Bridgehead Kurland: The Six Epic Battles of Heeresgruppe Kurland [Hardcover]

Franz Kurowski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2002

Bridgehead Kurland is the exciting account of the little-known struggles of Heeresgruppe Kurland in the waning months of World War II. Although there were six separate attempts by the Red Army to crush the German forces in the Kurland Bridgehead in the Baltic, they held out against massively superior forces. Despite revisionist claims by the Soviets after the war, the fighting in Kurland resulted in the pinning of large numbers of forces and, ultimately, an unsuccessful campaign. Once again, Franz Kurowski has brought to life many fascinating aspects of an Eastern-Front campaign that has heretofore received little attention in the West. In addition to providing a strategic overview, including not only the ground forces but also the role of the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine, he provides an intimate "you-are-there" look into much of the fighting. Includes 70 pages of black and white photos and 15 pages of maps and illustrations.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 326 pages
• Publisher: Fedorowicz (J.J.),Canada; First edition (May 2002)
• ISBN-10: 0921991665
• ISBN-13: 978-0921991663
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,417,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

55 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unknown Epic battles, September 8, 2006

By 

Iva Buch (New Zealand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bridgehead Kurland: The Six Epic Battles of Heeresgruppe Kurland (Hardcover)

There are very vey few books that deal in such detail the final battles of Army Group Kurland in the waning months of the war.
Cut off and isolated from the rest of friendly forces the Army Group fought six major battles against a Soviet force much larger than themselves and brought all advances of the soviets to a halt.
Jokingly refered to by the Russians as the largest self supporting POW camp in the war, the germans hung on grimly till the bitter end despite the best Soviet attempts to elimante the pocket.
With major assistance from the last capital ships of the Kreigsmarine and helped by a dwindling Luftwaffe fighter force many divisions were pulled from the pocket and transported to the Reich where they were again utilised in a combat role against the Soviets.
The book is not large and consists of a little over 300 plus pages filled with a large number of maps and some very rare photographs of men and machines involved in the battles. It has numerous personal accounts of those that were there and orders and logs of the various combat units.
One of the topics covered was the evacuation of thousands of wounded and civilians from the battlezone in Operation Rescue carried out by the Kreigsmarine and initaited by Admiral Donitz. This greatly surpassed the evacuation at Dunkirk, but yet little is known of this in the west.
This is a must read for those who have an interest in the Eastern front campaigns and written by the prolific authour Franz Kurowski is very readable.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Useful Account of an Overlooked Area of WW II, September 23, 2007

By 

John M. Lane "statesman and philosopher" (Hardin, Montana, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bridgehead Kurland: The Six Epic Battles of Heeresgruppe Kurland (Hardcover)

If you are interested in the advance of the Red Army into Germany during 1944/1945, you will find that BRIDGEHEAD KURLAND fills in a lot of gaps in a titanic, fast moving strategic offensive. It presents a lot of information in English that I haven't seen available anyplace else.

The author focuses his research on a strictly military analysis of this operation. His use of first-hand accounts from German soldiers is helpful and pertinent to understanding the situation on the ground.

I would disagree that there is anything pro-Nazi in giving the hard-pressed Landser his due. He fought well against a determined enemy, the Ivans of the Red Army.

The details of combat are worth noting in their own right. This was tough fighting and realizing that does not make the reader more sympathetic to Hitler, or to Stalin.

There are libraries full of books describing the horrors of the Holocaust and the Heer's complicity in it. I think that is why the author focused on the tactical details of combat. Nobody else really has.

I didn't find any neo-Nazi themes underlying this book. It deals with soldiers in combat, not ideology or morality. If you don't realize that the Nazis were evil and you aren't aware of the Holocaust, you won't get much from this book. If you want to learn more about the military history of a neglected chapter of World War II, you will need this book in your library.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The German View of FIghting in Kurland, February 18, 2008

By 

Dr. Gary E. Dolph - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bridgehead Kurland: The Six Epic Battles of Heeresgruppe Kurland (Hardcover)

Finding accessible information on the Eastern Front in WWII is quite difficult. A number of wargames are available, often accompanied by notes describing the actual events they simulate. Much rarer is material in English from the German perspective. This book attempts to fill that gap, and it does a reasonable job. There is a lot of detail about individual soldiers, and some excellent photographs are included. The biggest drawback is the lack of reasonable maps. In any book of this nature, one is always confronted by place names. The value of the book is tied to how well you can follow the action on the ground. Unfortunately, text and maps (when available) are in total disconnect in the book. You can get a general feeling about where the action is taking place, but you are never really certain. You set the book down with the general impression that it was really quite interesting, but....