The Courland Pocket^[1] referred to the Red Army's blockade or encirclement of Axis forces on the Courland peninsula during the closing months of World War II. The Eastern Front of World War II (die Ostfront 1941-1945, der Rußlandfeldzug 1941-1945 (Russian campaign or der Ostfeldzug 1941-1945 (Eastern Campaign The Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya Courland (Kurzeme Kurland Latin: Curonia / Couronia; Kuršas Kuramaa Kurlandia Курляндия Курляндія Kuurinmaa is one of the historical World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including

The pocket was created during the Red Army's Baltic Strategic Offensive Operation, when forces of the 1st Baltic Front reached the Baltic Sea near Memel during its lesser Memel Offensive Operation phases. The First Baltic Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. The Baltic Sea is a Brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N Latitude and from 20°E to 26°E Longitude. Memel is a name mainly used by Germans and both for towns and rivers The Battle of Memel or the Siege of Memel took place when the Soviets launched their Memel Offensive Operation (Мемельская наступательная This action isolated the German Army Group North (German: Heeresgruppe Nord) from the rest of the German forces between Tukums and Liepāja in Latvia. Army Group North ( Heeresgruppe Nord) was a strategic echelon formation commanding a grouping of Field Armies subordinated to the OKH during World War The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Tukums ( is a city in Latvia. Three regions of Latvia meet in the vicinity of Tukums - Vidzeme, Zemgale and Kurzeme. Liepāja (liepaja) is a city in western Latvia on the Baltic sea and the administrative center of Liepāja district. Latvia ( Latvija officially the Republic of Latvia (Latvijas Republika is a Country in Northern Europe in the Baltic region. Renamed Army Group Courland (German: Heeresgruppe Kurland) on 25 January, the Army Group remained isolated until the end of the war, when they were ordered to surrender to the Soviet command on 8 May 1945. Army Group Courland (Heeresgruppe Kurland was a German Army Group on the Eastern Front which was created from remnants of the Army Group North, The German language (de ''Deutsch'') is a West Germanic language and one of the world's major languages. Events 41 - After a night of negotiation Claudius is accepted as Roman Emperor by the Senate Events 589 - Reccared summons the Third Council of Toledo 1450 - Jack Cade's Rebellion: Kentishmen

Contents 1 Background 1.1 Operation Bagration 2 Battles of the "Courland Bridgehead" 3 Historiography 3.1 Soviet sources 3.2 Latvian sources, German sources 4 Aftermath 5 Footnotes 6 Sources

Background

Courland, along with the rest of the Baltic eastern coast and islands, was overrun by Army Group North during 1941. Courland (Kurzeme Kurland Latin: Curonia / Couronia; Kuršas Kuramaa Kurlandia Курляндия Курляндія Kuurinmaa is one of the historical Baltic Seven Islandsgif|right|thumb|330px|A contemporary transnational Euroregion encompasses the islands of the Baltic countries Army Group North ( Heeresgruppe Nord) was a strategic echelon formation commanding a grouping of Field Armies subordinated to the OKH during World War Army Group North spent most of the next two years attempting to take Leningrad, without success. Saint Petersburg ( tr: Sankt-Peterburg,) is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River In January 1944, the Soviet Army lifted the siege of Leningrad. The Siege of Leningrad, also known as The Leningrad Blockade ( Russian: блокада Ленинграда ( transliteration: blokada Leningrada

Operation Bagration

Main article: Operation Bagration

On 22 June 1944, the Red Army launched the Belorussian Strategic Offensive, codenamed Operation Bagration. Operation Bagration (Oперация Багратион Operatsiya Bagration) was the Codename for the Soviet 1944 Belorussian Strategic Events 217 BC - Battle of Raphia: Ptolemy IV of Egypt defeats Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom. Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Operation Bagration (Oперация Багратион Operatsiya Bagration) was the Codename for the Soviet 1944 Belorussian Strategic The goal of this offensive was to liberate the Belorussian SSR from the German occupation. The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (abbreviated as Byelorussian SSR or BSSR) (Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка The occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany occurred as part of the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22 1941 ( Operation Barbarossa Operation Bagration was extremely successful, resulting in the almost complete destruction of Army Group Centre, and ended on 29 August 1944. Army Group Center (Heeresgruppe Mitte was the name of two distinct German strategic Army groups that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II Events 708 - Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708) Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. In its final stages (the Kaunas and Shyaulyay Offensive Operations), Operation Bagration saw Soviet forces strike deep towards the Baltic coast, severing communications between the German Army Group North and the remnants of Army Group Centre.

After Operation Bagration ended, the Soviets continued the clearing of the Baltic coast, despite German attempts to restore the front (Operation Doppelkopf). Operation Doppelkopf (Unternehmen Doppelkopf and the following Operation Cäsar were German counter-offensives on the Eastern Front late in 1944 in the The Red Army fought the Memel Offensive Operation with the goal of isolating Army Group North by capturing the city of Memel (Lithuanian: Klaipėda). The Battle of Memel or the Siege of Memel took place when the Soviets launched their Memel Offensive Operation (Мемельская наступательная Klaipėda ( ˈklaɪpɛdə Memel is a City in Lithuania situated at the mouth of the Curonian Lagoon where it flows into the Baltic Sea Lithuanian ( lietuvių kalba) is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognised as one of the official languages of the European Union.

Battles of the "Courland Bridgehead"

On Tuesday, 9 October 1944, the Soviets reached the Baltic Sea near Memel after over-running headquarters of the 3rd Panzer Army. Events 768 - Carloman I and Charlemagne are crowned Kings of The Franks. Year 1944 ( MCMXLIV) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The Baltic Sea is a Brackish inland sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N Latitude and from 20°E to 26°E Longitude. Memel is a name mainly used by Germans and both for towns and rivers The 3rd Panzer Army (3Panzerarmee was a German army that saw action during World War II. As a result, Army Group North was cut off from a route to East Prussia. East Prussia (Ostpreußen; Rytų Prūsija or Rytprūsiai; Prusy Wschodnie Восточная Пруссия or Vostochnaya Prussiya) refers to the main part Hitler's military advisors, notably Heinz Guderian, the Chief of the German General Staff, urged evacuation and utilisation of the troops to stabilise the front in central Europe. Heinz Wilhelm Guderian ( 17 June, 1888 – 14 May, 1954) was a military theorist and innovative General of the German The German General Staff ( Großer Generalstab literally Great General Staff) was an institution whose rise and development gave the German military a decided However, Hitler refused, and ordered the German forces in Courland and the (Estonian) islands Dagö and Ösel to hold out, believing them necessary to protect German submarine bases along the Baltic coast. Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is frequently vandalized and vandalism is reverted immediately Dagö is a Folk rock band from Tallinn, Estonia. Dagö was formed in 1998 by Lauri Saatpalu Peeter Rebane and Tiit Kikas Hitler still believed the war could be won, and hoped that Dönitz's new Type XXI U-boat technology could bring victory to Germany in the Battle of the Atlantic, forcing the Allies out of Western Europe. Description The key improvement in the Type XXI was greatly increased battery capacity roughly three times that of the Type VIIC. This would allow German forces to focus on the Eastern Front, using the Courland Pocket as a springboard for a new offensive. ^[2]

Hiltler's refusal to evacuate the Army Group resulted in the entrenchment of approximately 200,000 German troops or about twenty-six divisions, largely of the 16th Army and 18th Army, in what was to become known to the Germans as the "Courland Bridgehead". The 18th Army (German 18 Armee) was a World War II Field army. Some sources indicate that there may have been remnants of as many as thirty-one divisions ^[3] and one brigade, which remained a threat to the Soviet northern flank.

There were six major periods of fighting in the Courland Pocket between 15 October, 1944, and 4 April, 1945:

The German two-phase withdrawals during the execution of the second stage of the Soviet Baltic Offensive (14 September 1944 - 24 November 1944), subsequent to the pocket being formed in the Baltic Offensive's first stage, the Memel Offensive Operation

1. From 15 October, 1944, to 22 October, 1944 - Soviets launched the Riga Offensive Operation on the 15th at 10:00am after conducting a heavy artillery barrage^[4]. The Battle of Memel or the Siege of Memel took place when the Soviets launched their Memel Offensive Operation (Мемельская наступательная The Riga Offensive (known in (Рижская наступательная операция the Riga Offensive Operation &mdash its formal Soviet title was part of Hitler permitted the Army Group Commander, Ferdinand Schoerner, to commence withdrawal from Riga on October 11, and the city was taken by the 3rd Baltic Front on October 13. Ferdinand Schörner ( 12 June, 1892 - July 2, 1973; also Schoerner) was a General and later Field Marshal ( Generalfeldmarschall Events 1138 - A massive earthquake struck Aleppo, Syria. 1531 - Huldrych Zwingli is killed Events 54 - Nero ascends to the Roman throne 409 - Vandals and Alans crossed the Pyrenees ^[5] The front stabilised with the main remnant of Army Group North isolated in the peninsula.
2. From 27 October, 1944, to 25 November, 1944 - Soviets launched offensive trying to break through the front toward Skrunde and Saldus including, at one point initiating a simultaneous attack by 52 divisions^[4]

The Soviet 2nd Baltic (northern sector) and 1st Baltic Fronts (southern sector) commenced a blockade, precipitating the German defence of the Courland perimeter during Soviet attempts to reduce it. The Bryansk Front was a Front (ie a military formation of roughly Army Group size of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. The First Baltic Front was a Front of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. Serving with the 2nd Baltic Front's 22nd Army was the Latvian 130th Rifle Corps that included two rifle divisions in which served a large number of Latvians in their ranks who would soon be facing their opposites in the Latvian 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. The Bryansk Front was a Front (ie a military formation of roughly Army Group size of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. The 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (2nd Latvian was formed in January 1944 from 2nd Latvian Brigade with addition of a newly raised third regiment 44th Grenadier Regiment (Latvian

1. From 23 December, 1944, to 31 December, 1944
2. From 23 January, 1945, to 3 February, 1945
3. From 12 February, 1945, to 19 February, 1945
4. From 17 March, 1945, to 4 April, 1945

On January 15, 1945, Army Group North was renamed Army Group Courland (Heeresgruppe Kurland) under Colonel-General Dr Lothar Rendulic. Army Group Courland (Heeresgruppe Kurland was a German Army Group on the Eastern Front which was created from remnants of the Army Group North, Colonel General is a senior Military rank which is used in some of the world’s militaries Generaloberst Dr Lothar Rendulic ( November 23, 1887 &ndash January 18, 1971) was an Austro-Hungarian and Austrian Until the end of the war, Army Group Courland (including divisions such as the Latvian Freiwilligen SS Legion) remained blockaded on the Latvian peninsula. The Latvian Legion was a formation of the Waffen-SS consisting primarily of ethnic Latvians.

On May 8, Germany's Head of State (Staatsoberhaupt) and President (Reichspräsident) Karl Dönitz ordered Colonel-General Carl Hilpert, the Army Group's last commander, to surrender. Head of state is the generic term for the individual or collective office that serves as the chief public representative of a Monarchic or Republican Nation-state The Reichspräsident was the German Head of state during the period of the 1919-1934 Weimar Republic and the title was later briefly revived Karl Dönitz (ˈdøːnɪts) (16 September 1891 &ndash 24 December 1980 was a German naval Commander who served Colonel General is a senior Military rank which is used in some of the world’s militaries Carl Hilpert ( 12 September 1888 &ndash 24 December 1948) was an officer in the German Army ( Wehrmacht Heer) during Hilpert, his personal staff, and staffs of three Armies surrendered to Marshal Leonid Govorov, the commander of the Leningrad Front. Leonid Aleksandrovich Govorov (Леони́д Алекса́ндрович Го́воров ( – March 19 1955 Soviet military commander was born in the village of At this time the group still consisted of the remnants of twenty-seven divisions and one brigade. ^[6]

On May 8, General Rauser succeeded in obtaining better surrender terms from the Soviet command. ^[7] On May 9, the Soviet commission in Peilei started to interrogate the captive staff of Army Group Courland, and general collection of prisoners begun.

By May 12, approximately 135,000 German troops surrendered in the Courland Pocket. On May 23, the Soviet collection of the German troops in the Courland Pocket was completed. A total of about 180,000 German troops were taken into captivity from the Baltic area. The bulk of the prisoners of war were initially held at the Valdai Hills camps. The Valdai Hills ( Russian: Валда́йская возвы́шенность or Валда́й Latvian: Valdaja augstiene are an upland region in north-west

Historiography

German, Latvian, and Soviet historiography differ greatly with respect to the character of the fighting in Courland and to the strategic intent of Soviet forces. World War II was the costliest conflict in human history and ever since its conclusion vast amounts of time and effort have been poured into chronicling and interpreting it

Soviet sources

The Soviet account states that Army Group Courland was blockaded, as the theatre was of little strategic importance after the isolation of Army Group North, and the main offensive effort was required for the Vistula-Oder and Berlin Offensives, with correspondingly low casualty figures (these agree with the modern research of Grigoriy Krivosheev,^[8] which accounts for 30,501 "irrecoverable" and 130,447 "medical" losses, for a total of 160,948 Soviet casualties between February 16th and May 8th). For the bombing campaign on Berlin by the RAF from November 1943 to March 1944 see Battle of Berlin (air. Grigoriy Fedotovich Krivosheyev (Григорий Федотович Кривошеев (b In this account, the Soviet actions in Courland were defensive blockading operations. A blockade is any effort to prevent supplies Troops information or aid from reaching an opposing force Hostilities consisted of containing German breakout attempts, and the Red Army made no concerted effort to capture the Courland Pocket.

Latvian sources, German sources

The Latvian Encyclopedia states that the Soviet command attached great importance to the capture of Courland, which held special significance for the Latvians as it was the beachhead from which they had retaken their territory from the Bolsheviks after World War I. ^[4] Latvian records show that Soviet forces launched half a dozen unsuccessful attacks to defeat the German Army Group Courland. Army Group Courland (Heeresgruppe Kurland was a German Army Group on the Eastern Front which was created from remnants of the Army Group North, ^[4]

Latvian sources state that Stalin ordered repeated attacks into the Courland cauldron, disregarding heavy losses. According to a communiqué from the German Courland command of March 16,^[4] the Soviet army lost 320,000 soldiers (fallen, wounded, and taken prisoner), 2,388 tanks, 659 planes, 900 cannons, and 1,440 machine-guns through the first five battles for Courland. Events 597 BC - Babylonians capture Jerusalem, replace Jehoiachin with Zedekiah as king ^[4] The Soviets are estimated to have lost an additional 74,000 with 553 taken prisoner in the sixth and last battle,^[4] a total of more than 390,000 Soviet troops killed, wounded, or taken prisoner.

Aftermath

After May 9, 1945, according to Russian records, 146,000 German and Latvian troops were taken prisoner, including 28 generals and 5,083 high-ranking officers ^[4], and taken to camps in the USSR interior. The Soviets detained all males between the ages of 16 and 60, and conducted widespread deforestation campaigns, burning vast tracts of forest, to flush out resisters. ^[4]

Some members of the Latvian Legion would continue fighting the Soviets as Forest Brothers. The Latvian Legion was a formation of the Waffen-SS consisting primarily of ethnic Latvians. This article is about Baltic WWII anti-Soviet resistance movement Those who surrendered along with the Germans or were captured were treated as traitors under the pretext that Latvia was part of the Soviet Union.

Footnotes

Sources

• Dallas, Gregor. , 1945: The War That Never Ended, Yale University Press, Yale, 2006 ISBN 0300109806

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