Between Giants
BETWEEN GIANTS
THE BATTLE FOR THE BALTICS IN WORLD WAR II
PRIT BUTTAR
DEDICATION
For Dan
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
List of Maps
Author’s Note
Dramatis Personae
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1: Molotov, Ribbentrop and the First Soviet Occupation
Chapter 2: Rosenberg, Generalplan Ost and Preparations for Barbarossa
Chapter 3: The Wehrmacht in Full Flood
Chapter 4: The Baltic Holocaust
Chapter 5: Reluctant Allies
Chapter 6: Narva, January to April 1944
Chapter 7: Breaking the Deadlock: Summer 1944
Chapter 8: From Doppelkopf to Cäsar
Chapter 9: The Isolation of Army Group North
Chapter 10: Courland, October to December 1944
Chapter 11: Endgame
Chapter 12: Aftermath
Appendix 1: Place Names
Appendix 2: Ranks
Appendix 3: Acronyms
Appendix 4: Foreign terms
Endnotes
Bibliography
Extract from Battleground Prussia
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
BETWEEN PAGES 144 – 145
Molotov and Ribbentrop. (Bundesarchiv Bild)
Georg von Küchler. (Bundesarchiv Bild)
Alfred Rosenberg. (Bundesarchiv Bild)
Ernst Busch. (Bundesarchiv Bild)
Hoepner and von Leeb. (Bundesarchiv Bild)
Georg-Hans Reinhardt. (Bundesarchiv Bild)
Erich von Manstein. (Bundesarchiv Bild)
Hyazinth von Strachwitz. (Bundesarchiv Bild)
Otto Carius. (Bundesarchiv Bild)
Voldemars Veiss. (Bundesarchiv Bild)
Johannes Freissner. (Bundesarchiv Bild)
BETWEEN PAGES 272 – 273
Felix Steiner. (Bundesarchiv Bild)
Govorov and Bagramian. (Getty Images)
Lindemann. (Topfoto)
Yeremenko. (Topfoto)
Ants Kaljurand. (Estonian State Archives)
Latvian SS volunteers. (Bundesarchiv Bild)
Heavy-machine gun position in Courland. (Bundesarchiv Bild)
Russian soldiers near Riga. (Topfoto)
German soldiers in Estonia. (Topfoto)
Riga, post liberation. (Topfoto)
German retreat from Riga. (Topfoto)
Fighting in the Courland Pocket. (Topfoto)
Gateway to Latvia. (Topfoto)
Estonian recruitment posters. (Author’s Collection)
LIST OF MAPS
The Baltic States 1940
The Baltic Theatre 1941
The Advance to Daugavpils and Riga
Combat at Raseiniai
The German Invasion of Estonia, 1941
The Defence of Narva, February–April 1944
The Withdrawal from Narva, 25–26 July 1944
Operations Doppelkopf/Cäsar, August 1944
Soviet Reconquest of Estonia, 1944
The Drive to the Baltic, October 1944
The Courland Bridgehead
Courland Battles
Second Battle of Courland
Third Battle of Courland
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Inevitably, a book such as this is only possible as a result of the generous help of many people.
My good friend David Clarke kindly loaned me several books, which I would otherwise have struggled to obtain. Indeed, David was responsible many years ago for first introducing me to Operations Doppelkopf and Cäsar, my first steps on the road that led to this book. Tom Houlihan, of www.mapsatwar.us, provided invaluable help and showed great patience when working with me on the maps. I am also hugely grateful to Irina Dovbush, who helped me find many of the Soviet sources that I used.
My agent, Robert Dudley, was as always a source of professional advice and personal encouragement. The staff at Osprey, particularly Kate Moore, Marcus Cowper and Emily Holmes, were as professional and as helpful as anyone could wish.
As usual, my family showed huge forbearance with me as I worked on this book, and I am eternally grateful to them.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Baltic States
Juozas Ambrazevičius – appointed as acting prime minister of Lithuania after the German invasion in 1941.
Oskars Dankers – appointed by the Germans in July 1941 as the leader of the future Latvian administration.
Augusts Kirhenšteins – government leader in Latvia following the Soviet invasion in June 1940.
Petras Kubiliūnas – appointed by the Germans in July 1941 as General Counsel in Lithuania, implementing German policies, particularly involved in recruiting Lithuanians for German forces.
Hjalmar Mäe – appointed by the Germans in July 1941 to run a directorate in Estonia implementing German policies.
Antanas Merkys – prime minister of Lithuania in 1939; removed in June 1940.
Vincas Mickevičius – Lithuanian Foreign Minister following the 1940 Soviet invasion; he remained in post for less than a month.
Ladas Natkevičius – Lithuanian ambassador to Moscow in 1939.
Justas Paleckis – leader of Lithuania following the 1940 Soviet invasion.
Konstantin Päts – Estonia’s head of state on the outbreak of war in 1939; he was forced to resign in mid-July 1940.
Karl Selter – Estonian Foreign Minister in 1939.
Antanas Smetona – leader of Lithuania on the outbreak of war in 1939; in June 1940 he fled to Germany, and onwards to the United States.
Kārlis Ulmanis – Latvia’s head of state in 1939; he was forced to resign in mid-July 1940.
Juozas Urbšys – Lithuanian Foreign Minister from 1938 to 1940.
Johannes Vares – Estonian Prime Minister following the 1940 Soviet invasion.
German
General Clemens Betzel – commander of IV Panzer Division during 1944; he and his division played a key part in operations Doppelkopf and Cäsar and in the fighting for Courland from October 1944 to January 1945.
Generalmajor Erich Brandenberger – commander of 8th Panzer Division during Operation Barbarossa.
Generalfeldmarschall Walther von Brauchitsch – commander of the German Army in 1941.
Generaloberst (from July 1940), later Generalfeldmarschall (from February 1943) Ernst Busch – commander of 16th Army during Operation Barbarossa; commanded Army Group Centre during the fighting around Narva of January–April 1944.
Oberst Hans Christern – commander of the 4th Panzer Division’s 35th Panzer Regiment; he took command of 4th Panzer Division during Betzel’s temporary absence in December 1944.
Generaloberst Johannes Friessner – commander of Army Group North during July 1944, replacing Lindemann, but handing over to Schörner by the end of the month.
Generalmajor Rüdiger von der Goltz – German commander in Latvia in 1918–19.
Generaloberst Heinz Guderian – chief of staff at German Army High Command (OKH).
General Christian Hansen – commander of 16th Army in 1944.
Reinhard Heydrich – head of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (‘Reich Main Security Administration’ or RSHA).
Generaloberst Erich Hoepner – commander of 4th Panzer Group, Army Group North, during Operation Barbarossa.
Oberst Hermann Hoth – commander of 3rd Panzer Group, Army Group Centre, during Operation Barbarossa.
SS-Standartenführer Karl Jäger – commander of Einsatzkommando 3 from summer 1941; he was appointed commander of the Security Police and Sicherheitsdienst (‘security department,’ or SD) in Lithuania at the same time, and remained in Lithuania for two years. He wrote the Jäger Report, a deta
iled account of the killings of the Jews in the Kaunas ghetto during the second half of 1941.
Generaloberst Georg von Küchler – commander of 18th Army during Operation Barbarossa. He commanded Army Group North after the dismissal of Leeb in December 1941, but was dismissed in January 1944, and replaced by Model.
Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb – commander of Army Group North, the main military command in the Baltic region, comprising 16th Army, 18th Army and 4th Panzer Group, at the start of Operation Barbarossa.
Generaloberst Georg Lindemann – commander of 18th Army from January 1942 to March 1944; from end March until July 1944 he led Army Group North.
General (from June 1940), later Generalfeldmarschall (from July 1942) Erich von Manstein – commander of LVI Panzer Corps during Operation Barbarossa. Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model – commander of Army Group North from January 1944, when he succeeded Küchler; he was promoted to field marshal two months later. On 31 March 1944 he was moved to Army Group North Ukraine and replaced at Army Group North by Lindemann; in June, he assumed command of Army Group Centre following Operation Bagration. He was transferred to the Western Front in August 1944, and was followed as commander of Army Group Centre by Reinhardt.
General Georg-Hans Reinhardt – commander of XLI Panzer Corps at the start of Operation Barbarossa. Promoted to Generaloberst, he commanded 3rd Panzer Army during the fighting around Vilnius in July 1944. In August 1944 he replaced Model as commander of Army Group Centre.
Joachim von Ribbentrop – German Foreign Minister 1938–45; he negotiated the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with the Soviet Union.
Alfred Rosenberg – a leading National Socialist, with a strong interest in racial theory; strongly anti-Semitic and anti-Bolshevik, he was highly influential in the development of Nazi racial ideology, and his ideas played a significant part in Generalplan Ost. From 1941 he was chief of the newly created Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete (‘Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories’) or Ostministerium.
General Dietrich von Saucken – commander of the newly reconstituted XXXIX Panzer Corps in summer 1944. He took command of AOK Ostpreussen in April 1945.
General Ferdinand Schörner – Appointed commander of Army Group North in July 1944, replacing Friessner. He had a reputation for imposing iron discipline, and was popular with Hitler. He served with Army Group North until January 1945, when 16th and 18th Armies became part of the newly designated Army Group Courland, under the command of Vietinghoff.
Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg – German ambassador to Moscow in 1939.
Franz Walter Stahlecker – a lawyer who rose to high rank in the Sicherheitsdienst (‘Security Administration’ or SD); he commanded Einsatzgruppe A during Operation Barbarossa. He wrote a detailed report showing how his group operated in Lithuania following the German invasion.
SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner – commander of III (Germanische) SS Panzer Corps from May 1943 to October 1944.
Generaloberst Heinrich von Vietinghoff – commander of the newly designated Army Group Courland from January to March 1945.
Soviet
Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Khristorovich Bagramian – as deputy Chief of Staff of the South-western Front at the start of Operation Barbarossa, Bagramian survived the defeat of the front in the Western Ukraine. He later rose to command first 16th Army, then 11th Army, before being appointed commander of 1st Baltic Front, in which role he played a key part in Operation Bagration in 1944. He was heavily involved in the fighting for the Courland region, and later wrote a detailed account of his experiences.
Lavrenti Beria – head of the NKVD, or Russian secret police.
General Ivan Danilovich Cherniakhovsky – commander of 28th Tank Division during Operation Barbarossa. He was promoted to command the 3rd Belarusian Front during 1944–45, and fought skilfully during Operation Bagration.
Colonel-General Ivan Mikhailovich Chistiakov – commander of 6th Guards Army from 1943 to the end of the war; he and his men played an important part in Operation Cäsar and in the fighting for Courland during October 1944.
Vladimir Georgievich Dekanozov – a Deputy Commissar for Foreign Affairs sent by the Soviet Union to organise a new government in Lithuania after the removal of Antanas Smetona in June 1940; in November 1940, he became Soviet ambassador to Berlin.
Leonid Alexandrovich Govorov – commander of the Leningrad Front from April 1942. In January 1945, following the disbanding of the Leningrad Front, he replaced Yeremenko as commander of 2nd Baltic Front.
Fyodor Isidorovich Kuznetsov – commander of the Baltic Special Military District, the first line of defence of Leningrad during Operation Barbarossa.
Maxim Maximovich Litvinov – Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs for most of the 1930s, but dismissed by Stalin in 1939, partly because of his Jewish ancestry.
Kirill Afanasevich Meretskov – commander of the Volkhov Front in January 1944.
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov – became Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs in 1939, on the dismissal of Litvinov by Stalin. Along with Stalin, he negotiated the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, which came to an end with the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.
Lieutenant General Petr Petrovich Sobennikov – commander of 8th Army at the start of Operation Barbarossa, he replaced Kuznetsov as Commander of the Baltic Special Military district following the fighting of June 1941.
Colonel-General Vasili Timofeevich Volskii – commander of 5th Guards Tank Army during the fighting in the Courland area of October 1944.
Marshal of the Soviet Union Andrei Ivanovich Yeremenko – commander of 2nd Baltic Front which joined the fighting in the Baltic during summer 1944.
Ivan Zotov – the Soviet ambassador in Latvia in 1940.
PREFACE
A quote often attributed – possibly incorrectly – to Josef Stalin is that ‘the death of one person is a tragedy; the death of one million is a statistic’. Such a statement could certainly be said to apply to the Baltic States. The destruction and suffering endured by many nations during the Second World War are beyond question, but often the scale of the numbers involved can reduce their impact. The German atrocities in the Soviet Union, followed by Soviet atrocities in Germany, are well known and widely documented, but in terms of the proportion of the population lost, the countries caught between these powerful protagonists – Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – suffered far more than any other. Whilst the deaths in Poland are relatively well known, the suffering in the Baltic States is rarely mentioned, even though their population loss, at roughly 20 per cent, was higher than that of any country other than Poland.
These terrible casualties were brought about by the unique circumstances of these three nations, which suffered three occupations in quick succession – the first Soviet occupation in 1939, the German occupation in 1941 and the second Soviet occupation in 1944–45, which would last nearly half a century. But in contrast to the situation in Poland, many of the deaths of Baltic citizens, particularly in Lithuania and Latvia, were at the hands of their fellow Balts, as the occupying powers ruthlessly exploited divisions within these countries. And, unlike Poland, the three nations were forced by their unique situation to offer support, albeit limited and reluctant, to Germany, leaving them unable to claim the backing of the victorious Allies in the post-war settlement.
This book does not attempt to judge the decisions made by the leaders and people of the Baltic States, who struggled to reconcile the situation in which they found themselves with their own aspirations; it seeks to give an account of the terrible destruction and bloodshed that had such a devastating effect on this corner of Europe, the consequences of which are still felt today.
INTRODUCTION
For several hundred years, the people of the Baltic States were little more than pawns in the wars fought by foreign rulers on their lands. During this period, their own aspirations – even those of the relatively small numbers of more
affluent Balts – were of no consequence. Eventually, this led to the rise of nationalist movements in the late 18th century, and the series of wars that brought independence in the wake of the First World War. But despite their similar histories during these wars, and the Second World War that followed, the origins of the three nations were very different, resulting in three very distinct countries.
Lithuania, the most southerly of the Baltic States, was the first of the three to form a national entity when Mindaugas was crowned as its first king in 1253. Ten years later, his country began a long conflict with the crusading Teutonic Knights from neighbouring Prussia. In 1385, Lithuania formed a union with Poland and embraced Christianity for the first time; the two nations now cooperated against their shared enemy in Prussia, and won a decisive victory over the Teutonic Knights at Tannenberg or Grunwald in 1410. As the Prussian threat declined, many Lithuanian nobles sought to break the union with Poland, but the rising power of the Grand Duchy of Muscovy forced Poland and Lithuania into ever-closer cooperation. The resultant commonwealth lasted until it was dismembered during the First Partition of Poland in 1772. Thereafter, Lithuania became part of the Russian Empire.
Latvia, immediately to the north of Lithuania, was peopled by similar tribes to the original Lithuanians. They slowly merged into five distinct groupings, and resisted attempts by missionaries to introduce Christianity in the late 12th century. Like the tribes of Estonia, the Latvians were separated from the depths of Russia by dense forests and swamps, and until the advent of seaborne trade from the west they enjoyed a relatively isolated, if hard and frugal, existence. The traders who accompanied the Christian missionaries established a series of ports along the Baltic coast to facilitate the growing trade with northern Europe, and many of these ports became part of the Hanseatic League, a trading network of independent cities that originated in the German port of Lübeck. The resistance of the local people to Christianity attracted the attention of the German crusading orders, for whose members a crusade in the pagan Baltic region was regarded as spiritually equivalent to the much harder task of fighting to recapture the Holy Land; it had the added benefit of being much closer to home, and was therefore far easier – and cheaper – to organise. The sons of several kings of Western Europe served short spells in the Baltic Crusades, and were able to join the fighting orders and return home within a year. In 1202, the Bishop of Riga, whose post had only been in existence for a year, established a new order of knights, the Brotherhood of the Sword, which rapidly conquered the territory known as Livonia. In 1236, the knights of the order raided the territory of the Samogitians, one of the larger local tribes. As they returned home, they found their way blocked by a force of Samogitian warriors near the small settlement of Saule, today known as Šiauliai. In the fighting that followed, nearly the entire Christian army, which numbered 3,000, was killed, including up to 60 knights. Volkwyn, the Master of the Order, was amongst the dead. Tribes to the south of the River Daugava, who had been laboriously conquered by the Sword Brothers, rose up in revolt. In order to survive, the remaining knights were transformed into the Livonian Order, formally a branch of the Teutonic Knights of Prussia, though the presence of Lithuania between the territories controlled by the two crusading orders helped prevent a merging of their strength. As the power of the crusading orders declined, Latvian territory was annexed by its neighbours, with southern parts coming under Lithuanian and Polish control while Sweden occupied northern Livonia. Eventually, like Lithuania, Latvia was absorbed into the Russian Empire.