Together with the other two men Meiser continued southwest, but the three were soon met by soldiers hastening eastward. They said that there were Soviet tanks behind the next hill. Only with difficulty could the soldiers be convinced that they were fleeing in the wrong direction. In fact the Soviet tanks had previously been knocked out. The now enlarged group strove further toward Lisyanka, and after a while encountered a number of abandoned German vehicles, two of them loaded with food and clothes. Meiser used the opportunity to get better clothing and something to eat. Some cans were also taken by the other soldiers.730
After the short break at the vehicles, the escape was resumed. Meiser had not got far when he was hit by a bullet at one of the pockets of his trousers. The pain caused him to bend over and he grabbed his pistol. He had seen enough people bleed to death in the snow, and he would rather shoot himself than suffer that fate. Before he had the time to pull the trigger, he became aware that he had neither seen nor felt any blood. He looked closely at his trousers but saw no trace of blood. He pulled away his trousers and saw that he had a bruise but nothing more. There was a hole in the trouser, at the pocket. Inside the pocket he found a bullet, whose impact had been absorbed by a magazine. Meiser put his pistol back in its holster.731
A sergeant next to him was less fortunate, as he was hit in the foot. Meiser bandaged the wound, but it soon proved impossible for the man to walk, even when Meiser supported him. The sergeant, a father of two children, feared for his life. He realized that those who were wounded had virtually no chance to continue by themselves. Captivity or death were the only realistic alternatives. Meiser assured the man he would find him some help. The sergeant scarcely believed him, but Meiser went away and soon encountered a Russian riding on a German horse, probably a Cossack or HiWi who had joined the Germans. By threatening the Russian with his pistol, Meiser stole the horse from him and brought it to the wounded sergeant and helped him to mount.732
Soon Meiser was only about four kilometers north of the Gniloi Tikich River, with hill 239.0 to the right and Potschapintsy to the left. Except for a brief combat action, he and the small group he temporarily belonged to reached the Gniloi Tikich relatively swiftly. At the river bank more soldiers were waiting, conferring about what to do. Meiser recalled that it had been said that there would be three columns during the breakout, and that they had belonged to the left column. Thus he found it better to walk along the river, to the west. Not all were convinced, but Meiser set off west together with a few other soldiers.733
Passing dead soldiers and horses, Meiser struggled west with the handful of men, generally facing no obstructions other than the marshy ground. Suddenly, bullets whizzed around, forcing Meiser and the other men to take cover. They soon found that the Soviet units firing at them were quite distant and could not achieve much accuracy. The German soldiers dashed from cover to cover without being hit, and soon reached a forested area along the river, where they were protected. Cautiously they continued west until fater a short while Meiser heard a shout: “Parole!” All the men in Meiser’s little group immediately replied “Freiheit!” the code word to be used to identify the soldiers who broke out. They had finally reached the III Panzer Corps—the breakout was over for them and they were still alive.734
As we have seen, once the breakout was begun at 23.00 on 16 February there was little overall command and control. Still most of the men were saved, and it seems that the main reason for loss of equipment was the difficult terrain. There were numerous ravines, difficult slopes, marshes, and other relatively small obstacles. These caused the loss of a large number of vehicles, wagons, and other heavy equipment. Subsequently the Gniloi Tikich River was a major obstacle that caused further losses of equipment. The latter hindrance could possibly have been overcome by better command and control. It seems that a fairly significant number of troops and equipment managed to move west along the northern side of the river and it is probable that losses could have been reduced if more units had followed that route. However, it must be emphasized that there is little evidence suggesting that the higher German commanders had enough of a clear picture of the terrain and the enemy dispositions that they could have given the proper directions. Rather, each one, regardless of rank, seems to have had knowledge only of what transpired in the immediate vicinity. The force behind the breakout was the will of the individual soldiers to avoid imprisonment and to get a chance to see their families again.
An almost extreme example of willpower is the fate of Sergeant Fiebelkorn. He served in the 1st Company of SS-Panzer Battalion 5 of the Wiking Division. On 14 February his tank was hit in the engine compartment and caught fire. The crew bailed out in time, but Fiebelkorn broke one of his feet when he jumped from the tank. He remained with the tank battalion until the breakout began, when he was provided a seat on a prime mover. Unfortunately the vehicle was hit by fire from Soviet antitank guns when it had reached about seven kilometers from Novo Buda. Fiebelkorn survived and was loaded on a panje wagon, and his unit reached the edge of the forest southeast of Dzhurzhentsy.735
Suddenly a number of T-34 tanks appeared on a hill, and a brief tank battle ensued as the German tanks returned fire. The Soviet tanks pulled back and the Germans continued. However, during the action Fiebelkorn had been brought into cover in a piece of forest, where he remained on a wagon, with four horses harnessed and a driver. He was told to make it to Lisyanka by himself, as the remaining distance was deemed short. As the fighting petered out, the driver urged the horses on and moved out from the forest. After they had traveled about a kilometer, Soviet fire raked the area and the driver panicked and fled, leaving Fiebelkorn alone.736
After a while, Fiebelkorn’s cries for help were heard by an officer in the Waffen-SS, who helped him get down from the wagon. Seconds later the wagon was hit and the SS officer killed. Fiebelkorn stayed in cover for a few hours and waited for sunset. Under cover of darkness he began to crawl forward, and after a little while he encountered two other wounded soldiers doing the same thing. Of course it was a painstakingly slow way of moving, and despite spending the entire night crawling, the soldiers did not reach Lisyanka. As the sun rose, Fiebelkorn realized that they had come unpleasantly close to an enemy position. They dug themselves into the snow and waited for the sun to set again.737
At dusk the three men resumed their incredibly arduous attempt to reach Lisyanka. However, one of the men froze to death soon after they began to crawl that evening. Within minutes the other soldier succumbed to the cold too, and Fiebelkorn found himself alone. Despite the appalling conditions he struggled on, thinking of his family to find the strength to continue, until he finally reached one of the outposts of III Panzer Corps.738