Blood in the Forest

The End of the Second World War in the Courland Pocket

Nonfiction, History, Western Europe, European General, Military, World War II
Cover of the book Blood in the Forest by Vincent Hunt, Helion and Company
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Vincent Hunt ISBN: 9781912866939
Publisher: Helion and Company Publication: May 4, 2017
Imprint: Helion and Company Language: English
Author: Vincent Hunt
ISBN: 9781912866939
Publisher: Helion and Company
Publication: May 4, 2017
Imprint: Helion and Company
Language: English

Blood in the Forest tells the brutal story of the forgotten battles of the final months of the Second World War. While the eyes of the world were on Hitler’s bunker, more than half a million men fought six cataclysmic battles along a front line of fields and forests in Western Latvia known as the Courland Pocket. Just an hour from the capital Riga, German forces bolstered by Latvian Legionnaires were cut off and trapped with their backs to the Baltic. The only way out was by sea: the only chance of survival to hold back the Red Army. 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, the author travels through the modern landscape gathering eye-witness accounts from seventy years before piecing together for the first time in English 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 and founder of Riga’s Jewish Museum, Margers Vestermanis has never spoken about his personal experiences. Here he gives details of the SS new world order planned in Kurzeme, his escape from a death march and subsequent survival in the forests with a Soviet partisan group - and a German deserter. With eyewitness accounts, detailed maps and expert contributions alongside rare newspaper archive, photographs from private collections and extracts from diaries translated into English from Latvian, German and Russian, the author assembles a ghastly picture of death and desperation in a tough, uncomfortable story of a nation both gripped by war and at war with itself.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Blood in the Forest tells the brutal story of the forgotten battles of the final months of the Second World War. While the eyes of the world were on Hitler’s bunker, more than half a million men fought six cataclysmic battles along a front line of fields and forests in Western Latvia known as the Courland Pocket. Just an hour from the capital Riga, German forces bolstered by Latvian Legionnaires were cut off and trapped with their backs to the Baltic. The only way out was by sea: the only chance of survival to hold back the Red Army. 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, the author travels through the modern landscape gathering eye-witness accounts from seventy years before piecing together for the first time in English 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 and founder of Riga’s Jewish Museum, Margers Vestermanis has never spoken about his personal experiences. Here he gives details of the SS new world order planned in Kurzeme, his escape from a death march and subsequent survival in the forests with a Soviet partisan group - and a German deserter. With eyewitness accounts, detailed maps and expert contributions alongside rare newspaper archive, photographs from private collections and extracts from diaries translated into English from Latvian, German and Russian, the author assembles a ghastly picture of death and desperation in a tough, uncomfortable story of a nation both gripped by war and at war with itself.

More books from Helion and Company

Cover of the book Koevoet by Vincent Hunt
Cover of the book Mons 1914-1918 by Vincent Hunt
Cover of the book Most Unfavourable Ground by Vincent Hunt
Cover of the book Blood Clot by Vincent Hunt
Cover of the book The Easter Offensive, Vietnam 1972. Volume 1 by Vincent Hunt
Cover of the book Red Devils over the Yalu by Vincent Hunt
Cover of the book The Role of the Soviet Union in the Second World War by Vincent Hunt
Cover of the book In a Raging Inferno by Vincent Hunt
Cover of the book The Flechas by Vincent Hunt
Cover of the book Enduring the Whirlwind by Vincent Hunt
Cover of the book Forging a Special Operations Force by Vincent Hunt
Cover of the book Rhodesian Fire Force 1966-80 by Vincent Hunt
Cover of the book Remembering the Dragon Lady: The U-2 Spy Plane: Memoirs of the Men Who Made the Legend by Vincent Hunt
Cover of the book The Viaz'ma Catastrophe, 1941 by Vincent Hunt
Cover of the book Bismarck's First War by Vincent Hunt
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy