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Latvia. Among the last of the bitter bastions of Nazi Germany’s forces in Eastern Europe. Protected by the two conscripted Latvian SS divisions, the Courland Pocket, Courland Cauldron or Festung Kurland (Courland Fortress) depending on your view and optimism regarding the war. Controlled by the Army Group North, later renamed Army Group Courland.
It was bitterly protected by the Latvian legions, by then veterans of the war, as they were among the last to surrender. Their objective – stall the Russian advance. And stall they did. The forces stationed in Courland did not get the official order to surrender before the tenth of May and were among the last to stop fighting.
The fighting ranks of the Latvian Legions were composed of Latvian conscriptees led by German officers. They participated in attacks on mainland Russia, and by the time they retreated to Courland – they were a veteran SS unit.
My suggestion is to have two squads of Grenadier-type infantry as a call-in with possible STG 44 and Panzerschreck/faust upgrades, the latter being more common. Grenade, grenade assault and smoke grenade abilities, maybe? They should most likely be moderate-high cost units as they were heavily entrenched in the forested and field covered terrain of Courland, so as a call in they would be expensive, for they didn’t have much resources to spare. However, they should come in as 1-2 star veteran units, depending on balancing. Ammo costs should also be figured out. Their ability ammo costs could be a little bit higher as to make them a risky investement, though their combat abilities should compensate if used by a skilled commander.
As for the historically controversial part – units which participated in ethnic cleansing duties only numbered about 600 men and didn’t participate in combat against Russians.
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Thanks for the suggestion Khokabog, will definitely consider them for Eisiner Wille. I’ll have to do a bit more research into the war crime accusations but there is no doubt they were hard committed fighters.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arajs_Kommando
Reading about war crimes. They were disbanded at the end of the war, and their former member’s combat contribution was negligible at best.
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@sebastian Leave the dutch out of it XD we did nothing wrong 😛 we just chose the wrong side XD Nah but the dutch did commit some horrible crimes 🙁
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@sean Unfortunately, Wikipedia wrongly accuses 15 SS of crimes in Podgaja. Juergen Fritz “Murder of Polish POW’s at Podgaje (Flederborn)” proves that the criminals of the Dutch SS men from the 48th SS Regiment also found that the prisoners were not burnt alive but shot.
Besides, RKKA also murdered SS prisoners. 😉
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Polish soldiers were captured during heavy fighting, in which First Polish Army tried to break through German defensive fortifications, known as the Pomeranian Wall. The hands of the 32 prisoners of war were tied with barbed wire, then all Poles were forced into a barn, which was set on fire. All burned alive.
It seems to me that this would be quite difficult and time-consuming to perform during heavy fighting. Reading the translated version of the Polish article – it looks like either the Barn was set on fire with the SS retreat (a waste of resources, considering some soldiers in the barn were found with head trauma, indicating they were shot and that the SS most likely thought they were dead) or it caught fire during the fighting (more likely). Either way – Latvian involvement in this is not conclusive at all, since the article states that the Dutch attached to the 15th divsion performed the executions.
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