Topic summary
Courland Pocket
Lothar Rendulic
Heinrich von Vietinghoff
Carl Hilpert
Walter Krüger
Andrey Yeryomenko
Leonid Govorov
Army Group Courland (from 25/01/1945 onwards until surrender)
2nd Baltic Front
117,871 combat casualties
(39,537 in February–March 1945)
189,112 captured on 9 May 1945
30,501 killed, 130,447 wounded or sick
Total: 160,948
The Courland Pocket was a pocket located on the Courland Peninsula in Latvia on the Eastern Front of World War II from 9 October 1944 to 22 May 1945. The last battle with a regular German army unit took place here on May 22, 1945.
Army Group North of the Wehrmacht were surrounded in western Latvia by the Red Army after the Baltic Offensive, when forces of the 1st Baltic Front reached the Baltic Sea near Memel (Klaipėda) after the collapse of Army Group Centre during Operation Bagration. Army Group North retreated to the Courland Pocket and was renamed Army Group Courland on 25 January, holding off six Red Army offensives until the German Instrument of Surrender was signed on 8 May 1945. Army Group Courland were in a communication "blackout" and did not get the official order until 10 May, becoming one of the last German groups to surrender in Europe.