Late-War German Defensive Tactics at Courland

[@kristss8534]

My grandparents' old home was located near the frontline of the Courland pocket. When I was a kid, on the way to the nearby pond, I rember one could see rusted out remains of what I presume were artillery shells. Also when digging a hole for the midsummer bonfire, we found a rusted head of german hand grenade (Stielhandgranate). The craziest thing probably was when helping a neighbouring house to clear their attic, I found an (ausweis) card of some SS legion member...

[@igorc.k.3184]

Yep, common findings between Latvians. My family is Lativan and my great-grandfather was a sailor in the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Imperial Navy during the 1900s. When WW2 came he went back to Latvia. He came back a few years later, just after the war, and never spoke of what happened. Either he was a legionnaire, or he had another wife lol

[@Renuars]

That region is still attractive to people with metal detectors in their hands. The pocket was the official name that the Soviet propaganda used after the war. Now it is also locally called the fortress on account of it not being taken by the Soviets until it surrendered itself. This topic is of interest in Latvia mostly because among those German divisions was the 2nd Latvian division. So they kinda fought for their homeland.

[@declanmcnamara2223]

@@Renuars i think he mentioned at the start, the soviets had the germans right where they wanted them (a self enforced POW camp) and didnt want to spend men and material on what would be a pointless fight.

[@swagmasterOG]

@@declanmcnamara2223 that's just a soviet excuse for failing so badly

[@crypt1c_865]

@@swagmasterOG the push into germany was more important

[@lamwen03]

I don't know as I would properly describe ' lack of agressiveness' by the enemy forces as a 'compalint'. :-)

[@ericnewton1686]

Compliment? Oh complaint I see

Beeing a German myself, I am quite sure that they meant it as a complaint :) Criticism seams to be a national sport and if somebody does something in our opinion not exactly perfectly, we do complain. Even if it is the enemy :)

[@jumi9342]

There's no glory to be won in fighting an incapable foe ;)

[@IronWarhorsesFun]

Sounds like the real goal was to pin them in place while Berlin was taken. That would make a lot is sense as the same was the objective for the Disastrous campaign in Italy.

[@IronWarhorsesFun]

@ The Red Army did not give us enough Abwer for our Slacht🤣🤣🤣

[@monophthalmos9633]

My great grandfather died in the Courland pocket in late November/early December 1944 (not quite sure right now). Amazingly his commander managed to write a letter to my great grandmother in East Prussia to inform her and the letter arrived. After she got the letter her and my grandmother fled to the West, they were on the penultimate cruise of the Wilhelm Gustloff and safely reached their destination. Who knows how everything would have turned out if this letter from the Courland pocket hadn't arrived or arrived later.

[@moviereviews1446]

Rest in peace

[@konstancemakjaveli]

Ammo depots from kurland battles still litter Latvia. Its kinda like France from WW1, but less known

[@TotalRookie_LV]

While living as a kid in 1980s around that area, in some 150-200m from house in the woods I found a bit weird terrain, than I also found absolutely rusted jerry cans with an eagle on them, obviously that "weird terrain" were the remains of defence line trenches. Latvia is still littered with "surprises" from both world wars and imperial Russia's and Soviet eras, thus our deminer guys are quite experienced and have some job to do pretty much every week. Echoes of wars can be found almost anywhere, like my mom bought a half of an old small house in a town in the middle of Latvia, as dad was doing some refurbishing under the roof, it turned out, there has been fire - some wood parts were charred. They asked neighbours, nobody could remember any fire, until an older man recalled, there was something about a shell hitting that roof back in WWII. Oh, I might add that one of my distant relatives were in Courland in 1944 on German side. He got "volunteered" into the Latvian SS Legion - Nazis took 17 yo guys right from school and put him into Salaspils camp, then gave him a "choice" - to join the Legion or to be transferred to another camp somewhere in Poland. In late 1944 he got injured, got sent to a hospital in Germany, returned by a ship to Liepāja and soon got captured by Soviets and... ended the war among the ranks of the Soviet army as: 1) cannon fodder is cannon fodder, Soviets very well knew what a "SS volunteer" he was, and 2) as a POW he helped Russian soldier guarding him to get some moonshine, to cure his hangover, thus instead of being punished for being "a Nazi traitor", he got enlisted into Soviet army. Had no troubles after the war, even could travel out of USSR to work as engineer in Egypt.

[@lkrnpk]

Actually quite a few Latvian SS soldiers managed to ''switch sides'' when Soviets came in. Maybe not a lot but these stories are out there, but guess a lot depended on what kind of a person the guy was and if he was really a volunteer and commie hater and huge nationalist, or just some enlisted guy who perhaps had decent Russian and got friendly with his captors

[@TotalRookie_LV]

​@@lkrnpk Sure, in the company I work for, there was a welder, I've never met him myself, I only know this story from our foreman. That man served in the Legion as a gunner on MG 42, a good one, he got awarded for that, but then he walked across the front line with his weapon, and continued to serve as a gunner, but on the Soviet side, again he was awarded. After Latvia regained independence he used to joke about those awards and asked, so which day should he celebrate - 9th of May (Soviet Victory day) or 16th of March (commemoration day of Legionaries)? I'd say - both, and wear all medals at the same time just for giggles. Look, Latvia as a state did not participate in the WWII at all, it got invaded and occupied by Soviets, that was it. All that was left of the republic was the embassy in the USA. Neither Soviets, nor Nazis were our friends, there were, concentration camps, mass shootings, forced conscription and other crap on both sides, thus we were not obliged to be faithful to either side, just swear allegiance to any of them, which gives you a weapon to shoot at the other one. However, since we were betrayed by Soviets in 1940, at that time it seemed to make more sense to fight on the Axis side, to revenge that injustice., sort of what Finns did, except they still had their own country.

[@Svemirsky]

I hate how little we know about the ww2 and it was less than 100yrs ago. I live in Serbia and we still have huge problem with commie propaganda, in Balkans, as a whole. Like straight up fabrication or changing the events - that had live allied witnesses. To make things worse since Tito betrayed Stalin, in order to get US $, even West doesn't care anymore. And, I kid you not, ex-commie ruling families are still in charge, now funded by - EU grants. Complete circus. Anyway always great to read stories from not that well known fronts. Peace

[@webtoedman]

I knew an elderly Latvian gentleman who had nearly the same story. He ended up as an instructor in a red army motor school, and met his future wife there.

[@florinivan6907]

It was probably a lot easier for 17/18 year old to switch sides. Even in 1945 it was understood that youth are naive and easily duped. Had he been a 30 year old officer it would certainly have been harder to switch sides.

[@ivarstikums]

I remember in childhood I visited father’s friend in Courland, he had picket fence with many German helmets hanging, they were not seen as super rare thing to find and left to rot. You’re still very likely to find something in forests. There are many stories of heavy equipment left in swamps before surrender.

[@quercusrobur1966]

Some 20 years ago when my family was making more farmland from overgrowth first potato harvests were gathered with 2 buckets: 1 for potatoes and second one for grenades. To this day every year shells are being brought up with ploughs.

[@rShakeford]

These tactics videos are my favorite. No one else breaks down small unit tactics like you.

[@grizwoldphantasia5005]

I know little of ground warfare and don't really care much for the details, but these short little deep dives do fascinate me. I am curious about how this Courland Pocket was resupplied this late in the war, the dreaded L-word. If they were isolated from Germany for the last several months of the war, did they have several months ammo stockpiled, was that usual, and so on. Somewhat related, how did Germany manage to even manufacture and distribute anything in the last several months? The general but vague perception I have is of infrastructure bombed to pieces, factories relocated to tunnels and other underground places in many smaller pieces scattered all over, with components and sub-assemblies built far apart and collected for final assembly; but while that might protect the factories from bombing, it makes the rail, road, and river networks more important. How did coal mines still function, or fuel synthesis plants, or heck, even agricultural distribution? Since the reality is that they did function well enough to keep Germany fighting, my perception must be wrong, so a video setting me straight would be welcome :-)

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Thank you. Sadly, very little information is out there. I assume that one or several supply hubs were in the pocket as well, e.g., like Königsberg in East Prussia kzbin.info/www/bejne/aKHIgaSuj8hpn5o. At least in the report (although that was from the 2nd Battle so rather early) did not mention an issue about ammo. They did evacuate some units and civilians, I assume they brought in supplies during these runs. I will cover production in an upcoming video, but not how, but at least some numbers from 1945.

[@Wien1938]

There's a couple of good books on the late war defence of Silesia and I can confirm from these that the coal mines remained working up until the day before the Germans believed they would be lost.

[@TheSunchaster]

They have pretty well supply until March 1945. If (some of) you know Russian, i recommend videos with Miroslav Morozov "Мирослав Морозов. Бои на Балтике в начале 1945 г. Часть 1. Немецкая эвакуация морем", "...Часть 4. Неудачная блокада Курляндской группировки." etc. And they covered Red Fleet and Air forces of Red Army counteraction against supply and evacuation.

[@Walnussbaer95]

These kinds of questions also come to my mind! I would really like to hear more about these topics.

[@Jan-rq8mo]

This might be a little useless if you don't speak German but the Mainstatearchive of Stuttgart has a digitalized file named "J170" which compiles the reports of south western German villages, towns and cities about the final days of the war. Some of these are simple reports, ending in less than a page but others are long narrative essays. Of course these should be taken with a grain of salt but they paint a very good picture of the final weeks before the German surrender. These files can be accessed online without any sort of registration or trouble. That being said they are of course in German. The roads were seemingly still mostly fine but very dangerous to drive on as even civilians would often be hit by allied airstrikes should they make use of them. That's why most tried to avoid them as much as possible. Factories were still running but the trucks that brought material in and transfered goods away were appearing less and less frequently before stopping altogether which ususally caused those factories to be abandoned. Eventually towns were entirely cut off from the rest of the Nation, not phsyically (yet) but simply because no official was present and the various communities weren't of any interest. That being said, a few officials still made their turns, trying to convince the people that they had to flee their town as Hitler would soon use his Wunderwaffe there to turn the tides, but these were simple death marshes and many villages had realized that by now and refused to participate in them. The German military at that point was utterly crushed but still refused to surrender. Lone 88s, Hitleryouth units with only 3 panzerfausts and shovels, not even a single rifle (yes this is not an exaggeration but actually what is told in one of the documents) left to defend a village against 2 American tank divisions. And the rare German regiment still in tact, responsible for covering far more frontline than it ever could. But still, the fighting continued as German soldiers refused to surrender, putting up fearsome resistance in almost every forrest and lone soldiers from scattered units sneaking through already occupied towns at night, using gardens and sheds for cover, trying to regroup, was an extremely common occurence. I suppose it can be almost described more as guerrilia warfare than anything else. Though do keep in mind that these are the stories of south western communities, where the Wehrmacht seized to exist as an organised military following what people even back then called a french "reverse ardennes" where they pushed their tanks through the German forests and flanked the major defensive line supposed to hold the region.

[@murderouskitten2577]

As Latvian from Courland , i can add one thing - Locals where pretty much Anti soviet in LV since 1940. The fear ( well founded ) of unwashed komunist horde was strong . There where volenteers , yes , but more , what i think is overlooked - there was practicly no anti german partisans in Courland . There where deserters , yes . But they usually just wanted to left alone , and did not actively seek fights with Heer.

[@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623]

You guys were lucky that the Germans considered you kinda Germanic adjacent. The Ukrainians welcomed them as liberators too but they got utterly assraped by the Germans, being seen as nothing more then either cheap slave labor or squatters to be removed or killed from future German land. If the Germans had treated you like they did with the Poles and the Russians you can bet there would have been a lot of anti-German partisans in Latvia. And not 2 SS divisions full of Latvians.

[@murderouskitten2577]

@@chaptermasterpedrokantor1623 Oh , there was not much love against germans . But there was PLEANTY of hate against soviets. And yes , LV had it easy ( except jews ) when compared with other countries occupied by 3rd reich . But look at it like this - gemrans where hated in LV untill 1940. Then red army marched in and in a year managed to make locals greet germans in 1941 as liberators. So , it is less of germans being nice or something against LV , and more of soviets being utterly stupid. Also - Those where Waffen SS , not SS divission. And many in them where volentolds. 3k where excecuted in germany for anti german sentiments in late war.

[@princeofcupspoc9073]

There seems to be a correlation between language spoken and political affiliation. Are/were there many German speakers in the Baltic?

[@murderouskitten2577]

@@princeofcupspoc9073 before 1940 ? there was around 65k germans living in LV out of 2 millions. Most left whe red army rolled in.

[@monkeymoment6478]

@@princeofcupspoc9073 I don’t really know what is supposed to be implied here? But yes, there were (and still are, but very small community) Germans in the Baltic, they are called Baltendeutsche. They had a presence there since the 1100s. But I’m not so sure they had anything to do necessarily with native Baltic people siding with the Germans. Baltic people tended not to like the Russians very much, so they had to pick between the lesser of the two evils in their eyes.

[@martinpoldma6393]

Thanks!

[@Ninja-kl8do]

Yo

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Thank you!

[@variszuzans299]

Indeed, the Fritz deserves credit for excellent defense in Courland. Agricultural land for centuries, the area is flat and open. Except for the occasional swamp and forest, there are no features to stop the tanks.

[@ZeSgtSchultz]

I bet those crops are growing real good now.

[@Hakkur123]

i do want to point out the soviets didnt use their best formations nor did they really want to desolve the pocket (500.000 man) because it was to much work and the focus was on Berlin and stopping the western powers as far as possible from it.. You may call Courland a strategical victory but in the grander scheme of things it was 500.000 men sitting idle doing nothing for Germany. I suggest TIK's video on the matter.

[@azoniarnl3362]

@@oohhboy-funhouse nothing wrong with the dude lol

[@Hakkur123]

@@oohhboy-funhouse his political views have no impact on his evidence based history views imo. But if you feel that way

[@azoniarnl3362]

@@oohhboy-funhouse You might not agree with his political opinions but that doesnt discredit any of his work related to ww2. And by reading your comment I can tell you dont even bother to watch his videos. I would suggest you watch them and maybe broaden your views on history and maybe even politics?

[@thorstennommensen5105]

After have been wounded in Normandy in August, my father (born 1923) was shipped into Kurland-Kessel in November 1944, fought there until february 1945 and then was shipped out to prepare for operation "Sonnenwind", a later failed counterattack of III. (germ.) SS-Panzerkorps. Withdrawing throughout Mecklenburg he became US prisoner of war at Grabow on 2nd of May 1945. I guess, his fate was better than that of those of his comrades, who had to stay in Kurland until the end of war.

[@ThatPianoNoob]

Pretty crazy how long they were able to hold out in there. The nazi ideology is shit, no need to discuss that one.. but some of the soldiers were badass. War is hell, it brings out the best and worst in people. Im glad your father not only survived but even escaped russian capture.

[@jonnypariah1]

Whether it's you or Bismarck, you guys make my day with these. Cheers man.

[@stirbjoernwesterhever6223]

My Granddad was in the Curland pocket. He was of one of the last ships leaving the pocket with Copenhagen as destination, where would handed over to the British Forces as a POW.

[@SkyFlaks]

Would like to see German defense tactics during the Battle of Hürtgen Forest. 👍

[@IronWarhorsesFun]

Battle of Berlin!

[@gamerdrache6076]

@@IronWarhorsesFun no.

[@HarryBalzak]

Been watching since 2016. Awesome quality. Keep up the great work!

[@Jan-rq8mo]

German officers complaining about a lack of enemy aggressiveness is something I too saw a lot when I worked at the Staatsarchiv. It always left me both dumbfounded and a little amused.

[@pnutz_2]

"why won't they run into our bullets and mortar bombardments?"

[@Jan-rq8mo]

@@pnutz_2 Amusingly it was often more like "They almost defeated us here, our line was completely shattered, why would they pull back? They could have destroyed our entire division!"

[@uic505050]

@@Jan-rq8mo How is that complaining? They were just noting that the Soviets could have defeated them, but for some reason more easily lost heart. Sounds like an important thing to note for superiors and tactical planning.

[@Christian-mt5jx]

@@uic505050 Kinda funny how that completely goes against the propaganda and misconceptions that are spread around about the Red Army that instead of a aggressive 'horde' as some misinformation says they were actually very cautious in some situations.

[@uic505050]

@@Christian-mt5jx by late 1944 Soviet infantry quality was quite low as noted in a bunch of reports even Soviet ones, so it isn't surprising a backwater area would get less aggressive infantry units/replacements

[@BeeeeepBoop]

Respect from Latvia!🇱🇻🇱🇻

[@JDMilitaria]

I really wish I could spend my time and energy into talking about history/education and or military strategies. Something incredibly fascinating about it all.. Well done

[@EricToTheScionti]

then do it

[@JDMilitaria]

@@EricToTheScionti I'm going to try, I've thought about it on and off for a while, trying to decide how to do it. I've started collecting militaria items and am seriously going to start trying to get more involved in it.. Just trying to find a good starting point

[@russbooth6766]

Get into historical reenacting with a good group and you can do it.

[@JDMilitaria]

@@russbooth6766 I've got kit for re-enacting. But where I live its almost none existent for events. They've cancelled it since Covid and don't plan on doing anymore

[@EdinProfa]

How about Oranienbaum Bridgehead near Leningrad, that kept its defenses in quite a small area for longer than 2 years?

[@ChrisS-fh7zt]

One other thing that is greatly over looked was that the Soviets was more interested and making sure most everything was going towards the Vistula and the main thrust towards Berlin, as Stalin was very paranoid that the Western Allies was going to make a concerted and major push to get to the German capital ahead of the Red Army, despite what was agreed to in the Tehran conference. So the Courland pocket was secondary and only was getting enough to contain the German forces that was trapped in it.

[@drEvilfromLV]

Not quite so, Sir. Soviets attempted breakthroughs on about-monthly basis up to April 1945.

[@user-vp9lc9up6v]

@@drEvilfromLV well no shit just becuase you have them in the corner you might as well should keep trying to make that corner smaller

[@PolishBehemoth]

You're missing the point. If the soviets goal was to contain them in place then why did they attack 6 times? Obviously the pocket was a frustration for them. The point is with a defensive force massively outnumbered and outgunned they fended off the strongest army int he world at that time. Tactically this is very impressive, irregardless of russia's plans on berlin.

[@user-vp9lc9up6v]

@@PolishBehemoth I'd say they wanted to keep them occupied by forcing them on the defensive

[@PolishBehemoth]

@@user-vp9lc9up6v that makes no sense at all. What you'd say has no military or historical example. They were already on the defensive. Do you think before typing?

[@douglasstrother6584]

TIK History has a detailed series on this as well. I've learned a lot from both of you.

[@1337n00blar]

This gives me flashbacks to my time at The Basic School for the US Marine Corps. There are lots of similar principles, such as the pre-designation of supplementary positions (called 'switch' positions here) to guard flanks. Our instructor always said, 'Being in the defense sucks', and he was right - you're always trying to dig deeper and it's exhausting.

[@gratefulguy4130]

Defense seems to be at a disadvantage in modern warfare

[@FrontkampferNSK]

my great-granduncle fought at courland he survived and was imprisoned until 1948

[@murderouskitten2577]

means he was lucky or was imprisoned just because. Being releases before 1951 was not too common.

[@FrontkampferNSK]

@@murderouskitten2577 He was 14 when He was imprisoned i think He was released because He was too Young

[@Zorro9129]

@Milk Guzzler A whole third of POWs were kept imprisoned half a decade after the War, which is another way of looking at it.

[@sapperjaeger]

Toll, wie immer!

[@MGB-learning]

Outstanding video and presentation.

[@nateweter4012]

Your accent/commentating voice is getting better. Much better, and it’s great to hear. It greatly adds to the experience and you’ve come a long way. Keep working at it!

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Glad you enjoy it!

[@MuddyDango]

I have an old book about US Army tactics somewhere. I think it was made in the 40s or 50s. It is crazy how much coordination goes into warfare.

[@Palermonen]

Scetches of tactical setups rarely come with scale, as they are just an abstract of your usual setup. Width and depth are influenced by terrain, strength, mission and other factors. The factual positioning before battle would need the eyes, minds, experience and creativity of the units' commanders according to the terrain. Another interesting topic could be to analyze the abstract scetch and see, which weapon supports what weapon, where are the arcs of fire, and the supposed "Auffanglinien". And also have a look into the terrain and explain, why they were successful in holding out for so long. But that probably isn't explained in your sources in depth.

[@Infinite_Jester]

I was conscripted and ended up as a platoon leader in the FDF, which considers itself somewhat 'Prussianized', if such a word can be used. We were taught to use scale in our overviews of the area and positions. It really helps in communication. Curious that the Germans did not avail themselves of such. Although perhaps they did at the platoon level and it was not considered necessary on the regimental level?

[@nextbest]

Did the introduction of MP44 assault rifles help in defence? .I think MP44 were common in Courland at the time.

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Nothing mentioned in the report.

[@qhebokasumi6223]

Love your content!!! Please keep uploading more!!

[@windsaw151]

Seeing all this gives me the impression of a more well equipped and orgainized force than I could imagine at that point of the war. I am quite surprised by the amount of anti-tank equipment. But then, this was probably an ideal setup.

[@gratefulguy4130]

German cohesion held to and past the surrender in many places. If it were as bad as the worst of it everywhere they could never have held on so long.

[@twostep1953]

U.S. Army Field Manuals of the time teach Primary, Secondary, and Alternate positions. Primary and Secondary cover the same area; Alternate is done if time, and covers a flank to protect against the enemy breaking through a neighbor unit and turning into your area.

[@case3270]

Could we get a scale for the map? At first I imagined this as a small field but now at 8:22 I can only see it as an entire battlefield

[@paganshredhead599]

It's not a map, it's a tactical sketch. Distances, positioning and layout had to be adapted to the realities in place by the frontline commanders.

[@case3270]

@@paganshredhead599 If this isnt a map than a field isn't a field, its an adaptive landscape

[@looinrims]

“Sadly the map didn’t have a scale”

[@tabletopgeneralsde310]

Very nice one Bernhard, have to save this for later.

[@ChristesII]

This video really takes me back to the days when I was playing "Close Combat" as a kid.

[@WeWillAlwaysHaveVALIS]

Wow, I have never heard of this defensive action before; only the desperate retreat wherein the Prinz Eugen fired her guns to suppressing the Soviet advance for 48 hours solid, smoothing out the rifling of her guns in the process and saving thousands of Weirmacht, German settlers of the region and native population who were fleeing the Soviet advance for varying reasons. Fantastic video as always, I so appreciate the level of detail you put into both your research and presentation. Could anyone else who happens to read this comment possibly recommend me a good book on German defensive doctrines in general? It's a subject matter that I have always wanted to learn more about but I unfortunately currently don't have any time to research the good/bad books on the matter at the moment. Thank you so much in advance, I seriously appreciate it.

[@andrewmetz9267]

I loved the positional maps you set up, and how they were added to as one went up to the Rgt. tree. Unfortunately, the plans are with relatively full strength. As you quoted and read earlier, the Rgt. reserves would be swallowed within 1 - 2 days of difficult combat. On the Eastern Front, especially after 1942, German combat divisions, especially motorized and panzer, were seriously short of manpower and/or (panzers here) equipment.

[@pnutz_2]

aah festungkurland, that was a map from ro1. all really dense forest until you got to the wooden pillboxes at the end

[@northland7885]

If people want more info about the Courland pocket i can recommend TIK's video "The Courland Pocket 1944-1945 FULL BATTLESTORM History" here on youtube. It's about 6 and a halv hour long but its a really good watch. He is also doing a stalingrad series atm wich is like over 30 episode long bow and he is only in October.

[@billbolton]

I concur.

[@princeofcupspoc9073]

I can't recommend Tik unless you are playing fallacy bingo.

[@DagarCoH]

@@princeofcupspoc9073 Imo it depends on what you watch: just stay clear of his political analysis stuff, his battlestorms are pretty sparse with that kind of claims.

[@northland7885]

@@princeofcupspoc9073 i watch for the history stuff, not his political stuff. I dont care where he is on the political spektrum.

[@tenarmurk]

@@princeofcupspoc9073 only watch battlestorms and qa if the question sounds interesting

[@hetzerwesson]

Excellent video! Very informative.

[@ruthenianthruth]

0:55 - Well its a bit confusing timeline. Or does it reflect how German soldiers perceived it? Week of war as two month and month of ceasefire as a weekend...

[@wmegamo6879]

Great work! I'm wondering what kind of software did you use to create the animation?

[@K-Nyne]

I wonder how these defensive plans would adapt to the local terrain. What if obstacles like water; hills and rocks are in the way, would the positions be moved?

[@angelostriandos6659]

Nice. Late war tactics are rare !

[@noneednoneed5752]

“We are born into this time and must bravely follow the path to the destined end. There is no other way. Our duty is to hold on to the lost position, without hope, without rescue, like that Roman soldier whose bones were found in front of a door in Pompeii, who, during the eruption of Vesuvius, died at his post because they forgot to relieve him. That is greatness. That is what it means to be a thoroughbred. The honorable end is the one thing that can not be taken from a man.” ― Oswald Spengler, Man and Technics: A Contribution to a Philosophy of Life

[@Zorro9129]

I've read "Decline of the West" but I should check that one out too.

[@rioutous0rchid09]

I don’t know if you take questions but I’ve always wondered why coaxial high caliber mgs (like those mounted on all the experimental US heavy tanks) and auto cannons (like the 20mm on the amx 30 or the mbt70) fell out of style. Was it a cost-related thing or were they simply deemed unnecessary?

[@venusflytrap2622]

Its probably due to the shift in terms of weaponry and tactics. To fight infantry you have IFV´s and for AA you have SPAA´s, most threats that existed earlier have either vanished (low alt strafing runs) or have a potential to knock your tank out from 40km away. So basically as you said cost related and unnecessary. Besides that even if a tank comes into the need of having a coax there are cannister shots and or proximity HE rounds that do the job as well or the crew is ready to meet their maker depending who shoots first etc..

[@chrism2027]

Really very interesting, depicted.

[@asweettooth1288]

Battlefield discovery was a show on Netflix, its great they found unknown German Graves. To the last man is a brutal concept.

[@cannonfodder4376]

Informative as always.

[@SNOUPS4]

2:30 "barely"... or "once more?"

[@hisdadjames4876]

Great stuff, though it took me five minutes to understand that the front defensive line was at the top, whereas in the Courland pocket presumably it was normally at the bottom (south)😂

[@TheSunchaster]

1:32 This is really poor statement. If i not misteken with the number, about 13 division (calculated) was transfered from Courland and some of them even defended Berlin. Not to mention about Soviet forces that involved in blockade and offensives, losses of manpower and resources. Statement about "big prison camp" is popular in Russia btw.

[@Bad_wolf_41]

Hey i love to follow your videos, and even i have an military background, but would you quickly help me? Whats the full name of J. G. Stellungen? I'm constantly thinking of it, or what i could stand for. Yea i know the meaning of it, but the J and G is an shortcut for an whole word each. And i'm getting insane, i cant think of an fitting solution :/ Thank you :)

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Infanterie Geschütz. J is often used for capital i at that time.

[@mattgopack7395]

Interesting as usual! Small translation question, as I'm struggling with it and hopefully someone can help me out. At ~2:30, "Es ist nochmal gut gegangen!" is translated as "It went well, barely!" . Shouldn't it be "It went well again!"? That does change the tenor of the quote by a lot, which is why I'm trying to figure out what I missed >

[@neues3691]

That's the literal translation however the actual meaning is more along the lines of it went well one more time due to pure luck. It also usually is used to express relief after "surviving" a critical or dangerous situation and disaster was narrowly avoided.

[@rodi8266]

Cant exactly translate this properly, as it is a tiny bit of an idiom (not really quite idiom, but a bit of a phrase anyway). Best way to translate this would probably a bit of a sarcastic/dark humour statement along the lines of: "we just about won the day, barely" or " almost lost this one/almost lost it"

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

The phrase "Es ist nochmal gut gegangen!" is basically a shot version of "Es ist gerade nochmal gut gegangen!", it is funny because I associate with it "that was close", so I was quite confused when I saw the literal translation and corrected it.

[@adaw2d3222]

I think this section needed a non-literal translation since the current one doesn't capture the meaning of the phrase.

[@DiggingForFacts]

There's another place where something similar happens at the end. "kann nicht genug getan werden" is translated as "cannot be done enough" where a more colloquial translation of "no such thing as too much effort" would be a better fit to explain that every possible effort should be made.

[@HighwayMule]

I'd love to hear about the defensive tactics on the Italian front, another extremely efficient job by the German military.

[@cde9952]

Aided heavily by terrain

[@Dave0G]

Seems quite populated between the lines, or is that due to scale of map vs icons?

[@brodaviing6617]

Hi, what is the size/scale of this defensive set up? How many meters are we talking about here?

[@Kay2kGer]

My great grandpa would have been there, but he was killed in feb. 44 at narwa. His unit was later evacuated from the pocket.

[@Martinlegend]

Nice Video but i think the Best example of a late war Defence would be the Seelow Heights Defences

[@bedwarssimple7615]

Wie lang war der dargestellte Frontabschnitt? Habe ich etwas übersehen oder ist er nirgendwo angegeben? btw gutes Video :)

[@looinrims]

“No scale was given”

[@creighton8069]

Do you know if there’s anyway for someone to access those army group war diaries online? I am really interested in the eastern front, and I would like to read what some of those army group diaries said.

[@MrLotrecht]

The history about the soldiers which fought in Curland and than flet to sweden would be a nice political video to speak about!

[@bhunterbmw335is2]

Respect to GH Bidermann and all the courland fighters

[@frankmaringola3188]

Excellent, thanks.

[@maverikmiller6746]

I think there is an anime movie roughly based on that story (of course roughly :) ) The scenes of soviet assault were good. It is called The Saga of Tanya the Evil: Movie (or Youjo Senki: Movie in Japanese)

[@nemiw4429]

Super interesting.

[@ralfsfilips4154]

My grandfather fought in Courland pocket. And I grew up in Courland. Never understood why nobody looks at that madness.

[@ralfweber4346]

The battle is well known

[@winchesterchua3311]

Is if possible for you to do QF 17-Pounder cannon vs 76mm M1 cannon?

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Possible yes, but rather uninteresting for me, also my language skills are wasted on that comparison.

[@winchesterchua3311]

@@MilitaryHistoryVisualized I see

[@mikepette4422]

I guess by passing it was not an option. So instead they threw away the lives of thousands of their own people on attacking a pocket that really could do nothing to them offensively excellent video , lots of really great info. this was really enlightening

[@revrndskip]

Wow. 1st time I have been 1st. Enjoy WWII history. Keep it up.

[@BurtSampson]

I think I have a book where the guy who wrote it ended up in this pocket. It might be the book "Blood Red Snow." I'm not at home right now so I can't check.

[@MisteriosGloriosos922]

*noted!!*

[@ihcfn]

Can't help but think that conscript armies had something to do with the lack of exploitation perhaps, especially if officers were lost.

[@neues3691]

Gab es eigentlich einen Grund warum Infanterieregimente zu Grenadierregimenten wurden? Oder war die Umbenennung einfach nur so

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Weiß ich leider nicht, 2 Möglichkeiten sind a) Grenadiere waren früher eher elitär, daher Aufwertung, b) Grenadiere waren eher schwere Infanterie, die leichte Infanterie in der Wehrmacht wurden dann ja Jäger genannt. Soweit ich weiß gilt in der Bundeswehr: Jäger leichte Infanterie, Grenadiere schwere Infanterie.

[@tomn.9879]

What’s the approximate distance between position over how wide an area?

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

as stated in the video, no information was given in that regard.

[@Husrip19]

Thank You!

[@jasonharryphotog]

enjoyed this thanks

[@dermax1254]

TIKhistory did a great Documentary about the Courland Pocket😉

[@mbnovik]

Soviets called it “a camp of armed prisoners “…

[@wojtek6781]

Oddly relevant information for today's world. MHV, did you know something we didn't?

[@spoonwithoutleg]

Hallo, my favourite german teacher. One can put a link to an amazing Courland Battlestorm by TIK .

[@samstewart4807]

Fascinating!

[@Em_Youl]

What is soverts?

[@paulboegel8009]

At this point in the war, the soviets had suffered well over 5-6 million battle field casualties. They were filling the ranks with every able bodied male in the recaptured territory. The soldiers (not really with any training) we're just fodder. Each day the soviets traded blood for land, the soldiers bodies were used to fill the artillery crater's.(not really but they were all expendable) so it is very believable that they lacked zeal for the necessary 2nd or 3rd pushes to dislodge the Germans.

[@manubishe]

I wonder if MHV can draw comparisons, from history, of the current events.

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Nearly everyone else does it, more often than not the comparisons are superficial at best. Although there are some patterns that can be found, but that goes usually beyond stuff like "this is like X".

[@manubishe]

@@MilitaryHistoryVisualized Alright. An in-depth analysis, some time after the fighting ends, will still be "regarding current events". There should be more than one country doing maneuvers like recognition of LDR, and a historian's perspective may reveal what non-historians can't see. Either way, thanks for your attention.

[@nath-hh2ff]

Wouldn't want to be in any battle, but least of all may be Stalingrad. Or basically any of the "island hopping campaign".

[@Skenderbeuismyhero]

I'm gonna guess that the 'r' lmgs were dp-28's. That's the only Russian lmg I xan think of from the period.

[@AndreLuis-gw5ox]

For anyone interested in learning more about the battle of the Courland Pocket, I recommend watching TIKHistory videos on the subject, he has a rather long series about that battle

[@rochenmanta838]

German report: Complains about lacking soviet aggressiveness. Me: But But if they would've been they would've broken your line. Me: Utterly confused.

[@ehfoiwehfowjedioheoih4829]

Can’t even imagine the horror on both sides

[@utkarshtrivedi8870]

Ferdinand Schörner was a really skilled commander. He proved his worth in offensive, defensive and evacuation operations, which he executed so well.

[@MoveAhead101]

He was a cruel Nazi that shot at own troups but deserted himself.

[@ralfweber4346]

The only "things" He executed have been his own soldiers if the Do not exactly followed his Orders ("fight to the death and never retreat")

[@wilkatis]

With how often people like to mention Japanese soldiers holding their positions well after the war ended I’m always surprised the same doesn’t go for Courland. Took soviets till mid 50s to eliminate most of the resistance, and - if I remember correctly - till mid 70s to eliminate the last pockets of armed resistance in this area. Also those who at the end of the war were evacuated by sea to Sweden - most of them were then returned by Sweden in the next couple years to USSR where they then faced executions and long, long years in gulags. Wasn’t quite the safe exit that I’m sure they hoped for when going to a neutral country

[@daniblabla709]

Citation, please? The closest thing I can find is local Latvian partisans, which received manpower from deserters of both sides (though mainly local conscripts) and fought on through the 50s (maybe later? not clear), which, while still very tenacious, isn't what I would first think of reading your comment

[@54032Zepol]

Did the Soviet have naval bases in the Baltic sea??

[@benwilson6145]

yes

[@aleksazunjic9672]

Yes, but they were practically bottled near Leningrad until 1944, and lost most of major surface ships already in 1941. They only had submarines, therefore Germans did have naval superiority in the Baltics right until the end of the war.

[@MothaLuva]

“…lack of aggressiveness of the enemy is a common complaint…” I would never complain about my enemy’s lack of aggressiveness. What’s next? Writing the Russian high command something like, “please be more aggressive, we need opponents not victims.”?

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

German mindset is different.

[@theblitz6838]

It's kind of understandable, they can't capture enemy equipment if they're afraid of attacking. It's also safer to fight advancing tanks instead of those who are dug in.

[@TremereTT]

"expieriences" in the US Army are called "lessons learned" in many tactical documents

[@sam_uelson]

I know it's all counter factual now, but look at how many soviet armies the pocket was holding up, and the impact those armies could have had if sent against the German border. You could have had the eastern front collapse far sooner, and end up with the red army far further west than they did.

[@demonprinces17]

And the Germans would had 200000 more troops

[@azoniarnl3362]

Keep in mind that Soviet armies are alot smaller, there more like a corps in terms of numbers.

[@qarljohnson4971]

"Albeit" is one of those rare English words that copy the German language's ability to merge words into one. It is pronounced "All be it".

[@tzafas2]

What is this for a strange accent? German?

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

Upper Austrian

[@nutyyyy]

I get the sense you might also have a pretty interesting accent judging by the name...

[@edward9674]

Damn that's a lot of machine guns

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

actually very few if you look at the authorized strength

[@edward9674]

@@MilitaryHistoryVisualized What does that mean in this context?

[@MilitaryHistoryVisualized]

should be 6 companies there, authorized numbers of LMGs 13 and 2 HMGs per company. Pretty sure there are not 78 LMGs shown.

[@edward9674]

@@MilitaryHistoryVisualized Thanks!