Battle For Narva Bridgehead - Casualties

Casualties

According to the data of the Headquarters of Soviet Armed Forces, the casualties of the Leningrad Front in February 1944 were 56,564 dead or missing and 170,876 wounded or sick. The Leningrad Front also lost 462 armoured vehicles and 260 bombers during the period. The share of the battles around Narva is unknown. Estonian historian Mart Laar believes that, considering the length of the operation, roughly half of the losses can be accounted for the battle of Narva. According to his account, from 1 March to 14 September, the Leningrad Front lost 76,301 troops as dead or missing and 303,291 as wounded or sick in the Narva campaign. An estimated half of them account for March and April. Excluding the losses in the Narva Operation, 24–30 July 1944 (accounted within the losses in the Battle of Tannenberg Line), Laar's estimates of the Soviet losses in the Battle for Narva Bridgehead total at approximately 65,000 dead or missing and 235,000 wounded or sick. This is in accordance with the estimation of the Soviet researcher F.I. Paulman, stating that the 2nd Shock Army lost more than 30,000 troops in February. Major General Rodin provided a different account, proposing 6033 dead or missing and 7144 as wounded or sick for the Leningrad Front in the Narva campaign but Laar disputes these numbers, insisting that they make no sense because the ratio of the dead to the wounded generally ranges from 1 / 3 to 1 / 4.

The German Army Group Narwa lost 23,963 troops as dead, wounded and missing in action in February 1944. During the following months until 30 July 1944, additional 34,159 German soldiers were lost, 5,748 of them dead and 1,179 missing in action. The total of the German casualties in the Battle for Narva Bridgehead is estimated at 12,000 dead, missing or captured and 46,000 wounded or sick.