I had a pond of about 10 fish that all frooze in the ice and found them on 5th January 2011. If they'd have gone in a tank inside for that winter some of them would probably still be alive today. I've heard of others that didn't make it though that winter as well.

My aunt used to bring all her fish in every winter and she'd keep them in until the tadpoles had grown too big to eat. So they were only out about half the year!
When I built my pond I made sure a good section was about 1 1/2 metres deep to account for ice. Mind you it barely froze at all last year!

When we had an out door pond we kept the fish alive through some really bad winters, used to pop out every morning and make sure the pond was free of ice if not we would melt it so the fish could breath. We threw some netting onto the surface during worst of the weather which was easier to pull up bringing the ice with it.

That's just neglect. You should have checked them and made sure they could breathe.

It's not the cold that kills them, it's the lack of oxygen. Just make sure that the surface is never fully frozen.

You can put a piece of tubing (preferably 2) into the pond, to ensure a constant flow of air.

From what I could decipher of the OP it seems the fish actually did get frozen into the ice. A shallow pond could well have frozen right down to the bottom in the winters of 2011 and 2012. Thats why its generally recommended goldfish ponds should be at least 46cm (18 inches) deep.