On the morning of the 31st January my unit rejoined the Königstiger SS-sergeant-major about 4 kilometres west of Landsberg in the Wepritz area. As we were still without a superior command or orders, I had us retreat westwards.
Beyond Dühringshof I was met by a car with a general, who received my report. He did not introduce himself, nor did he name his formation. He ordered me to deploy left of the road to Diedersdorf. My left-hand neighbour would be Second-Lieutenant Clemens’s unit.[11]
Sergeant Horst Wewetzer was also involved in the withdrawal along Reichsstrasse 1 to Küstrin, as he relates:
On the 28th January 1945, my birthday, we were deployed on the northern exit from Kreuz in artillery support of Infantry Battalion ‘Schulz’. As we were about to fire our guns at about 0600 hours, the sentry reported to me that the infantry had already withdrawn. That seemed unbelievable to me, as there had still not been any enemy movement. I thought that they had perhaps seen runners, food carriers and wounded. The sentry was convinced, however, and as it appeared, he was correct.
We opened fire without having any infantry protection in front of us and without having been told of this withdrawal. Naturally the Russians fired back and we had one man wounded.
When the tanks rolled through the rows of houses on the parallel street, we could only beat a hasty retreat. We got away from the Russians, crossed a still intact bridge over the Drage and reached Dragebruch, which consisted of only a few houses. Our vehicles stood on the roadway, while the soldiers looked in the houses for something to eat, but the civilian inhabitants had gone, taking all their food with them.
Our troop leader drove off to re-establish contact with the vanished infantry battalion. Then at about 1000 hours the enemy tanks caught up with us. They were as surprised as we were and did not open fire immediately. They first pulled back a little to open fire from a covered position. Our drivers and some of the men jumped into their vehicles and drove about 200 metres on to the edge of a wood to take cover. The other men who had been searching the houses for food ran across the snow-covered open plain, offering perfect targets, to reach the woods, where there was a prepared position already occupied by our troops.
Among our vehicles was a furniture van, whose driver had not made the dash in time. The tanks fired at our retreat and there were some dead and wounded, of whom the last could not be recovered for hours until the tanks withdrew.
We assembled at a forester’s lodge deep in the woods behind the front line and waited there until evening.
In the darkness some officers of the unit occupying the position gathered and talked quietly among themselves, completely ignoring us. I wondered about this behaviour, which was contrary to normal army conduct. We also discovered that they had been given orders to withdraw towards Woldenberg. The enemy had apparently broken through north of our position, but it must have been far away for we had heard no sounds of combat. The infantry assembled at about 2200 hours and marched off.
We still sat there! Our troop leader was still looking for the Battalion ‘Schulz’. It was possible that he would not return. Russians, military police or an energetic commander could have arrested him. Meanwhile we had recovered the furniture van that had been stuck between the lines with its engine still running. Its radiator was leaking and had to be provisionally repaired. As the forester’s pump was frozen, some snow was melted on a stove.
In front of us were the Russians, our own troops had vanished, and we were in the middle of a wood with no idea of the place or surroundings. Apart from this, when we moved out that morning, our second gun had driven off with its commander, crew and vehicle and had not been seen since.
Our troop leader reappeared at about midnight. We decided to follow the route taken by the infantry, but soon lost our way in the woods in the dark, especially as the infantry had used footpaths and tracks. Following an adventurous journey with the furniture van and other ‘combat vehicles’ through loggers’ and woodland tracks, at dawn we eventually reached a road with a kilometre stone with an arrow pointing towards Woldenberg and, in the opposite direction, to Driesen. At last we had hit the route to Woldenberg. But from there through the morning stillness came the sound of tank guns. It made no sense for our troop to drive into a rolling tank attack with no idea of the place or the situation. We therefore decided to drive towards Driesen, although it could already have been in Russian hands, as from there it was only a few kilometres from Kreuz, which we had abandoned. On the road to Driesen and in the village itself all was dead quiet. Only a few civilians were standing around, apparently foreign labourers awaiting the arrival of the Russians.
We drove on to Friedeberg, hoping to bump into our own troops. The civilian population had almost completely gone and there was no trace of the army. We stayed all day in Friedeberg. Our anti-tank team looked for a garage as their vehicle was not functioning properly, and one of our men tried to bake some bread in an abandoned bakery.
Finally we needed something to eat. Our troop leader was once more away trying to make contact, and returned that evening. Then the Russians rolled into the town from one side while we left from the other. If I remember correctly, the tanks were firing as they entered the town, otherwise we would not have noticed in time and would have been wiped out.
We drove during the night to Landsberg, always with the feeling that we might be overtaken by the tanks at any moment.
At Landsberg we caught up with the Wehrmacht for the first time and drove into a barracks complex. Mounted troops were deployed on the barrack square, all spick and span, feeding their horses. Everything was peaceful with no sense of the Russian spearheads approaching.
We found a headquarters staff in one of the barracks, reported and asked to be allocated. An adjutant wanted to know all about us, especially from where we had come. When our troop leader said that we had belonged to Emergency Battalion ‘Schulz’, the doubts vanished from his face. That is how one can innocently arouse suspicion of lying. He vanished and we had to wait a long time. We had the impression of being unwanted. We still had the feeling that live firing could begin any moment. It was a strange feeling.
Finally the adjutant reappeared with the order: ‘Drive to—and deploy!’ This was naturally as unmilitary as the withdrawal ‘towards Woldenburg’. The order should have read: ‘Drive to—, report to command post X and deploy in support of their troops.’ I still believe that they wanted to get rid of us and were sending us out no matter where. There was no sign of any defensive organisation.
In any case we had the bad experience of Dragebruch behind us, where we had also been left in the dirt. Instead of driving to—, we drove towards Küstrin, and were not the only ones. The road was full of vehicles. That was on the 30th January 1945.
We reached Küstrin on the morning of the 31st January. We immediately got the feeling of a more orderly establishment.[12]
Also caught up in the Soviet advance were the German civilian refugees from as far away as East Prussia, usually organised in treks, but invariably clogging the roads in their desperation to flee the enemy with their horse-drawn wagons and push carts. Many left their homes too late to reach safety, for the local Nazi Party officials were reluctant to permit their leaving for fear of being branded as defeatists. However, the towns they had to pass through were generally organised to provide overnight accommodation and food before moving them on.