Latvian SS versus the Red Army on the Eastern Front

The Battle of More was fought in Latvia during the autumn of 1944\. It was a series of five engagements fought in the Sigulda region about forty minutes’ drive today from central Riga. These were a result of the Latvian 19th SS Division attempting to prevent the Red Army advancing further into Latvia and to protect the Latvian capital, Riga.The Latvians, under German command, acquitted themselves well at More, despite being vastly outnumbered in manpower and weapons by the Red Army. At the peak of the fighting on 28 September 1944, the Latvians counterattacked and pushed back Soviet advances in the region. From then on the Latvians held the Soviet advance until they were ordered by the German High Command to withdraw from their positions and the Sigulda Line. This was completed during the night of 5-6 October 1944\. Although the Red Army occupied Riga on 13 October, The Latvians’ fierce resistance had bought time for the rest of Army Group North to make a strategic withdrawal from Riga, retreating into the more defensible position that became the Courland Pocket, wherein it resisted until news reached it of the German surrender on 10th May 1945\. More importantly in the long term, the historic city had been spared of the certain destruction it would have suffered if the Soviets had fought their way in before the German withdrawal.