A sergeant-major with a drawn pistol shouted that he was in command of the boat. With steely gestures and a loud voice he made it clear that he would shoot anyone without pity who did not follow his instruction to the letter. Then he demonstrated how to use the paddles and handed out eight of them. We would have to paddle with all our strength, or we would never reach the other side, and the Russians would shoot us down like rabbits. This was my last chance, and I paddled like a world champion.
The Russians fired at us in the middle of the river, but about ten to twenty metres too short. Incredibly, we got across untouched. There were forty-eight men in the boat and eight paddling; the water level was only five centimetres below the boat casing. The sergeant major said he would row back again and wanted us to row back with him, but the 64-year-old NCO and myself took off. We were both soaked through to the skin and freezing in the ice-cold wind. The sun peeked through the clouds from time to time, but we were freezing.[4]
At about noon on 7 May, Soviet tanks broke through to the Elbe about five kilometres south of the Tangermünde railway bridge and started shooting at the crossing points. The Americans fired flares to mark their positions, but the Soviets continued firing, killing one American soldier and wounding three others. As a result of this, the Americans withdrew their troops two kilometres back from the river, and the Germans seized this opportunity to get civilians across. There was a similar occurrence at Ferchland, where the Soviets brought the west bank under mortar fire; once again the Americans withdrew and the German civilians were able to cross.[5]
The evacuation of 12th Army from the east to the west banks of the Elbe was successfully completed on the night of 7/8 May. General Wenck later gave a figure of over 100,000 soldiers and about 300,000 civilian refugees. General von Edelsheim reckoned 90,000–100,000 troops, of whom 40 per cent were unarmed. General Moore recorded 40,000 fighting troops, 25,000 unarmed soldiers, 6,000 wounded and 100,000 civilians.[6]
However, on the morning of 8 May a number of American tanks and armoured cars surrounded the prisoner of war camp opposite Ferchland and announced that the prisoners were to be handed over to the Soviets. Panic broke out and many prisoners committed suicide and others were killed or wounded. The units involved were:
• The whole of the Friedrich Ludwig Jahn Infantry Division;
• Part of the Ferdinand von Schill Infantry Division;
• Part of the Potsdam garrison;
• Five officers and 65 men of the 243rd SPG Brigade;
• Part of HQ Battery, 1170th SPG Brigade;
• The last ten officers and men of 541st Volksgrenadier Division;
• Female Flak and Signals auxiliaries;
• Probably also some members of XXXXVIII Panzer Corps.[7]
The inclusion of the female auxiliaries is astonishing in view of the record of Soviet troops, but one must presume that this was not known to the Americans, or they would not have done this.
The prisoners who remained in American captivity had a rough time. The discovery of the Nazi concentration camps so enraged the Americans that they obliged their prisoners to remain in open fields, resulting in a high death rate. Those who were handed over to the French and Belgian authorities to assist with the post-war recovery also had a hard time, being obliged to work and live under severe conditions. The lucky ones were handed over to the British, who tended to allow the German units to administer themselves until such time as they were able to release individuals by their civilian categories to meet the demands of restoring the German economy.
On 2 May 1st Ukrainian Front reported to Moscow:
1. On 1 May 1945 the front’s troops finally concluded the destruction of those encircled elements of the enemy’s 9th Army in the area east, north and north-west of Luckenwalde.
On 30 April 1945 the encircled elements of the enemy’s 9th Army, with a combined strength of up to 25,000 men, were at first split into three groups and then completely destroyed or captured during the course of the day. Individual enemy soldiers were captured in the woods. During the course of the day 18,500 prisoners were brought in, mainly from the encircled groups.
2. The main forces of 3rd Guards Army, together with elements of 28th Army, destroyed the enemy east of Luckenwalde during the course of the day…
During the day the army brought in up to 9,000 prisoners and captured 58 tanks, 100 guns and 600 vehicles.
4th Guards Tank Army
10th Guards Tank Corps and 5th Guards Mechanized Corps conducted fighting with part of their forces and eliminated the encircled enemy south-east of Beelitz and north of Luckenwalde. During the course of the day they brought in up to 4,000 prisoners.
13th Army, with four rifle divisions, fought to liquidate the encircled enemy north-east and north of Luckenwalde, as a result of which the enemy was destroyed. During the course of the day up to 4,500 prisoners were brought in.[8]
According to Soviet accounts – there are no German ones available – 60,000 dead were left behind in the fighting south-east of Berlin, and 120,000 took the difficult path into captivity, including seven generals. All the army’s equipment was lost.
There are no details available on Red Army losses in the fighting for the reduction of the Halbe pocket, but during operations from 16 April to 8 May, 1st Ukrainian Front lost 113,825 men killed, wounded and missing; 1st Byelorussian Front lost 179,490 in the same period.[9]
FIFTEEN
Aftermath
Immediately after the fighting ended the Soviet writer Konstantin Simonov was on his way to Berlin by jeep. As he drove along the autobahn past the Halbe break-out point near Teupitz he came upon an unforgettable sight:
Shortly before reaching the great Berlin Ring, I came across a sight that I will certainly never forget. In this area the autobahn is enclosed on both sides by thick woods that had been split by a cutting whose ends were out of sight.
The German troops that were still holding out on the Oder, when the fighting in Berlin had already started, had used this route to try and thrust their way across the autobahn. Before dawn, only a few hours previously, the intersection of the cutting and autobahn that we had reached had apparently become the site of their final defeat. In front of us lay Berlin, on our right the cutting completely blocked with quite improbable scenes – a pile of tanks, cars, armoured cars, trucks, specialized vehicles, ambulances, all literally piled up on top of each other, tipped over, sticking up in the air. Apparently while trying to turn round and escape, these vehicles had knocked down hundreds of trees.
And amid this chaos of iron, wood, weapons, baggage, papers, lay burnt and blackened objects that I couldn’t identify, a mass of mutilated bodies. And this carnage extended all along the cutting as far as I could see. All around in the woods there were dead, dead and yet more dead, the corpses of those who fell while running around under fire. Dead and, as I then saw, some alive among them. There were wounded lying under blankets and greatcoats, sitting leaning against trees, some bandaged, others bleeding and not yet bandaged. Some of the wounded, as I only later noticed, were lying along the side of the autobahn. Then I saw some figures moving among the wounded, apparently doctors or medical orderlies. That was all on the right-hand side.