Looking for information (WW2-related) on Late-war event

[Wilhelm]

I had no idea what to call this thread and I am not sure that I will describe this correctly, but here it goes!

A while back on the old FF forums, there was a discussion going on about something and there was mention of an event that took place where (IIRC) surrounded and disorganized German soldiers tried to fight their way toward Western Allied lines, escorting German civilians along the way.

That is all I can remember, but it was an amazing story and I was wondering if anyone here remembers where that took place or any specifics on it.  I tried once to look for the thread and post in the FF archives shortly after the switch to these forums were made, but I had no idea what keywords to use to narrow the search down...so I never got anywhere.

Just wondering if any of the old FF vets remember mention of it or actually know of such an event. 

[Schneider]

Could be different things I guess, but the most known event of that sort that I recall atm would be the Battle for Eastern Prussia, where the Wehrmacht tried to hold the front as long as possible, so that the civil population could pull back. When all lines were cut off, civilian treks tried to escape over the Haff (that very very narrow - a few hundred meters - island / peninsula in front of the East Prussian coast) and the frozen sea, under heavy attacks of soviet air force and artillery, many being shot, many breaking through the ice with their wagons. Some other tried to take the last chance to escape getting aboard the former "Kraft durch Freude"-ship "Wilhelm Gustloff", which was completely overloaded with over 9.000 civilians, and then was torpedoed and sunk by a soviet sub, leading to the greatest maritime disaster in history.
You might look up some of the keywords, you will surely find a lot, like

http://www.wilhelmgustloff.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Wilhelm_Gustloff
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Prussian_Offensive
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heiligenbeil_Pocket

etc. pp.

[[WDW]Megaraptor]

This could also be related:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Halbe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walther_Wenck#Berlin.27s_Last_Hope

Wenck's 12th Army was ordered by Hitler to break through to Berlin and relieve the city from the Russians. Instead, Wenck broke through to the trapped 9th Army at Halbe, saved as many of them as he could, and then turned around and advanced to the American sector. His actions saved an estimated 250,000 German soldiers and civilians from the Russian occupation zone.

[Wilhelm]

This could also be related:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Halbe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walther_Wenck#Berlin.27s_Last_Hope

Wenck's 12th Army was ordered by Hitler to break through to Berlin and relieve the city from the Russians. Instead, Wenck broke through to the trapped 9th Army at Halbe, saved as many of them as he could, and then turned around and advanced to the American sector. His actions saved an estimated 250,000 German soldiers and civilians from the Russian occupation zone.

That's the one!  Thank you! 

[Jobabb Jobabbsen]

Yepp, its alot of their story in Antony Beevors book Berlin. Its a fascinating and great story. I really wanna read more about it myself. I just remember it mainly happened in some areas south of Berlin, and still today people find old buried war-stuff there.
   Its also funny how they pretended their radio was broken to avoid Hitlers crazy orders, aswell as stopping with the nazi-salute long before the germans surrendered. Though the americans could not accept civilians, only soldiers, so the civilians had to become russian slaves if they didnt manage to disguise as a soldier.

[25tH-Rome]

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=9828&sid=2ab53f1368ae1b103b5e609c2f8d1536

Is that also what you're looking for?

[Mayhemic.MAD]

I just recently read a very good book about the 12. Army by Günther Gellerman.
He writes about the 9. armys escape out of encirclement "In the early morning hours of the first may, a armoured spearhead of 5 tiger tanks and about 10 APCs with Infantry manned broke trough the russian lines near Wittebriezen."
http://www.amazon.de/Armee-Wenck-Hitlers-letzte-Hoffnung/dp/3763762663/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275577212&sr=8-1
There is much misinfomation about these events, many source tell different dates for events. Gellerman made sure to only state facts if he had at least two written sources. The date of the breaktrough for instance is said to be the 29.4 in wiki, while Gellerman has 6 sources who claim that the 9.Army meet the 12.Army at the first of may.

[Steel_Lion_FIN]

Schneiders mention of Wilhelm Gustloff incident

I once read a book where it told the story of this, but the actual plot in the book was

*SPOILER*

The main character is a journalist, whose son is in a neo-facist group based on an internet forum. The son then shoots some important person on the Wilhelm Gustloff monument with a Luger.

*SPOILER*