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Courland Pocket

Battles of the Courland Bridgehead
Part of the Eastern Front (World War II)
Date 9 October 1944 – 10 May 1945
Location Courland, Latvia
Result German forces surrender on 8 and 9 May 1945
Belligerents
Nazi Germany Germany Soviet Union Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Carl Hilpert Ivan Bagramyan
Units involved
Army Group Courland 1st Baltic Front
Casualties and losses
Over 150,000 killed and wounded
180,000 captured
160,948 killed and wounded (16 Feb. to 8 May 1945)

The Courland Pocket (German: Kurland-Kessel) refers to the Red Army's blockade or isolation of Axis forces on the Courland Peninsula from July 1944 through May 1945. The Soviet commander was General Ivan Bagramyan (later Marshal).

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. This action isolated the German Army Group North (German: Heeresgruppe Nord) from the rest of the German forces between Tukums and Liepāja in Latvia. 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, they were in "blackout" and did not get the official order before 10 May, two days after the capitulation of Germany. It was one of the last German groups to surrender in Europe.

Courland, along with the rest of the Baltic eastern coast and islands, was overrun by Army Group North during 1941. Army Group North spent most of the next two years attempting to take Leningrad, without success. In January 1944, the Soviet Army lifted the siege of Leningrad.


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