Narva Offensive (18–24 March 1944)

Soviet map of the beginning of the Estonian Operation (February – April 1944)

Date	18–24 March 1944
Location	Narva, Estonia
Result	German defensive victory

Belligerents

Germany

Soviet Union

Commanders and leaders

Karl von Oven

Ivan Korovnikov

Strength

1 infantry division,
some artillery, armoured vehicles
and aircraft

6 rifle divisions
2500 artillery
100 armoured vehicles
800 aircraft

Casualties and losses

38 armoured vehicles
21 artillery pieces

This is a sub-article to Battle of Narva.

The Narva Offensive (18–24 March 1944) was a campaign fought between the German XXXXIII Army Corps and the Soviet 59th Army for the Narva Isthmus. At the time of the operation, Joseph Stalin was personally interested in taking Estonia, viewing it as a precondition for forcing Finland out of the war. The Soviet tank assault at Auvere railway station was stopped by the 502nd Heavy Tank Battalion. Fierce fighting continued for another week, when Soviet forces had suffered many casualties and switched over to the defensive.

The defeat in the preceding Narva offensive came as an unpleasant surprise to the leadership of the Leningrad Front, blaming it on the arrival of the freshly conscripted 20th Estonian SS Volunteer Division who were motivated to resist the looming Soviet re-occupation. Since the beginning of January, the Leningrad Front had lost 227,440 troops killed, wounded, or missing, which constituted more than half of the men who participated in the Leningrad-Novgorod Strategic Offensive. Both sides rushed in reinforcements. The 59th Army was brought to Narva and the 8th Estonian Rifle Corps was placed under the command of the Leningrad Front. After this deployment, the Narva sector acquired the highest concentration of forces on the Eastern Front in March 1944.

The newly arrived 59th Army attacked westwards from the Krivasoo bridgehead south of the city of Narva and encircled the strongpoints of the 214th Infantry Division and two Estonian Eastern Battalions. The resistance of the encircled units gave the German command enough time to move in a platoon from the SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 23 "Norge" and to stop the units of the 59th Army.

The objective of the Soviet offensive was the headquarters of the XXXXIII Army Corps on the Lastekodumägi height in the Sinimäed Hills next to the highway between Narva–Tallinn, sixteen kilometres west of Narva. The defence was built up as an array of posts between the hills and the railway.

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