Man is the reasoning animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the unreasoning animal. Note his history . . .
Mark Twain

Chapter 10

Courland, Latvia

Courland is a province of Latvia, jutting like a large peninsula into the Baltic Sea. It was the area into which the 16th and 18th Army had retreated, after being forced out of the Leningrad and northern Baltic fronts. Hitler claimed our position there was essential as a jump-off point for a future flank attack on the advancing Russian armies. He ignored that the manpower ratio was now about 7:1 in favor of the Russians, and the tank and artillery ratios about 20:1. This Courland defense looked like the making of another Stalingrad.

By the end of October 1944 my liaison group had moved into Lubezeres, a little town in northern Courland, and stayed there until the end of February 1945. We really lucked out.

Lubezeres was a pleasant little agricultural town, bypassed by the war and it would have been nice to live there. The liaison group was quartered in a half-timbered farm house, surrounded by large trees. An elderly couple owned the farm, and had an older female farm helper who also lived at the house. Our group respected their property and their right to certain privacy, realizing that it was an inconvenience for them to have six men living with them. The communication van was set up in front of the house under the trees and we guys strung an extra long, extra high receiving antenna between the trees. We would need good reception, in order to be well informed about what was going on in Germany and Europe.

In town a large plant manufactured high grade alcohol from potatoes and sugar beets. When the first German troops had come in, they had gotten their hands on some of that 80% “Schnaps”, and went on a drunken spree. Two soldiers died of alcohol poisoning and the commanding general put a stop to that. The alcohol was now used as an additive to our meager gasoline supply to stretch it.

We had to be almost completely self sufficient in the “Fortress Courland” as it was now called. The German navy could still supply us with certain provisions, and take back the wounded soldiers, but with the Russian Navy now on the loose in the Baltic Sea, supplies were questionable.

Fortunately the fairly orderly retreat from the Russian northern front sector had made it possible to salvage substantial amounts of equipment and material. Before the military mail connection with the rest of Germany was broken, I had sent my father a letter and told him in a round-about-way where I was. I told him that I would try to get back, by “playing the partisan game” provided I got stuck in Courland to the end. Father’s answer was that he was very much concerned and didn’t think I would be able to pull that off. He urged me to be extremely careful. That was the last mail I received.

My super antenna enabled us to keep an ear on the rest of the world. The situation for the German Armed Forces on all other European fronts deteriorated by the day. The Latvian population was hungry for information too, because they worried about their own safety and future. Quite often we had several young women come to visit us to find out what was happening at the Courland front. One good looking girl had her husband at the Latvian SS division in action there.

Courland and the war situation

The Courland peninsula roughly resembles a triangle, with one leg facing the Baltic Sea, and the other leg facing the Bay of Riga. Along the hypotenuse of this triangle was the front line, where about 30 relatively well equipped, battle hardened German divisions had dug in. German troops where also still holding part of the island of Saaremaa, in the Bay of Riga.

Officially there were eight major Russian offenses to smash the defenders of Fortress Courland, but I counted a total of 23 attacks, all unsuccessful. The front troops had dug in, and whenever the Russians gained some advantage they were beaten back in counterattacks. The few Panzer units that were still on our side were now partially equipped with Russian T-34 tanks which had been salvaged from the battle fields. At least spare parts were available for those tanks from salvage operations in the no-man’s-land between the front lines.

Jokes about Fortress Courland

Many jokes were cracked about the war situation during these successful defenses. The jokes went, “Paris has surrendered to the Americans, Fortress Courland is holding.” “The Russians have marched into Budapest, Fortress Courland is holding” etc. One day I overheard a tank commander holler to another soldier, “We lost the last war, why shouldn’t we win this one?”

All these wisecracks were grim humor, since the situation in Courland had no meaning with respect to the outcome of the war. The Russians obviously did not have their crack troops at our front, because they figured sooner or later we would run out of ammunition, fuel, food etc. and be forced to surrender. We were however able to defend ourselves successfully until the end of the war.

To bolster moral, front line troops received an embroidered stripe for their uniforms saying “Festung Kurland” for winning these defensive battles. The wisecrackers said that the stripes for noncombat soldiers were given only to those who had seen the white in Field Marshal Schörner’s eyes ten times.

My private news gathering service learned about the latest developments via my favorite radio station, the “Soldaten Sender West” (Soldier’s Radio West). It had comprehensive news from all military fronts. Sometimes curious happenings at the home front were reported in detail. Since they also gave the official daily report of the OKW (High Command of all German Armed Forces), the station sounded legitimate.

However, reading between the lines, it was obvious that it came from “the other side”. They had an incredibly well informed news service with pointed sarcasm mixed in, and were always ahead of the OKW’s admittance regarding losses.

On December 16, 1944, I celebrated my 21st birthday, which finally made me an Adult according to the German law. Shortly after my birthday I was promoted to corporal, but under the circumstances it didn’t mean a damn thing.

On the same day I heard of the big German counter offensive in the Ardennes. It didn’t stop the Allies. After 5½ years of war Germany was exhausted, no matter what the stupid Nazi propaganda machine blared.

Christmas 1944

We had a depressing Christmas, even though we had been supplied with excellent liquor and food. Our Latvian hostess even baked traditional cakes and cookies for us, and we sang some Christmas songs together. I celebrated New Year’s Eve with a bottle of genuine “Black & White Scotch Whiskey.” It was the first Scotch I had ever seen or tried, and I was surprised about the taste. We all hoped that the goddamn war would be finished in the coming year. We celebrated heartily, reminding ourselves again of the current saying, “ Enjoy the war, the peace will be terrible.”

Russians take Landsberg

On January 30, 1945, I heard that the Russians had taken my hometown, Landsberg/Warthe. What an irony, it was on the very same day that Hitler had come to power 12 years earlier. It happened to a city that also shared the name with the Landsberg/Lech city, where Hitler had been imprisoned back in 1923. If the Bavarians had only kept him there. I hoped that my mother and our friends had gotten out before the Russians came in.

Later on I told Oberleutnant Koiky that there was heavy fighting around Königsberg, and he just about had a nervous breakdown. Koiky was crying when he said he hoped his wife and children had safely gotten out of the city before the Russians came. At the end of February our group drove back to the company headquarters, somewhere east of Liepaja and I was assigned to Oberleutnant von Collins’ group.

We were sent to the XXXVIII Army Corps on March 5, 1945. From that date on the group was constantly on the move. It was obvious we were no longer needed anywhere. There wasn’t much of a Luftwaffe left in Courland. Reconnaissance was flown by Focke Wulf 190 or Messerschmitt 109 fighter planes, and they reported verbally in clear text to the liaison group if something important was observed.

Then the rumors started that the Navy was going to evacuate everyone. I thought that would have been unfair, since only the rearward troops could have been evacuated, and the fighting men at the frontline would have been left behind. General Hilpert, who had taken over from General Rendulic, who had taken over from Field Marshal Schörner, canceled the effort. That was probably just as well, since a Russian submarine had already torpedoed the large German Hospital ship the “Wilhelm Gustloff”, with thousands of wounded soldiers and refugee civilians from Königsberg on board. The Titanic catastrophe was a minor accident compared to this tragedy in which approximately 7,000 people vanished.

Bones stronger than a truck

While we were making another location change the van got stuck in snow. All men had to lend a hand to get the damn truck out, and then try and catch up with it and jump on the side board. That was a dangerous game with all the snow and ice on the road. I missed the step, fell to the ground, and got my left foot run over by the truck’s rear wheels. God, that scared the daylights out of me, because I was sure my foot was broken. However I managed to hobble after the van and catch up with it. I took my heavy felt boot off and nothing was broken, but I had one hell of a contusion above my ankle. Apparently my foot had gotten into the gap between the dual tires, and only the outer tire had rolled over my lower leg, which was protected by a heavy felt boot, and cushioned by the snow underneath. For a week I could hardly walk. After three weeks my leg, gradually going through the colors of the rainbow, recovered.

We moved from the VI. SS Corps, to the Tank Hunter Group of the 24th Infantry Division. Here we met with another group of our company where my friend Kurt König (King) was. I hadn’t seen King in a long time. We stayed with that group for five days, waiting for further orders to proceed to an assigned army unit. This gave me an opportunity to have a long conversations with King regarding what we should do to get ourselves out of this goddamn predicament. It was obvious that it was just minutes before “zero hour”, and that we would all march into POW camps, probably somewhere in Siberia.

A flight to Sweden?

During those five days, we considered stealing a Fieseler Stork (a small liaison airplane) that was parked nearby, and try to fly it across the Baltic to Sweden. The closest Swedish territory was the large island in the Baltic by the name of Gotland, which was about 200 Km (125 miles) away, well within the capabilities of that aircraft.

We debated that for hours and finally decided against it, because we could not give the plane a check out to determine if it was operational, without arousing suspicion. Even if it was operational we didn’t know how much fuel was in the tanks, where the pilot was, and we would have to fly it out at night. That was beyond my capability.

It turned out to be a wise decision, because I found out after the war that the Swedish Government had turned all German internees over to the Russians. That was not in compliance with the Geneva convention, but the Swedes had indirectly supported the Germans so were apparently scared shitless of the Russians. I found out decades later that they had about 6,500 German internees in Sweden whom they sent to Russia and of those only about 1,650 returned from Russian POW camps.

Finally on March 12, 1945, we got our orders to proceed to what was left of the 12th Panzer Division. On March 13, or 14, we heard on the radio that President Roosevelt had died, but hardly anybody attached any importance to that, except some super optimistic characters, who thought the USA would pull out of the war under a new president.

Hitler’s last order

A few days later the Russian armies attacked Berlin, and Hitler gave his last order to the Eastern Front, “Whoever gives the order to retreat is to be shot on the spot.” It was clear now that he had flipped his lid. The damn corps of German officers had sworn an oath of allegiance to this madman, and still felt obligated to honor that oath. It was incomprehensible to me that nobody in the upper echelons of the armed forces was willing to put a bullet through Hitler’s head. I considered them all traitors to the German Nation.

Courland undefeated to the end

During the last days of April 1945 I heard over the shortwave that the American troops had met with Russian troops at the Elbe river near Torgau, and that Zhuikov’s army was in the center of Berlin. The newest version of our old joke was now, “Germany defeated, Fortress Courland stands victorious.” It was not even a joke anymore, since Germany had been totally defeated and many areas completely destroyed. A march into a POW camp was our fate, but where, and for how long, that was the question. Would it be Siberia, Murmansk, or Wladiwostok?

I told King that I had decided to hike back to Germany. I told him what I considered to be essential for my hike. Maps, compass, food etc. and we parted with heavy hearts, since we wouldn’t be able to pull it off together. We exchanged home addresses, hoped that both of us would survive and said an emotional Good Bye to each other!

A death 12 years too late

On the evening of May 1, 1945 I heard the news that I would have loved to hear 12 years earlier. Hitler was dead! The Nazi propaganda machine had the audacity to announce that Hitler had died in Berlin while fighting for Germany. I was outraged, Hitler had never fought for Germany, he had destroyed it.

I made a show announcing Hitler’s death to my wireless group by reenacting a secret joke, a Flüsterwitz, that had circulated in Berlin during Hitler’s reign. I stood up, banged my headphones on the table and hollered “Achtung” to get everybody’s attention. As they stared at me I said, “Good evening gentlemen” and sat down again.

Puzzled silence fell over my wireless group and they probably wondered why I all of a sudden didn’t have all cups in the cupboard anymore. After a moment another Berliner remembered the joke and asked, “What do you mean, is he dead?” and I, waiting for that question replied, “Yes guys, the Gröfaz is dead.” Gröfaz was the name given Hitler by nonbelievers and stood for “Grösster Feldherr aller Zeiten” in English:” Greatest Military Strategist of all Times”.

Gradually an expression of disbelief appeared on several faces. They gathered around me to hear the details. I said that Admiral Dönitz had been designated as Hitler’s successor.

Within minutes we found our officer, Oberleutnant von Collins. He brought some staff officers of the 12th Panzer Division with him. All had grave expressions on their faces. Up here in Courland (Latvia) were two German armies, the 16th and the 18th, with about 175,000 soldiers, that had been totally encircled by the Russians in the “Festung Courland”. It was anybody’s guess what would happen to us up here 600 miles northeast of Berlin.

We manned our shortwave receiver 24 hours again. Military radio traffic wasn’t important any more, but hard news about Germany was.

A few days later, on May 5, 1945 we heard that Admiral Dönitz had ordered some of the German forces to cease fighting. On May 7th we heard that Germany had signed an unconditional surrender of all forces at Eisenhower’s headquarters in Rheims. However there was no specific mention of the troops in Courland.

On May 8th 1945 our entire Division staff was called together in a forest clearing. A staff officer of the 12th Panzer Division announced that the remains of the Army Group Courland had surrendered and one minute after midnight on May 9th 1945 the most devastating war of all times had finally ended.

It was the day all soldiers had been waiting for. For many of them it wasn’t the way they had hoped it to be. Due to my involvement in communications I was well informed and had long ago come to the conclusion that Germany had lost the war.