SS Charlemagne: The 33rd Waffen-Grenadier Division of the SS

Krukenberg continued:

During the morning I returned to the Chancellery once more to introduce myself to the new sector commander, SS-General Mohnke, but met General Krebs, who told me that the advance guard of General Wenck’s army had just reached Werder, west of Potsdam. He knew nothing new about the state of negotiations with the West, but the Americans were certainly in a position to cover the 90 kilometres between the Elbe and Berlin in very little time and restore the situation in the city.

During my visit, SS-General Mohnke promised to give me all the support possible in my difficult task and told me that he would place at my disposal a company of sailors that had flown in during the night and were in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs garden. Moreover, the Nordland’s SS 503rd Heavy Tank Battalion, which still had eight tanks and self-propelled guns, would remain under my command. These two trumps reinforced our defensive capability.

On the 27th April the situation was calm within the formation and only a few individual Russian soldiers tried to advance cautiously along Blücherstrasse towards the canal at the Hallesche Tor.

Captain Henri Fenet continued his account: