Narva Offensive (15–28 February 1944)

Narva Offensive (15–28 February 1944)
Part of Eastern Front (World War II)
Soviet map of the beginning of Estonian Operation (February – April 1944)
Date 15–28 February 1944 Location Narva, Estonia Result German defensive victory
Belligerents
Germany Estonian conscripts, auxiliary police and border guards	Soviet Union
Commanders and leaders
Johannes Frießner	Leonid A. Govorov
Strength
123,541 personnel 1500 artillery 100 armoured vehicles 400 aircraft	200,000 personnel

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

Germany

The Narva Offensive (15–28 February 1944) was a campaign fought between the German army detachment "Narwa" and the Soviet Leningrad Front for the strategically important Narva Isthmus. At the time of the operation, Stalin was personally interested in taking Estonia, viewing it as a precondition for forcing Finland out of the war. The 2nd Shock Army expanded the bridgehead in the Krivasoo swamp south of Narva, temporally cutting the railway behind the Sponheimer Group. Army General Leonid Govorov was unable to take advantage of the opportunity of encircling the smaller German army group which called in reinforcements. These came mostly from the newly mobilised Estonians who were motivated to resist the looming Soviet re-occupation. The Soviet 30th Guards Rifle Corps and the 124th Rifle Corps, which resumed the Soviet operation, were exhausted by the III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps in ferocious battles. The offensive was halted on 20 February. Symbolically coinciding with the Estonian Independence Day on 24 February, the fresh 45th and 46th SS Waffen Grenadier Regiments (1st and 2nd Estonian), destroyed the Soviet Riigiküla bridgehead north of Narva.

...
Wikipedia