Ludwig H. Dyck's Historical Writings
Posts about Ferdinand Schorner written by wayfarer432k
https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/ea8f2b818fedc5b6eb94258d76e6e583334f8932eaf6ac818cffe8c6a4921e16?s=32
Ludwig H. Dyck's Historical Writings
Life and Death Struggle for the Courland Bridgehead

By Ludwig Heinrich Dyck

Trapped in a pocket with their backs to the Baltic Sea, the German Army Group of “Fortress Courland” fought vastly greater Soviet forces in six epic battles, from October 1944 to the end of the war in Europe.

The First Battle for Courland

In the autumn of 1944 Colonel General Ferdinand Schörner’s Army Group North (AGN) was isolated in Latvia’s Courland (Kurland) Peninsula. The Army Group held a 160 km front, running south of Lipāja, on the Baltic coast, toward Tukums and the Gulf of Riga to the east. Below that thinly held line, the Red Army had overrun the Baltic states. Schörner knew that time was running out for AGN. He assembled a potent force of three Panzer divisions that he intended to launch against the Russian lines and drive toward Memel (Klaipeda). The port city was still in German hands, and if he could reach it in sufficient strength, Schörner hoped to continue on to East Prussia and link up with Army Group Center (AGC).

The 4th, 12th and 14th Panzer Divisions rumbled into their assembly areas. Their armor were to be the spearheads of “Operation Geier” (Vulture) the breakout planned for October 17 1944 but one day earlier, the Red Army beat Schröner to the punch. The 1st and 2nd Baltic Fronts (Army Groups), commanded by Army Generals Ivan Bagramyan and Andrey Yeremenko, respectively, launched their own offensives beginning the first of a series of epic battles for what Adolf Hitler dubbed “Fortress Courland.”1

On AGN’s extreme left flank, the Sixteenth Army bitterly contested its ground against the 2nd Baltic Front’s First Shock Army. The Soviets seized Kemen but were stopped 6 miles east of Tukums. The Twenty-Second and Forty-Second Armies and the Third Shock Army attacked west out of the Dobele area. Here three German infantry divisions managed to hold off thirteen Soviet divisions.

The drone of Soviet fighter-bombers and an artillery barrage heralded the attack of the 1st Baltic Front against the Eighteenth Army between Moscheiken and Skuodas (Schkudy). Fortunately for Schörner, it was in this area that he had originally intended to launch his breakout attempt toward Klaipeda. The advancing Soviets soon ran into the 4th, 12th and 14th Panzer divisions, which had been reinforced by the 30th and the 563rd Infantry divisions and the 11th SS “Nordland” Panzer Grenadier Division. After five days of pounding against the German positions, the Soviet attacks abated.

By the end of the first battle for Courland on the October 21st, the Soviets had made only minimal gains but they did succeed in foiling “Operation Geier.” Their limited victory, was little comfort to the besieged Landsers. Unless something happened soon to alter the strategic situation, a renewed Russian offensive could push them into the icy waters of the Baltic. From now on, the only way out for the Germans was by sea.

Schörner’s men were caught in a pocket, just like the doomed Sixth Army had been at Stalingrad two years earlier. Rumors had it, however, that anyone using the term “pocket” would be subject to Schörner’s firing squad. A fanatical Nazi, Schörner severely punished soldiers for the slightest sign of “pessimism.” The rumors were not taken lightly. The official term became the “Courland Bridgehead,” to make it sound as if the trapped men of AGN would soon be going on their own offensive.

Encouraged by Schörner’s promises, Hitler “ordered that Kurland be held…to not give up one foot of ground, to tie up 150 opposing enemy formations…and thereby facilitate the defense of our homeland.” But for how long could the outnumbered Germans resist the overwhelming might of the Red Army? 2

On the afternoon of October 22nd Soviet bombers espied the urban sprawl of Lipāja’s 50,000 inhabitants. Bombs rained down and blocks of buildings burst into flames. The harbor, the gateway of the German supply line to the homeland, was hit hardest. The Soviets blew up a torpedo boat, the 6651-ton steamer “Diedenhofen”, a tugboat and two ferries. In the evening the still flaming city was hit by another air attack.

The Germans meanwhile fought to improve the main combat line around Vaindode by launching an attack. By October 24th, the 14th “Saxon” Panzer Division and the 31st and the 563rd infantry divisions destroyed 38 guns but only captured 200 prisoners; probably because no quarter was given. Two days later, Soviet resistance became stiffer and stiffer. It was evident that the 1st Baltic Front had been reinforced. A new Soviet attack was sure to come.3

The Second Battle for Courland

On October 27th the Red Army was ready to renew its offensive. Before dawn, the roaring inferno of 2000 guns shattered the quiet of the forests. For one and a half hours, the Soviet guns pounded the German positions between the Baltic coast and the River Venta. In the memoir of a German soldier who huddled under the shells, the smaller bunkers “rocked like boats on the sea. Tree-tops slammed down on top of foxholes and trenches.” Through the dense artillery smoke stormed 60 Soviet divisions. Four hundred fighting vehicles of the Sixth Guards Tank Army supported the Soviet infantry in the Skuodas-Vaindode sector alone.

The thinly held German lines cracked almost immediately. “The enemy attacked on a wide front. We are holding!” went a radio report from the 1/215 Fusilier Battalion. “The enemy is attacking with 20 tanks…” the message was interrupted; it was the last that was heard from the company. Although counterattacks by other German companies achieved temporarily success the Soviet armor bludgeoned its way through the 30th Infantry Division.4 Schörner rushed the 4th Panzer Division back into the fray to plug the gap.

Thirty-year-old Panzer ace, Sergeant First Class Hermann Bix was in the thick of it. Bix had just returned from the hospital in Germany, where he recovered from a mortar wound. According to Kurowski (see note 5), Bix selected a new crew for his Panther and sped off to rescue two Panthers which were stuck in a wooded ravine and under fire. Bix’s Panther reached his comrades in the dead of night. On the ridge that overlooked the ravine, the muzzle of a Soviet Maxim flashed in the darkness. The Panthers returned fire and silenced the machine gun. Bix was looking out of the cupola of his own Panther when suddenly a tracer shot past him followed by an explosion. Half blinded, Bix could just make out Soviet infantry working their way behind his Panther. With it’s turret pointing backward because of the tow operation, Bix used his tank’s 75mm gun to fire high explosives into the Soviets infantry at point blank range and drive them away.5

The three Panthers managed to get out of the woods by dawn of October 28th. The weary tankers did not have long to rest. During the night the Soviets had shoved fresh tank forces to the front and Bix’s Panthers were about to meet them. From a wood emerged a large group of T-34s and several of the massive 44-ton Joseph Stalin JS-2 heavy tanks. Bix’s Panther swung its long gun toward a Stalin and fired twice. The first high velocity round hit between the turret and the hull, the second penetrated the armor. Flames shot out of the Stalin’s open turret and then the tank blew to pieces. The two other Panthers knocked out four T-34s. Bix’s Panther shot up a fifth, the tank blowing up while its crew desperately tried to scramble out.

Shocked by the unexpected German fire, the Soviets paused to regroup. Bix used the respite to pull his Panthers back behind some bushes and into a hollow. When the Soviet advanced, they rolled into a clear field in front of the lurking Panthers. “Open Fire,” ordered Bix through the headphones. Before long four more T-34s were burning, black clouds of smoke spiraling into the sky. The remainder opened fire in the direction of the concealed Panthers.

Bix maneuvered his own Panther around the Soviet flanks, stopping and firing on the go, until he crashed back into the woods. Crushing young trees, Bix drove along inside the edge. He eyed two T-34s that were trying to outflank the two Panthers still in the hollow. Bix’s Panther rocked from the recoil, as his first shot brewed up one of the T-34s. His second round knocked out the other T-34’s tracks. The remaining Soviet tankers had enough. With armor piercing rounds exploding around them, the Soviet tanks withdrew into another wood a mile away. A Panther commander called out; “You did it, Bix! Everything went well.” Bix nodded,“ We must get out of here as quickly as possible. If I know Ivan, he’ll soon be pouring fire in here.” As soon after the Panthers left, an avalanche of mortar and of Katyusha rocket fire plastered the hollow.6

Fierce tank battles raged all along the front. Four Tigers of the 510th Panzer Battalion knocked out up 14 Stalins and T-34s in a six-hour duel. The 30th Infantry Division’s 6th Regiment destroyed another 21 Soviet fighting vehicles with Panzerfausts and anti-tank mines. In the Auce-Dobele sector, however, the Soviet 10th Guards Division ripped apart the 21st Luftwaffe Field Division. The Pomeranian 12th Panzer Division and the 389th Infantry Division were immediately rushed to the area.

On October 29th nearly 2000 Soviet airplanes strafed railroad stations and German units caught on roads. Major Erich Rudorffer’s handful of Focke-Wulfs 190s of the 3/54th Fighter Group, zoomed to intercept the Soviet aircraft. Rudorffer alone shot down eleven bombers, the last of which marked his 206th victory.7

Meanwhile, on the ground, the 4th Panzer Division defended the Letila hills. First Sergeant Bix continued to distinguish himself. His Panther’s interior lit up from rounds exploding outside the hull, the armored side skirts were shredded, the storage compartment punctured, the plates dented, but the Panther and its valiant crew fought on. They destroyed eight enemy tanks on the 29th and another twelve on November 2nd. Bix and his crew’s luck ran out on November 4. During an earthshaking Katyusha barrage one of the howling rockets scored a direct hit. Dazed and half-deaf, Bix and his crew crawled out of the mangled Panther. Bix was almost sent to a hospital but instead returned to the front after a short rest.8

Early in November the Soviet attacks petered out. They had lost over 1000 fighting vehicles. In return they captured Auce but otherwise their gains were minimal. The German defensive victory in this first phase of the second battle for Courland cost the 4th and 14th Panzer Divisions and the 30th, 31st, 263rd and 563rd Infantry Divisions half their combat strength. In the last month AGN had lost 44,000 men. Both the Germans and Soviets made use of the temporary lull in the battle, to stockpile supplies and reorganize their units.9

The Germans sustained further losses as they went after partisan units that were operating with increasing boldness in their area. The Nazis had arrogantly clung to their Lebensraum and having forbidden a Latvian Provisional Government, caused thousands of Latvian nationalists, the “Kurelians,” to form up in the forests. The Kurelians were freedom fighters opposed to both the Nazis and the Soviets. The Kurelians knew the land and fought hard. In one instance it took three days for the Germans to wipe out a battalion-sized Kurelian combat group. Further exacerbating German counter measures were actual Lativan bandits and parachuted Soviet irregulars- who posed as Kurelians and raided villages and supplies.

On November 19th, the battle reopened with a crescendo of “Stalin’s Organs,” the German name for Katyusha rocket launchers. Guns of all sorts battering the depleted German positions. Waves of Soviet infantry and tank attacks followed. Combat conditions were brutal, supplies lacking, and many German soldiers suffered from dysentery. But there was no time for rest. Through icy rain, soaked trenches and bomb craters, dank swamps and forests; attacks and counterattacks swept back and forth. Fighting south of Saldus (Frauenburg), the Baden-Württemberger 205th Infantry Division repulsed six Soviet divisions. With no reserves left, the 205th division commander, Maj. Gen. Giese, fed clerks, radiomen, medics and drivers into the front lines. Fortunately for the landsers, the Soviet tanks bogged down in a deluge of rain that turned the ground into a quagmire. By the end of November, the two sides had again fought themselves to a bloody, exhausted standstill. Govorov’s progress in this second battle of Courland was less than he had hoped for, but he had inflicted another 33,000 more casualties on AGN and pushed the Germans slightly closer to the Baltic.10

Following the motto “trenches instead of graves,” the landsers made use of the the lull in the fighting to pick up shovels and dig new trenches and bunkers. Behind the front, a steady flow of wounded joined thousands of combat fit soldiers which alongside spare trucks, horses and guns were evacuated to the defense of the homeland. Always there was the threat of the Red Air Force, bombing transport routes, roads and railway stations. Flying a deadly gauntlet of Flak batteries and the Focke-Wulfs on December 14-15th, Soviet bombers sunk seven ships, damaged four more and blew up eleven German aircraft on the ground at Lipāja. The nimble Focke-Wulfs in turn claimed 100 Soviet aircraft shot down.11

The Third Battle for Courland

By mid December, falling temperatures froze the breath of the 500,000 German and allied soldiers huddled in trenches and log bunkers. Mud became rock hard and Soviet reconnaissance activity increased in force and frequency. On the 21st, 170,000 Soviet shells rained down on a 22-mile front. The third battle for Courland had begun. Second Lieutenant Gottlob Bidermann of the 132nd Infantry Division was there; “An incredible firestorm rained on the trenches. Machine-gun nests, earthworks, bunkers…collapsed in clouds of dust and smoke. The earth trembled, roared, heaved, and tossed. For three long hours an unseen, unreachable force assaulted the earth with fury. The treetops were splintered, entire trees sailed into the sky…The first wounded appeared, stumbling and staggering aimlessly, often without helmets, uniforms covered in blood. The wounded screamed in agony and thrashed wildly on the ground…”

An exploding tank round ripped open the abdomen of Bidermann’s longtime friend. “As I looked into his dying eyes, an intense feeling of rage overcame me…revenge, revenge, hammered through my brain.” Bidermann raced toward to an anti-tank unit scrambling for its weapons. He grabbed a Panzerfaust and shouted “Lets go, lets go! They’re coming!”

Suddenly the long barrel of a T-34 appeared 60 feet in front of Bidermann, who took cover within a tangle of splintered branches. “I quickly pulled the safety pin from the panzerfaust and flipped up the perforated sights.” Bidermann’s heart was pounding as he held his breath, aimed at the red star and squeezed the trigger. The projectile burst through the turret, “spraying the interior with fire and white-hot shrapnel.” The two “Panzerjägers” who had followed Bidermann destroyed another T-34. Firing their carbines, the three of them routed the Soviet infantry that followed the tanks.

Later, at an idyllic Latvian country manor, Bidermann was personally awarded the silver and black tank destruction badge by the commander of the Eighteenth Army, General of the Infantry, Ehrenfried Boege.

The Soviets were trying to capture Saldus and split the two German Armies apart. The heroics of men like Bidermann were not enough to stem the Soviet tide, forcing the 132nd Infantry Division to pull back. South of Saldus, the 205th Infantry Division finally collapsed. The 227th Infantry Division and the Grenadiers of the 12th Panzer Division, both under strength, were unable to stop the advancing enemy either. It took the expert marksmen of the 912th Assault Gun Brigade to bring the Soviets to a halt. German counterattacks on the next day failed because 2000 Soviet bombers and unrelenting artillery fire forced the landsers to stay in their trenches. Instead, thirteen rifle divisions and eight guards divisions attacked the Sixteenth and Eighteenth Armies. The German 290th Infantry Division alone stopped 52 Soviet assaults in its sector.12

If anything the intensity of the Soviet attacks increased until at 1700hrs, December 24th, a quiet peace suddenly descended over the entire front. Companies lit advent candles for wounded comrades or decorated a Christmas tree. The voices of the soldiers, singing “Silent Night, Holy Night” rang through the clear starry night. The next day, a Latvian sniper and a close-combat tank destroyer unit captured their Christmas dinner, “canned American goods,” from the Soviets. By that time the destruction had resumed.

Advancing toward Lipāja, the Sixth Guards Army battered itself to exhaustion against the lines of the 126th and 31st Infantry divisions which were backed up by the 14th Panzer Division. The situation was more critical in Sixteenth Army’s Džukste sector, where the Soviets furiously fought to achieve a breakthrough no matter what the cost. The 19th Latvian SS and the German 227th Infantry divisions were particularly hard pressed. Reflecting the bitter nature of the war in the Baltic, at times Latvians SS found themselves fighting fellow countrymen drafted to fight for the Red Army.

Soviets wearing German uniforms overran the outposts of the 205th Infantry division. Bloody gaps were torn into the German lines only to be retaken by counterattacks, then lost and retaken again. Lt. Col. Nikolajs Galdins’ 42nd Latvian SS Regiment was reduced from 1200 to 300 men yet resisted a Soviet breakthrough, earning Galdins the Knight’s Cross. By the time the 3rd Battle of Courland reached its end on December 31st, the Germans had scored another defensive victory but lost another 27,000 men.13

For all the hardships, at least the winter was a comparatively light one. The hardened veterans did not complain about digging new trenches and rebuilding strongholds, about the weather, about the lack of rest and sleep, or even about the enemy. Yet always at the back of their mind loomed the disheartening news and rumors of their homeland and their families, bombed to oblivion and under siege on all fronts. Many German soldiers found strength in their belief that they fought to keep Europe free from Communist slavery. For most, however, the only solace was company of their comrades with whom they had endured so much.

Colonel General Heinz Guderian, OKH Chief of the General Staff, in vain tried to convince Hitler to evacuate AGN from Courland. “The army group will stay where it is,” was Hitler’s answer. He still dreamed of using Courland as a bridgehead for an attack on Leningrad. Hitler did, however, allow seven divisions, including the 4th Panzer Division, to be transferred back to the Reich.

Hitler awarded Colonel General Schörner the Diamonds to the Knight’s Cross. What the average landser thought of Schörner receiving this very prestigious award, is reflected in Bidermann’s words: “The strength and resolve of the men in the trenches could by no means be credited to the generaloberst (Colonel General) with the golden party badge. The attributes, the will to resist, and the sacrifices made had been instilled in the individual soldier in the three and one half years of war the division had faced on the battlefields of southern and northern Russia.”

Hitler replaced then replaced Schörner with the “Austrian fireman” Colonel General Dr. Lothar Rendulic and in a shallow effort to improve morale, renamed AGN as the more powerful sounding Army Group Kurland (AGK). Latvian women knitted the last German war decoration, a sleeve stripe decorated with the word “Kurland”, the Grand Master Coat of Arms of the Knights’ Order and the elk’s head from the Coat of Arms of Mitau.14

Such moves, however, could do little to alter the fact that the 400,000 remaining soldiers of AGK, were now facing Marshal Govorov’s 65 Soviet divisions and 22 brigades. By now there was clearly no chance of AGK reestablishing a land link with Prussia. Yet the Soviets remained determined to annihilate AGK. They did not trust their western allies and the conquest of fortress Kurland would leave them in a better position in the Baltic States at the end of the war.

The Fourth Battle for Courland

On the morning of January 24th, Soviet artillery thunder initiated the fourth battle of Courland. The Soviet objectives remained unchanged; capture Lipāja and split the German Sixteenth and Eighteenth armies at Saldus. Unrelenting Soviet pressure overpowered the 30th Infantry Division and the Dutch, Scandinavian, Baltic and Swiss volunteers of the “Nordland” SS Division, who were forced to fall back fighting to the second defensive belt.

A Panzer division now in name only, the 14th grenadiers and their equipment were transported to the front in a motley assortment of VW Kübels, amphibious cars, motorcycles, prime movers, Opels, Henschels and captured Fords, Peugots, Renaults and Studebakers. The handful of Panzers in the 14th could also count on the help of more formidable vehicles; the feared Tigers of the 510th Heavy Pz battalion. Together with the Tigers, 14th Panzer won back the old combat line and reduced 63 Soviet tanks to smoldering hulls. The German armored counterattack, however, provided only a momentary breather. Supported by heavy mortar fire, Soviet infantry and tanks recaptured their lost ground.

North of Priekule the 121st and 126th Infantry Divisions managed to frustrate Soviet advances. Red Army attacks by nine rifle divisions also faltered in the Saldus sector, where the 205th Infantry Division alone destroyed 117 combat vehicles in five days. Hampered by snow and mud and unable to break through the tenacious German defense, the Soviets were exhausted by the end of January. The 4th Battle of Courland had cost them 40,000 men, 541 tanks and 178 aircraft.15

Army Group Kurland underwent another change of command, with Colonel General Heinrich von Vietinghoff taking Rendulic’s place. Almost as soon as he reached headquarters and was briefed, the experienced Vientinghoff outlined a plan for the evacuation of AGK by sea from Lipāja and Ventspils. Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz confirmed that sufficient shipping was available. Colonel General Guderian agreed, now more than ever the withdrawal was critical to the German war effort. He again confronted Hitler, who, trembling in anger, spat “ Don’t you think I’m fighting for Germany? My whole life has been one long struggle for Germany. The withdrawal of the troops from Kurland is out of the question!” What was the use of the opinion of able generals when their leader had lost touch with reality?

Horrendous losses did not dampen the Soviet will to utterly crush Army Group Kurland. Air raids continued to target the harbors of Lipāja and Ventspils, hoping to cripple the German supply lifeline. The Flak batteries of the 6th Air Defense Division and the FW-190’s were there to greet them.

On February 14th, Germany’s fourth-ranking ace, Knight’s Cross with Oak leaves and Swords holder, Staffelkapitan Otto Kittel of JG. 54, scored his 267th victory. It would also be his last. Leading four FW-190s, Kittel spotted a formation of fourteen Il-2’s. The Il-2s were shooting 132mm rockets and bombing German ground troops from an elevation of 500 feet. The heavily armored Stormavik’s only vulnerable spot was the oil cooler on its belly. Kittel dove his FW 190 A-8 “Black 1” beneath and behind the Il-2s. His blazing cannons shot down one of the aircraft, but his FW was also hit. It was the only time Kittel was shot down in his 583 combat sorties. There was no time for a parachute. Trailing clouds of smoke Kittel’s plane crashed to the ground in flames, killing it’s pilot. It was a week before Kittel’s 27th birthday.16

The Fifth Battle for Courland

On February 20th, a hurricane of Soviet artillery and mortar fire between Džukste and Priekule opened the fifth battle of Courland. Twenty-one Rifle Divisions assaulted the five German divisions manning the front near Priekule. The Soviets obviously wanted to break through to Lipāja again. Their divisions swept past the outer German defenses, past the Westphalians and Rhinelanders of the 422nd and 424th Infantry Regiments holding Priekule. The two regiments had to fight their way back to their parent 126th Infantry Division. The Germans made another stand on the hills rising from the steep banks of the Vartaya River. Here the Soviet advance withered in the fire of the 132nd and 225th Infantry Divisions, the 14th Panzer Division and the 912th Assault Gun Brigade.

On the 1st of March, the Soviet switched the brunt of their offensive back to the Saldus area. Fighting in thick forests and bitter frost, the grenadiers of the 19th Latvian SS Division, alongside their Wehrmacht comrades and the newly formed Kurland Panzer Brigade, held on until an early spring thaw slowed the tanks and trucks in a landscape of mud. After loosing another 70,000 men, 608 tanks and 178 aircraft, in mid-March the Soviets temporarily gave up, massing their forces for what would be the final, sixth battle for Courland.17

As before, AGK took advantage of the lull in the fighting to reorganize and rebuilt its defenses. The SS division “Nordland” and the 215th Infantry Division were shipped backed to Germany. Vietinghoff was temporarily replaced by Rendulic, who returned for a mere 24 hours before he was in turn replaced by the former commander of the Sixteenth Army, General of Infantry Karl Hilpert, on March 14th.

Air raids continued and were joined by Soviet submarine and torpedo boat attacks on shipping. Both Dönitz and Guderian pleaded unsuccessfully with Hitler to withdraw what remained of the beleaguered army group. The Landsers of AGK would fight in Courland till the bitter end. That end was not long in coming.

The constant battle for the bridgehead had used up almost all of AGK’s ammunition, limiting artillery and machine gun fire. To survive, the troops depended on hidden caches of munitions, gasoline, food and fodder for the thinning ranks of horses. The undernourished horses were forced to pull carts over many miles per day. Often those carts would contain wounded soldiers, weak and unshaven, wrapped in filthy bandages. The eyes of both man and beast were devoid of hope. Horses that fell victim to artillery fire and Soviet planes ended up as horse meat goulash to supplement the meager soldier’s diet.18

The Sixth Battle for Courland

On March 18th the full weight of the Tenth Guard Army hit the German defenders of the Sadlus sector. A devastating mortar and artillery barrage stunned the landsers, whose trenches were then smothered by Stalin tanks and T-34s. Hilpert shoved the Prussian 11th Infantry Division and the 12th and 14th Panzer Divisions into the fray. Ninety-two Soviet tanks were blow up in the first day, but still the Tenth Guards Army bludgeoned its way forward. As the battle split into individual combats, isolated German companies, battalions and regiments, desperately clung onto bunkers and villages. Both sides suffered horrible casualties but on the 23rd it was the Soviets who had enough. Back in Berlin, with the end of the Reich imminent, Guderian adamantly again demanded the withdrawal of AGK. Hitler shouted, “Never!” 19

Despite the utter hopeless, the hardships and the eminent collapse of the Third Reich, the soldiers of AGK were ready to fight on. During the six great battles of Courland, the Germans had inflicted 400,000 enemy casualties and destroyed 2600 tanks and 700 aircraft. They had beaten back every Soviet attack. General Hilpert wrote, “The mission of Army Group Kurland has remained unchanged, that is, to fight with all available means and, therefore, weaken the Russian man-power and prevent the attack for further Russian forces into the Reich itself….” His sentiments were reflected in the morale of the troops. With the exception of the crew of a single patrol boat who fled to Sweden, there was no loss of discipline or mutiny.

Army Group Kurland had fought its last battle. With the final climatic battle being fought in the ruins of Berlin, most of the Soviet troops besieging Courland were withdrawn. On May 1stnd, the blare of Soviet loudspeakers echoed across the Courland front. They announced that Hitler was dead and that Berlin was in Soviet hands. On May 7, 1945, after receiving word that the Wehrmacht had surrendered, General Hilpert contacted Marshal Leonid Govorov, who had replaced Yeremenko as commander of the 2nd Baltic Front, to call for a truce. It was over.

While the details of the surrender were worked out, a handful of overloaded ships transported what soldiers they could out of Courland. Facing an uncertain future, units within the bridgehead selected a seemingly fortunate few, mostly fathers with large families, to be flown out in 35 aged JU-52/3ms. Despite the truce the last German ships out of Lipāja and Ventspils came under Soviet air attack, although none were sunk. The JU-52s were not so lucky; Soviet fighters shot down all but three of the 32 defenseless aircraft as they flew over the Baltic.

The landsers remaining in Courland found rare flashes of hope in wild rumors of a German-American alliance against Communism. Such fanciful hopes were soon crushed in the grim reality that there would be no help and no escape to the west. The remaining 203,000 German marched off into captivity and an ominous future, past well-fed, healthy Soviet soldiers. Gaunt, ragged and malnourished, the weary landsers reflected on the words in their last Wehrmacht order:

“…our army group in Kurland, which had endured months of strongly superior Soviet tank and infantry formations and stood fast during six great battles, has achieved immortal fame…” 20

“Life and Death Struggle for the Courland Bridgehead” by L.H. Dyck was first published in the October 2005 Issue of WWII Magazine. The above version has been re-edited by the author and contains additional images sourced from the net.

Because of the almost constant fighting between October 1944 and the end of the war on the Courland front, different starting and ending dates are often given for the six Courland battles.

Notes

1. Haupt p. 328, 329, Keegan p. 106, 219, 2. Haupt p. 329, 330, Bidermann p. 252, 253-255, 3,4. Haupt p. 332, 333, 5,6. Kurowski’s prolific and popular biographies of exemplary German soldiers have in recent years come under academic fire for their accuracy. It seems that they are at least partially fictionalized, especially in the quotes from their subjects; recalling their exact words during battle for example. At worst there may be parts wholly invented, something that was at least once born out to be the case in my own research on the subject. However, Kurowski had personal conversations with many of his biographical subjects and in many cases remains the sole source for details of their exploits. Certainly, Kurowski’s biographies are no less accurate than virtually any of the pre-modern or even early modern histories which are often at odds with each other, having been likewise been tampered with or based on false information or being pure fiction. It is the historian’s role to judge what seems plausible. In Kurowski’s case events in his narratives are in no way different from contemporary events described in memoirs of German soldiers; who of course may likewise contain errors of actual events based to lapse of memory or due to errors of perception. Kurowski p. 115-120. 7. Haupt p. 334, 8. Kurowski p. 120-122, 9. Haupt p. 335, 336, 10. Haupt p. 337, 338, 342, Mangulis p. 136, 137, 11. Haupt p. 339, 340, Keegan p. 90, 12. Haupt p. 340-342. Bidermann p. 262-264, 270, 13. Haupt p. 342-345, Mangulis p. 138, 139, 140, Bidermann p. 352, 14. Haupt p. 345, 346, Lucas p. 141, Mangulis p. 140, Bidermann p. 266, 15. Haupt p. 346-348, Mangulis p. 134, http://www.wiking.org/topics/nordland.htm, 16. Spick p. 227, Haupt p. 350, Guderian p. 412, 17. Haupt p. 350-352, 18. Haupt p. 352, 353, Bidermann p. 248, 260,19. Haupt p. 342, 354, 355, Mangulis p. 147, 20. Butter, p. 530, Haupt p. 356-360, Mangulis p. 134, Bidermann p. 282, 284.

Sources