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Baltic region, Oct 1944 - April 1945 : Great Soviet Summer 1944 Offensive "Operation Bagration" completely shattered German Army Group Center and torn 350-mile salient across 700-mile front into German lines, both German Army Group North in Baltic and North Russia regions, along with German Army Group South in Ukraine were outflanked and began systematic retreat to consolidate defense lines. In 3 months of combat, Germans lost about 260,000 KIA, 250,000 wounded, 116,000 POW. Thus, an entire German Army Group were basically wiped from order of battle, of which over 100 divisions cease to exist as effective combat formations. Operation Bagration - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bagration
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 Related model and history : Stug III and Soviet 1944 Summer Offensive - UweMilitaria.org/2-Track/Stug3/25.html
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Rollover : Oct 1944, Soviet forces capture port city Memel on Baltic Sea, cutting off German Army Group North with about 30 divisions and 200,000 men. This army group renamed Heeresgruppe Kurland (Army Group Courland) on Jan 1945 and would fight there for remainder of WW2. Soviets launched a series of offensive against Kurland pocket, but besieged Germans and her Baltic allies defeated all Soviet offensives to war's end (situation similar to encircled German forces at Lower Silesia city of Breslau which repulsed all six Soviet offensive from October 1944 to April 1945, until final Germany surrender in May 1945. Battle of Breslau (1945) - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Breslau_(1945)
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By late 1944, only fanatical German Nazi adherents still believed in ultimate victory under their Chancellor Adolf Hitler. For the rest after witnessing mass slaughter of Germans and ethnic  Germans on Ostfront, majority of German military felt compelled to continue the lost war to save as many German civilians and refugees from impeding death, torture, destruction by evacuation to western Germany. But upon hearing this explanation, one Swiss-German colleague retorted "They (Germans) started it", hence deserved what they got as consequence. Even in modern Germany, WW2 is mostly interpreted as socio-political movement for unification of all Germanic tribes under single Reich. As for Hitler himself, a common sarcastic phrase spoken by German Ostfront soldiers was acronym GROSFAZ, or "Grosster Fuhrer Aller Zeit" (Greatest Leader of All Time) that his so-called greatest brought Germany to this utter defeat.
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Inset 1 : Panther tank being unloaded at Memel port on Baltic coast, these armor units fought as Alarmheit (fire brigade), racing across Kurland pocket to pincer off Soviet breakthroughs in various sectors. At least in Baltic Sea, German Navy maintained strong presence throughout WW2 serving as offshore naval support, refugee convoy protection, anti-submarine warfare. German Navy History - www.german-navy.de/kriegsmarine/index.html
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Memel, with its large Volksdeutsch population, was part of Germany's East Prussia region at WW2 commencement. WW2 end saw East Prussia partitioned among Poland - Soviet Union - Lithuania. Memel annexed by Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1947, city's German name changed to Lithuanian title Klaipeda. Klaipeda - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaipeda
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Other vestiges of East Prussia partition included Danzig and Konigsberg. Former German port Danzig renamed to Polish title Gdansk. City and its post-WW1 "Polish Corridor" (gave landlocked Poland access to Baltic Sea) was flashpoint of conflict between Germany and Poland during 1920-1930s inter-war years. In recent history, Gdansk was center of democratic movement by Polish labor union Solidarity in 1970s-1980s. Danzig - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danzig
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Former German East Prussia capitol of Konigsberg, annexed by Soviet Union for additional Baltic Sea access, renamed to Soviet title Kaliningrad (Kalinin was region name north of Moscow where Soviets stopped German 1941 offensive). Nowadays, city is landlocked enclave squeezed between Poland and Lithuania. Operated like a Cold War-era military district than EU metropolitan city, travel is only possible by air or sea (no land travel permitted), no foreign visits without Russian Federation military sanction. Some say this enclave is geopolitically un-natural, hence only a matter of time before area gets re-absorb by more power neighbors. Konigsberg - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konigsberg
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Continuous postwar debate rage over Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) alliance with Germany during WW2. Some accused them of Nazi collaboration, while proponents retort necessity of their independence struggle against Soviet oppression, hence German 1941 invasion gave the Baltic such an opportunity (in other words, Germans were viewed as lesser of two evils contrasted with Soviets). Controversy erupted in 2002 when Estonia established WW2 monument to Estonian volunteers in German Waffen-SS divisions. When challenged by Europe Union on "political correctness" of praising such SS formations, Estonian supporters snapped that they built monument to honor Estonians, not Europe. Nevertheless, with full integration into European Union somewhat threatened by this action, Estonian government authorities compelled its removal. Estonia removes SS monument - news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2148732.stm
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Inset 2 : Kurland today is part of Lithuania, but in past centuries made its mark on geopolitical stage. Before 13th-century, Baltic tribes of Kurs and Livs resided before conquered by Germanic confederations such as Teutonic Knights and Livonian Order, of which German political and commercial interests would impact region for next 700 years. Kurland traditionally included surrounding areas of Semigallia and Selonia, and swung under vassal control between Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and Russian Empire. Teutonic Knights - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teutonic_knights
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By 17th-century, Kurland's strong mercantile class, ship building, gun powder mills, metal works, she established trading pacts with colonial powers Great Britain, France, Netherlands. With its own fleet and naval port at Ventspils-Liepaia (also written Liepaja) north of Memel, Kurland Duchy actually founded African Fort  Jacob colony on St. Andrews Island at Gambia River, and Tobago Islands colony in British West Indies producing commodities such as sugar, ivory, tobacco, coffee. Unfortunately, during mid 17th-century Northern Wars between Poland and Sweden, Kurland allied with Poland, had her Duchy conquered by Swedish forces, while her colonies were seized by the Dutch (although Tobago was returned, Kurland finances forced its sale to British colonist by 1698). Thus ended Kurland's geopolitical presence. Northern Wars - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Wars
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By early 18th-century, Kurland Duchy succession dispute resulted continual struggle between rising Imperial Russian and traditional allegiance to Imperial Poland. Russia's final victory over Poland resulted in 1795 Third Partition of Poland, Kurland's feudal lords were ousted, Kurland itself cease to exist as a Duchy and absorbed directly into Russian Empire. Partitions of Poland - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partitions_of_Poland
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19th-century advent saw rise of Latvians against both Russian political and German commercial domination, resulting in 1905 rebellion. WW1 witnessed demise of Russian Empire, German and Latvian paramilitary formations took advantage of power vacuum and drove out Soviet Bolsheviks. WW1 ending gave Kurland to newly formed Latvia nation, fearful of future German commercial dominance, Latvians seized German properties and barred ethnic Germans from higher political offices, thus resulting in mass refugees fleeing back to Germany proper, this also left bitter ethnic memories in generations to come. Latvia - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latvia
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Rise of Germany in mid-1930s agitated ethnic-Germans in Kurland to reunited with the Fatherland. After mass electorate victory by ethnic Germans (winning 26 out of 29 seats) in Dec 1938 Memel local assembly elections, populace on verge of rioting to force reunification with Germany. After which, Latvia agree to Mar 1939 convention acceding Memel to Germany's East Prussia region. MEMEL - KLAIPEDA - worldatwar.net/nations/other/memel/
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Memel unification lasted 6 years, end of WW2 it was annexed by Lithuania. Majority of Baltic Volksdeutsch were expelled to Germany for fear future generations may yet agitated for unification with the fatherland. Although one interesting fact was 1939 German-Soviet agreement on "Umsiedlung" (forced resettlement) of ethnic Germans from Soviet to German regions (vis-versa) to align ethnic lines with political jurisdiction. Ofcourse, 1941 German invasion of Soviet Union made this agreement mute. Baltic Germans - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Germans
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