Between Giants by Prit Buttar Read Free Book Online

battalion of SS-Panzergrenadier-Regiment Norge to the south. Obersturmbannführer Benner, the commander of Seyffard , was new to his command, relatively unfamiliar with the area, and matters were made worse when contact with higher commands was disrupted by Soviet artillery fire during the afternoon of 25 July. At 2130hrs, an Estonian messenger arrived in Benner’s headquarters in Narva, with the unwelcome news that Soviet forces had succeeded in cutting the road at Olgino. Benner immediately dispatched the battalion from De Ruyter and the two assault guns to help Rebane’s Estonian battalion reopen the road, and a night attack succeeded in driving back the Soviet forces. A further Soviet penetration a mile further west at Peeterristi was also cleared.
    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