Between Giants (51 page)

The commander of III SS Panzer Corps awarding the Knight’s Cross to the Estonian Obersturmbannführer Harald Riipalu, in August 1944.

Govorov and Bagramian; the commanders of the Leningrad and 1st Baltic Fronts.

Lindemann commanded 18th Army from 1942 to 1944, and briefly Army Group North in 1944.

One of the most successful Soviet commanders of the war, Yeremenko commanded the 2nd Baltic Front in 1944.

After fighting for the Germans against the Red Army, Kaljurand became a resistance fighter in Estonia, remaining active until 1951.

Two Latvian SS soldiers in a trench with a
Panzerschrek
anti-tank weapon in Courland, winter 1944–45.

Trapped in the Courland pocket, German troops resisted repeated Soviet attempts to overrun them to the end of the war.

Central Latvia was the scene of bitter fighting as the Red Army tried to isolate Army Group North in 1944.

With no real prospect of victory, a German soldier awaits the next Soviet assault in the autumn of 1944.

Although the Germans did not attempt to hold Riga to the bitter end, Soviet artillery and air strikes, combined with deliberate German destruction as they withdrew, left the city in ruins.

As pressure on Army Group North increased, all means of transport available were put to use to withdraw remaining units through Riga into Courland.

The Courland Bridgehead was entirely dependent on seaborne supplies, which were brought ashore by any means possible through the winter of 1944–45.