![]() ![]() For the 1943/1944 winter campaign, Stalin ordered the Soviet forces to conduct major attacks along the whole of the Eastern Front, in a continuation of the 'broad-front' strategy he had pursued since the beginning of the war. On the third day of the offensive, the Soviets broke through the German line and pushed to the west, and Heeresgruppe 'Nord' ordered the evacuation of the civilian population of Narva.īy 1944, it had become routine practice for the Stavka to assign new and more ambitious missions to its operating fronts even as they were undertaking major offensive operations: the rationale was that relentless pressure might trigger a German collapse. On 14 January 1944, the Leningrad Front had launched the 'Krasnoye Selo-Ropsha Offensive Operation' intended to force Generaloberst Georg Lindemann’s (from 29 March General Herbert Loch’s and from 5 September General Ehrenfried-Oskar Boege’s) 18 th Army back from its positions near Oranienbaum. There were no other east/west transport routes in the region capable of sustaining major troop movements. The primary lines of communication, which were the road and railway linking Narva and Tallinn, ran on an east/west axis close to and parallel with the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland. This strip of land, 28 miles (45 km) wide, was bisected by the Narva river and included large wilderness areas. The effect of the terrain on operations was therefore one of 'channelisation': because of the swamps and forests, only certain areas were suitable for large-scale troop movement.Īt the strategic level, there was a natural chokepoint between the northern shore of Lake Peipus and the Gulf of Finland. Most of the region’s land area is forested, and large swamps inundate areas of low elevation. The elevation above sea level in the area is rarely more than 330 ft (100 m), and the land is cut by numerous waterways, including the Narva river and the Plyussa river. ![]() The nature of the terrain played a significant role in the operations round Narva. As a result of the Germans' excellent defence, the Soviet war effort in the Baltic Sea region was hampered for 7.5 months. In the resulting 'Battle of the Tannenberg-Linie', the Armeeabteilung 'Narwa' held its ground, and Stalin’s primary strategic objective, namely the rapid recapture of Estonia as a base for air and seaborne attacks against Finland and an invasion of East Prussia, was not achieved. The Soviet 'Narva Offensive Operation' (July 1944) led to the capture of the city after the German forces had pulled back to their prepared defences of the 'Tannenberg-Linie' in the Sinimäed Hills, some 10 miles (16 km) from Narva. German counterattacks destroyed the bridgeheads to the north of Narva and reduced the size of the bridgehead to the south of the town, thereby stabilising the front until July 1944. Soviet formations and units established a number of bridgeheads on the western bank of the Narva river during February, while the Germans maintained a bridgehead on the eastern bank, but subsequent Soviet attempts to expand their toeholds failed. By supporting the German conscription of Estonians, the underground National Committee of the Republic of Estonia hoped to create the basis of a new national army and to restore the country’s independence.Īs a continuation of the 'Leningrad-Novgorod Strategic Offensive Operation' of January 1944, the Soviet offensive toward Estonia drove the northern end of the Eastern Front westward to the Narva river with the object of destroying the Armeegruppe 'Narwa' and thrusting deep into Estonia. A number of foreign volunteers and local Estonian conscripts participated in the battle as part of the German forces of Generaloberst Georg Lindemann’s (from 1 July Generaloberst Johannes Friessner’s and from 25 July Generalfeldmarschall Ferdinand Schörner’s Heeresgruppe 'Nord'. Following Iosif Stalin’s 'broad-front' strategy, these battles coincided with the 'Dniepr River-Carpathian Offensive Operation' (December 1943/April 1944) and the 'Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive Operation' (July/August 1944). ![]() The Soviet 'Kingisepp-Gdov Offensive Operation' and 'Narva Offensive Operation' (15/18 February, 1/4 March and 18/24 March) were part of the Soviet winter and spring campaign of 1944. The battle took place in the northern sector of the Eastern Front and comprised two major phases: the 'Battle of the Narva Bridgehead' (February/July 1944) and the 'Battle of the Tannenberg Line' (July/August 1944). Govorov’s Leningrad Front and General Johannes Friessner’s (from 3 July General Anton Grasser’s Armeegruppe 'Narwa' (from May the Armeeabteilung 'Narwa' and from 25 September the Armeeabteilung 'Grasser') for possession of the strategically important Narva isthmus (2 February/10 August 1944). The 'Battle of Narva' was fought between Soviet and German forces as February to 10 August 1944, in which General (from 18 June Marshal Sovetskogo Soyuza) Leonid A. ![]()
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