I was surprised not to have received any messages or new orders from Mrugalla. At first he had cried out for heavy weapons and now he seemed to have forgotten us. I think that he had already withdrawn a little toward Alexanderplatz. As I later discovered, he had meanwhile been injured in the arm, but remained with his troops like a good soldier.
We had to wait quite a long time before it came to shooting again. It was evening and already beginning to go dark when a dozen Russian tanks came along the street on the far bank from the east, having gone round the Schlesischer Station, and headed toward Alexanderplatz. This was the moment we had been hoping and waiting for.
Unsuspectingly, for no one was firing at them from the flanks, they slowly rolled forward into the trap. When I thought that they had reached the right point, I fired the rockets, which howled down on their targets, striking them and turning it into a frightful fiasco for the Russians. Some of the splinters even came across the Spree. Several tanks must have received direct hits, as they split apart like soap boxes, increasing the overall effect. One tipped over into the Spree and the water gurgled over it. Some that had been driving next to the exploding tanks either simply tipped over or were slammed against the S-Bahn structure as if they were toys. All had been knocked out. A few crewmen bailed out and tried to escape crouched down and crawling out of the field of fire. We let them get away so that they could report back what had happened to them.
An unusual silence fell. We withdrew and took cover in the cellars, as I was afraid that the storm would descend upon us again, but nothing happened. I can only assume that the Russian forward observers had been unable to identify where the rockets came from. That we had had the audacity to fire at such short range probably did not occur to them.
When we realised that we were not going to be punished, we carried out some more rockets but set them up at another location aimed at the station area. There one could shoot wherever one wanted and be sure of hitting a Russian target, but I was cautious about firing them, for at night the after glow that the rockets trailed behind them was visible for miles.
How the Reichs Chancellery discovered that we were firing these rockets, I have no idea, but suddenly a convoy of trucks drove directly up to us in the night. Accompanying them was SS-Second Lieutenant Triebes, who brought orders for us to load as many rockets and their equipment as possible and take them to Potsdamer Platz. He had also brought the Volkssturm along with him.
IN ACTION AT POTSDAMER PLATZ
We loaded as quickly as possible, our mortars and ammunition too. Then we climbed aboard the trucks and the Volkssturm followed behind on foot.
Thank goodness we had not come under fire while loading, or we would have been blown to smithereens. A sergeant and some men remained behind and detonated the rockets that we had previously set up as soon as we had gone some distance, and they were able to catch up with us before the Soviets retaliated.
The rockets and our equipment were unloaded at Potsdamer Platz and taken below ground to the upper level of the S-Bahn station. The Volkssturm men that had followed us and then helped to unload I ordered to occupy two S-Bahn carriages on the lower level, where I reserved a carriage for my men and the last four of our Hitler Youths. I myself was hardly to use the accommodation at all, as much work awaited me.
Four Red Cross nurses appeared and offered to tend our wounded in the forthcoming fighting, an offer I gladly accepted.
Then I had trouble with our four remaining Hitler Youths. As I had no task for them for the moment, they stood outside our S-Bahn carriage, which was near the entrance to the Potsdamer Strasse tunnel and starting accosting ‘stragglers’, having simply adopted the role of military police.
While the real military police were handing these ‘stragglers’ over to us to feed into our front positions, these young policemen were briefly asking: ‘Where are you going? Where do you come from?’ Whoever was unable to give a thoroughly satisfactory explanation was being shot out of hand.
We had no intention of doing such a thing. When I say ‘we’, I refer to my battalion commander, who was in charge here. As was his way, he was doing nothing about the coming and going of the numerous ‘stragglers’, who could only be described as ‘stragglers’ because they did not want to fight any more. These people lived in the tunnels and only emerged when driven out by hunger or thirst, when they would try to meet their needs in the S-Bahn stations.
Now when one of my men stormed up to me and angrily reported what these military police were up to, I went down with my NCOs. We disarmed them and gave them a dressing down. What could we do with these kids? Shoot them? Of course I could understand that it galled them that most of the soldiers no longer wanted to fight. I felt the same. But they did not have the motto on their belt buckles like us.[49] So I chased the four boys away and shouted after them: ‘Don’t let me see you here again!’
They looked at me as if they could not understand me or the world any more. But it was no use, for our paths crossed again the next day. Having come from an area already occupied by the Russians, they did not know where to go, and promised to behave, but I had to stress to them that my orders were sacred and must be carried out instantly and zealously. I did not give them their weapons back, but there were plenty lying around that those tired of war had thrown away, so they were soon able to rearm themselves.
However, what pleased me was that we were immediately taken on the ration strength, including my supply train, which had not previously been the case. Until now we had only been on stand-by or fighting. What kind of leaders were these that never thought that their men had to be looked after! While I helped myself shamelessly to the battalion commander’s standing table of sandwiches, my men carried their share into their S-Bahn carriage.
Now the real military police started combing through the tunnels and bringing the ‘stragglers’ to us to be fed into our front line trenches.
Then the battalion commander came to me and said: ‘You only have two mortars now, apart from the rockets, of which you have not fired one. You are hardly overloaded.’
Not knowing what SS-Captain Schäfer wanted of me, I said: ‘Then send me forward, and if you are short of a company commander, I will gladly take over, even a platoon will do for me. That would suit me much better than this job here.’
‘Oh no!’ said Schäfer, ‘since your rocket action at the Jannowitz Bridge you have become a well known and respected person. I would be in trouble if I took you away from your post, which was not what I meant. Apart from this, between ourselves, the adjutant has brought back from the Reichs Chancellery the news that you are to get the Knight’s Cross for that action, and also be promoted for your bravery.’
‘And what happens then?’ I wanted to know. ‘Come on, spill the beans! Every day I have to take the stragglers rounded up by the military police forward to the various company commanders. Even though there are officers going about without proper jobs, a sergeant major has to be detailed as Duty Officer!’
Schäfer thought about this and then said: ‘If it hots up outside, these administrative types will be formed into a shock troop, something they have never done before. There are none among them that can replace you, so I will continue to pass on the stragglers to you to fill the holes in the front line.’
So I handed over the command to my senior NCO and set off with the stragglers.
49
10 The Waffen-SS belt buckle bore the motto ‘Meine Ehre heisst Treue’ (Loyalty is my Honour).