Bridgehead Kurland: The Six Epic Battles of Heeresgruppe Kurland

I approached this book with some degree of trepidation. I have always been interested in the large aggregation of troops who held out in Courland (Latvia) until the end of the war. However, the list of books published by J.J. Fedorowicz Publishing of Winnipeg was very suspicious. Was this some type of neo-Nazi publisher? Well, I don't think the publishing house is a neo-Nazi front, but you need to approach this book forwarned. This is German WWII military history completely cleaved of any whiff of Nazi ideology. You would never know from this book that when the Wehrmacht first entered Latvia in 1941, it either allowed, precipitated, cooperated in, or planned the complete extermination of all Latvian Jews, and other lovely stuff like that. This book ignores the fact that for the past 20+ years we have known that the "clean hands" of the Wehrmacht on racial matters has been exploded as a complete myth. The Heer was either involved in killing Jews, partisans, "Commissars", etc., and/or certainly knew in a generally approving manner about what was going on. This book is out of a mythical land where German soldiers were just brave and noble warriors, doing their duty for their fatherland. Everyone seems to be getting a Knight's Cross, Golden Cross, Iron Cross, special clasp, etc., etc.If you understand where the book is coming from, and accept that, the book has quite a bit of value. It is generally well-written, with a very accessible style. I was a bit surprised at this, since one would not have thought this by just briefly perusing the book. That is, looking at it quickly, it comes off as disjointed. Its not. The author has a tremendous range of knowledge, and the story of over 200,000 troops holding out against many, many times that of Soviet troops is quite interesting and well told. However, you will learn almost nothing about the Russian side of things, about the various generals and overall war strategy involved, or the greater geopolitical view of the war at this point. Its far from a classic narrative history, and does not come off as a monograph written by someone with a "Ph.D type" of training. There should be quite alot to say about the decision within the Nazi hierarchy (i.e., Hitler)to waste over 200,000 well-trained troops in Courland, when they were so desperately needed in the Reich to defend against the Russkis. Yet this is never discussed in the book beyond a few short paragraphs on Hitler not allowing the evacuation of the troops. The whole subject of "Bridgehead Kurland" is poorly served by the author not tackling this issue. But, like I said, the book is not in the usual graduate school trained style of monograph writing.So, if you know what you are getting into the book is fine, though definitely casting too much glory on the German armed forces. No doubt the author would say, perhaps rightly, that brave men are brave men, no matter who they are fighting for. I am guessing the other books put out by this publisher are along these same lines, and I think a well-versed student of WWII can use these type of books in a useful manner. However, if you know little about WWII this type of book is badly misleading and definitely not recommended.

This book is typical of other books by J.J. Fedorowicz. While it fills a gap in the literature currently available in English, the product is one-sided, disorganized, and of dubious quality. The text in the main is the usual strange mix of corps and divisional level strategy (from the German side only) spiced up with tales of heroic self-sacrifice on the part of German grenadiers and officers.The maps are untranslated from the German, and some are even hand-drawn, looking like sketch maps out of a field message pad. If you don't know what the map symbols mean, they won't be of much help (there is no index for them, and German symbols were much different than the standard NATO map symbols most publishers use today), and if you dont know that 2 A.K. is 2 Armee Korps (2nd Army Corps) or 315 J.D. is 315th Infanterie Division (315th Infantry Division), the maps will puzzle as much as guide.The book does seem to be organized logically and chronologically, and separates the battles into the six time frames. There is a brief glossary showing how some of the place names have changed over time, a timeline (of Wehrmacht reports, I suspect grains of salt may be in order for some of it) and the number of maps and photos is satisfying, though many of the photos are studio shots of commanders and award recipients.What is notably absent are footnotes, references, or much of anything to do with the Soviet side. The level of research done is hard to ascertain.However - most histories (especially those dealing with the Soviet side) - look at the Courland/Kurland fighting as a sideshow and do not deal with this significant topic in any detail, making Kurowski's book one of the most significant treatments in English to date. Until something better comes along, this is what we have.

The book seems an after action report of a staff officer, lacks vitality and heart for the reader.

This book is about the last battles of the German Army Group North-name changed after being trapped in what was then north Germany by the Russians. I did not care for this book because it gives no detail on this battle. It is an outline that says this unit fought at this location on such and such date, without going into details. Not recomened.

in interesting read about a campaign normally ignored by historians. it goes over details like the use of naval bombardment by the German Navy not something often talked about.

Only book I have seen on these subject that covers it with so much detail. Each battle is covered in the many chapter and the end of the war with the surrender to the russian is also discussed. The evacuation from the pocket to germany of many formation is also mentioned.

Good account, dragged on a bit much

excellent info, good read, print size and glossy paper, made reading difficult