10. Oktober 1944
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Libau | ![]() | |||
Windau | ![]() | |||
Dondangen | ![]() |

This is the third time that I have travelled this route in just a few weeks. At dawn[2] we arrive off Libau, enter the harbor and drop anchor. After an hour's layover, the anchors are suddenly weighed again, the ship turns and puts to sea again, heading north.
We are in the harbour of Windau. The ship has moored at the quay. The men come down the gangplank in single file. The companies line up on the quay. The luggage is neatly aligned in long rows. The Landsers stand next to them in groups. The loading boom swings back and forth tirelessly, rattling as it lowers the thick rope with the strong hook into the ship's belly and lifts up a huge net full of equipment. While it was being unloaded, the battalion leader went to see the harbour commander to get further orders. Soon afterwards, the battalion sets off. We first move along a crooked, badly paved road flanked by low wooden houses. Then we cross the square market place, which is surrounded by single-storey stone houses. It presents the same picture as all East German colonial towns. We then turn eastwards and have soon left the small, friendly town.[3] After half an hour, we reach a small railway station, where we stop to wait for the train. A small narrow-gauge locomotive is shunting on the tracks with equally small carriages. Finally, it has pushed a whole train together and comes puffing onto the departure track. So that's our transport train![4] We climb onto the little plate wagons and soon this Lilliputian railway is steaming away, smoking. It smokes like hell. The stoker stuffs loads of arm-length logs into the firebox. The locomotive is only heated with wood, because there is an abundance of it. The chimney emits huge clouds of smoke, which at times completely fog us in. The Landser have therefore pulled their tent halves over their heads. So we tootled through extensive, mostly low and often swampy wooded areas.[5] We reached our destination late in the afternoon. The town is called Dondangen. Not many houses can be seen from the railway station as they are scattered in small groups. Here lies the field replacement division[6], to which we hand over the battalion. That happens very quickly. In the meantime, it has become dark, and the skeleton staff of the march battalion is housed in a farmhouse.
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- ↑ Original caption in Haupt 1979: “A transport ship with troops and equipment arrived in Libau on 3 October 1944.” – Caption in the diary (illustration of the disembarkation in Libau on 26.12.44): “Reinforcement for the Courland Front. Arrival in the port of Libau.“ – The picture best illustrates the disembarkation on 10.10.44 in Windau: “The men come down the gangplank in single file.”
- ↑ It was probably October 10, 1944; on this day the Dampfer “Lappland” arrived in Libau with 1 infantry and 2 naval march battalions (KTB HGr N vom 10.10.1944 S. 199]); the subsequent steamer “Prake” (Brake) with 3 naval march battalions on board was bombed off Windau on the 12th (p. 232).
- ↑ Views of various buildings in the town
- ↑ Views and a description of the railway (in Latvian language)
- ↑ The route can still be seen in the openrailwaymap (dashed line towards the right-hand edge of the map)
- ↑ Field Training Division (FAD) North, immediately subordinated to H.Gr. N (www.Kurland-Kessel.de); had also to defend the north-eastern coast (Haupt 1979 p. 37)