Retreat
After the division left for Körlin on 4 March, the 2nd Battalion of the March Regiment, 600 strong and still completely surrounded in the town, continued to hold out against enemy forces considerably superior in numbers and equipment. Violently bombarded by the Russian tanks and mortars, and at about 1900 hours harassed by partisans (probably Polish workers) who threatened the command post for a moment before they were chased off and destroyed, Captain Bassompierre hoped to leave the town under cover of the coming night.
The Russians occupied the cemetery on 7 March, but were immediately chased out again by a counterattack with fixed bayonets led by Sergeant-Major Walter.
At about 1800 hours, having held out for two days with his weak battalion, Captain Bassompierre decided to try to carry out the order to rejoin the Division with the nine officers and 500 men remaining.
The order having been given, the seriously wounded were stripped of their military clothing and documents, and left in the care of the civilian German representative of the German Red Cross in Körlin. The less seriously wounded were mounted on horses, whose hooves had been wrapped in sacks to silence them, to try to move along with the column.
At about 1900 hours the vanguard under Second-Lieutenant Rigeade left the town to the east by the railway bridge under cover of a diversion on the other side of town, a barrage by all the heavy weapons to use up the last of their ammunition. Under cover of night, the battalion followed the Belgard railway line for about 4km and then slipped between the Russian lines into the woods. In fact, as a result of false information, Bassompierre believed Kolberg to have fallen, so had decided to go round Belgard by the east and south, aiming for Stettin. He marched in the middle of the column, the last troops leaving Körlin at 2200 hours. It was high time; armoured vehicles were arriving from Köslin.
There then followed a long series of marches, detours (often through woods), constant encounters with the enemy, about fifteen of them, individual acts of bravery, such as Warrant-Officer Robert saving the column trapped by Russian tanks by destroying two of them with Panzerfausts.
One night the battalion was obliged to cross a main road on which there was heavy enemy traffic in both directions. While crossing the road diagonally, the vanguard ran into a Russian guard-post. Then, risking all or nothing, instead of crossing by bounds, the battalion prepared to cross together by surprise. At the same moment a column of Russian assault tanks appeared. To avoid all being destroyed, the men suddenly opened up a violent fire. Within several minutes four tanks and a dozen trucks and other vehicles had been destroyed with Panzerfausts. Unaware of the relative weakness of their opponents, the surprised enemy fled in all directions. But the enemy reaction also cost dear; Captain Monneuse was killed and Lieutenant Dr Joubert disappeared.
Tired and hungry, the column had to abandon its wounded. One of them, a youngster of 18 and unmoveable, was finished off by his section leader. Anyone who leant against a tree fell asleep from fatigue, and anyone who fell asleep was lost.
During another fight with tanks coming out of a wood, the column was dispersed in the area north of Schievelbein. Captain Bassompierre and several survivors were captured by the Russians on 17 March.
After this dispersal, however, certain elements, guided mainly by the best NCOs of the old LVF, were able to reach the banks of the Oder, where they were captured by the enemy for lack of means to cross the river. This was the case with twenty men led by Company-Sergeant-Major Girard. Then on the night of 23/24 March, Battalion-Sergeant-Major Gobion, also ex-LVF, reached the Oder with ten men at the cost of much suffering. They tried to cross the river by the half-destroyed bridge at Wollin, found it and were fired upon, suffering three wounded, two of whom had to be abandoned. On the other bank the attention of German soldiers had been attracted by the firing. They signalled to the nine survivors and showed them where some pneumatic boats were hidden in a branch of the river, but they would have to swim to get them. One man tried but took cramp in the icy water and gave up. At dawn on the 24th, following an artillery duel from one side to the other, the Russians attacked and a group of Polish soldiers captured the nine of them in a potato store.
The vehicular column and the Divisional services that had been quartered at Gross Jestin, south of Kolberg, left at 0200 hours on 4 March with the Russian tanks on their heels, but had been able to reassemble later that morning at Treptow an der Rega. There a lone Russian soldier, who had been able to run behind the vehicles during the night and climb aboard and cause some damage, was knocked down by one of the drivers with his rifle. The column left Treptow at 0600 hours and reached the mouth of the Oder and tried to cross the river, but was unsuccessful. There were Russians swarming everywhere, and the column had another narrow escape at about 1000 hours.
Eventually the column reached the port of Swinemünde at 1100 hours on the 6th. There were about 200 men with Majors Katzian and Boudet-Gheusi, Captain Jotard, and SS-Lieutenants Meier and Weber.
Having bypassed Belgard during the night of 4/5 March, Lieutenant Fenet’s 1st Battalion headed south, southwest towards Denzin after avoiding the Standemin area, which was reported strongly occupied by the Russians. The column passed within sight of Boissin, then continued in a south, southwesterly direction.
At daybreak on the 5th, the divisional commander had the soldiers spread out in a wooded area, but the harassed men had no chance to rest, for it was very cold and the snow continued to fall. Certainly there was no question of lighting a fire and forced immobility only emphasised the cold.
According to the locals, the roads and paths through the forests were permanently patrolled by cavalry during the day, so General Krukenberg had a council of war with SS-Colonel Zimmermann, SS-Captain Jauss and Lieutenant Fenet. The latter insisted that they did not wait for nightfall to continue, for the men would freeze if they did not move all day and would not be able to go on, and besides, there was no time to lose. A vast forest extended westwards and they should make use of it to march by compass during the day, avoiding the roads. General Krukenberg agreed with him.
At about 0900 hours the battalion set off again after disposing of some of its equipment too unwieldy for a march through the forest. The first difficulty occurred in crossing the Rambin– Belgard road, which was heavily guarded by Russian posts, and this was only managed by making a long detour that enabled the battalion to cross under cover of the woods at a point out of sight of the guard-posts. All this was accomplished in silence and without incident. During the morning halt, the battalion had been helped by the distant fighting developing in the Zarnefanz– Ristow–Boissin area, unaware that it involved the rest of the Division.
At nightfall the battalion left the forest and continued its march without incident. Passing to the south of Stolzenberg during the night, the column crossed the Schievelbein–Kolberg highway between Russian trucks and tanks. The column even went through a village occupied by a Russian regimental headquarters without being seen. Then men of SS-Captain Jauss’s rearguard, wanting to enter a house for a drink, set off the alarm, waking the Russians, but fortunately there were no serious losses. Then the battalion passed Falkenberg, which bore traces of the fighting on the previous day between the Soviets and an armoured division of the Corps.
After 3 hours’ rest at Schlenzig on 6 March, the battalion set off again, but this time the situation became worrying. Having crossed the dangerous Standemin–Stolzenberg area, it was hoped to reach Greifenberg without difficulty, but that morning civilians reported that the Russians were at Plathe, 15km southeast of Greifenberg, and that Greifenberg had been surrounded by the enemy. But it was also learnt that several kilometres away there was an estate occupied by a retired Army major and that German troops had been seen there in the past few days. However, this information could not be confirmed.