| Summer War | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofEastern Front (World War II) andOccupation of the Baltic States | |||||||||
 German soldiers lined up in Estonia in August, 1941 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||
 Estonian Forest BrothersOmakaitse Germany Finland |  Soviet Union | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
| Georg von KüchlerFriedrich Kurg | Kliment VoroshilovVladimir Tributs | ||||||||
TheSummer War (Estonian:Suvesõda) was the occupation of Estonia during theSecond World War. It was fought between theForest Brothers (Metsavennad), theOmakaitse, and theWehrmacht's18th Army against the forces of the8th Army of theUSSR and theNKVD.
On June 17, 1940, the USSR occupied Estonia and on August 6, Estonia became aSoviet Socialist Republic. Estonian civilians and potential Soviet opponents were repressed and sent to prison camps and settlements in the Soviet Union during thedeportation in June.
When theThird Reich invaded theSoviet Union on June 22, 1941, some Estonians hoped that the Germans would liberate the Baltics from Soviet rule. TheArmy Group Nord, led by Marshal GeneralWilhelm Ritter von Leeb, invaded Estonia. In Northern Estonia, the Soviets'Destruction battalions fiercely defended the area, and it was the last to be occupied by Germany, Around 12,000[1] partisans of the Estonian Forest Brothers attacked the NKVD forces and the8th Army. After the German18th Army crossed the Estonian southern border on July 7–9; the Forest Brothers organized bigger units. They took on the8th Army units and destruction battalions atAntsla on 5 July 1941.
In theKautla Massacre, twenty civilians were murdered and many were tortured before they were killed. The proportion of destroyed properties to murdered civilians was because the Finnish volunteer group commanded byHenn-Ants Kurg named the ‘Erna long-range reconnaissance' broke the Red Army's blockade and evacuated civilians.[2][3]
On July 6, 1941, a larger offensive happened inVastseliina where the Forest Brothers prevented Soviet destruction of the town and trapped the extermination battalion chiefs and local communist administrators. On July 7, the Forest Brothers were able to hoist the Estonian flag in Vasteliina.Võru was subsequently liberated and the Forest Brothers reorganised into theOmakaitse militia.[4]
The battle of Tartu lasted for two weeks and destroyed a large part of the city.[1] Under the leadership ofFriedrich Kurg, the Forest Brothers drove the Soviets out, behind thePärnu River –Emajõgi River line and secured southern Estonia by July 10.[need quotation to verify] TheNKVD murdered 193 people in a Tartu Prison on their retreat on July 8
The 18th Army resumed their advance in Estonia by collaborating with the Forest Brothers. The joint Estonian-German forces took Narva on 17 August.[1]
By the end of August, Tallinn was surrounded, while in the harbor was the majority of USSR'sBaltic Fleet. On August 19, the final German assault on Tallinn began. The joint Estonian-German forces took the city on August 28. TheSoviet evacuation of Tallinn carried heavy losses. On that day, theRed flag was taken down onPikk Hermann was replaced with theflag of Estonia. After the Soviets were driven out from Estonia, German troops disarmed the Forest Brother groups.[1] The Estonian flag was replaced shortly with theflag of Germany.
On September 8, German and Estonian units launchedOperation Beowulf to clear Soviet forces from theWest Estonian archipelago. They launched a series ofdiversionary attacks to confuse and distract the Soviet defenders. By October 21, the Islands were captured
Alongside the battle against the partisan group and the Soviet forces and the reintroduction of theScorched Earth policy, the NKVD committed acts of terror against the civilian population, burning buildings, because their occupants were seen as co-conspirators.[1] Thousands of other civilians were killed, while many towns, schools, services, and other buildings were torched. In August 1941, the whole population ofViru-Kabala were killed, including a six-day-old infant and a two year old child. The Soviets'Destruction battalions also occasionally burned people alive.[5] Overall, the battalions killed 1,850 unarmed civilians or partisans.[6]
During the fires of July 12-3, the headquarters of theEstonian Defence League, the campus of the Faculty of Veterinary and Agriculture of theUniversity of Tartu and more university buildings were burnt down. Several libraries of the university and 135 major private libraries were destroyed, totalling 465,000 books, many archive materials and 2,500 pieces of art. Among them were the libraries of Aino andGustav Suits and Aurora andJohannes Semper.[7]
3,237 farms were destroyed, while 13,500 buildings were destroyed. Compared to 1939, in 1942, animal populations decline: horses were down 14% , dairy cattle were down 34%, pigs were down 50%, sheep were down 46% and fowl were down 27.5%.[1] Many supplies were looted for use in the Soviet Union.[1]
After the Summer War, the Wehrmacht troops entered the Soviet Union via the Baltics and conscripted Estonians to be part of the20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, the15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, and the19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS.
