Night Attack

During the Russian winter offensive of 1943/1944, the Red Army had reached the frontier of the Baltic States, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. The German High Command realized that the Baltic States had to be held for political as well as …

1944-08-22

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During the Russian winter offensive of 1943/1944, the Red Army had reached the frontier of the Baltic States, Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. The German High Command realized that the Baltic States had to be held for political as well as military reasons. The Finns were a wavering ally, and the loss of this territory would certainly have caused them to seek an armistice with the Russians. As a military position, the Baltic States were the pivotal point of Army Group North's territorial sphere. The Soviet's Baltic offensive was launched on July 10, 1944. Prior Russian attacks, further south had forced the Germans to pull I panzer and 8 infantry divisions to assist General Busch's Army Group Centre. This combination of events allowed the Russians to enter Latvia on July 16. By July 27, Russian forces had reached the Gulf of Riga in the north, and had captured Yelgava in the south. Now cut off in the center was the city of Riga, headquarters of the Army Group. The Germans counterattacked in mid August to relieve the encircled headquarters. The village of Ergli was burning, from an artillery barrage, as the German attack force arrived late in the afternoon on August 22. There a portion of 4th Panzer Division's Pioneer (combat engineer) Battalion clashed with elements of the 43rd Latvian Rifle Corps. The ensuing battle carried well into the evening hours, and was extremely bloody, as both forces suffered heavy casualties. Still, the Germans were able to temporarily throw the Russians back, but were, later in the year, again forced out of the Ergli sector of eastern Latvia.

Ergli, Latvia

The Battle of Narva was a World War II military campaign, lasting from 2 February to 10 August 1944, in which the German Army Detachment "Narwa" and the Soviet Leningrad Front fought for possession of the strategically important Narva Isthmus. The battle took place in the northern section of the Eastern Front and consisted of two major phases: the Battle for Narva Bridgehead (February to July 1944),[6] and the Battle of Tannenberg Line (July–August 1944).[7] The Soviet Kingisepp–Gdov Offensive and Narva Offensives (15–28 February, 1–4 March and 18–24 March) were part of the Red Army Winter Spring Campaign of 1944.[8] Following Joseph Stalin's "broad front" strategy, these battles coincided with the Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive (December 1943 – April 1944) and the Lvov–Sandomierz Offensive (July–August 1944).[8] A number of foreign volunteers and local Estonian conscripts participated in the battle as part of the German forces with Army Group North. By giving its support to the illegal German conscription call, the underground National Committee of the Republic of Estonia had hoped to recreate a national army and restore the independence of the country.

Wikipedia: Battle of Narva (1944)

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