shouting distance of each other.
SS-Lieutenant Bärmann went on:
It wasn’t long before the Ivans found us again and attacked us with bombs and machine-gun fire from their ground-attack aircraft, so we had to move on. Those not wounded had to march, only the wounded being allowed on the tanks. I was lying on the rear of a Jagdpanzer and fell asleep from exhaustion next to SS-Sergeant-Major Everding, who had been hit in the hip.[7]
They set off again towards evening. One group, which included elements of Panzergrenadier Division Kurmark, was detailed as the northern flank guard and moved off to the north before turning west just south of Wiesenhagen. This group was overtaken by Soviet tanks and was fired on by anti-tank guns and mortars, but each time the self-propelled flak gun travelling with them proved its worth, and by nightfall they had reached the area of Märtensmühle.
Meanwhile the main group, which included the Königstigers of 502nd SS Heavy Panzer Battalion and the SPGs of 920th SPG Training Brigade, as well as armoured vehicles of Battlegroup Lobmeyer and 32nd SS Tank-Hunting Battalion, crossed the Trebbin–Luckenwalde road and the railway beyond it to reach the vicinity of Liebätz.[8]
SS-Lieutenant Klust, commanding one of the Tigers, reported:
We came up to the Trebbin–Luckenwalde road. I went forward to reconnoitre the situation. The road was dead straight, and left and right of it at some distance were a few well-camouflaged anti-tank guns or tanks.
I gave a short briefing to my crew. We could only advance slowly, as the trees of the patch of woods in which we found ourselves would not allow otherwise. We moved forward as if on hot coals. The Russians had only to wait until we presented them with our broadside. Which way should I turn the turret, right or left?
Infantry charged across the road. Rummbumm. The Russians fired. Now, quickly before they could reload. Thanks to the skill of my driver, Fink, we were quickly across and moving into the protective woods.
Again on a woodland track. Our spirits rose and the tanks made better speed. We approached the Luckenwalde–Teltow railway, where there was a bit of a break in the woods. Over there a stream and a sunken area of marshy meadows. Another short reconnaissance. There was nothing to be seen, but we could sense the Russians waiting for us.
We rolled forward. Suddenly shells howled around us and hit our Tiger, but it only shook with the impact, as the range was too great and the shells had lost their ability to penetrate.
I carefully tried to pick out the Russians with my binoculars, then Lasser, my gunner, tapped me on the leg. I bent down towards him in the turret and just at that moment our Tiger received another hit on the turret, causing the glass to fly out of the apertures. Then our gun fired. Without waiting for my orders, Lasser had already identified the enemy tank and fired four shots at it in short time. When this was over, I clapped my gunner on the shoulder in gratitude.[9]
Behind the armoured spearheads came the flood of the main break-out group, among them the wounded SS-Lieutenant Bärmann, who described how the ordeal continued:
We reached the Luckenwalde–Trebbin road at dusk. During a short halt, I climbed off and went into the bushes. I had eaten a piece of turnip and now had diarrhoea. When I returned, they had all gone. I tagged on to the stream of soldiers and civilians making their way to the west, and reached the road, where two well-camouflaged Russian anti-tank guns had the road under fire at short range. In the short pauses as the Russian crews reloaded, crowds rushed across the road, but the effects of the turnip were such that I could hardly move.
As I looked around, I saw an APC hidden behind a bush. The five men of its crew were discussing what to do, and then went with hand grenades and a machine gun to deal with the two Russian anti-tank guns. After a while I heard a short burst of fire and the explosions of hand grenades – but then the anti-tank guns started firing again.
It was hopeless for me to try and get across the road. I still had my pistol and wanted to make an end of it. Then, like a guardian angel, the cook from our Supply Company, SS-Corporal Fahrenkamp, appeared and helped me up and on.
3
Helmut Jurisch in correspondence with the author. Schoka-cola was a form of chocolate containing an energising substance.