Courland Pocket Books

[k9mike]

Are there some books that ya'll could suggest having to do with the battle of Courland during?
WWII? It can be about some units that may have fought there predominately. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Mike

[Brian R]

Bridgehead Kurland: The Six Epic Battles of Heeresgruppe Kurland by Franz Kurowski

[k9mike]

Thanks Brian...I forgot to mention in my post...I have already read that one..Really good book to..
Looking for any others. It can be about a specific unit also that was in the pocket during the time period. Thanks again anyone else???
Mike

[hucks216]

For a memoir try In Deadly Combat by Gottleib Bidermann of 132 Infantry Division although it also covers the time fighting in the Crimea and south of Leningrad.
Also try Knights Cross Panzers which is a history of 35th Panzer Regiment.

[k9mike]

For a memoir try In Deadly Combat by Gottleib Bidermann of 132 Infantry Division although it also covers the time fighting in the Crimea and south of Leningrad.
Also try Knights Cross Panzers which is a history of 35th Panzer Regiment.

Thx. Will have to check on the Panzer Regiment book. I have also read the book "In deadly combat". Which was very good. Keep em coming guys....the more the better...
Mike

[Etienne B.]

Tragedy of the faithfull by wilhelm Tieke.Interesting story of the III.(Germanisches)SS- Panzer Korps.

Did you notice this site:

http://www.kurland-kessel.de/default.html

Written in Germany but loads of info!

[hucks216]

This publisher/author has a book out later this year (or early next) that covers the air war over Courland. If it is anything like their previous 2 books on the Fw-190 in North Africa and Sicily then it will be worth the wait... http://airwarpublications.com/books/in-the-works

[k9mike]

Thanks alot guys! keep em coming...
Sure wish I could read German better...looks like a good website. Also, will like to see that book (airpower) one come out. sounds interesting. Thanks again.
Mike

[MarcRikmenspoel]

A Lamb to Slaughter is a Dutch memoir, translated into English. The author, Jan Montyn, tells his life story, and a part of it was joining the German Navy. He was then put ashore in Kurland in late 1944, and spent several hellish weeks there in an ad-hoc Kampfgruppe. There's lots of used ex-library copies of this book around.

Also easy to find in English is Twilight of the Gods, Erik Wallin's account of serving in SS-Panzeraufklärungs Abteilung 11. He recorded his memoir with Thorolf Hillblad already in the autumn of 1945, and it recounts his experiences between January 1 of that year, when his unit was in Kurland, and the summer, when he finally escaped from the Soviet zone of occupied Germany.

Harder to find is the history of SS-PAA 11 itself, but ther eis an English edition. It was first assembled, In German, by Herbert Poller. My friends Martin Mansson and Lennart Westberg later prepared an expanded Swedish edition. This was in turn translated into English. It covers a lot more than Kurland, and uses some of Wallin's anecdotes, but does have other lengthy accounts from Kurland.

A real tough book to find is Latvian Legion, by Arthur Silgails. It has extensive coverage of the 19. Waffen-Grenadier Division in the various Kurland battles.