Between Giants (46 page)

The front line south of Riga stabilised on 27 September. Almost all of 16th Army was now in or around the Latvian capital, with 18th Army defending to the east. Soviet intelligence also suggested that the bulk of 3rd Panzer Army’s strike power lay in the north, as a result of
Doppelkopf
and
Cäsar
; consequently, the front line between Šiauliai and Klaipėda was weakly defended. Furthermore, the panzer divisions that had struggled to make any headway in the two operations had suffered substantial losses, and there was therefore still a chance of pushing through to the Gulf of Riga. On 23 September, Bagramian planned to visit the front line around Jelgava to investigate options, only to receive orders from Moscow: he was to stop all operations to reach the Gulf of Riga. Further orders followed, and it became clear that the axis of attack was to shift to the south and west, with a drive to the Baltic coast at Klaipėda.

In Estonia, after taking Tallinn, the Soviet 8th Army moved on to attack the Estonian islands. Just as in 1941, control of these islands was critical for freedom of movement by naval vessels in the northern Baltic. The three islands of the archipelago – Saaremaa, Hiiumaa and Muhu – were defended by 23rd Infantry Division, supported by a naval anti-aircraft battalion, two naval artillery battalions, and a battalion of assault guns. 218th Infantry Division was also designated to help hold the islands, but would not arrive until 1 October. There were a few skirmishes between Estonian nationalists and the German garrison, but these were swiftly suppressed.

The Soviet forces designated to take the islands, from 8th Army, were the 8th Estonian Rifle Corps and 109th Rifle Corps. The shallow waters around the islands were generally unsuitable for large vessels, and in order to attempt a landing, the assault formations were equipped with DUKW amphibious vehicles, acquired from the United States.

On 29 September, Soviet aircraft made repeated attacks on the German positions on the islands. The first Soviet troops came ashore in Muhu towards the end of the day. Only a small portion of the German force committed to hold the islands was on Muhu, and it withdrew across a causeway to Saaremaa without putting up any significant resistance, destroying the causeway behind it. Next, there were landings on Hiiumaa, on 2 October. This time, the Germans put up strong resistance, but were forced to evacuate the island. An attempt to follow up this success with a landing on Saaremaa two days later, ended in disaster, however, when German naval artillery subjected the beachhead to heavy fire, and an infantry attack then wiped out the landing party.

The following day, the Red Army tried again, sending a strong force from General Pärn’s 8th Estonian Rifle Corps ashore. This time, the landings were successful, and Soviet armour followed. On 6 October, the Soviet forces began to advance, and to the west of Kuressaare, two battalions from 23rd Infantry Division found themselves isolated. Elements of the Soviet 249th Rifle Division, many of them Estonians, had partially bypassed the German group when they encountered one of the German battalions late on 8 October. The Germans were attempting to withdraw to the south, and for a brief moment, managed to pass themselves off as a Soviet unit as they marched alongside the Soviet force, but fighting erupted after light cast by flares allowed the Germans to be identified. One battalion of Soviet troops was swiftly overwhelmed, but a second Soviet formation – an anti-tank battalion – had sufficient time to set up a defensive line. In confused, bloody fighting, the German force broke through the Soviet line and managed to withdraw to the south; the other German battalion, retreating south on a parallel route, took advantage of the confused fighting to get through without having to fight. Both sides lost about 300 men, and all who were unfortunate enough to be taken prisoner were shot out of hand.

The Germans were aware that they had little chance of holding the entire island, and had always intended to withdraw to the Sõrve peninsula at the southern tip. They made good use of the defensive positions built by the Red Army prior to 1941, and fought a slow retreat to the peninsula, inflicting heavy losses on 8th Rifle Corps. By 10 October, however, the Germans were confined to the small peninsula. In an attempt to outflank the defensive line across the isthmus at the northern end of the peninsula, the Soviet forces attempted an amphibious landing on 11 October near Löu, midway down the western coast; the operation was spotted in good time by the defenders, and crushed by a combination of artillery fire and an infantry attack against the few men and vehicles who managed to get ashore. A second attempt to land on the peninsula on 12 October was similarly defeated. Nevertheless, 8th Rifle Corps was able to push the Germans perhaps a third of the way south along the peninsula before grinding to a halt.

German naval units started to operate in support of the ground troops on 10 October. The heavy cruiser
Prinz Eugen
, with occasional support from the cruisers
Lützow
and
Admiral Scheer
, repeatedly bombarded targets ashore, their heavy guns striking with great accuracy. On 15 October, when returning through dense fog to her home station of Gotenhafen, the German name for the Polish city of Gdynia, Oberwachtmeister Dammert recalled:

Prinz Eugen
was unable to operate at sea for several weeks.
Leipzig
was lucky to survive the collision, being sliced open down to her keel by the heavy cruiser’s bows.

With such a small area of Saaremaa left in their control, the Germans began to withdraw forces from the island. 218th Infantry Division was evacuated on 13 October, by which time events had progressed elsewhere in the region.

Forced to improvise as a consequence of the collapse of Army Group Centre in the summer, the German High Command demonstrated that it was still capable of mounting complex operations at short notice. Both
Doppelkopf
and
Cäsar
were handicapped by difficult terrain, where strong infantry formations might have been more effective, but in the aftermath of
Bagration
, such forces were very scarce, and were desperately needed to shore up the front elsewhere; 1st Infantry Division, the only infantry formation in 3rd Panzer Army that Raus regarded as being up to standard, had been intended for use in
Doppelkopf
, but had to be deployed further south to protect the East Prussian frontier.
Aster
, the evacuation of Estonia, was planned and executed at very short notice, and surprised both the Soviet and German High Commands in how well it was carried out. Without the rapid redeployment of III SS Panzer Corps to the Riga area, it seems likely that Bagramian would at least have been able to reach Riga, if not take the city, which would have resulted in the probable destruction of 16th and 18th Armies. For the moment, the front line had been salvaged, but the balance of power had shifted irrevocably in favour of the Red Army. The Wehrmacht could only wait to see where the next blow would fall.

The city known to the Germans as Memel and to the Lithuanians as Klaipėda originated after the Teutonic Knights built a castle in the territory of the Curonians, in order to provide a base from which they could subjugate the pagan tribes of the area. Shortly after its creation in 1252, the name of the castle and the town that had grown up around it was reduced from Memelburg to Memel, and this name persisted until 1923, though it was known to the Lithuanians as Caloypede, Klawppeda, or Cleupeda. The name is thought to be related to the terrain around the city, either derived from the words
klaidyti
(obstruct) and
pėda
(foot), referring to the boggy landscape, which was difficult to cross, or perhaps the Curonian
klais
(flat, open, free) and
ped
(ground), referring to the relatively flat area where the original castle was built. Even in the days of the Teutonic Knights, the nature of the terrain probably played a major part in military operations in the area, as well as giving places their names.

The city, and therefore the area around it, was always part of East Prussia, from the time when the state was controlled by the Teutonic Knights to the creation of the Kingdom of Prussia. It therefore became part of Germany in 1871, and its isolated position as the most northerly city of the new nation contributed to its slow industrialisation. The area was home to large numbers of Lithuanians, and a census in 1910 showed that 45 per cent of the nearly 150,000 people living in Memel or the surrounding territory – known as Memelland – regarded Lithuanian as their first language. However, the distribution of the German and Lithuanian populations was not uniform. Within the city itself, Germans were in a substantial majority, while Lithuanians dominated the surrounding countryside.

As has been discussed, there was considerable disagreement about Memelland at the end of the First World War. The Poles wanted the region incorporated into Poland, possibly instead of Danzig, which was to be awarded ‘free city’ status. Lithuania was firmly against any such arrangement, as it would deprive the country of any major seaport, and give Poland an almost encircling presence around Lithuania. Some, though at first probably only a minority, of ethnic Lithuanians living in the territory, and in the neighbouring area of East Prussia, called for union of the area they knew as ‘Lithuania Minor’ to be joined to the new state of Lithuania.
¹
In view of the conflicting demands, the Treaty of Versailles detached Memelland from Germany and placed it in the care of the League of Nations. Britain was offered the opportunity to manage the territory, but declined, whereupon the French agreed to become administrators. A battalion of French troops arrived in February 1920, and Gabriel Petisné became the head of the new administration.

Negotiations dragged on for several years. Lithuania’s claims were hamstrung by the fact that the Western Powers had not actually recognised Lithuania as an independent nation, and there were attempts to try to link together several different issues. In March 1922, the British proposed that the Lithuanians should accept Polish control of Vilnius; in return, the Western Powers would grant Memelland to Lithuania, would recognise the country as an independent state, and would provide financial assistance. Unwilling to concede on the Vilnius question, the Lithuanians rejected this proposal, after which the Western Powers leaned ever more towards a Danzig-like ‘free city’ status for the region. Faced with such a development, Lithuanian politicians decided to take matters into their own hands.

Although General Silvestras Žukauskas, commander of Lithuania’s small army, claimed that his men would be able to disarm the French garrison in as little as a day, the Lithuanians were unwilling to enter into a potential conflict with France, still clinging to the hope that they would be able to establish lasting alliances with the Western Powers. Instead, they turned to the model of Żeligowski’s Mutiny, by which Poland had seized Vilnius. At first, it seemed that the plot faced huge obstacles. Although many people within Memelland were ethnically Lithuanian, they had lived under German rule for centuries, and most had even adopted Lutheranism. They tended to regard Catholic Lithuania as a backward, rural country, and were inclined to support ‘free city’ status. Secret funds were established to promote pro-Lithuanian (and anti-Polish as well as anti-German) propaganda, and slowly the mood of Memellanders began to shift. In Germany, there was widespread acceptance that a return of Memelland to Germany was, at the moment, out of the question, and, concluding that at an unspecified date in the future it would be easier for Germany to recover Memelland from Lithuania than from Poland, the German government made clear to the Lithuanians that Germany would not object to a Lithuanian seizure.