On July 30, 1944, the mechanized Red Army units reached the shores of the Gulf of Riga. This led to the disruption of communication between the Army Group and the Army Group North near the Lithuanian-Latvian border. The consequence was the almost certain destruction of the Army Group "North" and the loss of control over the Baltic republics.
In order to counter this, OKH prepared a counter-attack called "Doppelkopf", which was supposed to reject the Soviets from the Baltic and restore communication between the two groups of the Army.
7th Panzer Division attacked the southern flank of German forces, towards the town of iauliai in Jmudia.

