A demolition team was quickly assembled to blow the bridge at last but, because of the haste and the Russian fire, they succeeded only in causing half of one span of the bridge to fall in the water. To try again was too dangerous as the Russians immediately seized the bridge again, the generals driving their men on. We could hear their hysterical cries from where we were.
Unfortunately the success of the counter-attack soon came to nothing, as we had been unable to drive the Russians out of the Diplomatic Quarter. There were too many of them. Also by this time they were filled with an immense sense of victory, knowing just as we did that this was their final battle of the war.
Now the fighting turned on the Ministry of the Interior, or ‘Himmler’s House’ as the Russians called it, which the occupants defended virtually to the last man.
Then a runner arrived from the battalion commander with instructions for me to report back to Potsdamer Platz immediately. By this time our field cable had been shot through in several places and was useless. I was not unhappy to be called away, as I did not fancy having to fight alongside such a strange and unfriendly unit as that of the Ministry of the Interior. My friend Kurt Abicht thought the same, but I offered to lay a new field cable for him if he remained as our forward observer. However, I took back with me Alfred, my HQ Section leader, and the two runners. I got on with Alfred best of all my NCOs and liked to have him with me. He had no respect for anyone or anything and provided a witty Berliner commentary on events.
Back below in the depths of the Potsdamer Platz S-Bahn Station we received a warm welcome not only from our comrades, but also from the battalion commander himself. Here too things had heated up, and it seemed that he was afraid the Russians would burst in at any moment. Apart from my men, he had no one he could use in a close combat role. The civilians could easily panic and hinder or even prevent a defence, and should that occur, I would be the one who knew best what to do.
I was therefore to remain here, first constructing barricades on the upper level behind which we could entrench ourselves and conduct an all-round defence. Should the Russians break in, they would have to be dealt with quickly. We did not know from which entrance the Russians were likely to appear, so we had to have an all-round defence.
Meanwhile, above on the square, a vast scrap yard had formed of burnt-out abandoned vehicles and shot-up equipment strewn everywhere.
My attention now turned to our sector from Belle-Alliance-Platz to the Potsdamer Bridge. The situation at the bridge was still as previously described with an aerial mine suspended from either side and the bridge unblown. The bridge was stormed by the 79th Guards Rifle Division, supported by tanks of the 11th Tank Corps. Sappers had first to neutralise the mines, which cost them heavy casualties from our machine guns. We also fired our mortars and rockets as directed by our forward observer in the immediate vicinity, whose radio worked perfectly.
The Russians later made a big thing of the story that a child crying for its mother was rescued by the standard bearer of the 220th Guards Rifle Regiment at the risk of his own life, but the forward observer reported nothing of this and I think that it was just another one of their propaganda stories.[52]
The enemy infantry first advance under cover of a smokescreen, which enabled them to establish a small bridgehead. Then the tanks tried a new trick that our comrades fell for. The first tanks were shot up by the ‘Nordland’ tanks firing from the Tiergarten, where they were immobilised for lack of fuel. The Soviet tanks had protected themselves with sheet metal and other items against Panzerfausts, so one of them threw sacking over these projections and soaked it with fuel then set it alight to make the tank appear as if it had been hit, which enabled it to get across and take up position without being fired at.
Simultaneously the infantry of the 39th Guards Rifle Division swam across the canal and got up the embankment, while the 12th Motorised Rifle Brigade did the same thing at the Möckern Bridge U-Bahn Station and were suddenly on our side of the canal. Our defending troops were taken by surprise, but counterattacked vigorously and drove some of the Russians back into the canal. Unfortunately not everywhere, only where we had energetic leaders.
Further to the east at the Hallesche Tor the Russians were able to get some tanks across by means of pontoons, but as soon as they got their tracks on to firm ground tank destroyer units engaged and destroyed most of them.
The Russians could no longer use their aircraft against us as the lines were too close, barely two metres separating the antagonists in some places. In some buildings the Russians fought from the lower stories with Germans above them, and I would have to clear the lower stories myself before handing over my stragglers. My British sub-machine gun proved excellent for this close quarter fighting. At a range of thirty metres it was the best weapon going. Hardly any prisoners were taken under these circumstances.
Every reinforcement was gladly received by my comrades, who also welcomed the food and ammunition we brought with us. It was not so easy replacing defective machine guns. We had established an armourer’s workshop in one of the S-Bahn carriages, but it was usually only possible to assemble one effective machine gun out of two defective ones.
The night of 28 April heavy fighting took place around Leipziger Strasse and Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse, where the Gestapo HQ was strongly defended. The Russians tried to break through here and succeeded briefly but the Gestapo counterattacked and regained their building. I always gave this area a wide berth to avoid these gentlemen laying their hands on me, and now they were having to fight for their lives.
29 April came and we were having to hold on to our positions and conduct counterattacks, all to little effect. We only knew through rumours of the big political decisions being made in the Reichs Chancellery, so I went across to see what I could find out. The battalion commander and his staff came with me. He too was not informed of what was going on, being too junior, but SS-Brigadier Mohnke was well informed, having had two meetings with Hitler that day. He told Hitler that the Russians were already at Potsdamer Platz and in the tunnels under Voss-Strasse, but that was not true, for the area around was still firmly in our hands.
The Russians finished their assault on the Ministry of the Interior at about 0400 hours on 30 April. I had had to send a forward observer back there, for the battalion commander had forbidden me to go myself. I had told my NCOs on no account to let themselves become cut off in the Ministry of the Interior. If the Russians found their field cable they would cut it and render it useless. So they went to the Swiss Legation building and stayed there until forced out by the 171st Rifle Division clearing the western half of the Diplomatic Quarter.
We had now used up the last of our mortar bombs and there were no more available, so I sent a runner to recall my men. I also recalled the observer from our left flank for the same reason. Now that we were ‘unemployed’, I used my NCOs for taking forward stragglers, and from the reports they brought me on their return I gained the following picture. The Russians had occupied both sides of Leipziger Strasse and had also occupied the Anhalter Station. The pressure was increasing as they closed in from all sides. The Zoo Bunker and its surrounding area was cut off from us and formed its own ‘pocket’. Several stragglers from there got through the Russian positions to us at night and reported that barricades in the area manned by Hitler Youth and Volkssturm had been attacked by the Russians using 45mm guns at point blank range and then the Russians had forced civilians out of their cellars to clear them under German fire. Now that things had hotted up at the Zoo bunker, some of the civilians sheltering there had been driven out, thousands suddenly emerging into the open looking for cover and protection, and had come under fire from the Russians as they left the bunker.[53] Some of them got through to us and reported how terrible conditions were inside the bunker. There was hardly any air to breathe, the guns were constantly firing, and the screams of people breaking down under the strain made it unbearable. In contrast to the Zoo bunker they found the conditions in our tunnels
quite pleasant. Even though there was not much room, they could still walk about and move around a bit. We had to supply these newcomers with water too, but there they had only received a mouthful from time to time.
THE BATTLE FOR THE REICHSTAG
This was a real battle in itself. I cannot describe it from my own experience but only from that of surviving combatants and also Russian reports, although the latter should be treated with great caution.
The commander of the defence at the Reichstag was SS-Lieutenant Babick of our battalion, who came from the same 2nd Regiment of the ‘Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler’ as I did, where he had previously commanded the 11th Company of our 3rd Battalion. After hospitalisation he had taken over the Potential Leaders Company at Spreenhagen in February 1945. I am not sure, but I think it was that company that he had at the Reichstag. The company was about 100 strong and he received no more support from our battalion commander. To this can be added the 250 sailors that had been flown in though, as previously mentioned, these men were not properly equipped for combat. We called them ‘The Dönitz Contribution’ and the accompanying naval officers acted as his platoon and section leaders. Then came the company of paratroopers from the 9th Parachute Division, plus the approximately 100 Volkssturm stragglers that I brought him. So in all Babick had a force of no more than 550 combatants at his disposal, as opposed to the 5,000 attributed to him by the Russians.
An all-round defence was established and Babick set up his command post in a cellar behind the Reichstag, from where there were several underground tunnels leading to other buildings. The Reichstag itself had been walled up after the 1933 fire, presumably to prevent further arson attempts.
The Russian attack began with a massive artillery barrage. As the attacking infantry of the 150th Rifle Division wheeled left out of the Ministry of the Interior building, it came under strong flanking fire from the fortified Kroll Opera House, the ‘Nordland’ tanks in the Tiergarten and Zoo Flak-tower. The attack had been launched immediately after securing the Ministry of the Interior, by which time the division had been reduced to only two regiments, without time for either rest or reconnaissance, and it soon foundered. Meanwhile the 171st Rifle Division had launched an attack on the eastern half of the Diplomatic Quarter across Alsenstrasse with an equal lack of success and at a heavy cost.
The corps commander, realising he would have to clear the Kroll Opera House, called in his reserve 207th Rifle Division, which had first to clear the lightly defended Schlieffenufer block alongside the Spree in order to get at the Opera House. The Russians were under tremendous pressure as Stalin wanted the Red Flag hoisted on top of the Reichstag in time for the May Day celebrations. Additional artillery, tanks and rocket launchers were brought across to reinforce the Ministry of the Interior building in preparation for the next attack.
The second Soviet attack stalled on the line of a cutting for a U-Bahn tunnel that ran across Königsplatz to the Diplomatic Quarter and was not shown on the Russians’ maps. This abandoned worksite was flooded and its depth and steep sides made it an ideal anti-tank obstacle, which had naturally been incorporated into the defensive system.
Although the 171st Rifle Division managed to secure the eastern half of the Diplomatic Quarter as far as the Kronprinzen Bridge, the 150th Rifle Division stuck fast on the line of the ditch under heavy fire from the Reichstag, so it was decided to await the cover of darkness for the final assault.
With nightfall at about 1800 hours, the Russian tanks became invisible to the Zoo Flak-tower and were able to get round the flooded ditch to give support to the infantry storming the building. The infantry used mortars firing horizontally to blast a small hole in the bricked-up doorway and, supported by the fire from the supporting tanks and self-propelled guns, were able to enter the building itself, where merciless close-quarter fighting broke out, gradually spreading over the various stories of this vast building. But it was very dark inside, which placed the newcomers at a serious disadvantage to the defenders who knew their way around.
The military council of the 3rd Shock Army had issued a special Flag No. 5 for this historical occasion and sent it forward under an escort of Communist Party members. Two sergeants were able to slip through and find a way up to the roof and hoist the flag. The official account and the photographs and filming taken next day to commemorate the event for posterity, showed them holding the flag against one of the pepperpot-like ornaments on the rear parapet of the building overlooking the Brandenburg Gate, with the claim that this had occurred seventy minutes before May Day. The two sergeants were awarded the golden stars of ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ for their deed. However, it later transpired that the first Red Flag to be hoisted over the Reichstag was in fact raised by an artillery captain on a statue above the front entrance well before midnight, whereas the sergeants had been two hours into May Day and had used an equestrian statue over the rear entrance as their prop. The photographer then made them change location because of the lack of background establishing the site, resulting in the famous picture that was published round the world. The captain received only the ‘Order of the Red Banner’ for his pains.
Fighting continued inside the building all day on 1 May and until 1300 hours on 2 May, when General Weidling’s order to surrender reached the survivors, who had by then been cut off from us for over thirty-six hours. Meanwhile, Soviet flamethrowers had started a fire within the building whose choking smoke made conditions even worse.
The attacking 79th Rifle Corps later claimed to have taken 2,000 prisoners and counted 2,500 German dead in these assaults on the Reichstag, Diplomatic Quarter, Schlieffenufer, Moltke Bridge and Kroll Opera House, but these figures are wildly exaggerated, as I have shown. Their own war memorial built close to the site significantly contains the bodies of 2,200 soldiers presumably killed in this same action.
THE BREAK-OUT FROM FRIEDRICHSTRASSE
The one-armed lieutenant, followed by Kurt Abicht and his men, came down to see me. He said that both his guns were now useless scrap and he thought that we were finished. My mortars were also useless for lack of bombs, and our rockets had long since been used up. We were now just simple infantrymen. We still had our machine gun with six hundred rounds and plenty of ammunition for our sub-machine guns, but that was all.
Losses among my own men had been thankfully few. This may have been because I preferred to do things myself rather than endanger others, but I cannot be sure. One of the sergeants had been wounded when he was buried under debris, but he could move around easily enough and was back on light duties.
As usual I went up to our barricades on the upper level on the night of 1/2 May. We still had not organised a shock troop, as we had been ordered from above, but fortunately we were spared this, and now we had been reinforced in our positions by the one-armed lieutenant and his men. Though they were not armed for close combat like ourselves, we now numbered about sixty in all. Claiming that he was no infantryman, the lieutenant handed over command to me.
I converted a former ticket office cabin into a quiet corner for myself and settled down there to doze. Suddenly a runner appeared with orders for the lieutenant and myself to report to the battalion commander. The lieutenant took along his battery sergeant major Kurt Abicht, and I took two of my Hitler Youths as runners. As usual they were as keen as mustard.
When we got to the command post on the lower level we found the battalion commander and his staff sitting there in the former platform guard’s office with faces that looked pale and distraught in the candlelight. Schäfer said to his adjutant: ‘Right, SS-Lieutenant Krönke, we are all here, you can begin.’
When I asked about the missing company commanders, Schäfer said; ‘We don’t need them at the moment. SS-Lieutenant Krönke has just returned from an order group with SS-Brigadier Mohnke at the Reichs Chancellery.’
Krönke read out what he said were the Führer’s last orders. We were thanked for our loyalty to the Führer and released from our oath to him. We were then informed
about the new government that was to be formed, of which still in Berlin were Dr Josef Goebbels, the new Reichs Chancellor, and Martin Bormann, the Party Minister. Anyone could now go if they so wished.
However, SS-Brigadier Mohnke had cancelled the latter statement with written orders for a break-out of all Waffen-SS troops under his command to go north from Friedrichstrasse. General Weidling’s Army troops would break out to the west to join up with General Wenck’s forces. SS-General Steiner would thrust toward us with his divisions and take us on to join our friends the Americans.
(This sounded odd to me, for I had never heard of such ‘friends’ before. Only six months before these ‘friends’ had killed my parents with a direct hit by a bomb on their country home.) Mohnke would lead the break-out from Friedrichstrasse himself, according to these orders.
It was only then that it sunk in that Hitler had already been dead thirty hours. It had been kept secret, the adjutant told us, so that the front would not collapse. Goebbels had wanted to negotiate a ceasefire with the Soviets. When I asked about Goebbels, I was told that he had had SS-Colonel Rattenhuber shoot his wife and himself.
I then asked about Martin Bormann, and was told that Bormann was now the highest ranking party official in Berlin and had nominated Mohnke to lead the break-out.
Now Schäfer issued his orders. We were to go through the S-Bahn tunnels as far as was possible, which would be partly under enemy lines. As the tunnels did not run directly to Friedrichstrasse S-Bahn Station, we would climb up a certain emergency exit and continue above ground to the station, where we would wait for Mohnke to issue further orders.
With Our Backs to Berlin Page 23
