Battle of Tannenberg Line - Aftermath

Aftermath

Further information: Baltic Offensive (1944) and Tallinn Offensive

On 14 September, the Riga Offensive Operation was launched by the Soviet 1st, 2nd and 3rd Baltic Fronts. The offensive was aimed at capturing Riga and cutting off the Army Group North in Courland, western Latvia. After much argument, Adolf Hitler finally agreed to allow the evacuation of all the troops in Estonia. After months of holding the line, the exhausted men of the III SS Panzer Corps joined the withdrawal fighting their way back from the Tannenberg Line. On 17 September, the 3rd Baltic Front launched the Tallinn Offensive from the Emajõgi River Front joining Lake Peipus with Lake Võrtsjärv. The operation was aimed at encircling the army detachment "Narwa". Unable to hold the force, the German units withdrew towards the northwest while the incomplete II Army Corps was left to stall the Soviet attack. The "Narwa" withdrew quickly towards the Latvian border. On 22 September, Tallinn was abandoned. Some of the Estonian formations now began to attack the retreating Germans attempting to secure supplies and weapons to continue a guerrilla war as the Forest Brothers against the Russians and Soviet occupation. Several troops of the Estonian Division stayed in Estonia. These units continued fighting, some survivors joining the guerrilla groups which fought the Soviet occupying forces until the end of the 1970s.