[7][8] 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.

[citation needed] Breaking through the Narva isthmus situated between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Peipus was of major strategic importance to the Soviet Armed Forces.

[citation needed] The retreat of Army Group North from the surroundings of Leningrad made the commanders of Finland realise that soon it may be too late to start negotiations with the Soviet Union.

On 31 January 1944, General Field Marshal Keitel sent a letter to the Finnish Commander-in-Chief Mannerheim, claiming that the retreat of Army Group North to the Panther Line constituted no danger whatsoever to Finland.

[1] On 14 January 1944, the Soviet Volkhov and Leningrad Fronts launched operations aimed at forcing the German field marshal Georg von Küchler's Army Group North back from its positions near Oranienbaum.

[4] The Nederland Brigade, the 1st battalion of the SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Regiment 24 Danmark, and the German artillery inflicted heavy casualties on the Red Army, who failed to reach their operational goal of destroying the bridgehead.

[4] In the Krivasoo swamp ten kilometres south of Narva, the Soviet 1078th Regiment and the ski battalion of the 314th Rifle Division crossed the river under a heavy German air and artillery attack in four hours.

The army (...) lacks an anti-air defence plan; (...)The 98th and the 131st Soviet Armoured Divisions established a bridgehead on the west bank near the settlement of Siivertsi further north from Narva on 12 February.

[4][15] General Major Romancov ordered an assault at Auvere settlement by the Air Force and artillery on 13 February, with the 64th Guard Rifle Division seizing the village in a surprise attack.

[1][18] The arrival of the Estonian Division coincided with the prepared landing operation by the left flank of the Leningrad Front to the west coast of Lake Peipus, 120 kilometres south of Narva.

While the 2nd Shock Army artillery placed near Auvere failed to begin their attack at the agreed time,[23] in seven and a half hours of fierce fighting, the Soviet beachhead was annihilated.

Supported by heavy gunfire, the 45th Rifle Guard Division broke through to the railway again 500 metres to the west of Auvere station, but a powerful attack by German dive bombers pinned them down.

[25] As this was the main Soviet direction of attack for the moment,[2] the Estonians frantically fortified the line with mine fields, barbed wire, and a large number of artillery pieces across the river north of the bridgehead.

The SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 24 Danmark took the Siivertsi cemetery attacking from the northern suburbs of Narva[1][2] but could not destroy a Soviet machine-gun strong point inside a massive granite monument erected to the honour of the perished soldiers of the White Northwestern Army during the Estonian War of Independence.

On 1 March, the newly arrived Soviet 59th Army, supported by the fire of 2500 assault guns and more than 100 tanks, attacked the 214th Infantry Division from the Krivasoo bridgehead twenty kilometres south west of Narva.

In the morning of 8 March, the Soviet air force and the artillery of the 2nd Shock Army fired 100,000 shells and grenades at the three weakened German regiments defending the town.

The operation continued with the assault of the 30th Guards Rifle Division and numerous tanks, focusing on the 4th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Brigade Nederland Govorov realised that the Narva line could not be breached before the German bridgehead on the eastern side of the river was annihilated.

On 11 March, a heavy assault was ordered at the ruins of the Lilienbach estate two kilometres to the north east from Narva, defended by the SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 49 De Ruyter.

[30] Petseri was bombed throughout the night before 1 April, causing severe damage to the town and the Holy Dormition monastery, and killing hieroconfessor Macarius, schema-bishop of Malovishery, who was declared a martyr by the Russian Orthodox Church.

The "Armoured Count" was out cheering the attackers on personally, driving his offroad vehicle to decorate the bravest with Iron Crosses, chocolate and cognac in the middle of the heaviest combat.

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.

[1] 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.

[41] On 12 July, the commander of the army detachment Infantry General Johannes Frießner proposed the plan to Hitler, whose reaction was to stand or die at the Narva line.

[2][43] Forces of the 117th Rifle Corps reached the headquarters of the 1st Battalion, Waffen Grenadier Regiment of the SS 45 Estland who resisted by heavy machine-gun fire in circular defense.

[2][42] The support by the anti-tank weapons of the 14th Company and the aid of the 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland helped to seize the main front line back to the control of the Estonian Regiment.

[4] The Soviet attack at Auvere and Sirgala forced the III SS Panzer Corps to a hasty withdrawal from their positions in the Ivangorod bridgehead on the opposite bank of Narva.

[1][11] On the morning of 25 July 1944 Soviet assault guns fired 280,000 shells and grenades at the positions of the Estonian Division across Narva river, who were covering the right flank of the III SS Panzer Corps.

[12] The focus of the Soviet attack drifted to the Waffen-Grenadier Regiment der SS 46, causing it to lose co-ordination and retreat to the Peeterristi crossroads on the highway nine kilometres outside Narva.

In Peeterristi estate nine kilometres from Narva, Major Friedrich Kurg reassembled the 180 troops remained of the 2nd Battalion, Waffen Grenadier Regiment of the SS 46 to keep the 131st Rifle Division away from the highway and counterattacked.

While the Soviets celebrated victory, their main goal – the encirclement of the III SS Panzer Corps and the destruction of Army Group North – remained unreached.