Prelude
Soviet forces had advanced towards the Baltic coast in the beginning of their Tartu Offensive and at the end of the highly successful Belorussian Offensive (Operation Bagration), during July and August 1944, and at one point had broken through to the Gulf of Riga. During August, the German 18th Army had mounted a counter-attack, Operation Doppelkopf. Simultaneously the German Valga–Võrtsjärv line, supported by the local Estonian Omakaitse militia battalions, repelled the heavy pressure of the Soviet 3rd Baltic Front's Tartu Offensive. The German Army Group North's commander, Ferdinand Schörner designed Operation Aster to pull his troops out of mainland Estonia. The parallel Riga Offensive would see Soviet forces apply further pressure on Army Group North, which still held much of Latvia and Estonia.
Read more about this topic: Riga Offensive (1944)
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