Memorial stone for Bauska volunteer battalion in Jumpravmuiža park of Mežotne parish
Memorialinis vieta

The memorial site for the Bauska Volunteer Battalion in Jumpravmuiža Park was established in 1990 at the initiative of Imants Zaltiņš, a former soldier of this battalion. It is located at the place where Latvian soldiers prevented the first Red Army units from crossing the Lielupe River at the end of July 1944. A white marble plaque is attached to a roughly worked boulder with a gold-colored text engraved on it: “On 28.7.1944, the command post of the Bauska Volunteer Battalion was located here.” Initially, a bronze plaque with an engraving was located in place of the marble plaque, but in the 1990s it was stolen by non-ferrous metal thieves.

At the end of July 1944, as the Soviet troops approached Bauska, there were no significant German forces in the city, which had recently been deep in the rear. The immediate fall of Bauska was prevented by the decisive action of Major Jānis Uļuks, the head of the Bauska district and commander of the guard regiment, who at the end of July formed the Bauska Volunteer Battalion, which consisted of guards of the 13th Bauska Guard Regiment, police officers, as well as volunteers. The battalion took up defensive positions on the banks of the Lielupe River in Jumpravmuiža opposite Ziedoņi islet and on the very first day had to engage in battle with the attacking Red Army. During the battles, a group of Lithuanian police officers who had retreated from Lithuania to Latvia also joined the battalion. Many Lithuanians fell because they fought bravely and without sparing themselves. The first to fall was a Lithuanian police captain, who was buried right there in Jumpravmuiža Park next to the graves of German soldiers from World War I.