View source for Military history of Latvia during World War II

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After the [[Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940|occupation of Latvia by the USSR]] in June 1940, much of the previous Latvian army was disbanded and many of its soldiers and officers were arrested and imprisoned or executed. The following year [[occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany|Nazi Germany occupied Latvia]] during the offensive of [[Army Group North]]. The German [[Einsatzgruppen]] were aided by a group known as [[Arajs Kommando]] in the killing of Latvian Jews as part of the [[Holocaust]]. Latvian soldiers fought on both sides of the conflict against their will, and in 1943 180,000 Latvian men were drafted into the  [[Latvian Legion]] of the [[Waffen-SS]] and other German auxiliary forces.

In the [[Baltic Offensive]] of autumn 1944 the Soviet Union recaptured much of its Baltic coastline, leaving 200,000 troops of Army Group North cut off in the [[Courland Pocket]]. Formed into [[Army Group Courland]], this force held out until the end of the war in May 1945, when it surrendered to the Soviet forces and the troops were sent to prison camps.

[[File:Rzeczpospolita 1938.svg|thumb|300px|[[Latvia]] and neighbouring countries before [[World War II]].]]

==Coup==
[[Kārlis Ulmanis]] staged a bloodless [[coup d'état]] on May 15, 1934, establishing a [[nationalist]] [[dictatorship]] that lasted until 1940. Most of the [[Baltic German]]s left [[Latvia]] by agreement between Ulmanis' government and [[Nazi Germany]] after the conclusion of the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]]. On October 5, 1939, Latvia was forced to accept a "mutual assistance" pact with the [[Soviet Union]], granting the Soviets the right to station 25,000 troops on Latvian territory. On June 16, 1940, [[Vyacheslav Molotov]] presented the Latvian representative in [[Moscow]] with an ultimatum accusing Latvia of violations of that pact.

==Soviet annexation==
{{Main|Occupation of Latvia 1940-1945}}

On June 17 the [[Red Army]] [[Occupation of Latvia|occupied the country]]. Rigged elections for a "[[People's Saeima]]" were held, and a [[puppet government]] headed by [[Augusts Kirhenšteins]] led Latvia into the USSR. The annexation was formalized on August 5, 1940. The ensuing months would become known in Latvia as ''[[Baigais Gads]]'', the Year of Horror. Mass arrests, disappearances, and deportations culminated on the night of June 14, 1941. Prior to [[Operation Barbarossa|the German invasion]], in less than a year, at least 27,586 persons were arrested; most were deported, and about 945 persons were shot.

After the occupation of Latvia in June 1940 the annihilation of the Latvian army began. The army was renamed People’s Army, and in September–November 1940, the [[Red Army]]’s [[24th Rifle Corps|24th Territorial Rifle Corps]]. In September the corps contained 24,416 men but in autumn more than 800 officers and about 10,000 instructors and soldiers were discharged. The arresting of soldiers continued in the following months. In June 1940, the entire Territorial Corps was sent to [[Litene]] camp. Before leaving the camp, Latvians drafted in 1939 were demobilised, and replaced by about 4,000 Russian soldiers from area around Moscow. On June 10, the corps senior officers were sent to Russia where they were arrested and most of them shot. On June 14 at least 430 officers were arrested and sent to [[Gulag]] camps. After the [[Operation Barbarossa|German attack]] on the Soviet Union, from June 29 to July 1 more than 2,080 Latvian soldiers were demobilised, fearing that they might turn their weapons against the Russian commissars and officers. Simultaneously, many soldiers and officers deserted and when the corps crossed the Latvian border only about 3,000 Latvian soldiers remained.<ref>{{cite book| last = Bleiere| first = Daina |author2=Ilgvars Butulis |author3=Antonijs Zunda |author4=Aivars Stranga |author5=Inesis Feldmanis| title = History of Latvia : the 20th century.| publisher = [[Jumava (publisher)|Jumava]]| location = [[Riga]]| pages = 327| year = 2006| isbn = 9984-38-038-6| oclc = 70240317}}</ref>

==German occupation==
{{Main|Occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany}}

[[File:Axis invasion of Soviet Union, June-December 1941 with surrounded Soviet Armies.svg|thumb|300px|[[Operation Barbarossa]]: the German invasion of the [[Soviet Union]], 21 June 1941 to 5 December 1941
{{Legend|#fff8d5|to 9 July 1941}}
{{Legend|#ffd2b9|to 1 September 1941}}
{{Legend|#ebd7ff|to 9 September 1941}}
{{Legend|#ccffcd|to 5 December 1941}}
]]

[[Army Group North]]'s [[Objective (goal)|objective]] was [[Saint Petersburg|Leningrad]] via the [[Baltic States]]. Comprising the 16th and 18th Armies and 4th Panzer Group, this formation drove through [[Lithuania]], [[Latvia]], [[Estonia]] and the cities of [[Russian SFSR]] of [[Pskov]] and [[Novgorod]]. While under German occupation, Latvia was administered as part of [[Reichskommissariat Ostland]]. In 1941 empowered by the [[Einsatzgruppen]] and Nazi war criminal [[Franz Walter Stahlecker]] the far-right-wing extremist group of 500 [[Arajs Kommando]] led by [[Viktors Arājs]] participated in the [[Holocaust]]. 80,000 to 100,000 Latvian citizens were killed during the Nazi occupation, including ca. 70,000 Latvian [[Jews]]; about 20,000 Jews brought from [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]] were also murdered in Latvia. Nearly three years later in 1943, forced conscription of 180,000 Latvian men into the German auxiliary forces was ordered by Hitler. Latvian soldiers fought on both sides of the conflict against their will, including in the [[Latvian Legion]] of the [[Waffen-SS]], most of them conscripted by the occupying authorities.

[[File:Eastern Front 1943-08 to 1944-12.png|thumb|300px|Soviet advances from 1 August 1943 to 31 December 1944
{{Legend|#fff8d5|to 1 December 1943}}
{{Legend|#ffd2b9|to 30 April 1944}}
{{Legend|#ebd7ff|to 19 August 1944}}
{{Legend|#ccffcd|to 31 December 1944}}
]]

While the [[Army Group North]] held back the Soviet [[Battle of Narva (1944)|Estonian Operation]], the Soviet [[Operation Bagration]] achieved unbelievable success. [[Army Group Centre]] was in tatters, and the northern edge of the Soviet assault threatened to trap [[Army Group North]] in a pocket in [[Courland]]. [[Panzer]]s of [[Hyazinth Graf Strachwitz von Gross-Zauche und Camminetz]] had been sent back to the capital of Ostland, [[Riga]] and in ferocious defensive battles had halted the Soviet advance in late April, 1944. Strachwitz had been needed elsewhere, and was soon back to acting as the Army Group's fire brigade. Strachwitz's Panzerverband was broken up in late July. By early August, the Soviets were again ready to attempt to cut off Army Group North from Army Group Centre.

==Battle of the  Baltic==
{{Main|Battle of the Baltic (1944)}}

[[File:RedArmy19Aug31Dec44.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Soviet operations 19 August 1944 to 31 December 1944.]]

A massive Soviet assault sliced through the German lines and Army Group North was completely isolated from its neighbour. Strachwitz was trapped outside the pocket, and ''Panzerverband von Strachwitz'' was reformed, this time from elements of the [[101st Panzer Brigade]] of panzer-ace Oberst [[Meinrad von Lauchert]] and the newly formed [[SS Panzer Brigade Gross]] under SS-Sturmbannführer Gross. Inside the trapped pocket, the remaining panzers and [[StuG III]]s of the ''Hermann von Salza'' and the last of Jähde's Tigers were formed into another Kampfgruppe to attack from the inside of the trap. On 19 August 1944, the assault, which had been dubbed Unternehmen Doppelkopf ([[Operation Doppelkopf]]) got underway. It was preceded by a bombardment by the [[Cruiser]] [[German cruiser Prinz Eugen|Prinz Eugen's]] 380mm guns, which destroyed forty-eight [[T-34]]s assembling in the square at [[Tukums]]. Contact was restored between the army groups. The 101.Panzerbrigade was now assigned to the [[Battle of Narva (1944)#Formation of Army Detachment "Narwa"|army detachment "Narwa]] at the [[Tartu Offensive|Emajõgi River Front]] in [[Estonia]], bolstering the defenders' armour strength. Disaster had been averted, but the warning was clear. Army Group North was extremely vulnerable to being cut off. In 1944, the [[Red Army]] lifted the [[Battle of Leningrad|siege of Leningrad]] and re-conquered the Baltic area along with much of [[Ukraine]] and [[Belarus]]. However, some 200,000 German troops held out in [[Courland]]. They were besieged with their backs to the [[Baltic Sea]]. They were senselessly stuck there; the Red Army naturally did not pay much attention while concentrating its men and weapons on the attacks on [[East Prussia]], [[Silesia]], [[Pomerania]], and ultimately [[Berlin]]. [[Colonel-General]] [[Heinz Guderian]], the Chief of the [[German General Staff]], insisted to [[Adolf Hitler]] that the troops in Courland should be evacuated by sea and used for the defense of the [[Reich]]. However, Hitler refused and ordered the German forces in Courland to hold out. He believed them necessary to protect German [[submarine]] bases along the Baltic coast.

[[File:Eastern Front 1945-01 to 1945-05.png|thumb|300px|Soviet advances from 1 January 1945 to 7 May 1945]]

On January 15, 1945, [[Army Group Courland]] (''Heeresgruppe Kurland'') was formed under [[Colonel-General]] Dr. [[Lothar Rendulic]]. Until the end of the war, Army Group Courland (including divisions such as the Latvian Freiwiliger SS Legion)  successfully defended the [[Courland Peninsula]]. It held out until May 8, 1945, when it surrendered under [[Colonel-General]] [[Carl Hilpert]], the army group's last commander. He surrendered to Marshal [[Leonid Govorov]], the commander of opposing Soviet forces on the Courland perimeter. At this time the group still consisted of some 31 divisions of varying strength. After May 9, 1945 approximately 203,000 troops of Army Group Courland began moving to Soviet prison camps in the East. Many soldiers evaded capture and joined the [[Forest Brothers]] resistance that waged unsuccessful guerilla warfare for several years.

==Timeline==

=== 1939 ===
* August 23, 1939 [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] signed. Pact gave Soviet Union free hand in Estonia, Latvia and Finland.
* October 2, 1939 Soviet Union demands mutual assistance pact with Latvia.
* October 5, 1939 Latvia gives in to Soviet bases demands and [[Soviet–Latvian Mutual Assistance Treaty]] signed.

===1940===
* June 15, 1940 at dawn Soviet troops storm and capture Latvian border posts [[Maslenki|Masļenki and Šmaiļi]].
* June 16, 1940 Similar ultimatums were given to Estonia and Latvia.
* June 17, 1940 Estonia and Latvia gave in to the Soviet demands and are occupied.
* June 20, 1940 New Latvian government of Moscow-approved ministers is formed.
* July 14-July 15, 1940 Elections in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, where non-communist candidates were disqualified, harassed and beaten.
* July 21, 1940 New Latvian [[Saeima]] accepts wide nationalisation and [[Sovietization]] decrees.
* July 22, 1940 The president of Latvia, [[Kārlis Ulmanis]], is arrested and deported to Russia,  never returning. He died in a prison in [[Krasnovodsk]] on September 20, 1942.
* August 5, 1940 Soviet Union annexes Latvia.

===1941===
June 14, 1941 The Soviet Union deports 15,424 Latvians including over 3,000 children by train to Siberia.

=== 1942 ===
{{Emptysection|date=February 2013}}

===1943===
{{Emptysection|date=February 2013}}

=== 1944 ===
{{Emptysection|date=February 2013}}

===1945===

== See also ==
* [[Latvian SSR]]
* [[Latvian fleet that fought for the Allies in World War II]]

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Latvia topics}}
{{WWIIHistory}}
{{Soviet Union topics}}

[[Category:Military history of Latvia during World War II| ]]
[[Category:Latvia in World War II| ]]
[[Category:Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic]]
[[Category:Eastern Front (World War II)|Latvia]]
[[Category:1940s in Latvia]]
[[Category:Jewish Latvian history]]
[[Category:Politics of World War II|Latvia]]
[[Category:World War II military history by country|Latvia]]