Between Giants

by Prit Buttar

  The Kriegsmarine will dispatch all available transports to East Prussia and Courland.15

  At the same time, Dönitz tried to obtain terms from the Western Allies that would allow operations, including evacuations, to continue on the Eastern Front, even after a ceasefire was signed in the west. At first, there seemed a prospect of achieving some such understanding; on 4 May, Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, one of the German emissaries negotiating with the Western Allies, reported to Dönitz that the British required any surrender to include the Netherlands and Denmark, but that Montgomery would issue orders that would prevent any interference with the ongoing evacuation from the east. A ceasefire was signed that evening, coming into force at 0800hrs on 5 May.

  When Generaloberst Alfred Jodl, the leader of the German delegation, and Friedeburg proceeded to Rheims, where they met Eisenhower’s staff, they had a somewhat different reception. The Germans insisted that the disruption of communications caused by the collapse of the Reich would make any immediate ceasefire in the east difficult to achieve. The Kriegsmarine had advised Dönitz that, provided sufficient fuel could be found, all the troops in Courland and the Vistula estuary could be brought west in three days. But unlike Montgomery and the British, Eisenhower refused to countenance any such arrangement. Although the Germans made repeated representations, they were all rebuffed, and early on 7 May, Jodl sent a message to Dönitz. Eisenhower insisted on immediate surrender on all fronts, he said, and any ships at sea would have to surrender to whichever Allied Power had been assigned control of that region. If the Germans were not willing to accept these terms, Jodl reported, Eisenhower threatened to prosecute the war to the very end. In order to prevent any prevarication, Jodl was given just 30 minutes to decide whether the terms were acceptable. He advised Dönitz that in his view, there was no alternative to accepting the terms.16

  At 0130hrs on 7 May, Dönitz sent a radio message to Jodl, authorising him to agree to the terms offered by Eisenhower. The ceasefire would come into effect at 0900hrs on 9 May. At the same time, Engelhardt and his staff were ordered to redouble their efforts to bring as many personnel west as was possible in the few hours that remained. Inevitably, the main effort concentrated on the Vistula estuary, as its relative proximity to Denmark and Germany allowed for more journeys to be made. Nevertheless, ships were also dispatched to Liepāja and Ventspils, where they joined forces with vessels already present. Aware of the extreme time pressure under which they were operating, the commander of the German destroyers still seaworthy in the Baltic sent a signal from aboard one of his ships shortly before midnight on 8 May:

  8 May 1945, 2323/AD/53 KR-Blitz [urgent-expedite]

  To all units engaged in eastern transport: operate in the spirit of the assigned mission. Make haste!17

  A similar sense of urgency gripped the ships and men of the Kriegsmarine’s 9th Security Division, which operated the minesweepers and torpedo boats active around Courland. Their orders also left no room for confusion:

  As a result of the changed situation subsequent to the surrender, all sea and security forces, as well as all commercial shipping, must depart from the harbours of Courland and Hela [the naval base on the northern side of the Bay of Danzig, in German hands until the final surrender] by 0100 on 9 May. Ships and boats are to proceed to the harbour limits of Kiel, Eckernförde and Neustadt. Putting in at other harbours en route is prohibited based upon the situation.18

  Hilpert and his staff in Army Group Courland had already started making arrangements for the final surrender. Front-line units were thinned out, then withdrawn from the front line that had been defended at such a terrible cost throughout the winter. The German troops were under orders to destroy as much equipment as possible as they retreated, but the shortage of explosives and in particular specially designed demolition charges made the destruction of the few remaining tanks almost impossible. Instead, the crews of 14th Panzer Division simply drove them into the swamps. Collection stations were created in rear areas, where radios, maps and other documents were left, and then set ablaze.19

  Right to the last moment, the German military authorities were able to maintain discipline in the rear areas, particularly in the ports. Karl Roth, a Stabsfeldwebel from 14th Panzer Division, had been in Liepāja with other rear area units of the division since the end of the sixth battle of Courland, and had found a small sailboat. As the final surrender came closer, he provisioned it with food, water, and a map and compass. When the end came, he intended to try to sail across the Baltic to Sweden, but received a last-minute chance to escape. There was only a very limited number of spaces aboard the few ships available, and these were allocated mainly to wounded men, non-combatants, and soldiers who were fathers of young families or the last surviving sons of their families. Each division in Courland was ordered to draw up suitable lists, and Roth was included as he had a two-year-old daughter. He thus secured a place on board a torpedo boat, and gave his sailboat to less fortunate comrades. He later learned that they succeeded in sailing to Sweden.20

  The torpedo boats that played such a large part in the evacuation were far larger than British or American vessels of the same appellation. They had a displacement of 1,400 to 2,300 tons, and were armed with four 105mm guns in twin turrets, with a number of smaller 30mm anti-aircraft guns, as well as six torpedo tubes; they were therefore more akin to small destroyers than torpedo boats. Large numbers of soldiers now crammed into their limited cabin space, with others crowding onto their decks. The crews tried, not always successfully, to ensure that the areas around their gun turrets were kept free, so that the weapons could be traversed and fired if necessary. Astonishing numbers of men managed to come aboard, with up to 2,000 being carried by a single warship with a displacement of barely 2,000 tons.

  Some men made it aboard the ships through pure luck. Leo Schwartz, another member of 14th Panzer Division, was in the port of Liepāja on the last day of the war, and leapt aboard a small vessel to escape a sudden Soviet artillery bombardment of the area. To his relief, the captain allowed him to stay aboard. He and 120 others willingly endured a cramped voyage aboard a vessel intended to have a crew of only 12, in order to escape Soviet captivity.21 12th Panzer Division was granted permission to send its field replacement battalion (a formation used to complete the training of new personnel assigned to the division), an artillery battalion and a combat engineer company back to Germany. The division staff ensured that the personnel of these formations were made up entirely of those who conformed to the generally agreed selection criteria.22

  Other men turned down opportunities to leave Courland. An infantry Hauptmann approached the captain of a torpedo boat and handed him a list of names; he asked if the naval officer would make their families aware that they had gone into Soviet captivity. The torpedo boat commander offered to take the Hauptmann with him, but the infantry officer refused. Although he would have qualified for a place, as he was the father of young children, he felt that his place was with those of his men who had to surrender to the Red Army.23

  Just hours before the final ceasefire, the vessels gathered in Liepāja and Ventspils began to leave, forming five convoys. Between them, they carried about 23,000 troops away from Courland. The last convoy, commanded by Fregattenkapitän Karl Palmgreen, which left at the very last moment, succeeded in crowding over 11,000 soldiers into its ships. Soviet aircraft attacked the convoy with machine guns, killing many of those aboard, but almost all the ships managed to reach the north German coast. Three ferries were unable to make the long crossing, and instead made for the Swedish coast. Like other soldiers from Courland and the Vistula estuary, they were interned by the Swedes.

  For a few of Army Group Courland’s personnel, there was at least the possibility of escape by air. Several Ju52 transport planes arrived in Courland early on 8 May, landing at the Luftwaffe airfield at Grobiŋa. They took aboard wounded and others nominated for evacuation, but as they attempted to fly to northern Germany, they were intercepted by Soviet figh
ters. Only two transports succeeded in reaching their destination; the rest were shot down. The last fighters of Jagdgeschwader 54, which had provided air support for Army Group Courland throughout the six great battles, had already left for Germany, and were unable to help. Many of the fighters had had their armour and other equipment stripped out, to make room to allow a ground crewman to squeeze in behind the pilot’s seat.

  The remnants of Army Group Courland – nearly 200,000 officers and men – prepared to go into captivity. Some chose alternatives. General von Bodenhausen, who had led 12th Panzer Division in Courland before briefly taking command of L Corps, chose suicide over surrender. Other members of his division attempted the long escape route through Latvia, Lithuania, East Prussia, and Poland; although most were captured, a small number succeeded in reaching German soil.24 For the rest, there was only the prospect of surrender. Hilpert sent a signal to his units on 7 May that dispelled any last rumours of escape, or even that the British were about to intervene on the side of the Germans: ‘According to the agreement with Soviet Marshal Govorov, the ceasefire takes effect at 1400. I request loyal compliance by the troops, since the future fate of the army group depends upon it.’25

  Sturmgeschütz-Brigade 912 still had several operational assault guns, and on 8 May, Major Brandner thanked his men in a final parade for their service. He then positioned his remaining assault guns around the headquarters buildings and waited for the Soviet troops to arrive. A Soviet colonel approached the position and, via an interpreter, requested that the brigade surrender its weapons. Brandner replied that he had been ordered to respect a ceasefire, but had not yet received orders to surrender. The Soviet delegation withdrew, and Brandner and his officers proceeded to destroy their documents and equipment. The following morning, they surrendered formally and went into captivity.

  The Latvians who had fought alongside the Germans were now faced with the bitter reality of surrendering to the Soviet Union. Some slipped away to join the anti-communist partisans, while a small number took their own lives. It is estimated that about 14,000 Latvian combatants surrendered; 19th SS Waffen-Grenadier Division had been reduced in strength to a little over 5,000 men. Obergruppenführer Krüger, commander of VI SS Corps, attempted to escape to East Prussia overland. When his group was intercepted by a Soviet patrol, he shot himself.

  There were other Baltic citizens serving with the German forces, far from home. The men of 20th SS Waffen-Grenadier Division, the former Estonian ‘volunteer’ division, were evacuated from their homeland with other German forces. The division had suffered major losses, and was sent to Neuhammer to be replenished and restored to full strength. This process was incomplete when the final crisis on the Eastern Front developed, and the division was dispatched to Silesia in January 1945 in an attempt to repair the huge hole that Konev’s armies had torn in the German front. The Estonians fought a constant rearguard action as they were driven west, and were encircled near Neustadt, to the east of Dresden. Several elements of the division managed to fight their way through the Soviet lines, and retreated west, though any overall coherence of the division had long since disappeared. Most of the men surrendered to the Red Army, though some succeeded in reaching the advancing Americans.

  The Latvians of 15th SS Waffen-Grenadier Division, which was almost destroyed in the summer of 1944, were largely absorbed into 19th SS Waffen-Grenadier Division, though the nucleus of the original division was evacuated to Zempelburg, in West Prussia. Like the Estonian division, 19th SS Waffen-Grenadier Division began the slow process of rebuilding, and was sent to the front line in February in a desperate attempt to stop the Red Army’s drive into Pomerania. Near Schneidemühl, the division suffered heavy casualties, and retreated north-west with 33rd SS Waffen-Grenadier Division Charlemagne, a formation made up of French SS. When they reached the Baltic coast, the Latvians retreated west, finally reaching the Oder estuary. Here, the survivors were required to hand over their weapons to German units – which caused bitter resentment amongst the starving, exhausted men who had carried their weapons back during a long retreat – and were finally organised into a single regiment. Two battalions of this regiment found themselves facing the final Soviet assault on Berlin, and succeeded in avoiding becoming embroiled in the fight for the German capital. They skirted the southern edge of the city, and on 25 April the remnants of the division – a little over 800 officers and men – surrendered to the Americans. Other elements of the division surrendered to advancing elements of the Western Allies a few days later.

  As fighting died down throughout Europe, the final surrender in Courland brought an almost unreal silence to the landscape, still strewn with the wreckage of the bitter battles. Here, the German capitulation had an added significance, in that it marked the end of centuries of German involvement in the region. For the three Baltic States, an uncertain future lay ahead.

  Chapter 12

  AFTERMATH

  The end of the Second World War was marked in many ways. There were joyous celebrations in Britain, France, the United States, the Soviet Union and the other powers that had fought to defeat Germany. In many of the countries liberated from German occupation, there was quiet relief. For the three Baltic States, the end of the war merely marked the beginning of a new phase of rule by a foreign power.

  Estonia, the first of the Baltic States to be wrested from German control, had already experienced attempts at mobilisation of its manpower for the Soviet war effort. Those who had worked with the Germans in roles not requiring them to bear arms were treated as being unreliable for front line service, but were required to perform labour duties both in Estonia and the Soviet Union; in order to avoid being sent to the bloody battlefields of Courland, many men therefore claimed that they had worked for the Germans. Similar patterns were seen both in Latvia and Lithuania. As has been discussed, subsequent Soviet punishment of those who had ‘collaborated’ with the Germans resulted in these individuals being arrested, and in many cases deported to Siberia.

  The war had a huge impact on the economies of the three countries. Many industrial areas were devastated in the fighting, while others were deliberately destroyed, either by the retreating Red Army in 1941 or by the retreating Wehrmacht in 1944. As a result, Estonian industrial output at the end of the war amounted to only 55 per cent of pre-war figures. Transport was badly disrupted, with only 7 per cent of the transport activity of 1939. Damage to major towns and cities had reduced housing to 45 per cent, and the amount of land under cultivation to 60 per cent.1 In Lithuania, the Soviet authorities recorded that at least 21 villages had been completely destroyed by the Germans, often as part of anti-partisan operations, and 56 electricity-generating stations had been damaged or destroyed as the Wehrmacht withdrew. Additional disruption was caused by the immense damage to the transport infrastructure, with over 1,140 bridges in Lithuania being destroyed in an attempt to hinder the Soviet advance.2

  The three countries also experienced immediate changes to their borders. Even before the fighting had come to an end, in early 1945, Estonia was required to hand over the territory it had secured on the east bank of the Narva during its war of independence, and most of the county of Petseri, to the Soviet Union; this amounted to 5 per cent of its land area, and 6 per cent of its population. Latvia, too, was required to cede territory, about 2 per cent of its land area.3 Lithuania had effectively lost territory already, as a result of the way that the Soviet Union handled the return of Vilnius in 1939, granting large parts of the former Vilnius territory to Belarus. The area known to the Germans as Memelland, stretching from Klaipėda to the line of the River Niemen, was returned to Lithuania.

  Inevitably, in an area that had been the scene of such bitter fighting, there were plentiful supplies of weapons and munitions. There were significant numbers of former Axis soldiers at large in the countryside, both Germans and citizens of the Baltic States, and many of these now began to form anti-Soviet armed groups. During the unrest of 1905, many of those who took up arms
against the Czarist regime in the Baltic States had hidden in the widespread forests, and the term ‘Forest Brothers’ – metsavennad in Estonia, meža brāļi in Latvia, miško broliai in Lithuania – was coined to describe both peasants who refused to cooperate with the authorities and those who fled to the countryside from the cities and towns.4 The term reappeared during the first Soviet occupation of 1939–41, but became far more widespread following the defeat of Germany. As will be seen, the various groups fought against the Red Army units that occupied their countries, and against those they deemed as collaborating with the occupation; many held on to the hope that, as at the end of the First World War, the Western Powers would intervene to help them achieve independence.

  In Estonia, many of those who sought to avoid conscription joined the widespread bands of Forest Brothers; when the Soviet-installed authorities took punitive measures against their families, this served merely to encourage others to take the same path. It is estimated that up to 15,000 Estonians fought against Soviet rule in the Forest Brothers groups, with the main areas of resistance in the south-east and south-west.

  Richard Saaliste, who served as an officer in an Estonian border regiment, was wounded twice during the war, and in 1944 found himself on Hiiumaa Island. Here, he organised an escape route to Sweden for Estonians who wished to escape the German occupation. He was arrested by the Germans, but used personal contacts in the German military to secure his own release. In October 1944, when the Red Army landed on Hiiumaa, Saaliste fled to Sweden. In the summer of 1945, he attempted to return to Estonia, but turned back when he was nearly intercepted by a Soviet patrol boat. In October 1946, he tried again with three others. Although they landed successfully, they ran into a coastal patrol almost immediately. In the firefight that followed, two of the Estonians were killed, but Saaliste managed to evade his would-be captors. This encounter was no accident; an informer within Saaliste’s organisation had informed the Soviet authorities of his plans, and it was only due to the poor execution of the Soviet ambush that Saaliste was able to avoid capture. He established contact with his brother, who was already an active member of the Forest Brothers, and helped them establish communications links with émigré groups in Sweden.5