Suddenly there was another alarm. Somehow the Russians had got through our lines and were behind us. There was a mad rush by the staff to get some soldiers together and recover our positions with a counterattack. Soon machine gun and tank fire was coming from every direction. At dusk we went into the attack with the support of some 20mm anti-aircraft guns and tanks, although these heavy vehicles could not manoeuvre much in the woods. We formed a blocking position on the corner of a wood with our APC. The fighting went on into the night but the old positions were not recovered.
As tanks drove into our flank from the left on the morning of 18 April, our APC and the remaining vehicles were sent back a kilometre to Worin. The small, deserted village looked so peaceful, but hardly had we set ourselves up in a house than a cannonade of tank fire broke out in our corner. As we were at a crossroads, we came under fire from heavy weapons and artillery fire, in which several soldiers sheltering in a barn several meters behind our APC were wounded. In those two days our signals platoon suffered 17 casualties. During the morning the companies withdrew to Worin and the command post found itself in the front line, the regimental commander himself becoming a casualty. The divisional headquarters were only a few hundred meters away in the same village. To add to our misfortunes we had a mixture of petrol and diesel oil in our fuel tank so that the APC would only move very slowly and the engine had to be kept turning over. Our young second lieutenant, who had only been with the regiment a few days, had a daring plan to drive the APC over open country to the command post, for as the route was downhill, should we fall into a hole we would quickly come out again! As we started off, we came under a real mortar barrage. The vehicle speeded up, backfiring several times, and we were expecting it to give up the ghost. After minutes that seemed to last for hours, we reached the cover of a sunken lane and followed it to behind a barn, where all kinds of vehicles had assembled, oddly enough failing to attract the attention of enemy aircraft.
The Russians were bombarding the supply routes that we would have to withdraw over later. As their tanks penetrated Worin I decided to leave the place with my lame APC and with luck creep over the hill to the edge of the woods to await further events. Splintering trees forced us to move back further into the wood. There was some heavy anti-aircraft artillery hidden in a commanding position on the edge of the woods. Everyone was to withdraw to positions in front of Muncheberg during the afternoon, but our division was to take up the rearguard once more. Convoys of vehicles rolled through the woods to Jahnsfelde to join the main road back to Muncheberg. However, a short while later the last convoy returned with the news that we were cut off. There were only about two kilometres of woodland track to the positions and tanks in our rear – Jahnsfelde was already occupied by the enemy – and we could hear machine gun fire from that direction. We knew that there had been fighting on either side of us for some time, and now there was no way out. As it emerged from the woods, the divisional radio vehicle, which had tried to make a breakout on its own, fell into Russian hands, along with three of its five-man crew. With our APC almost lame from its fuel problem, the situation was particularly uncomfortable, especially as there were none of our own positions behind us. We prepared for action and aimed our machine-gun in the direction from which we expected danger, at the same time preparing the vehicle for demolition.
Towards evening our companies withdrew from Worin to redeploy to Muncheberg. Everyone assembled in the woods, infantry, armour and vehicles. The only possibility was to break through to our lines along a route unknown to the enemy. Our Regimental Commander, a lieutenant, organised those on foot, and our APC was put on tow by a Tiger. At dusk we took up positions along the edge of the woods. Firing behind us indicated that Ivan had followed us into the woods from Worin. As soon as it was dark enough, we broke out of the woods and encountered no resistance. We passed through the burning village of Jahnsfelde without incident and reached the main road to Muncheberg and then, a little later, our own lines, which we occupied immediately. Our APC was towed on into the town, where the fuel tank was emptied and refilled by our supply column.
19 April had hardly begun when I was woken from a few hours of death-like sleep by the headquarters staff with orders to prepare for an immediate move. As a result of enemy tanks breaking through our lines, we would have to pull back yet again. As there was enough fuel, the little APC whose crew had been wounded by wood splinters was re-manned and sent on in advance. We reached the new supply column location in a pine forest at noon and prepared our vehicle for action once more. We were in touch with the little APC, which reported being unable to get through to the regimental command post and that the situation was completely confused. Then I failed to get any further response to my transmissions. Later the crew returned on foot, their APC having suddenly been attacked by a T-34, which chased them and shot them up. Then we had to drive on straight away, having received urgent orders to move, as enemy armoured spearheads were only a kilometre from our position. Apparently the Russians were no longer meeting any resistance, our enormous supply columns being in full flight without any thought of putting up any resistance. The journey to Rudersdorf in the Berlin-Erkner area lasted until 0300 hours. Close by was a horde of refugees that had been forced to leave their homes in the middle of the night with their pushcarts.
We remained in Rudersdorf 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 Schoneiche. 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 Schoneiche 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 Kopenick and were threatening to cut us off.[34] The fleeing supply column, in which there were
