Battle of Narva (1944)

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Battle of Narva
Part of World War II
Terrain in the Narva area, dominated by water and forests.
Date February 2, 1944 – September 19, 1944 Location Narva, Estonia Result Soviet operational success
Belligerents
Nazi Germany (Large numbers of foreign volunteers[1] and local conscripts)	Soviet Union
Commanders
Johannes Friessner (Army Detachment Narwa) Anton Grasser (XXVI Army Corps) Karl von Oven (XXXXIII Army Corps) Felix Steiner (III SS (Germanic) Panzer Corps)	Leonid Govorov (Leningrad Front) Ivan Fedyuninski (2nd Shock Army) Filipp Starkov (8th Army) Ivan Korvnikov (59th Army)
Strength
50,000 100 tanks / assault guns	250,000 600 tanks
Casualties and losses
20,000 60 tanks / assault guns	100,000 100 tanks

v • d • e Eastern Front Barbarossa – Baltic Sea – Black Sea – Finland – Leningrad and Baltics – Crimea and Caucasus – Moscow – 1st Rzhev-Vyazma – 2nd Kharkov – Blue – Stalingrad – Velikiye Luki – 2nd Rzhev-Sychevka – Kursk – 2nd Smolensk – Dnieper – 2nd Kiev – Battle of Narva – Korsun – Hube's Pocket – Baltic – Bagration – Lvov-Sandomierz – Lublin-Brest – Balkans (Iassy-Kishinev) – Budapest – Vistula-Oder – East Prussia – East Pomerania – Silesia – Vienna – Berlin – Prague

Leningrad and Baltics 1941 - 1944 Toropets-Kholm – Demyansk Pocket – Spark – Polar Star – Krasny Bor – Lenino– Leningrad Approaches – Narva – Vilnius – Baltic

The Battle of Narva was a battle, or more correctly a campaign spanning two operations, the Narva Offensive Operation (of the Lvov-Sandomierz Strategic Offensive) and the Baltic strategic offensive operation, which took place between January and September 1944. The campaign was conducted in the Northern region of the Eastern Front during the Second World War between Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS forces of the Army Group North and the Soviet Volhkov and Leningrad Fronts.

Contents 1 Background 1.1 Terrain 1.2 Oranienbaum Offensive and retreat to Narva 1.3 Soviet aims 1.4 Soviet Deployments 1.5 German aims 1.6 Formation of Army Detachment Narwa 2 The Battles 3 Formations and Units involved 3.1 Soviet 3.2 German 4 Footnotes

[edit] Background

[edit] Terrain

Terrain played a significant role in operations around Narva. The elevation above sea level near Narva rarely rises above 100 meters, and the land is cut by numerous waterways including the Narva and Pl'ussa 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, a natural chokepoint was present between the Northern end of Lake Peipus and the Gulf of Finland. This narrow strip of land (45 kilometers) is entirely bisected by the Narva River as well as having large areas of wilderness. The primary transportation routes, a highway and a railway, run on an east-west axis near and parallel to the coastline. There are no other east-west transportation routes capable of sustaining troop movement on a large scale in the region.

[edit] Oranienbaum Offensive and retreat to Narva

On January 14, 1944, the Soviet Volkhov and Leningrad Fronts launched operations aimed at forcing the German Generalfeldmarschall Georg von Küchler's Army Group North back from its positions near Oranienbaum and out of Estonia. In the process, the attack was expected to encircle Generaloberst Georg Lindemann's 18. Army.

Lieutenant-General Fedyuninsky's 2nd Shock and General Maslennikov's 42nd Armies fell on the sector of SS-Obergruppenfüher Felix Steiner's III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps, hitting the area of the 9th and 10th Luftwaffe-Feld-Divisions. By the third day of the offensive, the 2nd Shock Army broke through the German lines with a penetration 23 kilometers wide.^[2] The Luftwaffe units crumbled quickly, and soon Army Group North was falling back to new positions around the Narva river in Estonia. In a key Soviet assault on January 19, two regiments of the 63rd Guards Rifle Division (30th Guards Rifle Corps, 42nd Army) seized German positions to the front of Krasnoye Selo. On January 19, the 2nd Shock Army took Ropscha and the 42nd Army liberated Krasnoye Selo. By January 30, the Soviet attacks by the 2nd Shock and 42nd Armies cost the Germans around 21,000 casualties, captured 85 pieces of artillery ranging in caliber from 15cm to 40cm, and pushed the Germans back 60 to 100 kilometers.^[3] Overall, the operations of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts broke the Siege of Leningrad, concluding an almost 900-day struggle.

On February 1, the 2nd Shock Army's 109th Rifle Corps captured Kingisepp.^[4] Steiner's SS Corps brought up the rear, fighting many bloody rearguard actions until it finally reached the positions on the eastern bank of the Narva. Pushing westward, 2nd Shock Army's 43rd Rifle Corps established a shallow bridgehead across the Narva north of Narva town on February 2, 1944. The following day, another rifle corps of the 2nd Shock Army, the 122nd, crossed the Narva south of the town, establishing two further bridgeheads.

[edit] Soviet aims

Stalin ordered the capture of Narva at all cost no later than February 17th:

"It is mandatory that our forces seize Narva no later than 17 February 1944. This is required both for military as well as political reasons. It is the most important thing right now. I demand that you undertake all necessary measures to liberate Narva no later than the period indicated. (signed) I. Stalin"^[5]

[edit] Soviet Deployments

The three Soviet armies were deployed at the Narva front in the following manner: the 2nd Shock Army deployed in the sector against the German bridgehead and north to the Gulf of Finland, the 59th Army south of the town of Narva, and the 8th Army deployed south of the 59th Army to Lake Peipus.

[edit] German aims

The OKH believed it was crucial to stablise the front on the Narva River. A Soviet breakthrough here would have meant the loss of the northern coast of Estonia, with it the loss of control of the Gulf of Finland and thus given the Soviet Baltic Fleet access to the Baltic Sea. This would have threatened iron ore imports from Sweden and German control of the entire Baltic Sea coast and also force Finland to exit the war earlier. Additionally the loss of Narva would mean 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. Besides being a narrow corridor well suited for defense, 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, part of what was known as the Panther Line, was where von Küchler wanted to set up his defense. Hitler initially refused, and replaced von Küchler with Generalfeldmarschall Walter Model as commander of Army Group North. Model agreed with von Küchler, however, being one of Hitler's favourites, he also was allowed more freedom by Hitler. Using this 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. This appeased Hitler, and also followed the German standard operating procedure for defending a river line.

Subsequently on February 1st, 1944, the High Command of Army Group Nord tasked the LIV Army Corps (Sponheimer Group, later renamed Army Detachment Narwa on February 23rd) to defend at all cost the section of the Panther Line situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Peipus.

[edit] Formation of Army Detachment Narwa

The LIV Army Corps (Infantry General Otto Sponheimer) were on the left flank of the 18th Army, along with the III "Germanic" SS Armoured Corps, as they retreated to Narva from Leningrad. The III SS Armoured Corps was then placed under the command of the Sponheimer Group and on February 4th the Sponheimer Group was released from the 18th Army and was subordinated directly to Army Group North.

In support of the forces already in place at the Narva front, Hitler ordered additional reinforcements to counter the Soviet offensive. The élite Armoured Grenadier Division "Feldherrnhalle", with over 10,000 troops and equipment, was airlifted from Belorussia into Estonia via Tartu airfield on February 1st. On February 9th the élite 5th Battalion of the Armoured Grenadier Division Grossdeutschland also arrived on the front. The Grenadier Regiment "Gnesen" (an ad-hoc regiment formed from replacement army units in Poland) was sent from Germany and arrived on February 11th. On February 14th, the 214th Infantry Division was transferred from Norway to Narva.

Over the next two weeks various units were added to the group, including the 11th SS Armoured Grenadier Division "Nordland" as well as several Wehrmacht divisions and local Estonian units. On February 15th, Infantry General Otto Sponheimer was replaced with General Johannes Friessner and on February 23rd the Sponheimer Group was renamed Army Detachment "Narwa".

Army Group North ordered the deployment of Army Detachment Narwa on February 22nd in the following positions: III SS Armoured Corps deployed to the north of Narva and the bridgehead on the east bank of the River, the XXXXIII Army Corps deployed to the Auvere bridgehead south of the city and the XXVI Army Corps deployed to the sector between the Auvere bridgehead and Lake Peipus.

[edit] The Battles

The campaign consisted of several phases. Follow the links for more detailed information on each phase.

• Battles for Meriküla, Riigiküla and Vepsküla/Silvertsi is about the battles over Soviet bridgeheads established on the west bank of the Narva river to the north of the city and the Baltic coast.
• Battle for the Auvere Bridgehead (also known as the Krivasoo pocket) is about the battles over the pocket held by the Soviets on the western bank of the river south of the city Narva, and includes the battles at Reidepőllu, Putki and at Auvere.
• Battle for the Narva Bridgehead (1944) is about the battle over the bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Narva river and the town held by the Germans.
• Battle of the Tannenbergstellung (1944) is about the withdrawal of German forces from Narva in July into a prepared defensive position 25km west of the city, and the subsequent battles that blocked further Soviet advance until late August when Soviet forces attacked on a second front in Southern Estonia.

[edit] Formations and Units involved

[edit] Soviet

As of March 1, 1944^[6]

Leningrad Front - General Leonid Govorov

• 8th Estonian Rifle Corps - Lieutenant General Lembit Pärn^[7]
• 14th Rifle Corps - Major General Pavel Artyushenko
• 30th Guards Rifle Corps - Lieutenant General Nikolai Simonyak
  • 45th Guards Rifle Division
  • 63rd Guards Rifle Division
  • 64th Guards Rifle Division

Attached to the Corps 31th, 46th, 260th and 261st Separate Guards Heavy Tank and 1902nd Separate Self-propelled Artillery regiments^[8]

• 124th Rifle Division - Colonel Papchenko Danilovich^[9]
• 3rd Breakthrough Artillery Corps - Major General N. N. Zhdanov
• 3rd Guards Tank Corps - Major General I. A. Vovchenko

• 2nd Shock Army - Lieutenant General Ivan Fedyuninski
  • 43rd Rifle Corps - Major General Anatoli Andreyev
  • 109th Rifle Corps - Major General Ivan Alferov
  • 124th Rifle Corps - Major General Voldemar Damberg

• 8th Army - Lieutenant General Filipp Starkov
  • 6th Rifle Corps - Major General Semyon Mikulski
  • 112th Rifle Corps - Major General Filipp Solovev
  • 115th Rifle Corps - (HQ with no troops assigned by 1 Apr 1944)

• 59th Army - Lieutenant General Ivan Korvnikov
  • 117th Rifle Corps - Major General Vasili Trubachev
  • 122nd Rifle Corps - Major General Panteleimon Zaitsev

[edit] German

Military formations subordinated to the Army detachment "Narwa" (as of March 1, 1944)^[10]

• XXVI Army Corps - Infantry General Anton Grasser
  • 11th Infantry Division
  • 58th Infantry Division
  • 214th Infantry Division
  • 225th Infantry Division
  • 3rd Estonian Border Guard Regiment (as of April 15)
• XXXXIII Army Corps - Infantry General Karl von Oven
  • 61st Infantry Division
  • 170th Infantry Division
  • 227th Infantry Division
  • "Feldherrnhalle" Armoured Infantry Division
  • "Gnesen" Grenadier Regiment
• III SS (Germanic) Armoured Corps - SS-Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner
  • 11th SS Armoured Grenadier Division "Nordland"
  • 4th SS Armoured Grenadier Brigade "Nederland"
  • 20th Armed Grenadier (Infantry) Division of the SS (1st Estonian)

Corps units

• Eastern Sector, Coastal Defense (Staff of 2nd Anti-Aircraft Division as HQ) - Lieutenant General Alfons Luczny
  • Estonian Regiment "Reval"
  • 29th Estonian Police Battalion
  • 31st Estonian Police Battalion
  • 32nd Estonian Police Battalion
  • 658th Eastern Battalion (Estonian)
  • 659th Eastern Battalion (Estonian)

Other Military units

• Artillery Command No. 113
• High Pioneer Command No. 32
• 502nd Heavy Tank Battalion
• 752nd Anti-Tank Battalion
• 540th Special Infantry (Training) Battalion

[edit] Footnotes