I could see how long the transport was taking to evacuate the wounded, there being only four vehicles available, so, with the driver’s consent, I sat on the forward left mudguard of an ambulance with my back to the direction of travel and held fast on to the driving mirror. After a drive lasting over four hours, we were eventually delivered to a reserve hospital in Königs Wusterhausen.
Against all the rules and some well-meaning advice, I did not stay there, but made my way back by train to Hamburg. So, on 22 April, only three weeks after my departure, I found myself back home again. My sister did not recognise me when she opened the door. My mother came to the door with my father behind her. In his surprise he said: ‘Are you a deserter?’ When I replied: ‘No, I have been wounded.’ he said: ‘In that case, you can come in!’
Tams became a successful businessman in Hamburg after the war.
SEVEN
Marxdorf
ERICH WITTOR
Erich Wittor, squadron commander in the Armoured Reconnaissance Battalion ‘Kurmark’, was in divisional reserve at Falkenhagen, so he and his unit were not committed to action until 18 April 1945, when his experience appears to take over from that of Karl-Hermann Tams.
At battalion headquarters on 18 April 1945, I was given the task of defending the area southwest of Seelow with my squadron, where the enemy had broken through. We immediately drove via Lietzen to Neuentempel. I was checking out the area on the edge of some woods to the west and northwest, and giving instructions to my NCOs, when we came under shell fire. Without any cover whatsoever, without even our steel helmets, we lay defenceless on the open ground, trying to make ourselves as flat as flounders, only able to pray that we would not be hit, the explosions coming right on top of us. Stones, clumps of earth and twigs pattered down all round us. A few minutes seemed like eternity. At last the artillery stopped firing, and the first thing I did was to get out the steel helmets.
Then the squadron was deployed into defensive positions and started digging in. My command post was in an earthen dug-out with a roof of logs that only a direct hit could have penetrated.[29] By evening we were fully prepared for defence and could have held our positions. It became dark, and again artillery fire fell on our positions. Suddenly, from my dug-out I could hear the sound of tanks, and wanted to look out and see what this meant. I had already gone up five or six steps when a shell exploded close by, the blast driving me back down again. I felt numbed, unable to stand or feel anything.
Had something happened to me? I could neither feel nor hear anything. My senses came slowly back to life. A shell splinter as long as a little finger was sticking out of my left hip, jutting out like a needle, so that the medical sergeant was able to pull it out on the spot. I had been lucky. For safety, he later gave me an anti-tetanus injection. Fortunately, the sounds had come from some Tiger tanks coming to our support.
On the 19th we were ordered back to the area south of Marxdorf, which had already been penetrated by the Russians. The enemy had to be tackled with hard, hour-long fighting in the woods, in which my men fought bravely and willingly, the NCOs giving excellent examples to their men. Eventually we gained the edge of the woods south of Marxdorf and set ourselves up for defence.
Here my company sergeant major brought in a staff sergeant and a sergeant who had aroused his suspicions. I could not spend much time on them and had them sent back to the command post. They were wearing German uniforms with badges of rank and decorations, but none of us knew them, and what they had to say made us suspicious. Later I was told that they were members of the National Committee for a Free Germany and had been sent by the Russians to cause confusion and thus give the Russians the advantage. The fate of these two is not hard to guess. Even as prisoners of war, one cannot act against one’s own country and work for the enemy, whatever the reasons. This was the first time that I had come across members of this committee.
The Königstiger tanks of the Waffen-SS had taken up position on the right flank of my squadron, and we were soon to discover how valuable they were.
Late afternoon some T-34 tanks began attacking Marxdorf from a patch of woodland to one side. With incredible accuracy the Tigers’ 88 mm guns shot up tank after tank, each shell causing the T-34 hit to explode, mostly leaving only the glowing remains of what had been a fast-moving, attacking tank. There was not a single miss, and we were overjoyed with the outcome. The excellent siting of our tanks did not give the Russians a chance to retaliate, and they were able to push forward into Marxdorf only at night.
With nightfall we were able to conduct a reconnaissance in Marxdorf, capturing some drunken Russians and also had the opportunity to use our Panzerfausts.
Next morning a grenadier battalion of the ‘Nordland’ prepared to launch an attack from immediately west of the village, and soon did so. We were able to observe the action from our positions quite clearly. The SS-Grenadiers advanced as if on exercise, cutting through as in our best times. Within a short while they had taken the village and driven the Russians out, displaying the fighting morale of our troops all over again, their spirit and steadfastness even now leading to success even when outnumbered two-to-one. Unfortunately, the overwhelming numbers and equipment of the other side were so great that this disparity could not for long be overcome by the tactical skills of our leaders, nor the courage and steadfastness of our troops. It was 20 April 1945.[30]
Erich Wittor was wounded during the last days of the war but managed to get through to the American lines across the Elbe at Tangermünde, where he was taken prisoner. The Americans had so many prisoners that they passed some on to the British and some to the Soviets. Wittor was fortunate enough to be passed on to the British, who released him at the end of August 1945. He joined the Bundeswehr as a lieutenant of Reconnaissance Troops in 1956 and went on in that branch to end his service in 1984 as the Deputy Commandant of the Bundeswehr’s Armoured Training School in the rank of colonel.
EIGHT
Retreat from Seelow
DR. FRITZ-RUDI AVERDIECK
Rudi Averdieck was the radio sergeant of Panzergrenadier-Regiment 90 of the 20th Panzergrenadier Division that was deployed around Seelow awaiting the main Soviet offensive on Berlin. Averdieck had been conscripted in 1938 and had been with the same unit as a radio operator throughout the Polish, French and Russian campaigns.
The bombardment which started at 0700 hours on 14 April introduced the last phase of the war on the Eastern Front.[31] The initial enemy attacks were all beaten back, the 76th Regiment shooting up twelve tanks, and by midday some small breaches in our lines had been eliminated. However, our counter-attack failed in the face of the second Russian bombardment, which was reinforced by simultaneous heavy air attacks. The companies fled back, incurring heavy casualties. They then occupied the main battle line about 200 metres in front of the Annahof. The Soviets could be seen hitting our surviving wounded with spades. At dusk the enemy closed in and the Annahof came under fire from artillery, rockets and heavy weapons. We withdrew during the night and occupied the lines on the Seelow Heights above Werbig, in which we spent yet another quiet Sunday (15 April) under occasional disruptive fire. We had a magnificent view over the Oderbruch from these Heights, except when smoke from the explosions made everything hazy. I spent the night with my driver in a small, very fragile bunker.
29
1 This would have been already in existence as part of the ‘Stein-Stellung’, the second defensive belt, unmanned and relying on survivors from the first defensive belt to man it in due course.
31
1 This was the beginning of Marshal Zhukov’s two-day ‘Reconnaissance in Force’ in preparation for the launching of ‘Operation Berlin’ on the 16th. An essential factor was to gain enough ground to establish routes through the minefields for the main attack.