All the other pages were equally confident about the future. One example read: ‘He who makes his way from Berlin to Küstrin will traverse no kilometre in which he will not see the lifeblood pulsing eastwards from Berlin in a current of belief, trust and restless commitment. Along the whole stretch from Berlin to Küstrin many hands are active and our strength grows from hour to hour to be released at the desired moment, bringing forth the day of decision and liberation.’ Another read: ‘Küstrin fortress is an important feature in the current military game of chess over our East German homeland. Let us therefore take care we put our utmost effort at the disposal of the Führer, however and whenever he requires. We are convinced that the Führer is already in control and that in the foreseeable future the effect of his handling will be noticeable in our sector of the fighting.’
Events left little opportunity for these exhortations to take effect. Kietz had come under artillery fire during the night, then in the morning ground-attack aircraft in large numbers attacked positions in the Neustadt. At about midday the Altstadt and Kietz were shaken by bombardment by what was reckoned at about 1,000 rounds of all calibres. Bitter fighting erupted once more at the Bienenhof strong-point, involving two Soviet rifle battalions and eight tanks. Precisely as had occurred four days previously, the ruins of the hamlet changed hands twice before the old front line was restored at dusk.[31]
Operation ‘Sonnenwende’ (Summer Solstice) got under way on 15 February when ten German divisions attacked southwards from the area of Stargard. Their objectives were to break through the extended flank of the 1st Byelorussian Front in Pomerania, to cut it off and then destroy the Soviet forces on the Oder, pushing through to the Küstrin area. In the meantime the besieging batteries resumed their fire on Küstrin and engaged nearly all parts of the front line. The headquarters reported 5,860 hits. Several freestanding houses in Wallstrasse on the edge of the Altstadt, not 500 metres from the front, had to be evacuated. The cellars were flooded, as happened nearly every year in the thaw, and could not be occupied in the foreseeable future. The remaining inhabitants of Kietz were advised to move into the ‘less dangerous’ Altstadt from their village homes, which offered little protection, especially now that Soviet tanks had been used in the Reitwein bridgehead. However, the fortress staff forbade their acceptance into the Altstadt ‘on military grounds’, so they had little choice but to head for the Neustadt. Several families moved as suggested. They had heard about the destruction, but now everything was being talked about and exaggerated, both good and bad. Perhaps they really would be safer in these more densely built quarters. However, all illusions fled when they saw the heaps of rubble where once had been thriving streets, and almost all the families returned to Kietz, some slipping unnoticed into the Altstadt.
The fortress newspaper had new reasons for criticising the behaviour of the population, this time because there was some confusion among the men and women about their obligations for labour service. All childless women up to 55 years old were supposed to report for duty. Additionally, all girls from 14 to 21 years old in the Jugendpflicht (Youth Duty Service) were to report immediately to the Hitler Youth offices for employment in dressing stations, kitchens and tailor shops, or to do laundry for the Volkssturm and barracked Hitler Youth.
A group of women had already been mobilised a week earlier to sew enormous screens that the engineers spread like banners from the Altstadt entrance to the Neustadt end of the Warthe bridges. For part of this stretch the trees could be used as securing points, while wooden laths were used on the bridges. Shots and splinters left their mark and at first this damage was quickly repaired, but as time passed either the repair troop became tired of this task or had been given another one. The construction disintegrated, gradually giving the Soviet artillery observers on the Sonnenburger Chaussee a better view of the scanty bridge traffic.
The Feste Küstrin published the first Standing Court’s actions: ‘Corporal Z was sentenced for plundering by the Standing Court on 10.2.1945 to death and military disgrace. The condemned entered damaged business premises in the Neustadt where Hitler Youth were busy saving household goods. He went along with the cart the Hitler Youth were taking to the Küstrin-Altstadt and removed items from the cart to take home with him despite protests. The sentence is to be carried out by shooting on 11.2.1945.’[32] The Wehrmacht Report on the front page of the fortress newspaper of 16 February reported among other things the fall of Budapest, Soviet attacks on Breslau and Golgau, the retreat to Grünberg and heavy house-to-house fighting in encircled Posen; things seemed quieter on the west front, but central Germany, with Saxony, Münsterland and south-east Germany, was suffering, and in particular Chemnitz, Magdeburg and Dresden were named as having been targets for Anglo-American air attacks.
The Standing Court also had a soldier executed for leaving his unit in the front line and hiding in a nearby building for eight days.
Everyday life continued within the fortress. Soviet batteries brought down heavy fire on the Bienenhof and were engaged by the heavy flak guns in return. Low-flying Soviet ground-attack aircraft attacked the Neustadt and a German fighter-bomber attacked Soviet positions near Drewitz.
The electricity supply to the town failed again, but whether this was the result of a direct hit, technical problems or other reasons was not known. Candles and oil lamps came into their own once more, although fuel for the lamps was running out. Here and there a dusty bottle was found in a cellar, but there were no longer any larger supplies. Fuel for motor vehicles was equally scarce. In any case an order had appeared that motor vehicles could only be used with a special pass from headquarters and with a work chit for every journey. Wehrmacht vehicles now carried the letters ‘FK’ for ‘Fortress Küstrin’ painted in white on the wings. The only non-military vehicles in use were those of the fire brigade and one belonging to the NSDAP district office.
The provisional delivery station in Roonstrasse reported the first birth of the siege, a boy. Sadly, he would never get to know his father, who had died three months earlier somewhere in the east.[33]
Fighter aircraft from both sides met early in the morning over the town. The harmless rattling of machine guns so high up brought many people on to the streets. They were sure there was nothing to worry about, as long as the nimble machines were so intensively engaged with one another. The planes stayed beyond the range of the light flak and the heavy guns that in any case were holding back from endangering their own aircraft. This new spectacle attracted interest from all over the front. The Soviet batteries were suddenly silent after having been very active since dawn. For a long time the hunting spurts of tracer bullets found no targets in the cloudless sky, then one aircraft suddenly emitted a plume of smoke, lost height and vanished out of sight. This acted on the other pilots like a pre-arranged signal to break off the fight, and in a few minutes there was no trace of this bitter engagement.
The groups of spectators dispersed without saying anything, not knowing whether the downed aircraft was German or Soviet. As people queued in the few grocers’ shops that still had provisions, the relative strengths of the machines came under vigorous discussion, and the debate continued until the firing started up again, and most people abandoned their places in the queue to go home before the storm broke in all its fury. It was afternoon before people could go out again. The picture that many streets offered was desolate, with broken tiles and windows, masonry and roof timbers littering the pavements. The Marktplatz area had suffered the most, the façade of a corner building on Berliner Strasse having collapsed from a direct hit. The roof truss hung freely over the ripped open storeys. Volkssturm men who had been accommodated in the pub on the ground floor could not understand how they had survived this horror. They stood around covered in dust and white-faced with shock as firemen and air raid wardens cleared the street of heaps of debris. Headquarters staff calmly summed up the day: ‘Harassing fire day and night from all calibres on the whole sector (5,560 shots). The Altstadt and Neustadt suffered heavy damage.’