German Feldpost in Kurland -the retreat from Russian Territory, 1945

German Feldpost in Kurland -the retreat from Russian Territory, 1945

This is a specially printed German Military 'Feldpost' envelope with the original message inside. Bearing a bisected military stamp, applied to the envelope before it was given out to the soldiers, this atmospheric item represents a German military disaster that played out during the final months of the war.

In 1944, Russian forces recaptured much of the Baltic area; however German troops held out in Courland, a coastal region. Trapped in what became known as the Courland Pocket, the German forces were ordered by Hitler to hold out and defend the area, in order to protect submarine bases along the Baltic coast. They didn't surrender until the 8th of May; the following day approximately 200,000 troops of the Courland Army Group began moving to Soviet prison camps in the East. The majority of them never returned to Germany.