Operation Aster
| Tallinn Offensive | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Eastern Front (World War II) | ||||||||
 A Soviet map of the operation. |
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| Belligerents | ||||||||
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 Soviet Union
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 Estonian pro-independence troops |
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| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
| Ferdinand Schörner | Leonid Govorov | Johan Pitka | ||||||
| Strength | ||||||||
| 50,000 troops 50 vessels |
195,000 troops | 2,000 troops | ||||||
Coordinates: 59°26′N 24°44′E / 59.433°N 24.733°E
The Tallinn Offensive (Russian: Таллинская наступательная операция) was a strategic offensive by the Red Army's 2nd Shock and 8th Armies and the Baltic Fleet against the German Army Detachment Narwa and Estonian units in mainland Estonia on the Eastern Front of World War II on 17–26 September 1944. Its German counterpart was the abandonment of the Estonian territory in a retreat codenamed Operation Aster (German: Unternehmen Aster).
The Soviet offensive commenced with the Soviet 2nd Shock Army breaching the defence of the II Army Corps along the Emajõgi River in the vicinity of Tartu. The defenders managed to slow the Soviet advance sufficient for Army Detachment Narwa to be evacuated from mainland Estonia in an orderly fashion. On 18 September, the constitutional Government of Estonia captured the government buildings in Tallinn from the Germans and the city was abandoned by the German forces by 22 September. The Leningrad Front seized the capital and took the rest of mainland Estonia by 26 September 1944.
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