Armin Scheiderbauer - Adventures in My Youth

I was awakened from my doze by the Ia, the first general staff officer of the Division, Oberstleutnant im Generalstab Hugo Binder. He told me that my battalion, shattered at the Ulla, was to be reformed with immediate effect. The remnants of Regiment 7 that we had absorbed would be discarded again. In addition, he said there were newly arrived replacement Unteroffiziere and other ranks, and some officers who could be spared from elsewhere. For me it was a painful farewell, especially from the unflappable Major von Garn. Command of the battalion was to be taken over by a middle aged Hauptmann by the name of Schneider. He was an East Prussian and a former ‘12-Ender’. He had been awarded the Kriegsverdienstkreuz I Klasse i.e. the War Merit Cross First Class. It was a decoration given to lines of communication troops. But he had no experience of the Eastern Front.

The Ia outlined the task to be undertaken by the new Battalion. He said the deep flank of the Division was to be protected to the north. The entire Corps, or rather what remained of it, was to continue to fight back westwards, but without connections to either side. Above all, he said there was no connection to Army Group North. The gap at that time extended to 55 kilometres. To support us in that task he would assign us assault guns as the occasion demanded. We would have the motorised vehicles of the staff of Regiment 472, those from the baggage-train, and a Panzerjäger platoon from the 14th Company. After the business conversation there was a personal conversation. Binder was a Swabian. From 1938 he had been with the Gebirgsjäger in Innsbruck. He talked about the Tyrol after he found out that I was an Austrian. Binder, who had smooth black hair and brown eyes, was stocky in build and obviously of high intelligence. The fact that he possessed the latter quality matched the idea that I had of a general staff officer. He wore the crimson red colour of the General Staff with the double 4cm white stripes on his riding breeches.

Kawarskas was the next station on our route. The little town was on the left flank of the Divisional sector. I was once again the battalion adjutant. I set up the Battalion staff in the modest country house of a former Lithuanian minister. It had obviously only recently been abandoned by its inhabitants. In the library, as well as books in various languages, there were a number of visiting cards from ministers, diplomats, and businessmen from several countries. Evidently they were relics from the times when Lithuania was still an autonomous state and had not yet been annexed by the Soviet Union.

Since we had gained some ground on the Russians, there was time to have a look around the village. Hauptmann Schneider and I had a look around the Catholic Church, and found the priest, who invited us to lunch. The old gentleman asked us to a meal of beef, which was tough as old boots, and rock hard dumplings in a simple milk sauce. The meal was served by a friendly housekeeper, who was quite wizened with age. To the question as to whether he would flee, he answered with an astonished ‘No’! He said that God would continue to help him and he would remain with his flock.

In the afternoon, in accordance with orders from the administration in the rear, all men in the village of military service age had to assemble to be transported away. That was to prevent them being immediately enlisted into the Red Army by the advancing Russians. With tears in his eyes the old priest, who had been our host for lunch, came to us accompanied by a young woman. He asked Schneider to release his ‘organist’ who had only just married the young woman. Although Schneider had no authority to do this, he looked at me questioningly and I nodded to him. The priest was allowed to take with him his ‘organist’ and therefore the woman her husband. In the deserted chemist’s shop there were some useful things for the battalion medical officer to take away. Meanwhile, for me, a more important find was a piano in the chemist’s house. Like a thirsty man coming to water, I sat down and played once again, for the first time in months.

The next morning the enemy had pushed up after us. Siberian Guards troops attacked. The minister’s country house was lost then retaken with the support of assault guns. The following night the little town was evacuated. Many wooden houses were burning, set on fire by enemy artillery. Clouds of smoke hung over the place. The glowing yellow and red of the flames lifted up vividly against the dark night sky. When I left the town to go westwards on my motorcycle, I nevertheless felt the chill of frost in the warm evening air. I could not get the poor old priest out of my mind.

In Kawarskas the post had arrived for the first time in four weeks. Letters from Mother, Father and Gisela, who all followed the Wehrmacht reports, were full of concern about my welfare. Father hoped that I had not remained in Vitebsk. He had read about the fighting in and around Vitebsk. Because of his experience in the First World War he was able to decipher the Wehrmacht reports and other communiqués concerning the fighting.

The battalion was not directly under the command of the Division, but under the command of Regiment 7 and Major von Garn. On the 21 July we received orders to re-take the village of Pagiriai. It had been occupied by the enemy the previous day. Major von Garn had himself come to lead the attack. Three assault guns from our old comrades-in-arms, the Swabian 232nd Sturmgeschütz-Abteilung , were also taking part. I joined the Major and went with him to make preparations. Then the assault guns drove up, and the battalion left the wood, fanning out. Garn and I rode at the head on the first assault gun, until enemy tank and rifle fire forced to us to get down. The village was neatly retaken.

The Russian infantry had evidently lost the vim and vigour that they had shown in attacking. They fled. A Stalin tank collapsed through the bridge over a stream at the entrance to the village. The tank crew climbed out and disappeared. They took with them their optical equipment that they had hurriedly detached. To salvage the colossal capture from the stream was not possible with the means at our disposal. So our people placed explosive charges in the engine and the cannon in order to make them unusable.

For the battalion command post I assigned trenches that must have been used as a cellar by the inhabitants of a farm at the edge of the village. The men fitted them out with ‘corn dollies’. The situation seemed to indicate the firm prospect of getting some sleep that night in the bed that had been made. In the event, the miracle happened. I was able to sleep during the night for five hours without interruption.

At 5am the Second General Staff Officer of the Division rang. He asked where the two men were who should have reported to him at 5am to go to Königsberg to fetch a caterpillar tractor. With no idea what he was talking about, I asked him in turn which men he meant and what they were supposed to be doing. The general staff officer, also called Binder, only with the Christian name George, exploded. ‘Are you mad, Leutnant , I spoke with you last night and gave you the orders!’ I very respectfully pointed out that he must be mistaken. For once I had been able to get to sleep and had spoken with no one. I said he must have telephoned the battalion commander. Furious, he hung up.

After a while the telephonist, Gefreiter Hermens, whom I called Hermes, reported to me. The Ib, he said, had telephoned and asked for me. Hermens connected us and I had reported in. Whereupon the Ib ordered me to have two men at the command post, for 5am. They had to go to Königsberg to fetch two RSOs, i.e. Raupenschlepper Ost , half-tracked trucks. He said that, drowsy with sleep, I had dealt with that order in a quite un-military fashion with several Ja , ja ! That had caused the Ib to interrupt several times to ask ‘Can you hear me Scheiderbauer? Can you hear, Leutnant ?’ To this I had repeatedly said Ja , ja ! and finally put down the receiver. ‘Hermes, lad, you dummy, you knew I was asleep and was not quite with it. So why didn’t you wake me up properly?’ I reproached him via the receiver. The brave lad answered ‘Ah, but I thought that the Herr Leutnant should get a bit of sleep’.