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Army Group Courland (German: Heeresgruppe Kurland) was a German Army Group on the Eastern Front. It was created from remnants of the Army Group North , isolated in the Courland Peninsula by the advancing Soviet Army forces during the 1944 Baltic Offensive of the Second World War .
The Courland Pocket [a] was an area of the Courland Peninsula where Army Group North of Nazi Germany and the Reichskommissariat Ostland were cut off and surrounded by the Red Army for almost a year, lasting from July 1944 until 10 May 1945.
The 388th Field Training Division (388.Feldausbildungs-Division) was formed on 9 September 1942 with two regiments (numbered 639 and 640) to serve as a training formation for the recruits of Army Group North on the Eastern Front; the division's personnel was drawn from Wehrkreis I for the staff, from Wehrkreis VIII for Infantry Training Regiment 639 and from Wehrkreis II for Infantry Training ...
The second Army Group North was created on 22 June 1941 from the former Army Group C and used in the northern sector of the Eastern Front from 1941 to January 1945. By then, this second Army Group North had gotten trapped in the Courland Pocket and was accordingly redesignated Army Group Courland.
Following the redesignations of the German army groups on 25 January 1945, the army group of the 205th Infantry Division was known as "Army Group Courland". [10]: 524 The 205th Infantry Division remained part of Army Group Courland until the end of the war, first as part of L Army Corps in March 1945 and finally under XVI Army Corps in April.
Renamed Army Group Courland on 25 January 1945, it held out until the end of the war in May 1945. [1] The cuff title was approved on 12 March 1945 by Adolf Hitler, on the recommendation of the commander of the Army Group Courland. It was the last German award to be instituted in World War II. Distribution began in late April 1945. [2]
The 6th Flak Division remained with Army Group North for the rest of the war. After 25 January 1945, the parent army group became designated "Army Group Courland". Along with its army group, the 6th Flak Division remained trapped in the Courland Pocket and eventually captured by Red Army forces when Liepāja surrendered to the Soviets. [1]: 40
In winter of 1944–1945, a large number of German Army Group Courland troops was isolated in the Courland Pocket in northwestern Latvia until the end of the war. In the same winter German troops were encircled in the Memel pocket; however, they eventually were evacuated by sea.