"The war is not over until the last soldier is buried" (Priekule Brethren Cemetery)
Kurzeme was established as a separate and isolated battlefield on October 10, 1944. About 500,000 soldiers of the German armed forces were counted as surrounded. According to the reports of the headquarters of the 1st Baltic Front, only a "slight effort" was needed to completely liberate the entire Baltic coast. However, the fighting in Kurzeme continued for another seven months and Kurzeme became a symbol of the end of World War II.
During the seven months of fighting until May 1945, the German armed forces lost 154,108 dead, wounded and missing soldiers in Kurzeme, while the Red Army lost around 400,000 dead, wounded or missing Red Army soldiers.
The largest memorial to the graves of Red Army soldiers
Susijusi laiko juosta
Susijusios temos
Susijusios vietos
Priekule Memorial Ensemble of Warrior’s Cemetery
The Priekule Memorial Ensemble of Warrior’s Cemetery is on the Liepāja-Priekule-Skoda road and is the largest burial site of Soviet soldiers of World War II in the Baltics. More than 23,000 Soviet soldiers are buried here. Operation Priekule was one of the fiercest battles in Kurzeme Fortress that took place from October 1944 to 21 February 1945. The Battle of Priekule in February 1945 lasted seven days and nights without interruption and had a lot of casualties on both sides. Until Priekule Warrior’s Cemetery was transformed into a memorial, the last monument of the outstanding Latvian sculptor K. Zāle (1888-1942) was located here to commemorate the independence battles in Aloja. Between 1974 and 1984, the 8 ha Priekule Warrior’s Cemetery was transformed into a memorial ensemble dedicated to those who fell in World War II. It was designed by the sculptor P. Zaļkalne, architects A. Zoldners and E. Salguss, and the dendrologist A. Lasis.
The centre of the memorial holds a 12 m tall statue called the ‘Motherland’, and names of the fallen are engraved on granite slabs. Until Latvia regained its independence, the Victory Day was widely celebrated every year on May 9.
Guided excursion in Priekule “Along the Footsteps of World War II in the "Courland Pocket””
The guided tours feature the battlefields of World War II in the vicinity of the town of Priekule. The duration of the tour can be adjusted to suit the interests of the group: from 10 kilometres in three hours to 40 kilometres in six hours. All year round, the tours are available in Latvian, Russian and English. Tours must be booked in advance. The tours are suitable for travellers from 13 years of age. The most suitable mode of transportation is a car or bus with up to 30 seats. Key stops: Gramzda parish where the Soviet Army initiated its attack on the German Army in Priekule in the autumn of 1944. Priekule Brothers’ Cemetery: the largest Brothers’ Cemetery in the Baltics with more than 23,000 Red Army soldiers resting here. Priekule: a site of strategic importance in the south of the ‘Courland Pocket’ where a particularly heavy and difficult battle was fought. Krote parish where in the February of 1945 the attack of the Soviet Army on the German forces besieged in the ‘Courland Pocket’ stopped on the banks of the Vārtāja river.
World War II battle sites in Krote
The last fortification lines of the army group "Kurzeme", which were held by the German troops until their surrender on 8 May 1945, are located on the banks of the Vārtāja River in the vicinity of Krotė.
The front line reached the banks of the Vārtāja in February 1945, although cages had been prepared on the important road from Priekule to the Ilmāja railway station before that. During the last phase of the fighting, units of the 87th Infantry Division of the 2nd Army Corps of the German 18th Army took up defensive positions at this location. In order to protect the road to the Liepāja - Saldus railway line, the 18th Army Reserve 14th Panzer Division was deployed in the vicinity of Berzkrog, with the 1st Battalion of the 36th Panzer Regiment armed with 28 Pzkpfw. V (Panther) tanks. At the end of the war, it was the only unit in the whole of Courland to be equipped with this type of fighting vehicle.
Today, Krotė houses the private collection of Maris Ūtēna and offers the opportunity to see German trenches and bunker sites in the forests along the Vārtāja River. There are camping, a fireplace, a small cottage and carp fishing.
Explosive objects are still present in the forests of Kurzeme!
