The Battle of Narva was a World War II military campaign, lasting from 2 February to 10 August 1944, in which the German Army Detachment "Narwa" and the Soviet Leningrad Front fought for possession of the strategically important Narva Isthmus.
The battle took place in the northern section of the Eastern Front and consisted of two major phases: the Battle for Narva Bridgehead (February to July 1944), and the Battle of Tannenberg Line (July–August 1944). The Soviet Kingisepp–Gdov Offensive and Narva Offensives (15–28 February, 1–4 March and 18–24 March) were part of the Red Army Winter Spring Campaign of 1944. Following Joseph Stalin's "broad front" strategy, these battles coincided with the Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive (December 1943 – April 1944) and the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive (July–August 1944). A number of foreign volunteers and local Estonian conscripts participated in the battle as part of the German forces with Army Group North. By giving its support to the illegal German conscription call, the underground National Committee of the Republic of Estonia had hoped to recreate a national army and restore the independence of the country.
As a continuation of the Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive of January 1944, the Soviet Estonian operation pushed the front westward to the Narva River, aiming to destroy "Narwa" and thrust deep into Estonia. Soviet units established a number of bridgeheads on the western bank of the river in February, while the Germans maintained a bridgehead on the eastern bank. Subsequent attempts to expand the Soviet toehold failed. German counterattacks overran the bridgeheads to the north of Narva and reduced the bridgehead south of the town, stabilizing the front until July 1944. The Soviet Narva Offensive (July 1944) led to the capture of the city after the German troops retreated to their prepared Tannenberg Defence Line in the Sinimäed Hills, 16 kilometres from Narva. In the ensuing Battle of Tannenberg Line, the German army group held its ground. Stalin's main strategic goal—a quick recovery of Estonia as a base for air and seaborne attacks against Finland and an invasion of East Prussia—was not achieved. As a result of the tough defence of the German forces, the Soviet war effort in the Baltic Sea region was hampered for seven and a half months.
Background
Terrain
Terrain played a significant role in operations around Narva. The elevation above sea level in the area is rarely above 100 meters, and the land is cut by numerous waterways, including the Narva and Plyussa rivers. The bulk of the land in the region is forested, and large swamps inundate areas of low elevation. The effect of the terrain on operations was one of channelization; because of the swamps, only certain areas were suitable for large-scale troop movement.
On a strategic scale, there was a natural choke point between the northern shore of Lake Peipus and the Gulf of Finland. The 45-kilometre-wide strip of land was entirely bisected by the Narva River and included large areas of wilderness. The primary transport routes, the Narva–Tallinn highway and railway, ran on an east–west axis near and parallel to the coastline. There were no other east–west transport routes in the region capable of sustaining troop movement on a large scale.
Preceding actions
On 14 January 1944, the Leningrad Front launched the Krasnoye Selo–Ropsha Offensive, aimed at forcing the German 18th Army back from its positions near Oranienbaum. On the third day of the offensive, the Soviets broke through German lines and pushed westward. The Army Group North evacuated the civilian population of Narva.
Soviet aims
By 1944, it was fairly routine practice for Stavka to assign new and more ambitious missions to its operating fronts while the Soviet Armed Forces were conducting major offensive operations. The rationale was that relentless pressure might trigger a German collapse. For the 1943/1944 winter campaign, Stalin ordered the Red Army to conduct major attacks along the entire Soviet-German front, in a continuation of the "Broad Front" strategy he had pursued since the beginning of the war. That was in line with his long-standing rationale that, if the Red Army applied pressure along the entire front, German defences were likely to break in at least one section. The Soviet winter campaign included major assaults along the entire expanse of the front in the Ukraine, Belorussia, and the German Panther Line, in the Baltic Sea region.
Breaking through the Narva Isthmus, situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Peipus, was of major strategic importance to the Soviet Armed Forces. Success in the Estonian operation would have provided an unobstructed route to advance along the coast to Tallinn, forcing the German Army Group North to escape from Estonia for fear of getting cornered. For the Baltic Fleet, trapped in an eastern bay of the Gulf of Finland, Tallinn was the closest exit to the Baltic Sea. The ejection of the Army Group North from Estonia would have made Finland subject to air and amphibious attacks originating from Estonian bases. The prospect of an invasion of East Prussia through Estonia appealed even more to Stavka, as it could bring German resistance to a standstill. With the participation of Leonid Govorov, commander of the Leningrad Front, and Vladimir Tributz, commander of the Baltic Fleet, a scheme was prepared to destroy the Army Group North. Stalin ordered the capture of Narva at all costs no later than 17 February:
After the failure of the Leningrad Front, Stalin issued a new order on 22 February: to break through the "Narwa" defence, give a shock at Pärnu, eliminate the German forces in Estonia, direct two armies at Southeast Estonia, keep going through Latvia, and open the road to East Prussia and Central Europe. On the same day, the Soviet Union presented Finland with peace conditions. While Finland regarded the terms as unacceptable, the war waging around them appeared dangerous enough to keep the Finns negotiating. To influence Finland, Stalin needed to take Estonia. His wish became an order to the commanders of the Leningrad Front, with their heads at stake. After reinforcements in March 1944, the Narva front acquired the highest concentration of forces at any point on the Eastern Front.
Soviet deployments
Three Soviet armies were deployed at the maximum concentration of forces in March 1944. The 2nd Shock Army was placed north of Narva, the 59th Army was positioned south of Narva, and the 8th Army south of the 59th Army, along the 50 km long Narva River stretching down to Lake Peipus. Detailed information on the size of the Soviet forces at the Narva front during the Winter-Spring campaign has not been published by any sources. It is impossible to give an overview on the Soviet strength until the Red Army archival information is published or made available to non-Russian investigators. Estonian historian, Hannes Walter, has estimated the number of Soviet troops in the Battle of Narva at 205,000, which accords with the number of divisions, multiplied by the sizes of the divisions assumed by the Estonian historian Mart Laar. The order of battle of the Leningrad Front, as of 1 March 1944:
- 2nd Shock Army – Lieutenant General Ivan Fedyuninsky
- 8th Army – Lieutenant General Filip Starikov
- 6th Rifle Corps – Major General Semyon Mikulski
- 112th Rifle Corps – Major General Filip Solovev
- 59th Army – Lieutenant General Ivan Korovnikov
- 117th Rifle Corps – Major General Vasili Trubachev
- 122nd Rifle Corps – Major General Panteleimon Zaitsev
Separate detachments:
- 8th Estonian Rifle Corps – Lieutenant General Lembit Pärn
- 14th Rifle Corps – Major General Pavel Artyushenko
- 124th Rifle Division – Colonel Mikhail Papchenko
- 30th Guards Rifle Corps – Lieutenant General Nikolai Simonyak
- 46th, 260th and 261st Separate Guards Heavy Tank and 1902nd Separate Self-propelled Artillery regiments
- 3rd Breakthrough Artillery Corps – Major General N. N. Zhdanov
- 3rd Guards Tank Corps – Major General I. A. Vovchenko
At the start of the Narva Offensive (July 1944), the Leningrad Front deployed 136,830 troops, 150 tanks, 2,500 assault guns and 800+ aircraft.
German and Finnish aims
The German High Command (OKH) believed it was crucial to stabilize the front on the Narva River. A Soviet breakthrough here would have meant the loss of the northern coast of Estonia and with it loss of control of the Gulf of Finland, giving the Soviet Baltic Fleet access to the Baltic Sea. A breakthrough by the fleet would have threatened German control of the entire Baltic Sea and the shipment of iron ore imports from Sweden. The loss of Narva would have meant fuel derived from the adjacent Kohtla-Järve oil shale deposits (32 kilometers west of Narva on the coast) would be denied to the German war machine. As Colonel General Georg Lindemann said in his daily order to the 11th Infantry Division:
We are standing on the border of our native land. Every step backwards will carry the war through the air and water to Germany.
As Finland was negotiating with the Soviet Union for peace, the OKH concentrated on the Narva front, using every means to convince the Finnish Defence Command that the German defences were going to hold. The German command informed their Finnish colleagues in detail about the events on the Narva front while a delegation of the Finnish Defence Command visited Narva in spring 1944. Besides being a narrow corridor well suited for defence, the terrain in the area of Narva was dominated by forests and swamps. Directly behind the Narva River lay the city itself, ideally positioned as a bastion from which defending forces could influence combat to both the north and south of the city along the river valley.
This position was the northern segment of the German Panther Line and it was where Generalfeldmarschall Georg von Küchler, in charge of the Army Group, wanted to set up his defence. Hitler initially refused, and replaced von Küchler with Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model as the commander of the Army Group North. Model agreed with von Küchler and, as one of Hitler's favourites, he also was allowed more freedom. Using that freedom to his advantage, Model managed to fall back and begin establishing a line along the Narva River, with a strong bridgehead on the eastern bank in Ivangorod. That appeased Hitler, and followed the German standard operating procedure for defending a river line. On 1 February 1944, the High Command of Army Group North tasked the Sponheimer Group (renamed Army Detachment "Narwa" on 23 February) to defend at all costs the segment of the Panther Line at the isthmus between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Peipus. After the initial Soviet success, Stalin presented Finland with his peace terms on 8 February 1944. However, following the tactical victories of "Narwa" from mid-February to April, Finland terminated the negotiations on 18 April 1944.
Aims of the Estonian resistance movement
During the course of the occupation of Estonia by Nazi Germany, Estonian expectations of regaining their independence began to diminish. Pursuant to the Constitution of Estonia, formally still in force, Estonian politicians formed an underground National Committee of the Republic of Estonia, which convened on 14 February 1944. As President Konstantin Päts was imprisoned by the Soviet authorities, the acting head of state, according to the Constitution, was the former Prime Minister Jüri Uluots. The German-appointed Estonian Self-Administration had previously made several unsuccessful general mobilisation calls, which were illegal under the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907) and opposed by Uluots.
In February 1944, when the Leningrad Front reached the vicinity of Narva and the Soviet return became a real threat, Uluots switched his stand on the German draft. In a radio speech on 7 February, Uluots reasoned that armed Estonians could become useful against both Germans and Soviets. He also hinted that Estonian troops on Estonian soil would have: "... a significance much wider than what I could and would be able to disclose here." Along with other Estonian politicians, Uluots saw resistance against the Soviet Armed Forces as a means of preventing the restoration of Soviet power and restoring Estonia's independence once the war was over. The conscription call received popular support and the mobilisation raised a force of 38,000 men, who were formed into seven border guard regiments and the fictitiously named 20th Estonian SS-Volunteer Division, commonly referred to among the German Armed Forces as the Estonian Division. Combined with the Finnish Infantry Regiment 200 (voluntary Estonians in the Finnish army), and the conscripts within the Waffen SS, a total of 70,000 Estonian troops were under Nazi German arms in 1944.
In February 1944, the L and LIV Army Corps along with the III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps were on the left flank of the 18th Army as they retreated to Narva. On 4 February, the Sponheimer Group was released from the 18th Army and subordinated directly to the Army Group North. In support of the forces already in place, Hitler ordered reinforcements. The Panzer-Grenadier-Division Feldherrnhalle, with over 10,000 troops and their equipment, was airlifted from Belorussia into Estonia via the airfield at Tartu on 1 February. A week later, the 5th Battalion of the Panzergrenadier Großdeutschland Division arrived at the front. The Grenadier Regiment Gnesen (an ad hoc regiment formed from replacement army units in Poland) was sent from Germany and arrived on 11 February. Three days later, the 214th Infantry Division was transferred from Norway.