Battle For Narva Bridgehead - Narva Offensives, May and June

Narva Offensives, May and June

On 12 May, a battle was fought near Auvere. The German 112th Infantry Division counted 272 fallen Red Army soldiers on the battlefield. On 7 June, hundreds of Soviet guns opened up all across the seven-mile Narva front. The 13th Air Army encountered minimal Luftwaffe opposition. Special attention was paid to the positions of the Danmark Regiment. As the smoke from the bombardment cleared, the Soviet infantry attacked in human waves. The Nederland Brigade's artillery opened up, tearing holes in the advancing Red Army soldiers. Pushing through the fire, the Soviet troops made it to the Danmark Regiment's positions and began heavy fighting. Over the next days, the Danes held their positions against the Red Army. On 12 June, the 2nd Shock Army used larger units to attack German positions in the sector of the III SS Panzer Corps, XXVI and XXXXIII Army Corps in Ivangorod. On this day at the "Sunshine" outpost to the southeast of the Narva bridgehead, the Danish NCO Egon Christophersen literally saved the main front, when with a small assault troop he counterattacked German trenches that had been seized by the Russians and regained them in hand-to-hand combat. Christophersen and his men then defended the positions against all attackers, enabling the broken German lines to reconsolidate and hold. Christophersen was awarded the Knight's Cross. The attack was repulsed in 800 Soviet deaths.

Fighting went on for two more weeks with no substantial advance by either side. On 16 July, the Red Army forces found their way in the trenches of the SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 24 Danmark. The attack was repulsed by nightfall. On the afternoon of 20 July, the Soviet air force carried out a five-wave attack on Mustvee harbour, wounding 40–50 personnel of the German flotilla on the west coast of Lake Peipus.

While continuing attacks on the Narva front, the Stavka had begun to look elsewhere for their breakthrough. A new offensive, codenamed Bagration after the Napoleonic-era Russian field marshal, was launched on 22 June against Army Group Centre.