Some of our scouts reconnoitred in a north-westerly direction as far as Drewitz Teerofen. Near these crossroads stood two little houses in which we encountered some worried civilians. However, they did not follow us. The woods were a bit thinner to the left of the crossroads area, and in there was a large building, the Drewitz forester’s house. My comrade, W. Grunbitsch, with whom I had been at the NCO School, was killed by a shot in the head that day.
Immediately afterwards the advancing enemy were fighting in the wood area around the railway employees’ convalescent home. During this we lost all contact with our right-hand neighbour, who had withdrawn. Part of our platoon also left without being ordered to do so. This counted as our first day of close combat.
Looking for other members of the platoon, I went back to the convalescent home again, but without success. Suddenly a bullet struck near me at head level, and through the open doorway I could see the branches of a small tree moving by the fence. That was where my opponent must be. Throwing a hand grenade, I jumped aside, reached the woods and took cover. Quite soon afterwards I was able to meet up with my platoon again. Together we discovered that other members of our platoon, including the platoon commander, were near the level-crossing keeper’s hut at the Kohlenweg Hospital crossing. When we met, the platoon commander shook my hand and said: ‘Thanks for bringing the section back.’ The confidence I had previously had in him crumbled.
Our company commander fell at the beginning of February and Second-Lieutenant Adolf Fleischer took over on 8 February. From about the beginning of February until the beginning of March, our platoon was deployed in the sector south of the Kohlenweg (between the railway and the Zorndorfer Chaussee), and also east of there. Occasionally we could use some earthen bunkers, but these only offered protection from the elements and lacked fresh air. The damp firewood did little in the bunker stoves. Although there was not much trace of warmth, we at least had a roof over our heads in the thaw, and that was worth something.
Even here we had to send out reconnaissance parties of five to six men after first reporting to Captain von Oldershausen. Our task was to bring in prisoners, and three days’ special leave was promised for every prisoner brought in. The battalion commander tried to build up our confidence, to rouse our ambitions and called on us to do our duty. (I also passed my probation as a potential NCO.) Then he gave us an account of his military career and the awards of the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd Class. His attitude from then on resulted in our belief that he had ‘a pain in the throat’–in military slang a yearning to be decorated with the Knights’ Cross–and we had better take care.
In the subsequent patrol we went in the dark northwards through the woods in the direction of the Küstrin forester’s house. We came across a deep Soviet trench system that we were able to cross, but were then caught in their flares and hit by overwhelming firepower. Second-Lieutenant Fleischer sympathised with us over our failed attempt. The same had happened to him on his first attempt, and success only came with a repeat attempt. With this kind of assessment our young company commander won our confidence, something that was not always in evidence.[26]
The morning fight at the Cellulose Factory, skirmishes at Warnick on the other wing of the Neustadt, and the first rounds into the Altstadt, had renewed unrest among those of the population still remaining. The news spread with the speed of the wind that a train was about to leave Kietz, even though there was no organised means of passing information, and persuaded many that this was perhaps the last chance to leave. Others appeared still uncertain, or believed the rumours that the Kurland Army had landed in Stettin and would soon roll up the enemy lines along the Oder.[27]
The bulk of the 1st Mechanised Corps (2nd Guards Tank Army) arrived that morning, and a further small bridgehead was established near Genschmar in the Kalenziger Bunst by a rifle battalion of the 19th Motorised Rifle Brigade. The newly arrived 1st Battalion of the 35th Panzergrenadier Regiment immediately attacked, driving the Soviets back to the dykes, but were unable to go beyond and clear the bridgehead completely. The Soviets then mounted several counterattacks towards Genschmar in which they lost four tanks. Further German reinforcements, the 303rd ‘Döberitz’ and 309th ‘Berlin’ Infantry Divisions, also arrived in the Oderbruch that day, albeit piecemeal as the trainloads dictated, and were deployed south of the 25th Panzergrenadier Division.[28]
An important event in the fortress this day was the replacement of General Adolf Raegener as commandant by Himmler’s nominee, the 41-year-old SS-Gruppenführer and SS-Lieutenant-General Heinz Reinefarth. This appointment was made against the wishes of the 9th Army and the Army General Staff (OKH), for Reinefarth had reached his general’s rank not on the military ladder but in the uniformed police in which he had had a meteoric career, although he had in fact been awarded the Knights’ Cross of the Iron Cross as an infantry platoon commander in the invasion of France in 1940 when called up for military service. He was known for his role in the brutal crushing of the Warsaw uprising in the summer and autumn of 1944, where his performance as a battle-group commander had earned him the Oak Leaves to his Knights’ Cross. ‘A good police officer, but no general’ was the later comment of Colonel-General Heinz Guderian, the Army Chief of the General Staff. After the war the commander of the 9th Army wrote of him that ‘despite the best of will, the difficult task of leading and organising the defence was in no way improved’. Himmler, however, saw in him a man of fanatical perseverance, whom he believed would make a fighting fortress garrison out of the early chaos with his toughness and intellect. Consequently, Himmler would not change him. In like fashion, Reinefarth went on to appoint a colonel of Feldgendarmerie who was totally inexperienced in combat operations to command the Neustadt Defence Sector.[29]
For General Raegener the timing of the handover could not have been more advantageous, for he could leave without reproach, having repelled the first Soviet attack with what at first had been a hopelessly weak garrison and held all his positions, the Cellulose Factory having been retaken that morning. He moved to Podelzig on the Reitwein Spur, where he began organising a division from miscellaneous units in the area, conscripting his staff from elderly local landowners hastily pressed back into their reservist uniforms.[30]
The new commandant was not even allowed to enjoy his lunch undisturbed. Several mortar bombs landed one after another in the Altstadt, some near his command post, but inflicting no great damage. At the same time it was reported to him that the enemy had now reached the south of the town. Here the flooded meadows limited the Soviet troops essentially to the two causeways. The chaussee from Sonnenburg ran like a dyke through the low-lying land and, being visible from the fortress, was virtually impassable in daylight. A bucket elevator standing about 2 kilometres from the town was the only construction on the road for a considerable distance, and had been developed into a strongpoint. The other chaussee coming in from Göritz ran straight through thinly occupied fields and meadows before it joined the Oder dyke at the small Bienenhof hamlet, some 2 kilometres from the town, and continued to the Altstadt. This property had been occupied at the last minute by Infantry Battalion 500, an experimental unit.[31]
Reinefarth’s first situation report, issued on 2 February 1945, read:
Enemy attempting to encircle Küstrin from the north and south and to gain river crossings via the main road (railway) with attacks from all sides. The enemy attacked the bridges near the Bienenhof (south of Küstrin) with 5 tanks but were repelled with the loss of 3 tanks. Own counterattack to retake Warnick stalled by heavy enemy fire. Enemy attack from south-west and east on Sonnenburg led to encirclement of garrison. Tschernow in enemy hands.[32]