Between Giants (38 page)

With Soviet troops still pressing the German defences to the south-west of Narva, a withdrawal was now urgent, but Benner signalled that he could not leave Narva at the designated time. Unsure about the safety of the road running through Olgino and Peeterristi, Benner ordered his men to withdraw along the railway line, to the south of the road. Rebane’s Estonians and the
De Ruyter
battalion safely withdrew along the road, while
Seyffard
slowly retreated along the railway line, leaving Narva at midnight and reaching Soldino, barely three miles to the west, at 0500hrs on 26 July. Further to the west, the railway ran through woodland, and rather than continue along this course, Benner decided to strike north-west to try to reach the road route. Moving slowly across marshy terrain,
Seyffard
was spotted by Soviet aircraft and came under near-continuous artillery and aerial attack.

By 0800hrs, the Dutch regiment was only a mile from Laagna, where German assault guns tried in vain to break through to the encircled rearguard. Unable to make any headway, Benner turned south, and shortly before he ordered his radio vehicles destroyed, learned that Repniku was still occupied by German forces, and decided to try to break through. At 1730hrs,
Seyffard
launched its last attack, unaware that the Germans had in any event been driven back from Repniku. Benner was killed in the opening moments of the attack, and within 30 minutes the regiment had been completely scattered. Many were killed, others taken prisoner. Only a small group of men led by Untersturmführer Nieuwendijk-Hoek escaped, reaching the Tannenberg Line a week later.
²¹

On 26 July, Soviet troops moved into the deserted city of Narva, which had been reduced to ruins, mainly as a result of Soviet aerial and artillery bombardment, partly through deliberate demolitions by the retreating Germans. It is estimated that only 2 per cent of the city’s buildings were still standing.
²²
Although the Red Army was now across the Narva and firmly established in Estonia, and despite the destruction of
Seyffard
, the operation had not been a major success from the Soviet perspective. Most of Army Detachment Narva had succeeded in pulling back to the Tannenberg Line, and casualties had been heavy – German losses totalled about 2,500, compared with over 23,000 Soviet casualties.
²³

SS-General Felix Steiner’s III SS Panzer Corps began to dig in along the Tannenberg Line with
SS-Nederland
on the northern flank, SS Waffen-Grenadier Division (1st Estonian) in the centre, and
SS-Nordland
to the south. 11th Infantry Division lay to the south of Steiner’s corps, still blocking the Soviet 8th Army. The main Tannenberg positions were amongst the three Sinnemäed Hills, which formed a rough east-to-west line, and gave the defenders a good field of vision across the plain to the Narva; Fediuninsky’s 2nd Shock Army’s line of approach was therefore clearly visible to the Germans. Govorov shifted reinforcements to Fediuninsky’s army in an attempt to make good the losses it had suffered forcing the Narva, and to allow it to continue its advance. Fediuninsky now had 109th Rifle Corps, 122nd Rifle Corps, and 124th Rifle Corps, as well as two independent rifle divisions. To his south, Starikov’s 8th Army had 112th and 117th Rifle Corps and two independent rifle divisions, as well as a force of brand-new ‘Josef Stalin’ II tanks. These heavyweight vehicles had first seen action in the fighting near Kursk the previous year, and at 46 tons were substantially heavier than the ubiquitous T34s. However, their 122mm gun was hampered by a relatively low muzzle velocity, reducing its penetrative power. The ammunition for the gun came in separate parts, with the shell and propellant being loaded separately, giving it a low rate of fire, and in any case, with only 28 rounds of ammunition in the tank, its ability to engage in sustained warfare was limited. In total, the two Soviet armies had over 54,000 men, compared to barely 22,000 Germans. Obergruppenführer Anton Grasser, commander of Army Detachment Narva, advised higher commands that without reinforcements, he was unlikely to be able to hold on for long.

Meanwhile, there had been a further change of personnel at Army Group North. Friessner and his chief of staff, Generalleutnant Eberhard Kinzel, had both been replaced. The new commander was General Ferdinand Schörner. As a junior officer in the First World War, Schörner was highly decorated for repeated bravery. He continued to serve as an officer in the inter-war Reichswehr, and commanded an infantry regiment in Poland and France in the opening campaigns of the war. He led a division on the Finnish front during the opening of
Barbarossa
, rising to command XIX Mountain Corps before taking command of XL Panzer Corps in the Ukraine in 1943. Here, he established a reputation as a hard, determined commander, who imposed iron discipline on his men. Nevertheless, his corps fought effectively around Nikopol, and in early 1944 he commanded 17th Army in the Crimea, before rising rapidly to take control first of Army Group South Ukraine and now Army Group North.

Schörner was popular with Hitler, as a man who could be trusted to hold a position with the sort of iron resolution that Hitler often complained was missing from many of his generals. A physically intimidating man, he sometimes showed considerable imagination in how to get the best from his troops. During the fighting in Sevastopol in 1944, he issued an order that any soldier of 17th Army who succeeded in destroying a Soviet tank at close quarters would receive a leave pass. Given the parlous plight of the German forces in the Crimea, this represented one of the few ways of getting out alive, and it is likely that it inspired many infantrymen to engage Soviet tanks at considerable risk to themselves. Later in the war, his ruthless use of field courts martial to arrest, try and execute anyone regarded as a deserter often resulted in completely innocent men being needlessly killed. On one occasion, a senior NCO was ordered by his commander to go back from the front line to the division’s repair workshops, and then to return to the front with repaired fighting vehicles. Unfortunately for the NCO, his instructions were verbal, and despite his protestations, he was summarily convicted and executed.
²⁴

Like Model, Schörner was able to use the trust placed in him by Hitler to carry out withdrawals that would have attracted the anger of the Führer if any other commander had attempted them. He endorsed Grasser’s opinion that Army Detachment Narva was in a perilous position, but was unable to provide any reinforcements – Hitler had ordered him to assemble forces with which Army Group North could counter-attack towards the south, in an attempt to restore Army Group Centre’s lines. For the moment, Grasser would have to do the best he could.

The Soviet commanders intended to give the Germans as little time as possible to prepare their new positions. They hurried their men forward, trying to take advantage of any weakness in the German line after the destruction of
Seyffard
, and with considerable aerial and artillery support, the lead formations attacked on 26 July. The newly arrived Flemish 6th SS Volunteer Assault Brigade
Langemarck
took the brunt of the onslaught, losing many of its officers on its first day in the area. Elements of the Soviet 8th Army’s 117th Rifle Corps pressed home their advantage, attacking into the exposed flank of
SS- Nordland
. By the end of the day, the east side of the most easterly of the Sinnemäed Hills was in Soviet hands.

During the night, the Germans mounted a counter-attack, led by the anti-tank company of
SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment 24 Danmark
. Several tanks belonging to the Soviet 98th Tank Regiment were destroyed, and almost all the German positions were recovered. The following morning, there was a fresh artillery bombardment, and the positions held by
Danmark
and
Langemarck
once more came under pressure. The survivors of
Langemarck
were driven back from their positions to the middle hill of the three hills, though one of their number, Unterscharführer Remi Schrijnen, remained behind at the controls of a 75mm anti-tank gun. Despite being wounded, he continued to beat off Soviet tanks, and together with the infantrymen of
Danmark
, he accounted for the destruction or immobilisation of about 20 Soviet tanks. Nevertheless, despite a counter-attack by several assault guns from
Nordland
, led by the division commander, Gruppenführer Fritz von Scholtz, most of the eastern hill was in Soviet hands by midnight.

Late on 27 July, General Schörner arrived at Army Detachment Narva’s headquarters. He stressed the importance of holding the current positions. The eastern hill was to be recaptured immediately, and the position was then to be held. As he set off to inform his men of their orders, Scholtz was severely wounded by a Soviet artillery bombardment. Although he was evacuated to the west, he died before he reached the military hospital at Rakvere. During the night, the reconnaissance battalion from
Nordland
, supported by a battalion of Estonian infantry, launched the counter-attack. Fighting continued into the next day, with most of the Estonian battalion being wiped out. The attack failed to make headway, and the Germans fell back to the central hill.

On 28 July, Fediuninsky deployed substantial artillery reinforcements and launched an assault on the northern part of the German defences. Unterscharführer Schrijnen continued to knock out tanks from his lone position in the front line, and the Soviet assault was beaten off. During the afternoon, there was a further savage bombardment of German positions, but in anticipation of this, the survivors of
Langemarck
had edged forward from their positions, so the bulk of the bombardment fell on empty trenches. When 2nd Shock Army attacked, it was once more beaten off, though
Langemarck
was almost at the end of its strength. Towards evening, German troops attempted once more to recover the eastern hill, but withdrew after suffering heavy losses. Steiner ordered his corps to abandon its foothold on the eastern hill and pull back to the central hill during the night.

Despite their heavy losses, the German lines were still intact. They were aware that Soviet losses were far greater, but in the context of Soviet numerical superiority, this seemed to make little difference. On 29 July, there was a further heavy artillery and aerial assault against the central hill, followed by an attack by infantry, supported by several JS-2 tanks. While 8th Army’s two corps moved forward against 11th Infantry Division, attacking from the south and the east, 2nd Shock Army’s 109th Rifle Corps attacked
Nederland
and 3rd Estonian Regiment on the northern side of the German defences. Despite the order to withdraw the previous evening, there were still scattered Danish defenders on the eastern hill, and the Soviet infantry of 117th Rifle Corps suffered heavy losses before the Danes were driven back. Nevertheless, the Red Army made steady progress. The central hill was pressed from three sides, though a cluster of anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns near the crest prevented Soviet armour from overrunning the positions completely. In the north, 2nd Shock Army was able to bypass the weakening German defences and reach the western hill, with a small force pushing forward to enter Vaivara. But just as it seemed as if the German defences might be about to give way, Steiner released his last reserve, a small group of tanks that had been held back for the critical moment. Led by Obersturmbannführer Kausch, the tanks advanced in three troops, driving back the Soviet forces either side of the hills. The limitations of the JS-2 tanks suddenly became critical – with many out of ammunition, they were forced to retreat, and without their support the Soviet infantry too fell back. By the end of the German counter-attack, only a single Panther tank was left operational, but for the moment, a Soviet breakthrough had been prevented. The Estonian Sturmbannführer Paul Maitla scraped together the remnants of several units, with several wounded volunteers from the field dressing stations volunteering to join him, and accompanied the remaining Panther in a further counter-attack with his battalion of 45th Infantry Regiment. By nightfall, the central hill was secure in German hands, despite further Soviet attacks. For his actions, Maitla was later awarded the Knight’s Cross.

There was further heavy fighting the following day. 8th Army succeeded in making some headway south of the German positions, but although Soviet forces managed to penetrate into the German lines, last-minute counter-attacks once more threw them back. On 31 July, the Estonians defending the central hill found themselves almost out of ammunition in the face of yet another massed Soviet assault, and were rescued at the last moment by the arrival of reinforcements from
Danmark
.

Unterscharführer Scholles, a clerk in the
Danmark
regiment, carried ammunition forward to the front line: