By the autumn of 1944, everyone could see which way the Second World War was going — even the Axis commanders. Still, they were able to hold the Red Army back in key locations like Courland and Memel.
Map 1: The Courland and Memel pockets, to the end of 1944
Map 2: The Memel pocket, 1944
Image 1: Hovhannes Bagramyan in 1955
Image 2: Army of Worn Soles, volume 1 of the Eastern Front Trilogy
Image 3: Walking Out of War, volume 3 of the Eastern Front Trilogy
SourcesPrit Buttar, The Reckoning: The Defeat of Army Group South, 1944 . Okford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2020.
Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
Morse code by Thane Brown
Music composed and recorded by Nicolas Bury
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