With Our Backs to Berlin by Tony Le Tissier

Author:Tony Le Tissier [Tissier, Tony Le]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780752494692
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

SEVEN

Marxdorf

ERICH WITTOR

Erich Wittor, squadron commander in the Armoured Reconnaissance Battalion ‘Kurmark’, was in divisional reserve at Falkenhagen, so he and his unit were not committed to action until 18 April 1945, when his experience appears to take over from that of Karl-Hermann Tams.

At battalion headquarters on 18 April 1945, I was given the task of defending the area southwest of Seelow with my squadron, where the enemy had broken through. We immediately drove via Lietzen to Neuentempel. I was checking out the area on the edge of some woods to the west and northwest, and giving instructions to my NCOs, when we came under shell fire. Without any cover whatsoever, without even our steel helmets, we lay defenceless on the open ground, trying to make ourselves as flat as flounders, only able to pray that we would not be hit, the explosions coming right on top of us. Stones, clumps of earth and twigs pattered down all round us. A few minutes seemed like eternity. At last the artillery stopped firing, and the first thing I did was to get out the steel helmets.

Then the squadron was deployed into defensive positions and started digging in. My command post was in an earthen dug-out with a roof of logs that only a direct hit could have penetrated.1 By evening we were fully prepared for defence and could have held our positions. It became dark, and again artillery fire fell on our positions. Suddenly, from my dug-out I could hear the sound of tanks, and wanted to look out and see what this meant. I had already gone up five or six steps when a shell exploded close by, the blast driving me back down again. I felt numbed, unable to stand or feel anything.

Had something happened to me? I could neither feel nor hear anything. My senses came slowly back to life. A shell splinter as long as a little finger was sticking out of my left hip, jutting out like a needle, so that the medical sergeant was able to pull it out on the spot. I had been lucky. For safety, he later gave me an anti-tetanus injection. Fortunately, the sounds had come from some Tiger tanks coming to our support.

On the 19th we were ordered back to the area south of Marxdorf, which had already been penetrated by the Russians. The enemy had to be tackled with hard, hour-long fighting in the woods, in which my men fought bravely and willingly, the NCOs giving excellent examples to their men. Eventually we gained the edge of the woods south of Marxdorf and set ourselves up for defence.

Here my company sergeant major brought in a staff sergeant and a sergeant who had aroused his suspicions. I could not spend much time on them and had them sent back to the command post. They were wearing German uniforms with badges of rank and decorations, but none of us knew them, and what they had to say made us suspicious. Later I

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