Escape from Berlin: The Incredible Journey of the Latvian 15th SS Janums Battle Group, April 1945

Tells the extraordinary escape of the Latvian 15th SS Division from certain death in 1945, as captured in First Lieutenant Edvīns Bušmanis’ diary.

The dramatic escape of the Latvian 15th SS Janums Battle Group south of Berlin to surrender to the Americans on the Elbe saved 900 men from a pointless death slowing the Red Army assault on Berlin in 1945. Unable to return to a homeland occupied by the Soviet Union, many veterans came to the UK to work, and stayed.

Their stories add to the sharp observations and vivid descriptions of Battle Group adjutant Edvīns Bušmanis, who kept a detailed diary of what happened. This lay unpublished in the archive of the War Museum in Riga for many years until it was passed to the author as part of his research into the 15th Division.

Translated into English for this book, Hunt retraces the footsteps of the Latvians through forests and across swamps – and his journey opens up new aspects of German experience at the end of the Second World War and later.

The research for the book uncovered a long-forgotten US Army film of the Janums Battle Group on their final march into captivity as well as gathering new stories from senior officers and men from locations along the route. Along with stills from the film and rare archive photographs of the Latvians at a medals ceremony in Germany, these memories build into a comprehensive chronological catalogue of what happened, through the words of men who were there. For example, one elderly veteran in the UK who was wounded in a Panzerfaust explosion on the Berlin ring road recalls the moment 75 years later, while a detailed description of the surrender comes in the words of the officer who negotiated it – and later emigrated to Australia.

Fourteen maps and 78 pictures illustrate the journey of the Janums Battle Group through the suburbs of Berlin and the swamps, forests and villages of Brandenburg as they evade German patrols and Red Army advance units alike in their march to safety and survival.