Attacks of the Leningrad Front had pushed the Army Group North to the west of Lake Peipus resulting in a series of operations around Narva.

[6][page range too broad] From a purely military and tactical point of view, the German forces holding the Estonian region as well as the surrounding areas was becoming increasingly exposed by Soviet movements and attacks to the south.

This became quite apparent when, after initial successes, Soviet forces advanced towards the Baltic seacoast at the end of their Operation Bagration of June–August 1944 against the German Army Group Centre.

[6][page range too broad] A significant proportion of the German side was constituted of Omakaitse militia battalions with poor weaponry and little fighting ability.

[6][page range too broad] The XXVIII Army Corps were forced to the banks of the Väike Emajõgi and Gauja Rivers in the west where they were supported by the Viljandi County Omakaitse militia battalion.

The Soviet tank units forced a wedge between the Kampfgruppe and the XXVIIIth Army Corps; Wagner had insufficient troops ahead of the city.

On 16 August, Lieutenant General Alexey Grechkin's group launched an amphibious assault over Lake Peipus behind the German left (east) flank, beating the Omakaitse defence and forming a bridgehead in the village of Mehikoorma.

[6][page range too broad] The 3rd Baltic Front launched an artillery barrage at the positions of the 2nd Battalion, 45 Waffen SS Grenadier Regiment (1st Estonian) covering the German right flank in the village of Nõo southeast of Tartu on 23 August.

[6][page range too broad] After sappers failed to destroy the bridge, Sturmbannführer Leon Degrelle improvised a defence line of the 5th SS Volunteer Sturmbrigade Wallonien, avoiding a Soviet breakthrough to Tartu.

[6][page range too broad] A heavy German tank assault had been planned to attack behind the western flank of the Soviet lines in Elva on 24 August.

[6][page range too broad] After fierce street battles, the Soviet forces conquered the city and established a bridgehead on the north bank of the Emajõgi on 25 August.

37, 38 and Mauritz Freiherr von Strachwitz's tank squadron, they destroyed the bridgehead of two Soviet divisions and recaptured Kärevere Bridge by 30 August.

The interiors of the laboratories of chemistry, physics, pathology and dairy, and a large number of instruments for the observatories of astronomy and geophysics were destroyed by shrapnel or looted.

Beginning on 17 September 1944, a naval force under Vice-Admiral Theodor Burchardi evacuated elements of the Army Detachment and Estonian civilians.

The punitive actions decreased rapidly after Joseph Stalin's death in 1953; from 1956–58, a large part of the deportees and political prisoners were allowed to return to Estonia.