Battle of Tannenberg Line

This is a sub-article to Battle of Narva (1944).

The Battle of Tannenberg Line (German: Die Schlachtum die Tannenbergstellung; Estonian: Sinimägede lahing;Russian: Битва за линию «Танненберг») was a mili-tary engagement between the German Army Detachment"Narwa" and the Soviet Leningrad Front. They foughtfor the strategically important Narva Isthmus from 25July to 10 August 1944. The battle was fought on theEastern Front during World War II. The strategic aim ofthe Soviet Estonian Operation was to reoccupy Estoniaas a favourable base for the invasions of Finland and EastPrussia. Several Western scholars refer to it as the Battleof the European SS for the 24 volunteer infantry battalionsfromDenmark, East Prussia, Flanders, Holland, Norway,and Wallonia within the Waffen-SS. Roughly half of theinfantry consisted of local Estonian conscripts motivatedto resist the looming Soviet re-occupation. The Ger-man force of 22,250 men held off 136,830 Soviet troops.As the Soviet forces were constantly reinforced, the ca-sualties of the battle were 150,000–200,000 dead andwounded Soviet troops and 157–164 tanks.

1 Background

Main articles: Battle of Narva (1944) and Narva Offen-sive (July 1944)After defending the Narva bridgehead for six months,

View from the summit of the Grenadier Hill towards the Orphan-age Hill

the German forces fell back to the Tannenberg Line inthe hills of Sinimäed (Russian: Синие горы) on 26 July1944. The three hills run east to west. The eastern

hill was known to Estonians as the Lastekodumägi (Or-phanage Hill; Kinderheimhöhe in German). The centralwas the Grenaderimägi (Grenadier Hill; Grenadierhöhe)and the westernmost was the Tornimägi (Tower Hill, alsoknown in German as or 69.9 or Liebhöhe (Love Hill)).The heights have steep slopes and rise 20–50 m abovethe surrounding land.The formations of Gruppenführer Felix Steiner's III SS(Germanic) Panzer Corps halted their withdrawal andmoved into defensive positions on the hills. The 4thSS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Brigade Nederland starteddigging in on the left (north) flank of the TannenbergLine, units of the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of theSS (1st Estonian) in the centre, and the 11th SS VolunteerPanzergrenadier Division Nordland on the right (south)flank. Another front section manned by the East Prus-sians of the 11th Infantry Division was situated a few kilo-metres further south, against the 8th Army in the Kriva-soo bridgehead.[5]

The Soviet Marshal Leonid Govorov considered theTannenberg Line as the key position of Army GroupNorth and concentrated the best forces of the LeningradFront.[9] Additional 122nd, 124th Rifle Corps and di-visions from 117th Rifle Corps were subordinated toGeneral Ivan Fedyuninsky, commanding the 2nd ShockArmy.[5] The goal set by the War Council of the 2ndShock Army was to break through the defense line of theIII SS Panzer Corps at the Orphanage Hill, force theirway to the town of Jõhvi in the west and reach the KundaRiver by 1 August.[4] To accomplish this, Govorov wasordered to destroy communications behind the Germanforces and conduct air assaults on the railway stations ofJõhvi and Tapa on 26 July.[4]

2 Comparison of forces

2.1 Soviet

There is no complete overview of the order of the Sovietforces or the detachment sizes in the Battle of Tannen-berg Line.[5] For the attack on 29 July, Leonid Govorovconcentrated all of the capable Soviet units, consisting ofeleven divisions and six tank regiments.[2][7] The Sovietunits that had suffered losses were brought up to strengthwith fresh manpower. The delivery of Soviet heavy ar-tillery complimented the nine divisions of the 109th, the117th and the 122nd Rifle Corps.[5] The 109th and 117thCorps were concentrated close to the Sinimäed, while the

1

2 2 COMPARISON OF FORCES

122nd Rifle Corps to the southern section by the churchof Vaivara Parish. The positions of the 11th InfantryDivision were mainly attacked by the 35,000-strong 8thArmy with their 112th Rifle Corps, two fresh Tank Regi-ments, 1,680 assault guns, deployed in nine artillery regi-ments and 150 armoured vehicles.[7] The armored forcesincluded the brand new IS-2 tanks with extra armour and122mm gun. The weakness of the tank was its limitedammunition capacity (only 28 rounds) and long reloadingtime for its main gun. The forces were supported by the576-strong 13th Air Army.[7] The Soviet order of battle(available data as of 28 July 1944):[5]

Leningrad Front - Marshal Leonid Govorov

• 2nd Shock Army - Lieutenant General IvanFedyuninsky

• 109th Rifle Corps - Major General IvanAlferov• 72nd Rifle Division - Ilya Yastrebov• 109th Rifle Division - Major GeneralNikolai Truzhkin

• 125th Rifle Division - Colonel Vassili Zi-novev

• 122nd Rifle Corps• 124th Rifle Corps Colonel Mikhail Papchenko• 131st Rifle Division - Major General PyotrRomanenko

• 191st Rifle Division - Major General Ivan Bu-rakovski

• 21st Engineers Brigade - Lieutenant ColonelVasilkov

Total: 26,850 infantrymen, 458 pieces of artillery, 112tanks

• 8th Army - Lieutenant General Filipp Starikov

• 2nd “Masurian” Rifle Division• 377th Rifle Division• 112th Rifle Corps - Major General FilippSolovev• 48th Rifle Division - Colonel YakovKoževnikov

• 117th Rifle Corps - Major General VasiliTrubachev• 120th Rifle Division - Major GeneralAlexandr Batluk

• 201st Rifle Division - Major General Vy-acheslav Yakutovich

• 256th Rifle Division - Major GeneralAnatoli Koziyev

Total: 28,000 infantrymen, 518 pieces of artillery, 174tanks and 44 self-propelled gunsSeparate Corps and Divisions (possibly subordinated toone the above-mentioned Armies):[5]

• 8th 'Estonian' Rifle Corps - Lieutenant GeneralLembit Pärn

• 11th Rifle Division

• 43rd Rifle Division

• 98th Rifle Division

• 123rd Rifle Division

• 189th Rifle Division

• 206th Rifle Division

2.2 German

Against the Soviet forces, a few tired German regimentswithout any reserve troops stood at their positions, bat-tered by the Soviet artillery. The commander of theArmy Detachment “Narwa”, General der Infanterie, An-ton Grasser, assessed the German capacity as insufficientagainst the Soviet attack. While sufficient in ammunitionand machine-guns, the combat morale of the Germanicvolunteers was under heavy pressure while the spirit ofsome Estonian troops had already been severely damagedin Grasser’s opinion.[2][7] However, the following com-bat proved the opposite.[7] The small number of Ger-man Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers and shortage of aero-plane fuel gave the Soviets massive air superiority.[2][7]Grasser’s conclusion was short:[2][7]

Leaving diplomatic formulation aside, Grasser an-nounced that without immediate reinforcements, the So-viets would inevitably break through the Tannenberg Lineon 29 June.[2][7] Such reinforcements were beyond the ca-pacities of Army Group North. The commander of theArmy Group, Ferdinand Schörner, had repeatedly calledAdolf Hitler's attention to the fact that virtually no divi-sion consisting of Germans was left at the TannenbergLine, which was threatening to collapse. These calls hadno effect, as Hitler’s response remained to stand or die.[7]The German order of battle (as of 28 July 1944) was:[5]

Army Detachment "Narwa" - General der Infanterie An-ton Grasser

• III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps - SS-GruppenführerFelix Steiner

• 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Divi-sion “Nordland” - SS-Brigadeführer JoachimZiegler• SS Panzergenadier Regiment 23 "Norge" -SS-Obersturmbannführer Fritz Knöchlein

3

• SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 24 "Dan-mark" - SS-Sturmbannführer AlbrechtKrügel

• 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS(1st Estonian) - SS-Brigadeführer Franz Augs-berger• Waffen Grenadier Regiment 45 - Waffen-Obersturmbannführer Harald Riipalu

• Waffen Grenadier Regiment 46 - Waffen-Standartenführer Juhan Tuuling

• Waffen Grenadier Regiment 47 - Waffen-Obersturmbannführer Paul Vent

• Artillery Regiment - Waffen-Obersturmbannführer Aleksandr Sobolev

• 4th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Brigade"Nederland" - SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Wag-ner• 4th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment "DeRuyter" - SS-Hauptsturmführer HelmutScholz

• 5th SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade "Wal-lonien" - SS-Sturmbannführer Léon De-grelle

• 6th SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade "Lange-marck" - SS-Sturmbannführer GeorgD`Haese

• 227th Infantry Division• 113th Security Regiment

• XXVI Army Corps - General der Infanterie AntonGrasser

• 11th Infantry Division• 300th Special Purpose Division -Generalmajor Rudolf Höfer

Separate detachments:

• Four Estonian police battalions

• Eastern sector, coastal defence - GeneralleutnantAlfons Luczny

• Two Estonian border defence regiments

• 513th Naval Artillery Battalion

• 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion

• 752nd Anti-Tank Battalion

Total: 22,250 troops[1] deployed in 25 Estonian and 24German, Dutch, Danish, Flemish, Italian, Norwegian,and Walloon battalions[5]

3 Combat

3.1 Orphanage Hill

3.1.1 26 July

On 26 July, pursuing the withdrawing Germans, the So-viet attack fell onto the Tannenberg Line before the vastlyoutnumbered Army Detachment "Narwa" had dug-in.The Soviet Air Force and artillery covered the Germanpositions with bombs and shells, destroying most of theforest on the hills.[5][7] The headquarters of the newlyarrived Flemish 6th SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade Lange-marck were destroyed and almost all of their officerswounded. Sturmbannführer Wilhelm Rehmann left thebattlefield, as Leutnant George D'Haese stepped in tobring the brigade back to combat-readiness.[10] The Ger-man batteries were badly hit; the commander of one ofthem was killed. It took a few days for Steiner to re-pair the assault guns and until this had been completedthe impact of the German artillery remained modest.[11]Benefiting from the disorder, the Soviet 201st and 256thRifle Divisions supported by the 98th Tank Regiment as-saulted the positions of the “Nordland” Division seizingthe eastern side of the Orphanage Hill.[9] In the darknessof the following night, the Anti-Tank Company, SS Panz-ergrenadier Regiment 24 "Danmark" destroyed the Soviettanks and regained their positions.[12]

3.1.2 27 July

In the morning of 27 July, the Soviet forces began anotherpowerful artillery barrage toward the Sinimäed. Antic-ipating an infantry attack, Steiner concentrated the fewworking armored vehicles consisting of seven tanks[2][3]under the command of Obersturmbannführer Paul Al-bert Kausch. Steiner placed them behind the western-most Tower Hill in readiness positions.[13] A company ofNebelwerfer rocket launchers were placed behind them,being able to fire 48 projectiles within a few seconds.[12]Units of the "Nordland" Division were placed betweenthe two hills and the defense was completed by the Anti-Tank Company, 1st Estonian behind the "Nordland".[7]The Soviet attack concentrated at the Orphpanage Hilland the Danmark Regiment south of it. The Dan-ish anti-tank company used their Panzerfausts to setfourteen tanks on fire.[14] Meanwhile, the Soviet in-fantry forced the weakened "Langemarck" Sturmbrigadeto leave the south side of the Orphanage Hill and dig newtrenches in front of the Grenadier Hill.[10] As a last resort,Unterscharführer Remi Schrijnen used the only heavyweapon left in the sturmbrigade, a 7.5 cm PaK 40 anti-tank gun. Schrijnen was wounded and cut off from therest of his troops when he started acting as both the loaderand gunner. He and the Flemish heavy machine-gunnershalted several Soviet tank attacks threatening to encirclethe "Langemarck" and the Estonian battalions.[15]

4 3 COMBAT

The Soviet attack also failed to penetrate the defence lineof the II.Battalion, SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Regi-ment 49 "De Ruyter". Several Soviet tanks broke throughto the headquarters of the battalion, which were repulsedby Gruppenführer Fritz von Scholz Edler von Reranczesending twelve assault guns forward from the reserve.[12]South from the Orphanage Hill, the Soviet forces brokethrough the defense of the "Danmark" Regiment andseized control of most of the hill by night time.[14]

Under Soviet pressure, the German defense threatenedto collapse. On 27 July, Schörner arrived at the Sin-imäed. He ordered an immediate recapture of the Or-phanage Hill, demanding fanatical resistance from thesoldiers.[2][7] A meeting convened by von Scholz laid thetactics for the implementation of the orders. Directly af-ter the meeting, von Scholz was killed by a shrapnel splin-ter in front of the headquarters.[7]

On the night before 28 July, the SS ReconnaissanceBattalion 11, "Nordland" and the I. Batallion, WaffenGrenadier Regiment 47 (3rd Estonian), launched a fero-cious counterattack. Heavy casualties were inflicted onboth sides - the Estonian battalion was destroyed.[14] Thefighting for the Orphanage Hill was carried on to 28 Julyas one continuous battle. The II.Battalion, "Nordland"launched their fierce attempt to capture the OrphanageHill which the Soviets repulsed. The surviving Germanforces fell back to the Grenadier Hill.[14]

3.1.3 28 July

For the next day, the 2nd Shock Army was reinforcedwith the 31st and the 82nd Tank Regiments, threehowitzer brigades, and nine heavy artillery regiments. Inthe morning of 28 July, the Soviet forces made a fero-cious attempt to out-flank the German forces resisting atthe Orphanage Hill from the north side. With the lastanti-tank gun of the "Langemarck" destroying the So-viet armoured force, the Soviets were denied a break-through. They suffered heavy casualties, but ordered anair and artillery assault aimed at destroying the withdraw-ing German units. Anticipating the attack, the Germantroops advanced into no-man’s-land close to the Sovietunits instead. In close combat, a Flemish regiment of the"Langemarck" repulsed the Soviets which brought it tonear destruction.[14]

In the evening of 28 July, the German forces attemptedto regain the Orphanage Hill again. Using the tacticsof “rolling” small units into the Soviet positions, thetroops seized the trenches on the slope of the feature.When a Soviet tank squadron arrived, the German attackcollapsed.[7] At a portion of the German 11th InfantryDivision near the borough of Sirgala in the south, the So-viet tanks aimed to break through. Steiner ordered a with-drawal to a new defenseive line at the Grenadier Hill. Theorder did not reach a significant part of the German forceswho remained in their positions at the Orphanage Hill.

Anticipating a major attack, Steiner ordered the heavyweapons of the SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment 23 "Norge"and the "Danmark" Regiment to be pulled together intotwo shock units. By the night of 28 July, the battle hadsubsided.[7]

3.2 Grenadier Hill

3.2.1 Preparatory fire

The morning of 29 July began with the preparatory ar-tillery fire of 25,000 shells fired by the Soviets.[5] Thebombardment covered the Tannenberg Line in a dustcloud. The forest on the Sinimäed Hills was entirely de-stroyed, with the trees cut down to a height of two–threemetres. While having a great psychological effect, the"Katyushas" or so-called "Stalin organs" were inaccurate,causing little damage to the well dug-in German troops.The 70–80 GermanNebelwerfers answered. This was fol-lowed by Soviet bombers trying to hit the last of the Ger-man troops, ducking down in their trenches. Dressed incamouflage uniforms, they remained unseen by the Sovietpilots.[7]

3.2.2 Soviet advance guards on the Grenadier Hill

The attack of the 6,000 Soviet infantry[4] began at 0900,supported by a regiment of nearly 100 tanks (most ofthem of the heavy IS-2 variety). They used their 122mm guns to fire directly at the strong points showing anysigns of life and destroyed the remaining bunkers.[4][16]The remmnants of the German advance guard were de-stroyed. The platoon commanded by lieutenant Lapshinbroke through to the top of the Grenadier Hill. Specialcourage was shown by Sergeant Efendiyev who destroyeda German strong point on the hill. The Komsomol or-ganiser, V.I. Lavreshin of the 937th Rifle Regiment, whohad been marching ahead of his troops with a red flag inhis hands, erected it at the summit.[4] The small Germanunits who still resisted were paid no special attention bythe Soviets as the main attack was carried westwards.[17]

3.2.3 Attack of Soviet main forces

The principle of the Soviet attack in the Sinimäed was anoverwhelming frontal shock, with only a few of the at-tackers presumed to have reached the target.[7] With ar-tillery fire preventing any reinforcements sent in from theGerman rear, the Soviet 8th Army went on the attack anddrove a wedge into the north flank of the 11th InfantryDivision. The Soviet main tactical goal, the GrenadierHill, was to be assaulted by the 6,000 soldiers of the109th Rifle Corps. The 109th Rifle Division attacked the"Nederland" who were covering the hill from the north.[5]The 120th Rifle Division hit the Grenadier Hill from theeast. The 72nd Rifle Division assaulted the II. Battal-

3.4 Germans capture the Grenadier Hill 5

ion, 3rd Estonian Regiment which were defending thenorthern flank. The 117th Rifle Corps stood ready tobreak through the last of the German defenses.[2][7] TheOrphanage Hill fell to the Soviets with the 191st RifleRegiment at the head of the Soviet attack. These suf-fered great casualties from the fire of the last defenderswho in turn were either killed or forced to the GrenadierHill. With the seizure of the Orphanage Hill, the Soviet201st and the 256th Rifle Divisions were exhausted asthe 109th Rifle Division continued to press towards theGrenadier Hill alone. The defenders were commanded byJosef Bachmeier, the head of the II. Battalion, "Norge".The I. and II. Battalions, 3rd Estonian subordinated toBachmeier had 20 to 30 men each. For the defense ofthe Grenadier Hill, every available Estonian was sent intobattle, including communications personnel.[7] The cen-tral command post was destroyed by Soviet fire while theGermans, Flemish, Norwegians and Estonians escapeddestruction by lying down in their bunkers. Behind themat the summit of the Grenadier Hill, stood the "Neder-land". The gaps created in the attacking infantry andtank line by the German artillery did not stop the Sovietadvance.[7]

3.2.4 Soviet encirclement

The 109th Rifle Division passed the remnants of the II.Battalion, "De Ruyter" which used their light machineguns to cause heavy casualties to the Soviets. The So-viet attack ran into the camouflaged anti-tank gun ofRemi Schrijnen standing near the northeastern corner ofthe hill.[17] Meeting the Soviet attack, he fired his gun,destroying seven tanks in the course of which he wasseverely wounded when his gun was destroyed by an IS-2 tank returning fire from 30 metres.[15] Despite Schri-jnen’s heroics, the Soviet tanks besieged the GrenadierHill and kept circling the hill, all the while firing awayat the defenders. Nevertheless, they could not capturethe summit due to heavy casualties caused by the Ger-man anti-tank guns and the anti-aircraft guns pointingtheir barrels down the slope. Other Soviet tanks reachedthe westernmost hill Tower Hill. The defenders in theirbunkers, which were poorly fortified from the north andthe flanks, were destroyed. Among the Soviet tank com-manders, starshina S. F. Smirnov destroyed five Germanstrong points.[4] One of the tanks reached the communitycentre of the municipality of Vaivara, shooting a hole inthe wall. This remained the westernmost point the So-viet Armed Forces reached in Northeast Estonia until lateSeptember 1944.[7]

3.3 Germans capture the Tower Hill

By noon on 29 July, the Soviet forces had almost seizedcontrol of the Tannenberg Line. During the attack, theyhad suffered heavy casualties and were unable to securetheir positions at the Sinimäed Hills. Amortally wounded

German radio operator cleared the eastern slope of theGrenadier Hill by waiting for the Soviet troops to reachhis position and then ordering an artillery barrage on him-self as the Soviets surrounded him.[17] The Soviet tanksthreatened the headquarters of the "De Ruyter" Regiment.The counterattack by the headquarters guards companywas repelled and Obersturmbannführer Hans Collani,seeing a Soviet tank from his headquarters doorstep, shothimself dead. His observations turned out to be erroneousas Steiner ordered the last German tanks out from the re-serve (they were commanded by Paul-Albert Kausch).[14]He distributed his tanks in three units. One of them wenton to counterattack the Soviets besieging the Tower Hill;the second of them secured the Narva–Tallinn Highwayin the west and the third unit counterattacked betweenthe Grenadier Hill and the railway a few kilometres to thesouth.[7] The arrival of the German tanks came unexpect-edly for the Soviet armor. Probably being out of ammu-nition, the Soviet tank squadron retreated and the coun-terattack of the "De Ruyter" repulsed the Soviets from theTower Hill.[18] After the counterattack, only one GermanPanther tank remained unscathed.[2][7]

3.4 Germans capture the Grenadier Hill

After the German counterattack, the tactical situation atthe Tannenberg Line remained unclear. The remainsof the II. Battalion, "Norge" at the Grenadier Hill as-saulted the Soviets. The latter suffered heavy losses butre-grouped and cut the Norwegians off at the east sideof the hill.[4][14] On the western terrace of the GrenadierHill, Kampfgruppe Bachmeier and the III.Battalion, 3rdEstonian kept resisting. The Soviets started searching thebunkers for documents and prisoners.[4] Steiner orderedan air assault using dive bombers from Tallinn Airport.The Soviets had anticipated the attack and had movedtheir self-propelled anti-aircraft units to the OrphanageHill. They shot down several German bombers and af-terwards turned their fire on the German infantry.[16]

Steiner had one more battalion to spare – the I.Battalion,'Waffen Grenadier Regiment der SS 45 "Estland" (1st Es-tonian) which had been spared from the previous coun-terattacks because of the scarcity of able-bodied men.Sturmbannführer Paul Maitla requested reinforcementsfrom the men in the field hospital. Twenty less in-jured men responded, joining the remains of the otherdestroyed units, including a unit of the Kriegsmarine(navy), and supported by the single remaining Panthertank.[7] The counterattack started from the parish ceme-tery south of the Tower Hill with the left flank of the as-sault clearing the hill of the Soviets. The attack contin-ued towards the summit under heavy Soviet artillery andbomber attack, getting into close combat in the Soviet po-sitions. The small German grenadier units were movedinto the trenches. Running out of ammunition, the Ger-man troops used Soviet grenades and automatic weaponstaken from the fallen.[7] According to some veterans, it

6 3 COMBAT

appeared that low flying Soviet bombers were attemptingto hit every individual German soldier jumping betweencraters, from time to time getting buried under the soilby the explosions of Soviet shells.[19] The Soviets wereforced to retreat from the Grenadier Hill.[5][9]

3.5 Soviet attempts to regain GrenadierHill

In the afternoon of 29 July, the Soviet forces made eightattempts to regain control of the Grenadier Hill. The lastof the German reserves were sent into the battle, includ-ing the supply troops. The two assaults byMaitla’s impro-vised platoon at the Orphanage Hill forced the Soviets torefrain from further attacks and gave the Germans timeto re-group.[2][20][21]

3.6 Report of the 2nd Shock Army head-quarters on 30 July

Reluctant to admit the catastrophe in his report to the So-viet High Command on 30 July, the Political Commissarof the Soviet 2nd Army falsely assured that the GrenadierHill was still in the possession of the Soviet 109th RifleCorps. As the justification of the failure to break throughthe German defenses, the report cited the weak cooper-ation between the artillery and the infantry. The reportalso mentioned the poorly coordinated action of the ar-mored units, driving to the minefields, which were un-cleared by the sapper units. The commissar made seri-ous reproaches against the commanders of the units andclaimed in his report than they were very drunk while at-tempting to command the attacks.[7][22]

3.7 30–31 July

On 30 July, the battle went on in similar fashion. Sovietartillery increased the intensity of its fire to 30,000shells,[5] the German artillery answered with 10,000rounds of their own.[2] The subsequent attack by theSoviet heavy tanks broke through the defenses of theII.Battalion, "De Ruyter" consisting of 35–45 capablemen running between their heavy machine guns.[7]Hauptsturmführer Helmut Scholz took units of the DeRuyter Regiment to the counterattack, destroying twotanks at the doorstep of Scholz’s bunker and forcing theSoviets to retreat.[17] For the battles of Tannenberg Line,Scholz earned the Knight’s Cross with Oakleaves, theonly SS infantry company commander to be a recipientof the Oakleaves.[7]Simultaneously, the Soviet platoons were climbing up theGrenadier Hill under intensive German bombardment.Eventually, the attack was repelled by German handgrenades. The Soviets attacked the II.Battalion, 3rdEstonian which in close combat, destroyed 12 tanks andrepelled this latest assault.[7][23] Units of the Soviet 8th

Army advanced in the forests of the southern section ofthe front.[4]

On 31 July, the Soviet command changed the direction oftheir preparatory artillery fire, this time aiming it behindthe hill, cutting the German defenders off from the mainarmy group. The gradual decrease in the number of shellsfired by the Soviet artillery (9,000 rounds on 30 July), wit-nessed the weakening of the Soviet attacks.[2][7] Sovietinfantry started climbing up the Grenadier Hill. The Es-tonian units against them ran out of ammunition.[2][7] Justin time, an improvised platoon of the "Danmark" arrivedto rescue them, and another Soviet attack was repulsed.In the evening, the Soviets tried yet another assault on theGrenadier Hill, it was repelled by the unit commandedby Bachmeier, who was later decorated with the Knight’sCross.[17] The remnants of the I. Battalion, 3rd Estonianresisted the Soviet attacks on the southern flank.[24]

That time, the political commissar of the 2nd ShockArmy admitted the failure to break through the defense.He explained it by stating the artillery fire was runninglate.[7][25] The report presented the false assertion thatthe Germans had captured the Grenadier Hill only on 30July.[5]

3.8 Soviet reinforcements in August

Receiving the order from Stalin to break through toTallinn at all costs, Govorov made Fedyuninsky respon-sible for reaching Rakvere no later than 7 August.[9] Dur-ing the first days of August, the 2nd Shock Army receivedthe 110th and 124th Rifle Corps as reinforcements, rais-ing the number of troops to over 20,000 again.[5] The8th Army received similar additions to their forces withthe 112th and 117th Corps ordered to join the attacks.[5]Soviet tank forces were also restored, with 104 armoredvehicles at their command.[5] At the nine kilometre longsegment of the front, 1,913 assault guns were collected,making it 300 guns per kilometer. 365 pieces of heavyartillery were aimed at the Grenadier Hill and 200 at theSirgala hamlet in the south segment. As the daily amount,200,000 shells were supplied to the artillery.[4] On 1 Au-gust, no combat took place, as both parties reorganizedtheir forces.[4] The Leningrad Front tried to shift the cen-ter of weight southwards.

3.9 German condition in August

The army detachment "Narwa" replaced its units withthe less damaged detachments in the first days of Au-gust. Despite inflicting immense casualties on the Sovi-ets, the Waffen-SS units were slowly getting worn down.The "Nederland" Brigade was reduced to the size ofa regiment, while the two regiments of the "Lange-marck" Sturmbrigade each had the strength of a rein-forced company.[7] The 2nd Estonian Regiment was vir-

7

tually lost and the "Nordland" Division a shadow of itsformer self. To the German’s good fortune, Soviet intel-ligence severely overestimated the strength of the defend-ers to more than 60 tanks and 800 pieces of artillery[4]while in fact there were just one tank and 70–80 guns leftat the Tannenberg Line.[2][7]

3.10 Finale

Estonian soldiers prepare to fire a Panzerschreck in August, 1944

By 2 August, the 2nd Shock Army had re-deployed andassaulted, using the same tactics as previously. The menof the "Nederland" who survived the artillery bombard-ment, retreated down the slopes of theGrenadier Hill pur-sued by the Soviet units. In Steiner’s memoirs, the inten-sity of the fire and the nature of the battles reminded himof the Battle of Verdun.[26] When the artillery barrageended, the freshly drafted II.Battalion,Waffen-GrenadierRegiment der SS 46 (2nd Estonian) returned fire afterinflicting severe casualties on the assaulting Soviets andcounterattacked, reclaiming the Grenadier Hill.[27] So-viet tanks broke through in the southeastern section of thefront as the Estonian assault team commanded by Haupt-sturmführer Oskar Ruut, the 11th Infantry Division (con-sisting of personnel fromEast Prussia) and the 300th Spe-cial Purpose Division repelled themwhile suffering heavycasualties.[5][7][17]

On 3 August, the Soviets made a stronger attempt withthe preparatory artillery fire of 25,000–30,000 shellsreaching the level of the attack of 29 July. The fire causedheavy casualties, while a part of the defenders left theirpositions. Eleven Soviet rifle divisions and four tank reg-iments tried to spread their attack along the front. How-ever, the main weight of the impending attack tended tobe at the Grenadier Hill once more. The German ar-tillery noticed the concentration of the Soviet forces, andlaunched their rocket fire, inflicting numerous casualtieson the Soviet infantry and tanks before the beginningof the attack. As the German artillery fire did not dentthe Soviet superiority in manpower, the Soviet attack be-gan as scheduled. The 110th Rifle Corps assaulting theGrenadier Hill found themselves in the middle of cross-fire from the remnants of the I.Battalion, 2nd Estonian

Regiment.[7] As the commanders of the rifle corps erro-neously reported to army headquarters on the capture ofthe Grenadier Hill, the artillery fire was lifted. The Es-tonians counterattacked and cleared the hill.[7][27] Simul-taneously, the 124th Rifle Corps attacking the southernsegment of the front by the Vaivara parish church wasrepulsed.In a similar fashion, the Soviets made two more attackson 3 August. Each of them began with a massive ar-tillery barrage and ended with a German counterattack,restoring the previous positions.[7][28] Overall on 3 Au-gust, twenty Soviet tanks were destroyed. The Sovietattacks from 4 to 6 August were weaker; on 4 August,eleven tanks were destroyed, and sevenmore on 5 August.During the night before 6 August, six tanks were knockedout.[5] On 10 August, the war council of the LeningradFront ordered the termination of the offensive and switchstrictly to defense.[4] The Soviets reduced their operationsto patrol activities with occasional attacks. The defendersused this respite to rotate several exhausted units out ofthe line for a few days for rest and refit, and to strengthentheir positions. Until mid-September, the front stayedquiet.[5]

4 Casualties

In the era of the Soviet Union, losses in the Battle of Tan-nenberg Line were not mentioned in Soviet sources.[29]In recent years, Russian authors have published somefigures[30][31] but not for the whole course of the battle.[7]The number of Soviet casualties can only be estimatedby looking at other figures. In the attack of 29 July, 225men survived of the Soviet 109th Rifle Corps carryingthe main weight of the assault. Of the 120th Rifle Di-vision, 1,808 men were lost; killed or wounded.[4] Therest of the Soviet rifle corps lost their capacity for furtherattacks.[16] In the same attack, the German forces lost 600men.[2][32] The headquarters of the 2nd Shock Army re-ported 259 troops fit for combat within the 109th RifleDivision and a total exhaustion of the army on the nightbefore 1August,[25] which probablymeant a few thousandtroops fit for combat out of the 46,385 men who had ini-tiated the Estonian Operation on 25 July. The losses ofthe 8th Army were similar to that.[32]

In the evening of 29 July, the army detachment "Narwa"counted 113–120 Soviet tanks destroyed, almost half ofthem in the battles of 29 July.[2][33] The 2nd Shock Armyreported on fifty of their tanks destroyed on 29 July.[25][33]The German side counted an additional 44 Soviet tanksdestroyed on 3–6 August.[34]

Russian author Grigoriy F. Krivosheev, in his account“Soviet casualties and combat losses in the twentieth cen-tury”, lists 665,827 casualties suffered by the LeningradFront in 1944, 145,102 of them as dead, missing in ac-tion, or captured.[29] Estonian historian Mart Laar, de-

8 7 REFERENCES

ducting the losses in the Leningrad-Novgorod Offensive,Battle for the Narva Bridgehead and the combat in Fin-land estimates the number of Soviet casualties in the Bat-tle of Tannenberg Line as 35,000 dead or missing and135,000 wounded or sick.[7]

The German Army Group North buried 1,709 men in Es-tonia between 24 July and 10 August 1944.[8][35] Addedto the men missing in action, the number of irrecoverablecasualties in the period is approximately 2,500. Account-ing the standard ratio 1:4 of irrecoverable casualties tothe wounded, the total number of German casualties inthe Battle for Tannenberg Line is approximately 10,000men.[8]

5 Aftermath

Further information: Baltic Offensive (1944) and TallinnOffensive

On 14 September, the Riga Offensive was launched bythe Soviet 1st, 2nd and 3rd Baltic Fronts. It was aimedat capturing Riga and cutting off Army Group North inCourland, western Latvia. After much argument, AdolfHitler finally agreed to allow the evacuation of all thetroops in Estonia. After months of holding the line, theexhausted men of the III SS Panzer Corps joined thewithdrawal; fighting their way back from the TannenbergLine. On 17 September, the 3rd Baltic Front launchedthe Tallinn Offensive from the Emajõgi River Front join-ing Lake Peipus with Lake Võrtsjärv. The operation wasaimed at encircling the army detachment "Narwa". Un-able to hold the force, the German units withdrew towardsthe northwest while the incomplete II Army Corps wasleft to stall the Soviet attack. The "Narwa" withdrewquickly towards the Latvian border. On 22 September,Tallinn was abandoned. Some of the Estonian formationsnow began to attack the retreating Germans, attemptingto secure supplies and weapons to continue a guerrilla waras the Forest Brothers against the Soviet occupation.[5]Several troops of the Estonian Division stayed in Estonia.These units continued fighting, some survivors joining theguerrilla groups which fought the Soviet occupying forcesuntil the end of the 1970s.[36]

6 See also

• Battle of Narva (1944) for the first phase of the cam-paign

• Documentary film The Blue Hills

7 References[1] Steven H. Newton (1995). Retreat from Leningrad: Army

Group North, 1944/1945. Atglen, Philadelphia: SchifferBooks. ISBN 0-88740-806-0.

[2] Unpublished data from the official battle diary of theArmyDetachment “Narwa”

[3] Mart Laar (2006). Sinimäed 1944: II maailmasõja lahin-gud Kirde-Eestis (Sinimäed 1944: Battles of World War IIin Northeast Estonia) (in Estonian). Tallinn: Varrak. p.261.

[4] F.I.Paulman (1980). “Nachalo osvoboždenija SovetskojEstonij”. Ot Narvy do Syrve (From Narva to Sõrve) (inRussian). Tallinn: Eesti Raamat. pp. 7–119.

[5] Toomas Hiio (2006). “Combat in Estonia in 1944”. InToomas Hiio, Meelis Maripuu, & Indrek Paavle. Estonia1940–1945: Reports of the Estonian International Com-mission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity.Tallinn. pp. 1035–1094.

[6] G.F.Krivosheev (1997). Soviet casualties and combatlosses in the twentieth century. London: Greenhill Books.

[7] Mart Laar (2006). Sinimäed 1944: II maailmasõja lahin-gud Kirde-Eestis (Sinimäed 1944: Battles of World War IIin Northeast Estonia) (in Estonian). Tallinn: Varrak.

[8] Mart Laar (2006). Sinimäed 1944: II maailmasõja lahin-gud Kirde-Eestis (Sinimäed 1944: Battles of World War IIin Northeast Estonia) (in Estonian). Tallinn: Varrak. p.326.

[9] Laar, Mart (2005). Estonia in World War II. Tallinn:Grenader.

[10] R. Landwehr (1983). Lions of Flanders. Silver Spring:Bibliophile Legion Books. p. 143. ISBN 0-918184-04-5.

[11] R. Landwehr, T.H.Nielsen (1981). Nordic Warriors. Bib-liophile Legion Books, Silver Spring. p. 105.

[12] Wilhelm Tieke (2001). Tragedy of the faithful: a historyof the III. (germanisches) SS-Panzer-Korps. Winnipeg:J.J.Fedorowicz. pp. 98–99.

[13] R. Landwehr (1981). Narva 1944: TheWaffen SS and theBattle for Europe. Silver Spring, Maryland: BibliophileLegion Books. p. 84.

[14] R. Landwehr (1981). Narva 1944: The Waffen SS and theBattle for Europe. Silver Spring, Maryland: BibliophileLegion Books.

[15] A.Brandt. The Last Knight of Flanders, pp.126-142

[16] Евгений Кривошеев; Николай Костин (1984). “II. Boizapadnee Narvy (Battles west from Narva”. Битва заНарву (The Battle for Narva) (in Russian). Tallinn: Eestiraamat. pp. 105–140. ISBN 3-905944-01-4.

[17] Wilhelm Tieke (2001). Tragedy of the faithful: a historyof the III. (germanisches) SS-Panzer-Korps. Winnipeg:J.J.Fedorowicz.

9

[18] Marc Rikmenspoel (1999). Soldiers of the Waffen SS.J.J.Fedorowicz, Winnipeg

[19] A.Aasmaa (1999). Tagasivaateid.(Looking Back. In Es-tonian) In: Mart Tamberg (Comp.). Eesti mehed sõjat-ules. EVTÜ, Saku

[20] A.Aasmaa (1999). Tagasivaateid.(Looking Back. In Es-tonian) In: Mart Tamberg (Comp.). Eesti mehed sõjat-ules, p.329. EVTÜ, Saku

[21] Mart Laar (2006). Sinimäed 1944: II maailmasõja lahin-gud Kirde-Eestis (Sinimäed 1944: Battles of World War IIin Northeast Estonia) (in Estonian). Tallinn: Varrak. p.294.

[22] Political report No. 023363 of the Head of the Politi-cal Department of the 2nd Shock Army on 30 July 1944.Estonian State Archive, Fund 32, Catalogue 12, File 7,pp.98–101

[23] J.Uudevald (2000). Vallutasime Grenaderimäe (We con-quered the Grenadier Hill. In Estonian). Võitluse TeedelNr. 3

[24] E.Saumets (1952). “Sinimäed – kangelaste surmamäed(Sinimäed Hills – Death Hills for Heroes” (in Estonian) 3.Kodukolle.

[25] Unpublished reports of the Estonian Operation of the2nd Shock Army, July–September 1944. Estonian StateArchive, Fund 32

[26] Werner Haupt (1997). Army group North: the Wehrma-cht in Russia, 1941-1945. Atglen, Philadelphia: SchifferBooks. p. 244. ISBN 0-7643-0182-9.

[27] Karl Sulger (2002). “Sõjakäik pealuu märgi all (Cam-paign Under the Sign of Bones and Skull” (in Estonian)(1). Võitluse Teedel.

[28] Robert Helde (2004). Palavad päevad Sinimägedes (HotDays at Sinimäed Hills. In Estonian). Võitluse TeedelNr.1

[29] Mart Laar (2006). Sinimäed 1944: II maailmasõja lahin-gud Kirde-Eestis (Sinimäed 1944: Battles of World War IIin Northeast Estonia) (in Estonian). Tallinn: Varrak. p.325.

[30] В.Бешанов (2004). Десять сталинских ударов.Харвест, Minsk. p. 607.

[31] V. Rodin (5 October 2005). “Na vysotah Sinimyae: kaketo bylo na samom dele. (On the Heights of Sinimäed:How It Actually Was)" (in Russian). Vesti.

[32] Mart Laar (2006). Sinimäed 1944: II maailmasõja lahin-gud Kirde-Eestis (Sinimäed 1944: Battles of World War IIin Northeast Estonia) (in Estonian). Tallinn: Varrak. p.303. line feed character in |title= at position 53 (help)

[33] Mart Laar (2006). Sinimäed 1944: II maailmasõja lahin-gud Kirde-Eestis (Sinimäed 1944: Battles of World War IIin Northeast Estonia) (in Estonian). Tallinn: Varrak. p.296.

[34] Mart Laar (2006). Sinimäed 1944: II maailmasõja lahin-gud Kirde-Eestis (Sinimäed 1944: Battles of World War IIin Northeast Estonia) (in Estonian). Tallinn: Varrak. pp.304–327.

[35] Unpublished data by the German War Graves Commis-sion

[36] Mart Laar (1992). War in the Woods: Estonia’s Strug-gle for Survival, 1944-1956. Washington: The CompassPress. ISBN 0-929590-08-2.

8 Recommended reading• Carius, Otto. Tigers in the Mud. ISBN 0-921991-14-2.

• Michaelis, Rolf. Die 11. SS-Freiwilligen-Panzer-Grenadier-Division “Nordland”.

• Tieke, Wilhelm. Tragedy of the Faithful: A Historyof III. (Germanisches) SS-Panzer-Korps.

10 9 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

9 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

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