Blood in the Forest: The End of the Second World War in the Courland Pocket

by Vincent Hunt

With original research and interviews with survivors, a journalist reveals the brutal yet forgotten battles in Latvia during the final months of WWII.   While the eyes of the world were on Hitler’s bunker, more than half a million men fought six cataclysmic battles in the fields and forests of Western Latvia known as the Courland Pocket. Just an hour from the capital Riga, German forces bolstered by Latvian Legionnaires were trapped with their backs to the Baltic. Forced into uniform by Nazi and Soviet occupiers, Latvian fought Latvian – sometimes brother against brother.   Hundreds of thousands of men died for little territorial gain in unimaginable slaughter. When the Germans capitulated, thousands of Latvians continued a war against Soviet rule from the forests for years afterwards. An award-winning documentary journalist, Vincent Hunt travels through the modern landscape gathering eye-witness accounts, piecing together the stories of those who survived. He meets veterans who fought in the Latvian Legion, former partisans and a refugee who fled the Soviet advance to later become President, Vaira Vike-Freiberga.   A survivor of the little-known concentration camp at Popervale details his escape from a death march and subsequent survival in the forests with a Soviet partisan group - and a German deserter. With detailed maps and expert contributions alongside rare newspaper archives, photographs from private collections and extracts from diaries translated from Latvian, German and Russian, Hunt assembles a ghastly picture of death and desperation in a nation both gripped by war and at war with itself.

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction, Russia, Military History, Military Fiction, European History

291 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 19, 2017

Reviews

[Jonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Something just that bit different. An examination of the experiences of the Latvian people during the close of the Second World War, as Soviet forces squeeze German and Latvian forces toward the Baltic coast from the late summer of 1944 onwards.
Told in a series of interviews as the author tours Latvia, the irony of Latvian forces convinced to join the Waffen SS "to fight for Latvian independence (as if the Nazis would ever grant this) fighting Latvian troops (willing or not) on the Soviet side is brought home time and again. The reality of the Holocaust in this corner of the Baltic is also brought to the fore (Latvia seeing some of the initial mass killings of the war), as is the horror of Soviet post war occupation and the effects of the Courland battles on Latvia today.
The chapter detailing the author's experiences with the Latvian army's bomb disposal unit is particularly moving, as not only are these men called out nearly daily, but a number of them also search for the remains of the missing of the war in their spare time.
If you're looking for lantern jawed Tiger tankers heroically seeing off wave after wave of Soviet armour this isn't the book for you. If, however, you'd like to see the effect of war on a nation caught in the middle, and how it's legacy extended beyond the Cold War, then you could do worse.

[Ugnė · Rating 4 out of 5]

Žinių požiūriu vertinga knyga! Kai Lietuvoje daugmaž viskas aišku dėl okupacijų ir partizaninio pasipriešinimo, Latvijoje situacija atrodo sudėtingesnė, nes brolis turėjo kovoti prieš brolį - latviai kovojo tiek už Hitlerį, tiek už Raudonąją Armiją. Dėl to susiskaldymo atsiranda problemų, kai vieni seneliai apšaukiami naciais, o kiti bolševikais. Rasta išeitis - karo pabaigą minėti abiems pusėms neutralią dieną.

Kodėl kovota ir vokiečių pusėje? Latvijoje naciai užsibuvo ilgiau nei Lietuvoje karo metu, o ir šiaip prieš tai užsibuvo 700 metų. Tai nereiškė, kad vokiečiai latviams buvo draugeliai, priešingai - latviai vokiečių neapkentė, bet susidūrę su sovietų trėmimais nusprendė pirmiausia imtis sovietų, o tada nacių.

Dėl kolonizacijos ir todėl, kad pasibaigus karui Latvijoje pasiliko dalis sovietų karių, Latvijoje nemažą dalį gyventojų sudaro rusai. Vėl visuomeninė problema. Tačiau, rusakalbiai po truputį ima skverbtis į valstybinius postus, tad sugyvenimas vyksta.

Ten partizaninis pasipriešinimas nebuvo toks aktyvus kaip Lietuvoje, tačiau įvairesnis dėl tos pačios priežasties, kad buvo kariauta už abi fronto puses.

Buvo nemažai lyrinių nukrypimų, kai autorius važiuodavo iš vieno miestelio į kitą ir imdavo nupasakoti architektūrą, tai šitas vietas dažniausiai praleisdavau, bet teksto užteko, nes apimtis nėra maža.

Žinoma, nepaminėjau, kad visa ši knyga apie Kuršo katilą! Jei trumpai, tai Kuršo miškuose vis dar pilna neperlaidotų karių, medžiuose šrapnelių, o ant žemės sviedinių. Rašoma, kad karas pasibaigė taip pat Kurše - prie Ežerės (prie pat Lietuvos sienos). Nustebino, reikės pasidomėti plačiau, nes mano tėviškė ten prie pat, o vakare pritrūkus alkoholio zemliokai neretai nuvykdavo ton Latvijos vieton pasirūpinti atsargomis.

[Signe Rirdance · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pēc šīs grāmatas izlasīšanas ierastie Kurzemes miestiņu vārdi iegūst pavisam citu skanējumu. Vēsture, par kuru caurmēra Latvijas iedzīvotājs zina pārāk maz.

[Gantenein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just finished this book that landed on my desk accidentally. A very unique book and hence, not an easy piece of literature to comment on. I am a Kurlander by blood. Both of my grandfathers were from Kurland. One of them was conscripted to fight for the Third Reich leaving his wife, my grandmother to survive in the Kurland fortress to the last minute of war. The other one ran from Kurland together with my other grandmother along with a group of Jews and a few communist activists as soon as the Germans attacked Soviet Union in June 1941. Most of them made it to Russia and became volunteers of the Latvian corps formed near Moscow. All four survived the war. I grew up literally immersed in the stories of heroic and senseless fighting, atrocities of holocaust, miraculous survivals, unbelievable acts of human kindness amidst terror of war etc. Besides, I have read any book I can get on WW2 in Latvia in four languages I speak. Why am I saying this? To give a glimpse of the background that stands behind my 5 stars to this book.
Now to the review. Blood in the Forrest stands out among the memoirs of WW2 survivors precisely because it is not a memoir, and yet, at the same time it is. The author masterfully weaves together his own travel diary through the battle fields of Kurland with glimpses of still surviving first-hand eye witness accounts about the life in Kurland during the last year of war. I read it like a novel. Picked it up late at night and closed the next morning at sunrise. Just couldn't put it down.
The book is surprisingly accurate in terms of numbers and geography. Something a Kurlander would never expect from a visitor from the outside. Yet, in terms of detail Hunt has managed to even surpass some of the native authors writing about these events. On top of that the book is very vividly emotional being quite fair in that the author does not take sides. He writes about ordinary Latvians of various ethnic backgrounds caught in the middle of a fight between two world superpowers of the day. Its not just blood in the forest. It is blood on the pages of the book as you read it. I would highly recommend it as a primer for someone trying to understand what went on in Kurland - the fortress of the doomed in 1944/45.

[Gundega · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tieši tas, ka autors ar skatu no malas veicis izpēti no liecību fragmentiem, apskatot dabā notikumu vietas un runăjot ar cilvēkiem, kas piedzīvojuši šos trağiskos laikus, ir devis pievienoto vērtību šim darbam. Es atklāju daudz jauna par Kurzemes katlu, jeb kā autors norăda, pareizi to būtu saukt par cietoksni, jo tas netika ieņemts no padomju armijas puses līdz pat 1945.gada 8.maijam, kad Vācija kapitulēja. Atspoguļoja arī padomju ideoloģijas radītos mītus par notikumiem, par kuriem tika melots pēc kara vēl visus padomju garos gadus un bija noliegts pieminēt bojāgājušos vācu pusē, lai gan viņi cīnījās par Latviju. Par cilvēkiem un vietām, kas piedzīvojušas trağiskos notikumus. Ļoti interesanti bija lasīt un iesaku to citiem, ja interesē mūsu tautas un zemes vēsture.

[Guy Cabell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had never heard of this event before. Mr. Hunt chooses to gloss over most of the details of battles in Courland, and instead concentrate on getting and reprinting the statements from the witnesses of these events, who were all in their late 80s and early 90s when Mr. Hunt interviewed them in 2014. The story becomes much more compelling that way. One must have a great deal of sympathy for the Latvians, living in a small country and caught between the two terrible beasts of Stalin's USSR and Hitler's Nazi Germany.

[Amelia King · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was slow going for a while and it almost seemed overly dramatic, as though he was trying to push his point too many times. I also understand, however, that it probably was a really emotional topic for him. In the end, his point was made and the emotional tale of Latvia's two front war was told. I would like to thank Vincent Hunt for sharing this story with the English speaking world, because it is so important yet few people know anything about it.

[David Leagas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book , reading about the Courland battles by those who were there, its not in-depth but it gives you an idea of how the Latvian s are still today weary of who they are and who fought for who. its also gives you an idea of how they so badly protect their freedom now they are Latvia and not part of the eastern block

[Michael Ross · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read

Was expecting a comprehensive look at the six battles of the Courtland pocket, however the author focuses more on the Latvian population and their struggles which proved very interesting. Sadly the Latvian population was caught between two dictators and suffered for it.

[Mantas Arbanevičius · Rating 5 out of 5]

Labai informatyvi knyga, parodanti kiek daug mes nežinome to, kas vyko kaimynystėje. Knyga, kurioje nėra blogų ir gerų, o yra tik kariavę latviai. Abiejose pusėse. Na ir porą puslapių minkštosios Rusijos galios

[Agris Fakingsons · Rating 4 out of 5]

..tiešām labs kara gabals!

[efgaa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joprojām meklēju atbildes, tāpēc mierina, ka ne es viena tāda, kura mēģina apjaust to, kas notika ar latviešiem abās frontes pusēs.
Un Kurzemes mežos un laukos klusums vienmēr ir smags.