aircraft, and soon the Russians came in sight. Karl Danzer was severely wounded by a mortar bomb that exploded close to us, getting a splinter in his stomach. Once the Russians had crossed the road leading to Strausberg, cutting our line of retreat, the guns were blown up. Once more we were surrounded as we had been the day before, and would be again in the days to come.
That evening we withdrew under cover of darkness through a wood. Altogether we were about 60 men. After we had marched about four kilometres, we came to a road running east-west, along which trucks were driving westwards. We infantry marched with the battery commander, a lieutenant, at the head of the battery. The battery commander thought that this was a retreat route, but I noticed that nearly all the trucks had sloping radiators, and we did not have any like that. I reported my misgivings, but he told me off, saying that he was the commander and knew best. He had taken over the battery only the day before, after the previous commander had been killed. However, when trucks went past packed with singing soldiers, it was clear enough to me that they were Russian. I told my regimental comrades – there were now six of us – and we slipped back to the rear of the battery. To the left and right of us were ever thicker pine woods. Suddenly came some shouting and then the voice of the battery commander: ‘Don’t shoot!’
We could hear Russians shouting from in front and like lightning we vanished into the woods. The battery was captured virtually intact and now I realised that the commander was German but fighting on the Russian side and presumably a member of the National Committee for a Free Germany.[13]
Two men from the battery had come with us, so now we were eight. We forced our way through the dark woods toward the southwest. After we had been going for about three hours we came to the the village of Gross Wilkendorf, near Strausberg. We did not know if it was occupied by the Russians, so we crept cautiously up to it through an orchard, but could hear no voices. Then we heard the sound of an engine and someone calling out, so we knew that there were Germans here. As we entered the village, we saw a truck moving out with a heavy gun in tow. We appeared to be the only living beings in the village. We went into a house and had something to eat. We found enough food, for the inhabitants had moved out only a few hours before.
We moved on again. There was an ambulance at the other end of the village, but it suddenly drove off as we came up to it. There had been a field hospital in the school here that had been cleared. However, Karl Meinhardt was able to swing himself aboard as it set off. I ran along behind, but the vehicle was increasing speed. Karl stretched out his hand to me and I was able to grasp his fingers. He pulled me in and for a short while we were safe, although separated from the others. We were dropped off just short of Strausberg.
We then looked for a house a bit off the road where we could sleep for a few hours, but were soon disturbed by the sounds of tank gunfire, so again there was no sleep, and we had been almost a week without it. We debated whether to report to an infantry unit or to do as most troops were doing and simply make our way back. We decided on the latter and to try and get a day to relax and sleep in at long last. We had not washed or shaved for days, and looked more like vagabonds than soldiers. Our uniforms were encrusted with mud, and my hair had not been cut for weeks. The experiences of the last few days were etched in our faces. We had become pale and hollow-cheeked with dark circles under our eyes. When I happened to see my face in a mirror, I was shocked by my appearance. I certainly did not look like a 19 year-old.
We had only been going a few minutes when we were rounded up. A unit of 15- and 16-year-old Hitler Youths had deployed here, even though not all were armed. All soldiers going past were being rounded up by them and taken into their ranks. There were hardly any machine guns, but one thing you had to give them was their spirit, which was something seldom seen. They simply could not wait for the Russians to come. They knocked out several Russian tanks at ranges of four or five metres, and when the Russians realised that the resistance here was particularly strong, they brought up more tanks as reinforcements. Although the youngsters suffered severe losses, we only withdrew when the Russians came at us from three sides.
We then occupied a village that lay in a valley.[14] But here too we soon had to move, as we were too weak. We then occupied the high ground around the village, although some of the youngsters remained behind armed only with Panzerfausts[15] to knock out the Russian tanks. Whenever they succeeded they would return with happy faces to pick up fresh Panzerfausts. Nearly all were dressed in brown shirts, short pants and a much too large helmet. But as many tanks as they destroyed, the more took their place. There were at least ten Russians to every German soldier. As soon as the tanks had taken over the village, they turned their guns on us and inflicted more heavy casualties. Meanwhile the Russian infantry had caught up.
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 Rudersdorf. 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
