Unternehmen Aster – the abandonment of the Estonian territory

s.Pz.Abt.502 in the Dünaburg area 1944

SS-Pz.Aufkl.Abt.11 'Nordland in the Dünaburg area 1944

The III (Germanic) SS-Panzerkorps had bled itself white defending the Tannenberg Line in Estonia. The headquarters of the Heeresgruppe Nord pulled it back into Latvia in September 1944 to defend the capital Riga. The Soviet forces launched a ferocious attack on Riga in September 1944, but the German and the European volunteer units held their positions. Riga was finally taken by the Soviets on October 13 1944 and Heeresgruppe Nord was driven into what was known as the Kurland or Courland Pocket, where it remained isolated until the end of the war in Europe. From late October to December 1944, the 11.SS-Freiwilligen-Panzergrenadier-Division Nordland fought fierce defensive battles in the pocket. The Nordland Division's manpower strength was about 9,000 officers and men in December 1944. In January 1945, the division was ordered to the Baltic port of Libau, where it was shipped out of the pocket to Pommern and assigned to SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner's SS-Panzer-Armeeoberkommando 11, which was now forming in anticipation of the defence of Berlin. Top image: Panzerkampfwagen Tiger n°308 of the schwere Panzer-Abteilung 502 in the assembly area at Dünaburg (Daugavpils) in Latvia in 1944. The unit covered the retreat of German forces from the Leningrad area and held Narva in Estonia before being transferred to Pleskau and Dünaburg in 1944. It claimed the destruction of 1,400 enemy tanks and 2,000 guns. This gives them an overall kill-loss ratio of 13.08. The 502nd surrendered to the Soviet Red Army on May 9 1945. Credit: Fisher22. Commons: Bundesarchiv. Bottom image: Swedish volunteers SS-Rottenführer Karl-Olof Holm and SS-Unterscharführer Erik Wallin in Dünaburg in Latvia in 1944. Both served in Nordland's SS-Panzer-Aufklärungs-Abteilung 11, also known as Panzergruppe Saalbach. The 24 year old Karl-Olof Holm were later caught by the German Feldgendarmerie trying to desert the Courland Pocket. He was probably executed or died in a Penal Battalion in Latvia in 1944. Public domain.