| Tallinn offensive | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofEastern Front (World War II) | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| Belligerents | ||||||||
|  Soviet Union |  Estonian pro-independence troops | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
| Ferdinand Schörner | Leonid Govorov | Johan Pitka | ||||||
| Strength | ||||||||
| 50,000 troops[1] 50 vessels[2] | 195,000 troops[3] | 2,000 troops[4] | ||||||
TheTallinn offensive (Russian:Таллинская наступательная операция) was a strategic offensive by theRed Army's2nd Shock Army and8th Army and theBaltic Fleet against theGermanArmy DetachmentNarwa andEstonian units in mainland Estonia on theEastern Front ofWorld War II on 17–26 September 1944. Its German counterpart was the abandonment of the Estonian territory in a retreat codenamedOperation Aster (German:Unternehmen Aster).
The Soviet offensive commenced with the 2nd Shock Army breaching the defence of theII Army Corps along theEmajõgi River in the vicinity ofTartu. The defenders managed to slow the Soviet advance sufficiently enough for Army DetachmentNarwa to be evacuated from mainland Estonia in an orderly fashion.[5] On 18 September, theconstitutionalGovernment of Estonia captured thegovernment 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.
Attacks by theLeningrad Front had pushedArmy Group North west ofLake Peipus, resulting in a series ofoperations around Narva.[2] In the south, Soviet forces had advanced towards the Baltic coast at the end ofOperation Bagration theBelorussian strategic offensive (June–August 1944) againstArmy Group Centre.[3] The Soviet Tallinn offensive was designed as a part of theBaltic offensive to eliminate the positions of Army Group North along the Baltic.[2]
Stavka began an intricate supply and transport operation, to move the2nd Shock Army from theNarva front to theEmajõgi river on September 5, 1944. The 25th River Boat Brigade and engineer troops were ordered by Stavka to ferry the units over Lake Peipus. Five crossings were built from the Russian settlement of Pnevo across the 2 km (1.2 mi)-wide sound ofLämmijärv to the Estonian village of Mehikoorma. Forty-six vessels worked 24 hours a day to carry 135,000 troops, 13,200 horses, 9,100 lorries, 2,183 artillery and 8,300 tons of ammunition across the lake.[6]Luftwaffe units observed the move without intervening.[7] The 2nd Shock Army acquired command over the Emajõgi front from the3rd Baltic Front on 11 September 1944.[6]
The three Soviet Baltic Fronts launched theirRiga offensive operation on 14 September, along the German 18th Army front segment from the town ofMadona inLatvia to the mouth of theVäike Emajõgi river. In the Estonian section, from theValga railway junction to LakeVõrtsjärv, the Soviet 3rd Baltic Front attacked the GermanXXVIII Army Corps.[2][page range too broad] The German and EstonianOmakaitse units held their positions and prevented the Army DetachmentNarwa from being encircled in Estonia.[2]
The Soviet forces attempted to capture Estonia and its capital Tallinn.[2] Stavka hoped a quick breakthrough at theEmajõgi front would open a path for the armoured units to the north, thus cutting the Army DetachmentNarwa off from the rest of Army Group North. The Red Army command presumed that the main direction of retreat for the German forces would be Tallinn, and concentrated their forces there in an attempt to block the roads.[8]
Army Group North had already considered abandoning Estonia in February 1944, during the SovietKingisepp-Gdov offensive. A large number of units would have been freed up with changes to the front, but theNarva front continued to be defended onHitler's orders. The German Command considered it important to maintain control over the southern shore of theGulf of Finland to ease the situation inFinland and keep theSoviet Baltic Fleet trapped in the eastern bay of the gulf. Retaining theoil shale reserves andoil shale industry inIda-Viru was important for economic reasons.[2]
Theexit of Finland from the war on 3 September provided the political impetus for abandoning Estonia. The next day, GeneraloberstHeinz Guderian suggested that it would not be possible to holdOstland and ordered plans for the evacuation operation, codenamedKönigsberg, to be drawn up. Hitler, however, declared that Ostland must not be given up at any cost, since doing so would provide support to those Finns that did not favour the new course of the government, and would influenceSweden to maintain its current foreign policy. After lunch, Guderian ordered that theKönigsberg plan nevertheless be secretly initiated. On the next day,Oberst Natzmer visited the headquarters of Army DetachmentNarwa to discuss details of the evacuation. On 11 September, the evacuation of Estonia was discussed in the Army Headquarters at length. On 15 September, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army Group, GeneraloberstFerdinand Schörner, requested that Guderian convince Hitler to order the evacuation of German troops from the continental part of Estonia, codenamed Operation Aster. Schörner emphasised that although the front was still holding, delaying the order would mean the units in Estonia would be trapped. Hitler agreed on 16 September.[2]
According to the plan, the main forces of Army GroupNarwa had to withdraw mainly throughViljandi andPärnu toRiga. In order to do that, theII Army Corps at theEmajõgi front and XXVIII Army Corps at the Väike Emajõgi had to keep the front line stable until the Army Detachment had passed behind them. Officially, the beginning of the operation was supposed to be September 19. The retreat was to be gradual, over several lines of resistance. The withdrawal was to be backed mainly by the units consisting of Estonians, who, by the estimates of the German army command, would not have wanted to leave Estonia anyway.[8] A naval force under Vice-AdmiralTheodor Burchardi began evacuating elements of the German formations along with some civilians on 17 September. The headquarters prepared a detailed plan to leave their positions at theNarva front on the night of 18–19 September.[2]
Various Estonian troops, which used men who haddeserted from the20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian),Omakaitse militia, border defence andauxiliary police battalions, had no general planning. However, their aim was to defend theindependence of Estonia.[2][8]
By the beginning of the Tallinn offensive on 17 September at the Emajõgi front, the II German Army Corps was reduced to a modest division of 4,600 men,[9] while defending against the 140,000 men of the 2nd Shock Army.[9] While the II Army Corps had practically no armoured forces, the 3rd Baltic Front deployed 300 armoured vehicles. The Red Army placed 2,569 artillery pieces along the 90-kilometre front line, pitting 137 pieces of artillery per kilometre against a practically nonexistent German artillery.[8] The 15,000 strongIII SS (Germanic) Panzer Corps stood against the Soviet8th Army numbering 55,000 troops at the Narva front.[10] The pro-independence Estonian troops numbered 2,000.[2]
The 3rd Baltic Front commenced their offensive in the early morning of 17 September. After the German II Army Corps were subjected to an artillery barrage of 132,500 shells, the three leading rifle corps crossed the Emajõgi River in the 25 km long section of the front east ofTartu and breached the defences. The 2nd Shock Army forced its way through to the German divisional headquarters and artillery positions. OnlyKampfgruppeRebane, stationed near Tartu, held their frontage,[2] albeit with heavy losses.[8] Army DetachmentNarwa and XXVIII Corps, the northernmost elements of Army Group North, were at risk of getting encircled and destroyed. GeneralFerdinand Schörner ordered II Army Corps to abandon the defence of the Emajõgi and to move quickly around the northern tip of Lake Võrtsjärv to Latvia.[2]
Six Estonian border defence regiments, the 113th Security Regiment, and remnants of the 20th Waffen SS Division retreating from the most distant part of the Narva front in the Krivasoo swamp were blocked by the advance units of the8th Estonian Rifle Corps and destroyed in the battles ofPorkuni and Avinurme on 20 and 21 September.[8] Estonians of the Soviet rifle corps murdered their compatriots that had been taken prisoner at Porkuni and the wounded sheltering in theAvinurme Parish church.[2][8]
The defence allowed Army DetachmentNarwa to escape from Estonia as the III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps and the 11th Infantry Division abandoned their positions, unbeknownst to the Soviet 8th Army. The Soviet forces began advancing in the early morning, tookJõhvi, and by evening reached theToila–Jõhvi–Kurtna line, also taking 63 POWs. The Panzer Corps itself declared 30 dead or MIA, and 30 wounded. On the night of 20 September, the headquarters of the Corps were nearPärnu on the southwestern coast, alongside the "Nederland", "Nordland" and the 11th Infantry Division headquarters. The "Nordland" and the 11th Infantry divisions were sent toLatvia, under the command of the16th Army. The "Nederland" was left to organise the defence of Pärnu. On 23 September, "Nederland" dynamited the harbour and retreated to Latvia. On 24 September nearIkla on the Latvian border therearguard of the "Nederland" carried out its final battle on Estonian ground, destroying 12–15Soviet tanks.[2]
Wehrmacht military personnel, the wounded, institutions and industries, prisoners and Estonian civilians were mostly evacuated by sea. The chief of evacuation for the navy was theAdmiral of the Eastern Baltic Sea,Theodor Burchardi. He was mainly responsible for securing the evacuation from Tallinn andPaldiski. For this purpose, he commanded the 24th Landing Flotilla, 14th Security Flotilla, 31st Mine Trawler Flotilla, 5th Security Flotilla and 1st Evacuation Flotilla, with a total of approximately 50 small warships, launches, escort ships and other vessels.[2]Within six days, around 50,000 troops, 20,000 civilians, 1,000POWs and 30,000 tons of goods were removed from Estonia,[1][5] 38,000 of the military personnel by sea. In the course of the evacuation from Tallinn, the following ships suffered serious damage fromSoviet Air Forces attacks: on board theNettelbeck andVp 1611, 8 people killed and 29 wounded; theRO-22 hit and 100 personnel killed. On 22 September 1944, thehospital shipMoero, with 1,155 refugees, wounded and crew on board, sunk in the middle of the Baltic sea with 637 dead. The evacuation by sea, despite the fact that the time for evacuation was much shorter than planned, was considered a complete success, with only 0.9% of the evacuees killed.[2]
On 18 September 1944, the provisional government formed by theNational Committee of the Republic of Estonia in Tallinn re-declared the independence of Estonia.[11]Estonian military units clashed with German troops in Tallinn, seizing the state offices atToompea. The government appealed to the Soviet Union to recognize the independence of the republic.[12]
The Government of Estonia had failed to concentrate the Estonian soldiers retreating from the Narva and Emajõgi fronts, as the units were scattered and mixed with the German detachments withdrawing towards Latvia.[8] Therefore, the government lacked significant military forces to repulse the Soviet forces concentrated around Tallinn. The units securing the national capital and the government included a command led byRear AdmiralJohan Pitka,[2] one of the former battalions of theFinnish Infantry Regiment 200 and various units of theOmakaitse, all of those under nominal command of generalJaan Maide. The government managed to establish contact with a group of Estonian SS troops retreating from Narva front, but those were dispersed in theBattle of Porkuni.
By the time the advance units of the Leningrad Front arrived at Tallinn early on 22 September, German troops had practically abandoned the city[2] and the streets were empty.[8] The last German unit to leave Tallinn that morning was the 531st Navy Artillery Battalion. Before embarkation, all stationary artillery and armaments, special equipment, guns that could not be evacuated, ammunition, the telephone exchange, the radio broadcast house, locomotives and railroad cars, and the railway were destroyed. The Tallinn power plant was fired upon from the sea and the Old City Harbour was destroyed. The retreating German units had no combat contact with the Red Army in Tallinn,[2] only the Estonian units resisted.
Troops of the Leningrad Front seized Tallinn on 22 September.Jüri Uluots, actingPresident of Estonia, fled to Sweden.[13] In the following days, several pro-independence Estonian battle groups attacked the Soviet troops inHarju andLääne counties without success.[2]
The German evacuation had been carried out in an orderly fashion. Army Group North's plans had paid off and both the Soviets and theOberkommando der Wehrmacht (German High Command) was surprised and impressed by the speed of the evacuation.[5] The8th Army went on to take the remainingWest Estonian islands (Moonsund archipelago) in theMoonsund Landing Operation, anamphibious attack.[2] Overall, the Baltic offensive resulted in the expulsion ofGerman forces from Estonia,Lithuania and a large part of Latvia.
Soviet rule of Estonia was re-established by force, andsovietisation followed, which was mostly carried out in 1944–1950. The forcedcollectivisation of agriculture began in 1947, and was completed after themass deportation of Estonians in March 1949. All private farms were confiscated, and farmers were made to join the collective farms. An armedresistance movement of 'forest brothers' was active until the mass deportations. A total of 30,000 participated or supported the movement; 2,000 were killed. The Soviet authorities fighting the forest brothers suffered also hundreds of deaths. Among those killed on both sides were innocent civilians. Besides the armed resistance of the forest brothers, a number of underground nationalist schoolchildren groups were active. Most of their members were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment.
The punitive actions decreased rapidly afterJoseph Stalin's death in March 1953. From1956 to 1958, a large part of the deportees and political prisoners were allowed to return to Estonia. Political arrests and numerous other kind ofcrimes against humanity were committed all through the occupation period untilthe late 1980s. After all, the attempt to integrate Estonian society into the Soviet system failed. Although the armed resistance was defeated, the population remained anti-Soviet. This helped the Estonians to organise anew resistance movement in the late 1980s,regain their independence in 1991, and then rapidly developa democratic society.[14]
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