We remained in Rüdersdorf until noon on this new day, 20 April. As the regiment’s fighting capacity was down to only 90 men, the supply column was combed through and a company of another 90 men established. Even the signals platoon was broken up and the radio operators deployed as riflemen. The supply company marched off well spread out under heavy Russian air activity. We followed them a little later in the APC with the commanders, two lieutenants. We were bombed on the way, as we were fully visible on the now completely deserted road. Near Hennickendorf we took cover in a wood close to the divisional headquarters. Low-flying aircraft passed over often without noticing us.
That evening we received the task with our 180 men, of which only the 90-man supply company were for the moment available, of blocking the gap between two lakes. At dusk we had to march to our new positions under a hail of explosives and incendiaries. Often we had to stop on the clogged roads, while the darkness became like something out of a fairy tale as a ‘Christmas Tree’[33] lit up the area around as bright as day. We had to wait in our APC for a long time until the company arrived. Of the 90 men 30 had fallen out on the way, having apparently deserted. Of the other 90 survivors of the regiment there was no sign. With our weak force we then relieved an APC company with two tanks at its disposal. Shortly before, a Stalin tank had broken through the lines after shooting up a Panther, raced along the road about 100 metres from us and driven into an anti-tank barrier. A Panzerfaust hit it in a shower of sparks. As it tried to withdraw it was destroyed by a second Panther. An ammunition and fuel dump was burning nearby with crackles and explosions, sounding like a battle in progress. The air attacks broke off. We drove the APC off the road to the edge of a wood and camouflaged it well. Our location was several kilometres from Hennickendorf on a country road leading through pine forests and meadows. After the surprise attack by the Russian tank, which had sounded very noisy on the road, I fell asleep to the crackling of the ammunition dump. It was still dark when I awoke and the crackling was still going on, but it was something else that I could hear, the screeching and track noises of tanks on the road left and right of us. The Russians had meanwhile broken through again and our supply column heroes had taken to their heels. The way back along the road was cut off. The indecision of our lieutenants had nearly cost us our APC, as it soon would be light.
Trusting in our luck, we followed the edge of the woods across the fields, shovelling our way under machine gun fire out of a ditch that proved too wide, and managed to reach the first houses in Hennickendorf under the cover of a light morning mist with the sound of enemy tank engines in our ears. Several tanks and SPGs from our armoured unit were standing there in the open, engaging the Stalin tanks that had just appeared out of the woods in a duel that we watched as spectators. We could see quite clearly how the tracers bounced off the Stalin tanks and flew into the air. A little later one of our tanks was hit in the flank and burst into flames. The weather and rain prevented intervention from the air. As this was no longer our regiment’s position, our divisional engineers having taken over, the two lieutenants decided to look for the supply column again. We received its location over the radio.
The defence of Berlin presented a strange picture, as we saw for ourselves on our way. It really consisted only of individual, independent combat groups. For instance, here and there we saw Hitler Youths in defensive positions. Strangely, too, we were shelled the whole way to Schöneiche. Everything gave us the feeling of inevitable defeat. ‘Berlin remains German’ was displayed on a board by the roadside, which meant that the city centre was already prepared for defence and full of SS. In Schöneiche we found the supply column troops comfortably quartered, something we could not easily forgive them. However, that afternoon we were under way again in an endlessly long column with hour-long halts caused by blockages, passing lovely villas and spring-bedecked suburban gardens, bathing pools and parks. The Russians had already reached Köpenick and were threatening to cut us off.[34] The fleeing supply column, in which there were also many civilian vehicles, came up against troops marching in the opposite direction. We went through Köpenick, across the Spree, and through Adlershof and Altglienicke to the suburb of Rudow, where we looked for quarters. The small combatant part of the division took up defensive positions in Adlershof.
No sooner had we been allocated quarters in Rudow than we were sent forward in our APC again. At my request my radio operator and myself were given permission to fall out for 24 hours and get some sleep for once. How often have I cursed myself since! However, first of all we could take a bath and sleep in a proper bed. We slept until noon the following day, Sunday 22 April. The weather was fine and so there were constant air attacks. The noise of battle grew ever nearer and clouds of smoke rose constantly to the south and east. I chatted until evening with the people in my billet, who had already prepared themselves mentally for Bolshevism, but when I went to look up my comrades next door, I found everyone, including the vehicles, gone. They had apparently left their quarters in such a hurry that they had forgotten to tell us. Not knowing exactly where they had gone, we set off hoping to catch them up. Just as it was getting dark we met our division’s ammunition column, which took us along with them to Neukölln, but they also did not know where our supply column was, which was difficult to understand. Night found us in the streets with ‘Lame Ducks’[35] dropping bombs and a Russian machine-gun firing nearby. Ivan had broken through again somehow.
As dawn broke on this Monday morning the local inhabitants began to appear on the streets and gave us hot coffee. Then we drove on with the ammunition column to Rudow, from where we marched to Adlershof to see if we could find either our APC or the regimental command post. The road was already under artillery fire, but women and young girls were still going about their shopping. No sooner had we gone round an anti-tank barrier that was under a railway bridge than a Second Lieutenant asked us where we were going and then wanted to conscript us into his defence team. Fortunately a motorcycle combination from our division appeared from the direction of Adlershof and so we jumped on and thundered away from his press gang.
The road was under very heavy fire as we returned to Rudow. We had now met up with some men from Panzergrenadier Regiment 76 that wanted to pick up an anti-aircraft gun and at the same time were also looking for the supply column. An attempt to find the divisional staff in Schöneweide proved fruitless, but we were lucky enough to meet up with our divisional engineers’ horse-drawn supply column, into which we managed to integrate ourselves with some difficulty, so that at least we would be able to pass through the numerous patrols and military police barriers. We marched right through Berlin at high speed until our feet finally refused to obey orders any more. We went past Nollendorfplatz, the Zoo, the Memorial Church and then along the Kaiserdamm to Charlottenburg through areas well known to me. Several streets were barricaded off and were already under Russian shell fire. Many refugees went along with us looking for some means of escaping by train. The engineers stopped near the Funkturm, where orders were received that all the supply columns were to return to Berlin. We were told that Panzergrenadier Regiment 90’s supply column was at Döberitz. We two radio operators were to remain until our supply column returned, and meanwhile were sent to a cold billet in Witzleben with some very unfriendly people. As we were given neither blankets nor food and were completely exhausted, we did not feel very welcome in this strange unit in which we knew no one.
33
3 A kind of parachute flare that scattered smaller elements to produce an illuminated Christmas tree effect.