Latvian Police Battalions

Latvian Police Battalions were World War II paramilitary units created from Latvian volunteers and conscripts by the Nazi German authorities who had occupied the country in June 1941. Police Battalion recruits consisted primarily of those who had served in Latvian police, army and militia organization which had been disbanded upon the Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940. Police Battalions carried out guard duties, raids against Soviet partisans in Belarus and Latvia and fought on the Eastern Front.

The first battalion (1st Schutzmannschaft Battalion Riga (later 16th Police Battalion Zemgale)), was formed in September 1941 and sent to the Eastern Front on October 21. The second of the Latvian police battalions to be sent outside Latvia left for Belarus on December 28, 1941 (numbered l7th by the Germans). The third (the 2lst) was sent to the front at Leningrad on March 30, 1942, but at first underwent training and built fortifications there. It was actually placed in the front line in July. The front around Leningrad was held not only by Germans and Finns, but also by Norwegians, Dutch, Belgians, Estonians, and the Spanish Blue Division. Shortly the 2lst Battalion was joined by another Latvian battalion whose commander Captain Praudiņš was soon arrested for anti-German remarks, sentenced to death by a German military court, but was saved by the vigorous protests from the Latvian Self-Administration. Praudiņš was stripped of his rank and returned to the front as a soldier. However, eventually he regained his rank and as a Major commanded a Latvian regiment in Courland in 1945 and received several high German decorations.

In Latgale the Germans formed seven police battalions out of local ethnic Russians (No 283, 314, 315, 325–328).

The battalions were poorly armed. Therefore, they sometimes even had to steal automatic weapons from German supply depots. To improve the firepower of the 26th Battalion, corporal Žanis Butkus dug up weapons which he had captured as a leader of a group of national partisans in June and July 1941 and which he had hidden from the Germans.

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