Baltische Landeswehr

Baltische Landeswehr ("Baltic Land Defence") was the name of the armed forces of The United Baltic Duchy from November 1918 to November 1919.

Command structure

File:Rudiger von der Goltz.jpg

Rüdiger von der Goltz.

Legally, the Commander-in-Chief of the Landeswehr was Rüdiger von der Goltz, a position he gained in November 1918. Administration and military authority initially lay with the war ministry under Major Alfred Fletcher.

Commanders

Major Alfred Fletcher (Jan 1919 - July 1919) Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Alexander (British) (July 1919)

Order of battle (20 May 1919)

• 1. Deutsch-Balt. Kampfbataillon (Stoßtrupp Manteuffel; Baron Hans von Manteuffel)
• 2. Deutsch-Balt. Kampfbataillon (Hauptmann Malmede)
• 3. Deutsch-Balt. Kampfbataillon (Rittmeister Graf zu Eulenburg)
• MG-Scharfschützen-Abteilung (Hauptmann Freiherr von Khaynach)
• Russische Abteilung Fürst Lieven (Cavalry Captain Prince Anatolii Pavlovich Liven or, in German, Fürst Anatol Leonid Lieven)
• Lettische Kampf-Brigade (Colonel Jānis Balodis)
• Stamm-Kompanie Talssen
• Stamm-Kompanie Tuckum
• Balten-Kompanie des Gouvernement Libau
• Elements of the MG-Kompanie of III./Freiwilligen-Regiment Libau (Gouvernement Libau)
• Lettische Kavallerie-Abteilung
• Russische Kavallerie-Abteilung
• Kavallerie-Abteilung Engelhardt
• Kavallerie-Abteilung Drachenfels
• Kavallerie-Abteilung Pappenheim
• Kavallerie-Abteilung Halm
• 1. Deutsch-Balt. Batterie (Ehmke)
• 2. Deutsch-Balt. Batterie (Barth)
• 3. Deutsch-Balt. Batterie (Sievert)
• Deutsch-Balt. Haubitze-Batterie
• Russische Batterie (Röhl)
• Badisches Freiwilligen Abteilung Medem (attached Korpstruppe)
• Lettische Pionier-Kompanie
• Pionier-Abteilung Stromberg
• Balt. Fernsprech-Abteilung
• Lettische Fernsprech-Abteilung
• Balt. Funker-Abteilung
• Flieger-Abteilung 433 (attached Korpstruppe)
• Armee-Kraftwagen-Kolonne 021 (attached Korpstruppe)
• Staffel-Stab der Landeswehr (Major Wölki)
  • Munitions- und Train-Kolonne I
  • Munitions- und Train-Kolonne II
  • Landeskolonne III
• Feldlazarett
• Sanitäts-Kompanie
• Sanitäts-Kraftwagen-Zug
• Wirtschafts-Kompanie 1
• Wirtschafts-Kompanie 2
• Bahnschutz-Detachement
• Pferdelazarett
• Sammeldepot Libau

History

After the November 11, 1918, armistice the Inter-Allied Commission of Control insisted that the German troops remain in the Baltic countries to prevent the region from being re-occupied by the Red Army. As many of the demoralised German soldiers were being withdrawn from Latvia, a Freikorps unit called the Iron Division (Eiserne Brigade) was formed and deployed in Riga and used to delay the Red advance. New volunteers arriving from Germany and remnants of the German 8th Army were subsequently added to the Iron Division, which was assigned under the command of General von der Goltz. Also, the Baltic Germans and some Latvians formed the Baltische Landeswehr, lead by Major Alfred Fletcher.

Theaters and Campaigns

In late February 1919 only the seaport of Liepaja (Libau) remained in the hands of the German and Latvian forces. In March 1919, General von der Goltz was able to win a series of victories over the Red Army, first occupying Ventspils (Windau), the major port of Courland, and then advancing south and east to retake Riga. After the Bolsheviks had been driven out from most of Latvia, the Allies ordered the German government to withdraw its troops from the Baltic region. However, the Germans succeeded in negotiating a postponement, arguing that this would have given the Bolsheviks a free hand. General von der Goltz then attempted to seize control of Latvia with the assistance of the local German population. The murder of three men of the Baltische Landeswehr led to the coup of April 16 1919, by the proclamation of the Government of a Lettish clergyman, Andrejs Needra. Parleys, in which the United States and England took part, did not prevent the advance on Riga and the liberation of this city on May 22, where Baron Hans von Manteuffel made an entry with a small detachment, and died leading his men. Latvian national government was deposed while White Russian units and the Freikorps moved on to capture Riga on May 23, 1919. The Latvian nationalists sought assistance from the Estonian army which had been occupying northern Latvia since earlier that year. In June 1919 General von der Goltz ordered his troops not to advance east against the Red Army, as the Allies had been expecting, but north, against the Estonians. On June 19 the Iron Division and Landeswehr units launched an attack to capture areas around Cēsis (Wenden), however in the battles over the following few days they were defeated by the Estonian army (lead by Johan Laidoner) and nationalist Latvian units. On the morning of June 23, the Germans began a general retreat toward Riga. The Allies again insisted that the Germans withdraw their remaining troops from Latvia and intervened to impose a ceasefire between the Estonians and the Freikorps when the Estonians were about to march into Riga. In the meantime, an Allied mission composed of British troops under General Sir Hubert de la Poer Gough had arrived in the Baltic with the task of clearing the Germans from the region and organizing native armies for the Baltic States. To ensure its return to Latvian control, the Baltische Landeswehr was placed under British authority. After taking command of the Baltische Landeswehr in mid-July 1919, Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Alexander (the future Field Marshal the Earl Alexander of Tunis and Governor General of Canada, 1946-1952), gradually dismissed the German elements. The Germans released from the Baltische Landeswehr were incorporated into the Deutsche Legion in September 1919. The legion served under the Freiwillige Russische Westarmee commanded by Colonel Prince Pavel Bermondt-Avalov. The British insisted that General von der Goltz leave Latvia, and he turned his troops over to Bermondt-Avalov's White Russian Army. Count von der Goltz later claimed in his memoirs that his major strategic goal in 1919 had been to launch a campaign in cooperation with the White Russian forces to overturn the Bolshevik regime by marching on St. Petersburg and to install a pro-German government in Russia.

Prominent members

Prominent Baltic officers from the Landeswehr era include:

• Generalmajor Erich Alt (Luftwaffe) (leader of the 1. Baltischen Flieger-Abteilung (433))
• Generalmajor Rudolf Bader (in the Badisches Freiwilligen Abteilung Medem)
• Generalmajor Heinrich Baron von Behr
• Generalmajor z.V. Heinrich Burggraf und Graf zu Dohna-Schlobitten
• Generalmajor Karl Dormagen
• Generalmajor Dipl. Ing. Hans Henrici
• General der Artillerie Kurt Jahn
• Generalleutnant Heinrich Rauch (Luftwaffe) (aerial observer in Flieger-Abteilung 433)

(the ranks are the highest ranks reached in the Third Reich era)

Insignia

Members of the Baltische Landeswehr wore shoulder strap piping in light blue and white, the Baltic colors.

Bibliography

• Die Baltische Landeswehr im Befreiungskampf gegen den Bolschewismus, Riga 1929.
• Eesti Vabadussõda 1918-1920, Tallinn, Mats, 1997. ISBN 9985510283.
• Rüdiger von der Goltz. Minu missioon Soomes ja Baltikumis, Tartu, Loodus 1937; faksiimiletrükk Tallinn, Olion 2004. ISBN 9985663799.

See also

• Bundeswehr
• Reichswehr
• Wehrmacht
• Freikorps in the Baltic
• Military of Germany

External links

• A cannon of the Landeswehr
• An airplane of the Landeswehr
• Estland
• "Hans von Manteuffel" honor title
• The soldiers of the Landeswehr