The Army Group Nord, led by Marshal General Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, invaded Estonia.

In Northern Estonia, the Soviets' Destruction battalions fiercely defended the area, and it was the last to be occupied by Germany, Around 12,000[1] partisans of the Estonian Forest Brothers attacked the NKVD forces and the 8th Army.

After the German 18th Army crossed the Estonian southern border on July 7–9; the Forest Brothers organized bigger units.

[2][3] On July 6, 1941, a larger offensive happened in Vastseliina where the Forest Brothers prevented Soviet destruction of the town and trapped the extermination battalion chiefs and local communist administrators.

By October 21, the Islands were captured Alongside the battle against the partisan group and the Soviet forces and the reintroduction of the Scorched Earth policy, the NKVD committed acts of terror against the civilian population, burning buildings, because their occupants were seen as co-conspirators.

In August 1941, the whole population of Viru-Kabala were killed, including a six-day-old infant and a two year old child.

Compared to 1939, in 1942, animal populations decline: horses were down 14% , dairy cattle were down 34%, pigs were down 50%, sheep were down 46% and fowl were down 27.5%.