Armin Scheiderbauer - Adventures in My Youth

The miracle happened. The targeted fire from my rifle, and those of the runners, brought the attack to a standstill. The Red Army troops went to ground. Then, pursued by our bullets, they drew back far to the rear and sought to connect up again to the forces on their right. We had lost our connections both to the right and to the left because the Russians had already pushed forward a long way, Meanwhile, my platoons had left the trench. They gathered in a line, one man behind another, in the secondary trench leading to the command post. I gave orders immediately to go back into position. There was no more immediate danger just then, for the very reason that the enemy was not at all concerned about us. However, the longer-term situation seemed hopeless. Sooner or later we would certainly fall into enemy hands.

I was still considering how we could get out of that wretched situation when, on the right from the sector of the 3rd Battalion infantry fire could be heard. It could mean nothing other than that our battalion had held its position. It must therefore be possible to connect up to the 3rd Battalion via the abandoned sector of the 2nd Company. There was no longer any wireless contact with our own battalion. Even the advanced observers had evidently been able to withdraw in time. So I had to make the decision to remain in the position or to connect up on the right to the 3rd Battalion.

I decided on the latter course because it seemed to me to be unlikely that the position could be held. It could also be assumed that orders would be given during the night to evacuate the main line of resistance, insofar as it was still occupied by our people. In the light of that it seemed unimportant from which point the company should begin its withdrawal. Since the waves of the enemy had rolled past us on the right and on the left, I gave orders to withdraw along the main trench to the right towards the 3rd Battalion. The Oberfähnrich took the lead and I myself remained at the rear. Like the captain of a sinking ship, I was the last to leave my company sector.

An enemy reserve company spotted our withdrawal, changed its direction and made moves to attack us. A particularly dashing group was storming up at a run outside the trenches while my company was withdrawing hurriedly along the trench to the right. To make the withdrawal easier, I formed a rearguard with a machine-gun and the two runners. With care I picked out again the nearest of the attackers. When they felt our resistance, they left off their pursuit. It was doubtless not part of their immediate task.

Eventually there only remained a short length of trench to overcome, in which there were Russians. We managed it with a few shouts and a short Huura ! It was easy because for the most part they were wounded and the group had no leader. We even took prisoner some slightly wounded troops and chased others away. Those who were seriously wounded we left alone. Soon we had connected up with the 3rd Battalion. The men took a breath, and I went to the battalion command post. The commander, Hauptmann Dolansky, greeted me with words of recognition for our achievement. He immediately reported our arrival to the Regiment through the still intact telephone line. All that remained of my strength deserted me and I could almost have fallen asleep. I really had to ‘pull myself together’ so as not to give in to exhaustion.

Towards dusk a captive Russian captain was brought into the bunker. An active officer, about 25 years old, he said he had never been in action before. He had only arrived a few days previously with an entire division from Siberia. Through this and other information we slowly formed a proper idea of the inexhaustible reserves of the enemy.

The third line of trenches, to which we had had to withdraw during the night, ran along the back of a slope. In front of us was some woodland. On the right of it about 600 metres away there was a single farmhouse surrounded by fruit trees. As we could see from their movements, the Russians had already reached the edge of the woodland. Our trench was continuous and well constructed and excellently camouflaged with snow. We ourselves, as we moved into it from the edge of the woodland, had only noticed it when it was a few metres away.

We must have only settled down in it for an hour, when out of the woodland came two Russians who briskly and unconcernedly walked towards our trench. They had machine-pistols slung around their necks and were walking comfortably side by side almost as if they were whistling a little song. They came to within 200 metres, to within 100 metres and even nearer, without having noticed our trench in front of them. I quietly gave the order to let them approach and to take them prisoner. Fifty metres away from us they slowed their steps. Twenty German voices shouted Stoi ! Whereupon they turned round and ran back, weaving as they went. In the hail of bullets they collapsed. I had not anticipated that. They must have been riddled with bullets.

Some time after that period of cruelty and bitterness there was movement at the farm. As a result of it the enemy artillery opened up and obediently dropped shells on us. I scanned the farm with my binoculars and discovered the advanced observers. There were two men with wireless sets, whose heads, shoulders and equipment could be seen behind low cover. I asked to be handed a rifle with a telescopic sight and for a runner to observe through the binoculars. Then I pushed myself carefully over the parapet of the trench and calmly took aim. There was a soft pressure as I fired. The observer’s head sank on to the cover and that of the second man disappeared. My runner saw through the binoculars the dead man being dragged back into cover. An hour later came the order to evacuate the position. In the meantime another Russian artillery observer had taken over directing the fire, which unfortunately was so accurate that we had some casualties.

A position as well constructed as the fourth line, in which we spent the night of 17 January, I had never seen. The bunkers were as much as three metres below ground level. The trench had been dug out to the height of a man. It was provided with secondary trenches, and in places with rails. The rifle positions and machine-gun nests were tactically in the correct places. It could not have been better in the trench warfare of the First World War. So this was the so-called Gauleiterstellung , which led over 1,000 kilometres along the eastern border of the Reich . It had been built in autumn 1944 by women and girls who were either volunteers or on war service, under the direction of officers who had been injured in the war. On the Oder, even Gisela had participated with pickaxe and shovel in that massive project.

From my perspective in the trenches, the position, apart from some buildings that should have been blown up, was an ideal one in which to spend the winter. Not a spadeful more could be dug out of the frozen ground. The Powielin position, with its trenches in places only knee deep, bore no comparison to this one. But I had no feeling of confidence. Even though I had no overview of the wider situation, I did not reckon on staying there long.

My feeling had not deceived me. After sleeping for a few hours in deep exhaustion I had woken up. At dawn I emerged from the bunker. The houses in front of the position, 50 metres away, made me nervous. As it came light, movement could be seen. It turned out that there were some individual Russians in the houses and that more were moving in. In ones and twos they came running over the bridge which led over a stream on the other side of the farmyard. I had the machine-gun spray the bridge, whereupon in the background a movement to the left, along the stream, could be seen. After quite a long time, individual rifle fire sounded from the neighbouring sector to our left. The direction of it moved more and more obliquely to the rear in our direction of retreat. While it was gradually becoming light, the enemy were also advancing on the right about one kilometre away. We were threatened with encirclement. Our neighbours on both sides crumbled. They left their trenches and withdrew, widely separated.