An SS man was calling from outside the cemetery fence: ‘Comrades, I am wounded and from the SS! Shoot me!’ His voice became more appealing, then weaker and soon could not be heard any longer.
In the late afternoon we withdrew to the von Stülpnagel Barracks. Some white flags could be seen hanging from one of the barrack blocks alongside the street. Bullets from Soviet sub-machine guns hunted us as we darted across the chaussee. Some officers with drawn pistols met us close to the barrack gate, south of the ranges.
With a shot-through bread bag and scarred water bottle, but without any damage to my body, I found shelter with other comrades in the cellars of the barracks.
About 25 to 30 men had managed to leave the cemetery. No one could or would say who had fallen there or had been wounded and left behind. The company strength had been about 70 men that morning. In this situation, and with the knowledge that in the end we were trapped in Küstrin Fortress, it was all the same to us. Latrine rumours began to circulate.
Further it was said that the enemy had already penetrated the northernmost of the second row of barrack blocks from the chaussee. Covered pathways connected all the buildings in this row. As our building was immediately next to it, I crouched in one corner of the cellar and imagined a flame-thrower directed at me.
A Soviet tank had driven on to the parade ground. The T-34 kept a safe distance from attacks by German soldiers armed with Panzerfausts.
Finally the order was given to pick up ammunition. Were we going to defend ourselves and fight back? Although I obeyed the order unwillingly, I collected 120 carbine rounds, then we were each given a loaf of bread and a tin of sausage meat.
Thoughts of various kinds, depression and the hope of staying alive, changed in this situation for many of us. Even the thought of eating until one’s stomach was full once more before dying was understandable with our hunger rations.
We assembled to break out on the night of 11/12 March. Noisy items such as gasmasks and water bottles were set aside and our helmets were exchanged for forage caps so as to confuse the Red Army soldiers for at least a short time.[21]
Retired Major Werner Falckenberg, serving on the staff of the Volkssturm battalion in the Altstadt, wrote to his wife on 11 March:
Today is Sunday, and this morning I received your letter of 6 March with great delight. Fantastic! A courier brought it. He had spent a good two hours in the town looking for our quarters.
I am pleased and happy that you are relatively all right and that you have not had any bomb damage. According to yesterday’s Wehrmacht Report the situation where you are seems a bit better. Let us hope it improves or at least remains that way. My concern for you, you can understand. Now I am feeling a bit better. I now have seven letters from you. I keep reading them. That is my comfort and my support.
The situation is not exactly rosy here. The Russians are creeping forward doggedly and unwaveringly closer. We have not been able to stop them. They have plenty of artillery and in good weather the bombers come too in rolling waves. Naturally there are fires burning all over the place. There are also no longer any buildings that have not been hit, but ours has got off lightly so far. We have not been able to get out for eight days now, but that does not matter. We on the staff were on maximum alert throughout the night, but nothing happened. The Russians have pulled back from our positions again.
The day before yesterday was our and my worst day. Continual shells and bombs so that often one could not communicate. But the Russian attack stalled and they cleared out during the night.
Of course the Russians keep on firing even now, but our ‘Stukas zu Fuss’–‘bellowing cows’ or ‘Hitler’s donkeys’ as the Russians call them–are roaring over us comfortingly.
The rations continue to be good. Now we are getting additionally American canned food, raisins, Vitamin C and cigarettes, from which I am sending you the second packet of Camels in a separate envelope. (I will not put the letter in with it so that at least it arrives, while the cigarettes could be stolen.)
I am fine again after a bout of bronchitis eight days ago with 38.7 degrees of fever that I did not mention to you. But this was corrected perfectly by Dr Kordelle, who gave me Elcudron and Siran with three days of bed rest, so that the day before yesterday I was able to stay many hours in the trenches commanding my unit.[22]
It was still completely dark on 12 March when the Soviet gunners prepared their guns for firing on the Neues Werke, but even before they opened fire, a surprise attack was made from the von Stülpnagel Infantry Barracks, where the German combat teams had concentrated in the northern part of their encirclement. Their commanders apparently thought that an action directed away from the Oder would be completely unexpected by the besiegers. Both sides seemed to have overestimated their strength. As the costly fighting along the Stettin railway line broke out, keeping the troops together soon became impossible. The majority fled back to the Infantry Barracks and Neues Werke, after losing their nerve. A few hundred were able to make a breakout in the general direction of Zorndorf, only to be captured during the course of the day. Thus ended this short outbreak of fighting before the weapons around the barracks and fort fell silent. The battle for the Neustadt was over. One of the two Soviet divisions reported the capture of 76 officers and 2,698 men. The number of dead was estimated at 3,000.
General Berzarin’s 5th Shock Army Headquarters reported the storming of the ‘town and fortress’ of Küstrin to Front Headquarters. This was then relayed at face value to Moscow and duly celebrated with a victory salvo from the city’s guns. It was the 300th of its kind, and no one dared advise Stalin of the error.[23]
Panzergrenadier Johannes Diebe was among those caught in the Neustadt:
During the night of 11/12 March a breakout attempt was made from the encircled Neues Werke/Infantry Barracks. Those driven back to the Infantry Barracks surrendered next morning. We were taken to a large square and relieved of all our things: watches, briefcases, bread bags, eating utensils, washing, shaving and tooth-cleaning items, family photos and handkerchiefs, everything was taken. Finally the vultures had us remove the swastika badges from our uniforms.
We had to parade on the street. A German soldier with a white armband translated the Russian orders: ‘5 by 20 men!’ I finally counted twenty marching blocks, in other words 2,000 men, and wondered how it came to be so many.
We passed German civilians on the road, all refugees. On 15 March we reached a large reception camp in Landsberg. For four days we were given neither food nor drink. We sucked our aluminium identity disks to relieve our thirst. Some prisoners went crazy and were shot. Our numbers were then made up with civilians, either old men or 16-year-old boys.[24]
Corporal Hans Arlt was also part of the breakout attempt:
We left the barracks in a southerly direction at about midnight in rows, bent over, as quietly as possible and alert to all sides. Then we turned to the east and left the Army Supply Depot behind us on our right, where some buildings were burning in the southern part. Shortly afterwards we came under rifle fire from there. We went on in complete darkness, following the man in front, across open ground and through a small depression. We could see burning houses in the background.
Suddenly we came under fire from close by and an attack with ‘Hurrah’ cries that we countered with fire and ‘Urray’ cries. Chaos reigned. What had happened? Germans breaking out from the von Stülpnagel Barracks had clashed with German sappers breaking out from the Engineer Barracks, where they had been trapped since the beginning of the enemy attack, without recognising each other. This was because we had tried to disguise ourselves as Russians and were unaware that further German troops were breaking out towards us from the south. The sappers recognised us but too late because of the shouting. We had lost the element of surprise and alerted the Russians.