Battle of Tehumardi

As they were unable to communicate with their parent unit and they felt increasingly isolated, towards midnight on the 8th the order was given to retreat to Sõrve.

Later that evening, they were joined by the 1st battalion of the 917th regiment, approximately 300 men commanded by Major G. Karaulnov, advancing down a secondary road leading to the small village of Tehumardi, right before the bottleneck of the peninsula.

Due to lack of reconnaissance, the Soviets were unaware of the withdrawing German units, and the stage was set for a confused night battle when the forces met head-on.

Bypassing this obstacle took some time, the vehicles were slowly pulled across with the help of a recently captured US-made M3 Stuart light tank.

The battle degenerated into chaotic hand-to-hand combat in the darkness, with heavy losses on both sides, but the Germans broke through.

After several weeks more of bitter fighting, the Sõrve peninsula, and thereby the entire island of Saaremaa, was evacuated by the Germans on the 23/24 November.

To commemorate the battle, in 1967 the Soviets raised a gigantic, Soviet-style sword-shaped monument made of concrete and dolomite.