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30 January 1945 evening, east of Pinnow, the point finally made contact with command post of SS-Korps. However, its troops were scattered far to east and could not be reached by KG Langkeit under current circumstances with the risk of cutting off by Russian 1st Guard Tank Brigade. During this chaos Oberst Langkeit also made contact with an old comrade, Oberleutnant Wolf-Dieter Lützow (1) with his Jagd Panzer Kompanie 1551 (equipped with Jagdpanzer 38=Sd.Kfz. 138/2, also known as Hetzer), and put him under the KG Langkeit. This company was refitted in Milowitz near Prague and was called to join the newly raised Panzerjagd-Abteilung 2 in Oder front (2) but became the backbone of KG Langkeit.
According to Spaeter et. al. “Meanwhile General Bittrich’s SS-Korps-Stab z.b.V. withdrew from its unhappy situation and under the protection of Kampfgruppe Langkeit it hurriedly retreated westward to Frankfurt.” (3) but the description is not entirely correct. The SS-Korps was SS-General Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger’s V SS-Gebirgs-Korps (4) but not General Bittrich’s SS-Korps-Stab z.b.V. |
SS-General Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger |
The most forward elements of KG Langkeit were now pulled back. The plan to advance to Sternberg was no longer feasible because the command post of SS-Korps had withdrawn and the Russian 1st Guard Tank Brigade had already advanced toward the Oder behind Pinnow.
30 January evening 1945, the artillery battery stationed at northwest of Reppen changed their position to Neuendorf after the Russian tanks fired into Reppen. The first and second battalion of Panzergrenadier-Regiment moved back to Reppen at about midnight. The second battalion defended the eastern end of town under the protection of 88-mm guns for anti-tank role facing east and northeast. The KG set up its command post in a manor house in Neu-Bischofsee (Nowe Biskupice in Poland at present). The road from Neuendorf through Neu-Bischofsee to Kunersdorf was jammed with refugee and vehicles trying to get west. The KG Langkeit also stuck on the road from Neu-Bischofsee through Neuendorf to Reppen. |
It happened here: KG Langkeit stuck on the road from Neu-Bischofsee through Neuendorf to Reppen.
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