Courland Pocket
| Battles of the Courland Bridgehead | |||||||
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| Part of the Eastern Front of World War II | |||||||
Soviet advances from 1 September 1943 – 31 December 1944, the Courland Pocket is the white area west of the Gulf of Riga | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Germany |
Kurelis group | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Ferdinand Schörner Lothar Rendulic Heinrich von Vietinghoff Carl Hilpert Walter Krüger |
Ivan Bagramyan Andrey Yeryomenko Leonid Govorov | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
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Army Group North (prior to 25/01/1945) Army Group Courland (from 25/01/1945 onwards until surrender) |
1st Baltic Front 2nd Baltic Front | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
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October 1944–8 May 1945 117,871 combat casualties (39,537 in February–March 1945) 189,112 captured on 9 May 1945 |
16 Feb – 8 May 1945 30,501 killed, 130,447 wounded or sick Total: 160,948 | ||||||
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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 10 May 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.