Armin Scheiderbauer - Adventures in My Youth

Christian was the commander of the two guns from the regimental Panzerjäger company that belonged to our reinforced battalion. It went without saying that he was always with his guns and brought them with him into positions. He immediately grasped the situation and, unlike Gegel, did not need me to explain what was going on. He and his few men were skilful at ‘organising’. They had petrol and ammunition in abundance and Helmut’s Mercedes Kübelwagen always carried plenty of rations and drink with it. Since for the most part he was not tied to strict deadlines for evacuation, he could also occasionally leave early and sort out a detour for the retreat.

His family had hotels in Oppeln, Upper Silesia and in Heidelberg. As the son of an hotelier he had a nose for open ration dumps and always struck the right tone with the paymasters. Along with him one time I was presented with burgundy and champagne. That happened on the sandy road along which we were retreating in Lithuania in the hot summer of 1944. While drinking it we stood leaning against the Kübelwagen or sitting on the running boards. One day his men brought a wolfhound a few days old. From then on the little dog made the retreat with them in the Kübelwagen . With its awkwardness and as a living creature in need of love it touched the hearts of the soldiers who played with it and looked after it.

On the night of 30 July, once again after having become completely exhausted, I slept through a surprise attack. I had lain down in the back of the Kübelwagen to get some sleep during the withdrawal. During the journey through a wooded district, partisans or members of the Red Army who had already outflanked us, had thrown hand-grenades into the column and fired off shots. I must have been sleeping like the dead, because I had heard nothing of the whole ‘business’. As my batman Walter told me, they could not get me to wake up. The Hauptmann was said to have been lost for what to do, and instead of giving a sensible order he had tried personally to shake me awake. However, he failed.

On 1 August we reached the little River Dubysa. Unfortunately we had not succeeded in making a halt along its course in a north-west to south-east direction. The enemy had already pushed back the Corps Detachment who were fighting further to the south. At noon we crossed the bridge and rearguards had to stay for a time on the far side of the bridge. I remained behind with them. Then, an hour after the greater part of the battalion, marched on alone, westwards. On the way the thought struck me that I was walking homewards and that since 22 June we had somehow all been on the homeward trek, by detours or by direct routes, whether our homeland was the temporal or the eternal one. Sunk in those reflections I was walking alone on the sandy road against regulations, that is, without runners. Along my march I met Major von Garn, my especial comrade in arms during that retreat. Our battalion was still under his command.

The regimental history wrote about him: ‘The regimental commander Major von Garn could issue no orders in the confused changes in the situation. Mostly there was no time, as in many cases the Division was having to communicate orders verbally. ‘Withdraw immediately,’ was what was ordered.’

If what the Ia had said was correct, Garn told me, along the stretch from Ariogala to Raseinen we would have the last stage of the retreat before us. The news sounded hopeful. Even today, after almost 43 years, I can still see us marching along together, I at the side of my exemplary, revered superior officer. I eventually saw him again in 1955. I am bound to him in a strange way even now, just as he is to me.

We were coming from the south-east. Two roads, which remarkably ran parallel to each other, led to Raseinen. As late as midnight we were situated one kilometre east of the two roads and some five kilometres outside the town in the last line before Raseinen. General Meltzer himself had indicated the line to me by telephone. He had done that not in accordance with the requirements of the terrain, but by using the General Staff map, i.e. ‘from the bend in this or that stream or road over the ‘U’ from the place-name Nadukiai’, etc, connecting on the right to what remained of the Corps Detachment. For reasons relating to the terrain, however, I disregarded the strict order not to deviate an inch from the line which had been indicated and thus had been ordered. But our main line of resistance would, in following the General’s direction, have run in to a valley, behind which some 500 metres away there rose a gently sloping incline. But to withdraw up that incline under fire during or after an enemy attack would have meant sacrifices that I did not want to risk.

Hauptmann Schneider was afraid to take responsibility for not following that order, when I told him what I intended to do. He shrugged his shoulders and would come to no decision. So then, at my own risk, I gave the order to construct the main line of resistance up on the hill 50 metres in front of the edge of woodland. The nearby woodland would if necessary soon be able to take us under its cover. When the General rang back some hours later, Schneider disclaimed responsibility and I had to go to the field telephone. In the hope that he had not learnt from the neighbouring Corps section what the actual course of our main line of resistance was, I lied boldly and directly. Instead of the actual course of our line, I described what I would imagine the course of our line to have been if we had followed his orders. It happened, after it had already been reported, that enemy infantry were working their way up in small groups to our positions and we were already under artillery fire. On the two roads we could see enemy T-34s advancing unhindered. They were only stopped outside the town through the anti-tank barrier that had been set up there.

At about noon on 3 August we reached the little town of Raseinen. Its oldest building was a huge convent several hundred years old. I had a fleeting desire to have a look at the inside and, so to speak, furore teutonico , to inspect the enclosure of the nuns, the abbess’s room and things like that, which could be interesting. Instead of that I politely asked at the dining room counter for a couple of scrambled eggs. The young woman, not a nun, a little while later pushed the plate to me through the hatch with one single tiny egg on it. In doing so, she treated me as if I were begging for the daily ration of soup which was handed out to the poor. Before her eyes and those of the nun in charge of the kitchen I had Walter eat up the snack and said to the women that they should keep their supplies well up for the Russians, because they would show appropriate reverence to the holy women.

I quote from the Divisional history concerning the fighting around Raseinen:

The enemy pushed into the town of Raseinen with tanks. By a counter-attack carried out by the 252nd Infanteriedivision Raseinen was snatched back from the enemy again. Despite sending in the 7th Panzerdivision and Gruppe von Werthern, on 9 August Raseinen was lost once again. But the enemy contented themselves with their success and did not push any further forward. Deployed along the slope and at the edges of the town were: Divisional Fusilierbataillon 252, Grenadierregiment 7, Grenadierregiment 472, supported by Artillerieregiment 252, Panzer-Jägerabteilung 252 and Pionierbataillon 252. With the deployment of all the available forces of our Division and the 7th Panzerdivision , in exemplary co-operation, the town of Raseinen and the old positions were taken again on 15 August. In heavy fighting that lasted for several days, the positions were held.