Two days later Dixie Deans marched his men into the British lines, his bagpipers leading the way. Men stood watching as the thin, tired R.A.F. men, heads high, tramped into the British area. Colonel Ostmann and his guards were now taken into custody. Deans and some of his men marched with them to the British POW compound. The two groups faced each other and came to attention. Ostmann stepped forward, and he and Deans saluted. “Good-bye, Colonel Ostmann,” said Deans. “Good-bye, Mr. Deans,” said Ostmann. “I hope we meet again.” Then Deans repeated “Ten-shun!” and Ostmann and his guards marched into the British POW compound. As he passed, Charlie Gumbach waved.
The firing was murderous. It came from every side. Busse was everywhere, yelling at his men. “On your feet! Keep moving! Only a few more miles to go! Wenck is waiting!” Busse was so tired that he did not know what hour or even what day it was. The Ninth had been fighting toward Wenck for what seemed like weeks. There was almost no ammunition left, and there was virtually no artillery, only some mortars. There were few machine guns and almost nothing to fire in them. Everywhere Busse looked he saw men collapsing, unable to move. It took all his strength and that of his officers to keep them going. Complicating matters were the thousands of refugees who had joined the columns. Food was short. There was not even enough for his own men.
Wenck could not be more than a few miles away, but Russian resistance was still stiff. Busse called up his last remaining tank. He had been holding it for this moment. He told Lieutenant General Wolf Hagemann to lead the way out. Hagemann leaped in and told the driver to gun the motor. The tank thrashed forward. They rumbled across a ditch and some rough ground. Suddenly Hagemann saw the Russian troops breaking in front of them. He looked around for something to fire. There was no ammunition for the machine guns, but he grabbed up a shotgun and began pumping shells at the fleeing Russians.
Then he heard fire coming from the other direction—from in back of the Russians. It was Wenck’s men. The link-up came so suddenly that nobody really remembered afterward how it ended. Exhausted men just fell into each other’s arms. Wenck and Busse had joined.
“The men of the Ninth were so tired, so worn out, in such terrible shape, that it was unbelievable,” Wenck remembered. As he stood watching, one man in the midst of the columns broke away and came toward him. Wenck saw a haggard, begrimed, unshaven soldier. Not until the man was almost up to him did Wenck recognize General Theodor Busse. Wordlessly they shook hands, and then Wenck said, “Thank God you’re here.”
On May 7 the two armies were back on the Elbe and more than 100,000 crossed to the west to be taken by the Americans. Of Busse’s original 200,000 men, only 40,000 survived.
The last message from Trans-Ocean, the semi-official German news agency, was in French. It said, “Sauve qui peut”—Let those who are able save themselves. Berliners took the suggestion. There were tanks, troops, baby carriages, automobiles, horse-drawn wagons, personnel carriers, self-propelled guns, men on horseback and thousands of people afoot funneling out of Berlin across the bridges leading to Spandau. The vast exodus had been going on for hours. The surrender might have been signed but shooting was still going on, and all the refugees wanted to do was escape. Occasionally the columns of fleeing Germans were shelled: apparently Russian artillery to the north and south had not yet received the cease-fire.
Young Brigitte Weber set out from Berlin in her father-in-law’s chauffeur-driven car; she was wrapped in her fur coat and she had a basket of heirloom silver at her feet. Then the car got jammed in the Spandau columns, and it took ten and a half hours to travel just a few miles. She finally had to abandon the car and, like thousands of others, trudge west on foot.
The 16-year-old Aribert Schulz was astonished to find himself once again in the presence of the official SS executioner. Schulz was lying next to the red-haired man in a first-aid shelter: the lanky SS gunman had taken a full burst of fire across the stomach; he screamed for sixteen hours before he died.
Again and again, as the great throngs of people filled the roads leading toward the bridges, shells landed among them. Hildegard Panzer, traveling with Captain Kurt Ache, who was helping her with her two children—Wolfgang, nine, and Helga, five—lost the little boy and girl in the crush. She never saw them again. In all, an estimated twenty thousand people were killed and wounded in the mad exodus.
And then at last the shells stopped falling, and the refugees left the sound of gunfire behind. They walked a little farther, to be sure, then they dropped to the ground. Men, women and children slept where they fell—in fields, in ditches, in empty houses, in abandoned vehicles, on the shoulders of the roads, in the roads themselves. They were safe now. The last battle had ended.
“Abu! Abu!” Heinrich Schwarz walked through the terrible devastation of the zoo. There was nothing left now, he thought. The zoo would never be the same again. Dead animals and rubble were everywhere. He walked toward the pool. “Abu! Abu!” he called.
There was a fluttering. At the edge of the empty pool was the rare Abu Markub stork, standing on one leg and looking at Schwarz. He walked through the pool and picked up the bird. “It’s all over, Abu,” said Schwarz. “It’s all over.” He carried the bird away in his arms.
On May 4, Ilse Antz slowly stepped from her Wilmersdorf cellar for the first time in daylight since April 24. The streets were strangely quiet. “At first, unaccustomed to the brightness, I saw nothing but black circles before my eyes. But then I looked around. The sun was shining, and spring had come. The trees were blooming; the air was soft. Even in this tortured and dying town nature was bringing back life. Up to now nothing had touched me; all emotions were dead. But as I looked over at the park, where spring had come, I could not control myself any longer. For the first time since it had all started, I cried.”
THE FALL OF THE CITY
The Russians fight their way into Berlin. At the top, Russian Katushkas—rocket launchers—firing in the city. At bottom, Russian troops shelter behind a Soviet propaganda sign that reads, “Forward, fighters of Stalingrad! Victory is near!” In the background is the German Victory Monument.
The Zoo Bunker. One of the twin flak towers in the zoo, it was the last stronghold to capitulate in Berlin.
before the fighting
Walter Hagedorn, a Luftwaffe doctor, who surrendered the bunker to the Russians.
Gerda Niedieck, teletype operator, who handled Hitler’s last message: “Where is Wenck? Where is Steiner?”
after
General Krebs outside Chuikov’s HQ on the morning of May 1. This unique photograph from the Soviet Defense Archives appears here for the first time.
The same house twenty years later, discovered by the author following directions given him by Chuikov in Moscow. The house at 2 Schullenburg Ring, Tempelhof, is still owned by the same person, a Mrs. Goebels. “The room was dominated by a lithograph of Leonardo da Vinci’s ’Last Supper,’” recalls Chuikov. It’s still there, but the table,
on which the surrender was signed is now in the library of the nearby Judas Thaddeus Catholic Church.
*In Heinrici’s war diary, in which all telephone conversations were taken down verbatim in shorthand, an astonishing entry appears: “12:30 April 21: Busse to Heinrici: ‘Just got word that 56th Corps last night moved into Olympic Village from Hoppegarten without specific orders. Request arrest …’” No one knows where Busse got his information, but it was wrong: the Olympic Village was at Döberitz on the western side of Berlin. Weidling was fighting on the eastern out-skirts of the city.
** The Eclipse documents he had studied so thoroughly had convinced Jodl that Wenck’s drive east would not be hindered by the Americans who, he was sure, were permanently halted on the Elbe.
*The other fifteen bodies were found three weeks later. Still clutched in the hand of Albrecht Haushofer were some of the sonnets he had written in jail. One line read: “There are times which are guided by madness; And then they are the best heads that one hangs.”
*Apparently there had
not been time to circulate Wiberg’s report after its receipt in London.
*Two operations continued without a break: the meteorological records, kept at the station in Potsdam, did not miss a day throughout 1945, and eleven of the city’s seventeen breweries—engaged, by government decree, in “essential” production—continued making beer.
*In Normandy, in 1944, the author remembers being present when two captured soldiers in German uniform posed a strange problem to intelligence interrogaters of the U. S. First Army: nobody could understand their language. Both men were sent to England where it was discovered they were Tibetan shepherds, press-ganged into the Red Army, captured on the eastern front and press-ganged once again into the German Army.
*Joachim Lipschitz was eventually to become one of West Berlin’s most famous officials. As Senator of Internal Affairs in 1955, he was in charge of the city’s police force. He remained an unrelenting foe of the East German Communist regime until his death in 1961.
*Some of the fire engines that had left on the twenty-second returned to the city on the order of Major General Walter Golbach, head of the Fire Department. According to post-war reports, the fire engines were ordered out of Berlin by Goebbels to keep them from falling into Russian hands. Golbach, on hearing that he was to be arrested for rescinding Goebbels’ order, tried to commit suicide and failed. Bleeding from a face wound, he was taken out by SS men and executed.
*✼ They both lived. Prompt action by a doctor saved their lives.
*The Russians do not deny the rapes that occurred during the fall of Berlin, although they tend to be very defensive about them. Soviet historians admit that the troops got out of control, but many of them attribute the worst of the atrocities to vengeance-minded ex-prisoners of war who were released during the Soviet advance to the Oder. In regard to the rapes, the author was told by editor Pavel Troyanoskii of the army newspaper Red Star: “We were naturally not one hundred per cent gentlemen; we had seen too much.” Another Red Star editor said: “War is war, and what we did was nothing in comparison with what the Germans did in Russia.” Milovan Djilas, who was head of the Yugoslav Military Mission to Moscow during the war, says in his book Conversations with Stalin that he complained to the Soviet dictator about atrocities committed by Red Army troops in Yugoslavia. Stalin replied: “Can’t you understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometers through blood and fire has fun with a woman or takes a trifle?”
*With the two correspondents when Chuikov summoned them to the meeting was a visiting Soviet composer, Matvei Isaakovich Blanter, sent by Stalin to write a symphony commemorating the Berlin victory. The correspondents asked the General what to do with the composer, and Chuikov said, “Bring him along.” But when Blanter arrived he was wearing civilian clothes, and it was clear that he could not be passed off as a Red Army officer. He was hastily shoved into a clothes closet adjoining the meeting room. He stayed there for most of the ensuing conference. Just before the visitors left he fainted from lack of air and fell into the room, to the utter astonishment of the Germans.
*It is the author’s belief that the Russians were not interested in Eva Braun and made no real effort to identify her body. The first confirmation by the Soviets that Hitler was dead was made to the author and to Professor John Erickson by Marshal Vasili Sokolovskii on April 17, 1963, almost eighteen years after the event.
A NOTE ON CASUALTIES
Even twenty years later no one knows with any certainty what the civilian losses were during the battle of Berlin. Even yet, bodies are being unearthed from ruins, in gardens, in parks where they were hurriedly interred during the battle, and from mass graves. However, based on statistical studies, probably close to 100,000 civilians died as a result of the battle. At least 20,000 succumbed to heart attacks, some 6,000 committed suicide, the remainder were either killed outright from shelling or street fighting or died later from wounds. The number of people who fled Berlin in the last days and died elsewhere in Germany has also never been accurately estimated. If at least 52,000 were killed from bombing alone, and if the estimates above are accepted, the figure rises to more than 150,000. This does not include wounded.
How many were raped? Again no one knows. I have had estimates from doctors running from 20,000 to 100,000. Abortions were unofficially permitted, but for obvious reasons no one is willing to even guess at the number.
As for German military casualties, like those of the civilians, no one really knows. Complicating the problem is the fact that they are included in Germany’s total war casualty figure; thus it is impossible to say how many fell in Berlin alone. The Russians are quite definite about their losses. Soviet Defense authorities say that they had “in excess of 100,000 killed” in the battle from the Oder to the final capture of Berlin. To me that figure seems high, but it may have been deliberately inflated to dramatize the victory. On the other hand Marshal Koniev told me that his forces alone suffered “in the entire battle from the Oder to Berlin and with my southern flank going toward the Elbe … 150,000 killed.” Thus it would seem that Zhukov’s and Koniev’s combined forces lost at least 100,000 killed in the taking of Berlin. Curiously, General Omar N. Bradley, commander of the U. S. 12th Army Group, had warned Eisenhower that if he tried to take the capital he might suffer 100,000 casualties, but Bradley was talking about a total of killed, wounded and missing.
THE
SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS
OF
“THE LAST BATTLE”
What They Do Today
The following is a list of all those who were involved in “The Last Battle” and who contributed information to this book. First, the men of the Allied Armies; then the German military who opposed them, and finally the Berliners who lived in the city or its environs during March and April, 1945. At the request of the Bonn government, the addresses of German military personnel and civilians have been omitted. Occupations may have changed since this book went to press, and where an asterisk follows a name it indicates that the contributor has died since these lists were compiled. All ranks given are as of 1945.
AMERICAN
Eisenhower, Dwight David, Gen., Supreme Comdr., [SHAEF] Gen. of the Army, Comdr.-in-Chief; President of the United States (1952-1960), Gettysburg, Pa.
Bradley, Omar Nelson, Gen. [12th Army Group] Gen. of the Army; Chairman, Bulova Watch Co., New York, N. Y.
Abbes, Henry Charles, Capt. [30th Inf. Div.] Project architect, Queens Village, N. Y.
Adams, Charles M., Col. [69th Inf. Div.] Col. (retired), U.S. Army, La Mesa, Calif.
Adryan, Chester P., 1st Lt. [83rd Inf. Div.] Special agent, The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., Bellefontaine, Ohio
Allmand, James R., 1st Lt. [82nd Airborne Div.] Occupation unknown, Hermosillo, Son., Mexico
Anderson, Gerald J., Pfc. [30th Inf. Div.] Motor vehicle examiner, State of New Jersey, Glen Rock, N. J.
Anderson, Glen H., Col. [30th Armored Div.] Motel owner, Daytona Beach, Fla.
Anderson, Peter, Sgt. [30th Inf. Div.] Superintendent, Executive Mansion, Albany, N. Y.
Angeleri, Carl J., T/4 [30th Inf. Div.] Real estate broker, Forest Hills, N. Y.
Aralle, William, T/Sgt. [30th Inf. Div.] Revenue officer, Internal Revenue Service, West Orange, N. J.
Ayers, Kenneth Lee, 1st Lt. [84th Inf. Div.] Maj. (retired), U.S. Army, Tallahassee, Fla.
Baker, Clyde, Pfc. [30th Inf. Div.] Postal employee. Piedmont, Ala.
Bargy, James H., S/Sgt. [30th Inf. Div.] M/Sgt. N.Y. Guard; Truck driver, Rens-selaer, N. Y.
Barnard, Robert Howard, 1st Lt. [Ninth Air Force] Businessman, Tucumcari, N. M.
Barrett, Charles Joseph, Brig. Gen. [84th Inf. Div.] Col., U.S. Military Academy, West Point, N. Y.
Batchelder, Clifton Brooks, Lt. Col. [2nd Armored Div.] Executive, United States Check Book Co., Omaha. Neb.
Berry, John Thomas, Maj. [82nd Airborne Div.] Col., 101st Airborne Div., Fort Campbell, Ky.
Berryman, Flur Woodrow, T/4 [5th Armored Div.]
Carpenter, Town Creek, Ala.
Bestebreurtje, Arie D., Capt. [82nd Airborne Div.] Minister, Louisville, Ky.
Bethke, Clarence E., Capt. [84th Inf. Div.] Occupation unknown, Tucson, Ariz.
Biddle, William Shepard, Col. [83rd Inf. Div.] Maj. Gen. (retired), U.S. Army; Comdt., Pennsylvania Military College, Chester, Pa.
Billingsley, Charles, Col. [82nd Airborne Div.] Maj. Gen., U.S. Army; Deputy Commanding General, Combat Development Command, Fort Belvoir, Va.
Blair, William M., Jr., 1st Lt. [84th Inf. Div.] Asst. treasurer, Colonial Bank and Trust Co., Waterbury, Conn.
Blake, Peter, 2nd Lt. [5th Armored Div.] Architect and author, New York, N. Y.
Bloser, Donald Paul, Capt. [30th Inf. Div.] Doctor of medicine, Enola, Pa.
Bolling, Alexander R., Maj. Gen. [84th Inf. Div.] *
Bommer, Jack L., T/5 [82nd Airborne Div.] Occupation unknown, Columbus, Ohio
Bond, Ridgely B., Jr., Lt. Col. [84th Inf. Div.] Brig. Gen., U.S. Army, Catonsville, Md.
Booth, J. Edwin, Sgt. [POW, Luckenwalde Camp] Postal clerk, Fremont, Neb.
Bovee, Elmer William, Pfc. [30th Inf. Div.] Owner, Bovee’s Delivery Service, Addison, N. Y.
Boyd, Elmo Hubbard, Capt. [83rd Inf. Div.] Manufacturer’s representative, Charlotte, S. C.
Brockley, Harold R., T/4 [82nd Airborne Div.] Post office clerk, Connersville, Ind.
Brooks, Dwight Marion, 1st Lt. [69th Inf. Div.] Lt. Col., U.S. Army, Fort Belvoir, Va.
Brunow, Marcel, F. J., Lt. Col. [2nd Armored Div.] Col. (retired), U.S. Army, Belfast, Me.
Bunch, Doyle R., Capt. [83rd Inf. Div.] School principal, Amarillo Public Schools, Amarillo, Tex.
Burnette, Eugene Gale, T/Sgt. [30th Inf. Div.] Sfc. USAIG, Furman University, Greenville, S. C.