Battle of Tannenberg Line


The Battle of Tannenberg Line or the Battle of the Blue Hills was a military engagement between the German Army Detachment Narwa and the Soviet Leningrad Front. They fought for the strategically important Narva Isthmus from 25 July–10 August 1944. The battle was fought on the Eastern Front during World War II. The strategic aim of the Soviet Estonian Operation was to reoccupy Estonia as a favorable base for the invasions of Finland and East Prussia. Waffen-SS forces included 24 volunteer infantry battalions from the SS Division Nordland, the SS Division Langemarck, the SS Division Nederland, and the Walloon Legion. Roughly half of the infantry consisted of the personnel of the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS. The German force of 22,250 men held off 136,830 Soviet troops. As the Soviet forces were constantly reinforced, their overall casualties are estimated by Estonian historian Mart Laar to be 170,000 dead and wounded.

Background

After defending the Narva bridgehead for six months, the German forces fell back to the Tannenberg Line in the Blue Hills on 26 July 1944. The three hills run east to west. The eastern hill was known as Orphanage Hill. The central was Grenadier Hill and the westernmost was Tower Hill. The heights have steep slopes and rise 20–50 m above the surrounding land.
The formations of Gruppenführer Felix Steiner's III SS Panzer Corps halted their withdrawal and moved into defensive positions on the hills. The 4th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Brigade Nederland started digging in on the left flank of the Tannenberg Line, units of the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS in the centre, and the 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland on the right flank. Another front section manned by the East Prussians of the 11th Infantry Division was situated a few kilometres further south, against the 8th Army in the Krivasoo bridgehead.
The Soviet Marshal Leonid Govorov considered the Tannenberg Line as the key position of Army Group North and concentrated the best forces of the Leningrad Front. Additional 122nd, 124th Rifle Corps and divisions from 117th Rifle Corps were subordinated to Gen. Ivan Fedyuninsky, commanding the 2nd Shock Army. The goal set by the War Council of the 2nd Shock Army was to break through the defense line of the III SS Panzer Corps at Orphanage Hill, force their way to the town of Jõhvi in the west and reach the Kunda river by 1 August. To accomplish this, Govorov was ordered to destroy communications behind the German forces and conduct air assaults on the railway stations of Jõhvi and Tapa on 26 July.

Comparison of forces

Soviet

There is no complete overview of the order of the Soviet forces or the detachment sizes in the Battle of Tannenberg Line. For the attack on 29 July, Govorov concentrated all of the capable Soviet units, consisting of 11 divisions and six tank regiments. The Soviet units that had suffered losses were brought up to strength with fresh manpower. The delivery of Soviet heavy artillery complimented the nine divisions of the 109th, the 117th and the 122nd Rifle Corps. The 109th and 117th Corps were concentrated close to the Sinimäed, while the 122nd Rifle Corps was sent to the southern section, near the church of Vaivara Parish. The positions of the 11th Infantry Division were mainly attacked by the 35,000-strong 8th Army with their 112th Rifle Corps, two fresh tank regiments and 1,680 assault guns, deployed in nine artillery regiments and 150 armored vehicles. The armored forces included the brand-new IS-2 tanks with extra armor and a 122mm gun. The weakness of the tank was its limited ammunition capacity and long reloading time for its main gun. The forces were supported by the 576-strong 13th Air Army. The Soviet order of battle :
Leningrad Front – Marshal Leonid Govorov
  • 2nd Shock Army – Lt. Gen. Ivan Fedyuninsky
  • * 109th Rifle Corps – Maj. Gen. Ivan Alferov
  • ** 72nd Rifle Division – Ilya Yastrebov
  • ** 109th Rifle Division – Maj. Gen. Nikolai Truzhkin
  • ** 125th Rifle Division – Col. Vassili Zinovev
  • * 122nd Rifle Corps
  • * 124th Rifle Corps – Col. Mikhail Papchenko
  • * 131st Rifle Division – Maj. Gen. Pyotr Romanenko
  • * 191st Rifle Division – Maj. Gen. Ivan Burakovski
  • * 21st Engineers Brigade – Lt. Col. Vasilkov
Total: 26,850 infantrymen, 458 pieces of artillery, 112 tanks
Total: 28,000 infantrymen, 518 pieces of artillery, 174 tanks and 44 self-propelled guns
Separate Corps and Divisions :
Against the Soviet forces, a few tired German regiments without any reserve troops stood at their positions, battered by the Soviet artillery. The commander of the Army Detachment "Narwa", General der Infanterie Anton Grasser, assessed the German capacity as insufficient against the Soviet attack. While sufficient in ammunition and machine-guns, the combat morale of many volunteers fighting for Germany was under heavy pressure while the spirit of some Estonian troops had already been severely damaged, in Grasser's opinion. However, the following combat proved the opposite. The small number of German Junkers Ju 87 dive bombers and shortage of aircraft fuel gave the Soviets massive air superiority. Grasser's conclusion was short:
Leaving diplomatic formulation aside, Grasser announced that without immediate reinforcements, the Soviets would inevitably break through the Tannenberg Line on 29 June. Such reinforcements were beyond the capacities of Army Group North. The commander of the Army Group, Ferdinand Schörner, had repeatedly called Adolf Hitler's attention to the fact that virtually no division consisting of Germans was left at the Tannenberg Line, which was threatening to collapse. These calls had no effect, as Hitler's response remained to stand or die. The German order of battle was:
Army Detachment Narwa – General of the Infantry Anton Grasser
  • III SS Panzer Corps – SS-Gruppenführer Felix Steiner
  • * SS Division Nordland – SS-Brigadeführer Joachim Ziegler
  • ** SS Panzergenadier Regiment 23 Norge – SS-Obersturmbannführer Fritz Knöchlein
  • ** SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 24 Danmark
  • * 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS – SS-Brigadeführer Franz Augsberger
  • ** Waffen Grenadier Regiment 45 – Waffen-Obersturmbannführer Harald Riipalu
  • ** Waffen Grenadier Regiment 46
  • ** Waffen Grenadier Regiment 47
  • ** Artillery Regiment
  • * 4th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Brigade Netherlands – SS-Brigadeführer Jürgen Wagner
  • ** 4th SS Panzergrenadier Regiment De Ruyter
  • ** 5th SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade Wallonien – SS-Sturmbannführer Léon Degrelle
  • ** 6th SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade Langemarck - SS-Sturmbannführer Conrad Schellong
  • * 227th Infantry Division - Generalmajor der Reserve Maximilian Wengler
  • * 113th Security Regiment
  • XXVI Army Corps – General der Infanterie Anton Grasser
  • * 11th Infantry Division - Generalleutnant Hellmuth Reymann
  • * 300th Special Purpose Division – Generalmajor Rudolf Höfer
Separate detachments:
Total: 22,250 troops deployed in 25 Estonian and 24 German, Dutch, Danish, Flemish, Italian, Norwegian and Walloon battalions

Combat

Orphanage Hill

26 July

On 26 July, pursuing the withdrawing Germans, the Soviet attack fell onto the Tannenberg Line before the vastly outnumbered Army Detachment Narwa had dug in. The Soviet Air Force and artillery covered the German positions with bombs and shells, destroying most of the forest on the hills. The Soviet 201st and 256th Rifle Divisions supported by the 98th Tank Regiment assaulted the positions of the SS Division Nordland, seizing the eastern side of Orphanage Hill.

27 July

In the morning of 27 July the Soviet forces opened up another powerful artillery barrage on the Sinimäed. Anticipating an infantry attack, Steiner concentrated his few working armored vehicles, consisting of seven tanks. Units of the Nordland Division were placed between the two hills and the defense was completed by the Anti-Tank Company, 1st Estonian behind Nordland.
Under Soviet pressure the German defense threatened to collapse. On 27 July Schörner arrived at the Sinimäed. He ordered an immediate recapture of Orphanage Hill, demanding fanatical resistance from the soldiers. A meeting convened by von Scholz laid the tactics for the implementation of the orders. Immediately after the meeting, however, von Scholz was killed by a shrapnel splinter in front of the headquarters.

28 July

For the next day the 2nd Shock Army was reinforced with the 31st and the 82nd Tank Regiments, three howitzer brigades and nine heavy artillery regiments.
In the evening of 28 July German forces attempted to regain Orphanage Hill again. Using the tactics of "rolling" small units into the Soviet positions, the troops seized the trenches on the slope of the feature. When a Soviet tank squadron arrived, the German attack collapsed. At a point occupied by the German 11th Infantry Division near the borough of Sirgala in the south, the Soviet tanks aimed to break through. Steiner ordered a withdrawal to a new defensive line at Grenadier Hill. The order did not reach a significant part of the German forces, which remained in their positions at Orphanage Hill. Anticipating a major attack, Steiner ordered the heavy weapons of the SS-Panzergrenadier Regiment Norge and the Danmark Regiment to be pulled together into two shock units. By the night of 28 July the battle had subsided.