Battle For Narva Bridgehead

Battle For Narva Bridgehead

This is a sub-article to Battle of Narva.

The Battle of Narva Bridgehead (Estonian: Narva lahingud; German: Schlacht um den Brückenkopf von Narva; Russian: Битва за Нарву; 2 February – 26 July 1944) was the campaign that stalled the Soviet Estonian Operation in the surroundings of the town of Narva for five and a half months. It was the first phase of the Battle of Narva campaign fought at the Eastern Front during World War II.

A number of volunteer Waffen SS units from Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium fought on the German side. Several Western authors dealing with the foreign national units nickname the campaign as the Battle of the European SS. The involved Estonian conscripts fought to defend their country against the looming Soviet reoccupation.

The Soviet Estonian Offensive was a follow-on of the Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive. Its aim was to reconquer Estonia, which was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, from Nazi Germany. Although Narva was not the main direction of the Soviet offensives on the Eastern Front in 1944, the Baltic Sea seemed the quickest way to Joseph Stalin for taking the battles to the German ground and seizing control of Finland.

The Soviet Estonian offensive stalled after securing several bridgeheads over the Narva River and facing the Nazi German Wotan Line. The fierce fighting starting in February stopped at the end of April. With the Narva Offensive, 24–30 July 1944, the Red Army captured the town of Narva, as the German troops retreated 16 kilometres to the southwest to continue fighting at their prepared positions. The German forces managed to block the Soviet advance to the Baltic ports for five months due to the nature of the terrain and the resistance of the international troops.