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 Konigstiger 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 Tangermunde, 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.
On Monday, 16 April, we were awakened at 0400 hours by the Russian bombardment. Every time we tried to get out and run to the armoured personnel carrier (APC), flashes of lightning illuminated the darkness and dirt and shrapnel whistled around our ears. An enemy battery had taken our command post as its aiming mark. Luckily, it moved its fire back some 70 metres across the fields. This inferno continued until 0600 hours and then the aircraft appeared. A squadron of twin-engined bombers dropped a carpet of bombs over a wood behind us in which there were all sorts of artillery. However, our batteries fired only very seldom. The nakedly exposed Heights and roads were meanwhile being controlled from the air, our own air effort being exceptionally weak.
By midday, from the sounds of battle and rumours, the enemy were already past us on the left and right. The remains of the detachments deployed in front of us were caught in our positions. Our troops were running from their trenches towards us as the Russian infantry appeared and, before we knew it, the Ivans were already on our Heights. With hastily assembled forces they were driven back halfway down again and our new positions held for the night. Air activity and continual mortaring robbed us of any sleep that night and caused some deaths in the supply column.
At 0400 hours on 17 April our command post was moved back more centrally in our sector to Gusow railway station. We had hardly camouflaged the vehicle and moved into the cellar of the station when a tank alert was given. The tanks had come up the road without firing. At the same time the bomber squadron reappeared and started bombing a little to our rear. To add to our misfortunes, alarming reports were radioed from the battalions. The enemy was in the rear of the 1st and 2nd Battalions with tanks and infantry, and the 3rd Battalion was falling back. At 0900 hours there was another bombardment on our forward positions, knocking out the radio APC of the 1st Battalion, and the crew of the 3rd Battalion’s radio APC were injured by wood splinters. The section leader, although the most seriously wounded, nevertheless drove the vehicle back to the supply column himself.
The regiment was now in such disorder, with no communications or physical contact, for instance, that we had to withdraw under cover of some self-propelled guns (SPGs) and tanks[32] to the next line of defence, the ‘Stein-Stellung’ near Gorlsdorf. It was none too soon, for we were already being fired at from the flank and we were showered with wood splinters in the copse where we stopped to assemble. When we arrived at midday with the remainder of the regiment at the ‘Stein-Stellung’ it was already under shellfire and the Russians were assembling tanks and infantry opposite. Of our 1st and 2nd Battalions only a few scattered groups had come back, and these were now re-organised into a weak battalion. The command post was set up on the reverse slopes of the defence position.
While the commanders were setting the sector boundaries, the enemy artillery and mortar fire steadily increased. Mortar bombs and salvoes of rockets crashed down around us and it was getting more and more uncomfortable. Helmut Melzer was killed by this fire as he tried to get through the woods on a bicycle to the supply lines to get a new radio.
