Suddenly we heard ‘Urrah!’ cries to our rear, so once more we found ourselves in a trap. We withdrew, hardly 30 of us, and somehow we met up with German soldiers again. The Russians had advanced a considerable distance to the north of us and we could hear heavy firing from there, but to the south it was quiet, so we headed in that direction.
After we had been going for some hours through a wood that had big swamps in it, we came to a road leading to Rüdersdorf. There, hundreds of vehicles were streaming back, all to the west. It was the night of 20/21 April and the vehicles had driven into each other so that they could neither go forward nor back. At last we got some sleep in a school, where we lay on the hard floor until morning. Then we carried on along the Frankfurt/Oder road to Berlin.
Karl Meinhardt and I had had enough of this marching, so we simply swung ourselves onto a field howitzer going past and had ourselves carried along, thus becoming separated from our unit. There were constant hold-ups. The road was over-filled with vehicles and refugees with handcarts, prams and horse-drawn wagons. The Russians were pressing so hard that we were unable to stop and deploy. At Hoppegarten the flood came to an absolute halt. Here, immediately before Berlin, the Russians had to be stopped.
There were some military police standing at a crossroads who rounded up all those that were still capable of fighting into companies. Our names were taken down in a pub and then we were sent to our positions right of the main road. On the way Karl and I were invited into a house where the people gave us food and we also took time to have a wash and shave. Strengthened and refreshed, we went on to our positions.
There was a Volkswagen standing by the famous stables[16] and on its mudguard was the armoured bear sign of our division. I asked the Colonel there about our unit and was told that this was our divisional supply column and that the fighting troops had been scattered everywhere. We were the first of our division that they had seen for days. He advised us: ‘Make sure that you get home safe and sound. There is no sense in this any more.’
That evening we withdrew on orders to Mahlnow, a suburb of Berlin, and deployed in a cemetery. The trenches were already dug, and we were reinforced by Volkssturm[17] and a police battalion.
The Russians continued to push their way forward slowly. When they came up against resistance on our right, where the police were, they plastered us with mortars. Our company commander was a gunner second lieutenant with no previous infantry experience.
Karl Meinhardt became the headquarters section commander and I the company runner. For a week now Karl and I had had no regular meals, so the company commander sent me off to scrounge something. I rode a bicycle back and came to a school where the ladies were cooking, and got two milk cans full of food. Once I had satisfied my hunger, I rode back to the company with the milk cans hanging from my handlebars. As I came up to the company bullets suddenly started whistling past my ears, so I turned sharply into a sidestreet. I then had to carry the cans forward through the houses.
During the afternoon of the 23rd the Russians thrust forward again. The police battalion occupying the neighbouring sector departed without informing us, leaving that flank open. The Russians used this opportunity to close in on us. We pulled out as soon as we recognised the danger. The company on our left had also pulled out. Fortunately, there was still a way out open.
The company commander sent me off to re-establish contact with the company that had left just before us. I had gone about 200 metres when I suddenly heard voices coming from a side street. I stopped and listened, as night had fallen and I could not see anything. Russians were coming along the street. I stayed where I was and called to the company commander to come over, but he misunderstood and walked straight into the Russians at the crossroads. Some that still offered resistance were shot down by the Russians and others taken prisoner.
More Russians arrived. If I had opened fire, it would have been suicide. When they got to within 20 metres of me, I ran off. I could hear Russians shouting and singing everywhere. After I had run about three kilometres I met up with our supply section. I was completely exhausted.
PANZERGRENADIER
In front of me were trucks, tanks, guns, all fleeing to the west. I went on for a few more kilometres. There was a traffic jam when we came to a crossing over the railway.[18] I had had enough of marching and asked the commander of a tank if I could have a ride. I had hardly slept in the last few days and had travelled over a hundred kilometres. My eyes kept closing with fatigue and I was footsore. The commander of the tank, Second Lieutenant Lorenz, allowed me to climb aboard, and now the journey went faster.
Several hours later, after being held up by numerous traffic jams, Second Lieutenant Lorenz ordered the tank to stop. The crew had been in action for weeks with little sleep. We lay down somewhere in a hallway and slept well into the next day, 25 April.
It had been dark the previous night and we had seen very little of the city. When I came out into the open air I was astonished to see that we were in the middle of Berlin in a shopping street with several large buildings all round us. We were bombarded with questions from all sides by the inhabitants. Their electricity supply had failed, all sorts of rumours were circulating in the city and no one knew anything for certain. The place was like an ants’ nest.
The Russians had thrust past Berlin, and many people were trying to get out of the city, but I gave it no thought. I felt myself quite safe. I could see what weapons there were around and that there were sufficient supplies for months. That Berlin would fall within the next ten days, I would never have believed.
Second Lieutenant Lorenz asked me if I would stay with them as an escort infantryman, a panzergrenadier. The tank was a 38(t), a Czech model known as the Hetzer, which had made quite a good name for itself; it was small and manoeuverable, very fast, had a 75 mm gun and a machine gun. The crew consisted of four men: commander, gunner, driver and radio operator. There were also four panzergrenadiers attached with the task of defending the tank in close-quarter combat. Two of their panzergrenadiers had been killed in action. With my arrival we were a trio.
The tank was part of the Panzer Division ‘Schlesien’. Only a few tanks of this division were still in action. We first looked for our regimental headquarters, driving up and down through Berlin.
We went past a big warehouse and saw large packing cases being removed. Second Lieutenant Lorenz sent me in to scrounge something. I got a large box with bottles of wine, schnapps, liquors and sekt, something for everyone. I also found a copy of the Völkische Beobachter,[19] which had the headlines ‘The Bolshevik horde’s attack will founder on Berlin’s walls’, ‘The Führer is with us’, and so on. The newspaper was only half the size of a normal newspaper sheet. Having found regimental headquarters, we were tasked with securing a street, but nothing happened. Then in the afternoon we had to secure another street, but again heard nothing from the Russians. I went off on the scrounge, as we had had nothing to eat all day. There were soldiers wandering around all over the place, but no kind of order. There were hardly any proper units left, just stragglers everywhere and no leadership. A soldier asked me for a cigarette. I had plenty, having been given 300. In exchange I asked him for something to eat and he gave me seven cans of pork, one for everyone with the tank. I went back and we opened the cans with our bayonets. Meanwhile the Russians had brought up their artillery and started firing, at first sparingly, into the city. I ate my meat sitting on the steps of a burnt-out building, the other two panzergrenadiers were leaning against the tank and the crew sitting inside. Suddenly there was a roaring in the air and I saw forty to fifty Stalin-Organ rockets coming toward us. These rockets had a diameter of 10.5cm, as I later discovered, and left a fire trail behind them. I vanished into the building like lightning at the same moment as the rockets crashed down around us. Stones, dirt and dust clattered down around me. When the dust cleared, I saw where the rockets had been aimed: the tank was buried under about two metres of rubble with just the top showing. The ruined buildings had collapsed and fallen into the street, burying the two panzergrenadiers alive. The entry hatch had been left open, but no one inside had been badly hurt. They had bruises and scratches, and everything inside was covered in thick dust. Fortunately the engine was still intact and the driver was able to drive out of the rubble. I too was thickly covered in dust and had some minor scratches. My pork was now inedible, of course.
16
13 Hoppegarten is a famous German racecourse with its own stables and training facilities.
17
14 The Volkssturm was raised by a decree of 25 September 1944 forming a Home Guard under Nazi Party auspices from all men aged 16 to 60 capable of bearing arms. The Hitler Youth were also armed and exploited in the defence of their country.