Summer War
the Summer War | |||||||
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Part of Occupation of the Baltic States | |||||||
German soldiers lined up in Estonia in August, 1941 | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Soviet Union | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Georg von Küchler Friedrich Kurg |
Kliment Voroshilov Vladimir Tributs |
The Summer War (Estonian: Suvesõda) was the occupation of Estonia during the Second World War. It was fought between the Forest Brothers (Metsavennad), the Omakaitse, and the Wehrmacht's 18th Army against the forces of the 8th Army of the USSR and the NKVD.
Background
On June 17, 1940, the USSR occupied Estonia and on August 6, Estonia became a Soviet Socialist Republic. Estonian civilians and potential Soviet opponents were repressed and sent to prison camps and settlements in the Soviet Union during the deportation in June.
Invasion
When the
Kautla Massacre
In the Kautla Massacre, twenty civilians were murdered and many were tortured before they were killed. The proportion of destroyed properties to murdered civilians was because the Finnish volunteer group commanded by Henn-Ants Kurg named the ‘Erna long-range reconnaissance' broke the Red Army's blockade and evacuated civilians.[2][3]
Liberation of territory
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. On July 7, the Forest Brothers were able to hoist the Estonian flag in Vasteliina. Võru was subsequently liberated and the Forest Brothers reorganised into the Omakaitse militia.[4]
The battle of Tartu lasted for two weeks and destroyed a large part of the city.
The 18th Army resumed their advance in Estonia by collaborating with the Forest Brothers. The joint Estonian-German forces took Narva on 17 August.[1]
Capture of Tallinn
By the end of August, Tallinn was surrounded, while in the harbor was the majority of USSR's Baltic Fleet. On August 19, the final German assault on Tallinn began. The joint Estonian-German forces took the city on August 28. The Soviet evacuation of Tallinn carried heavy losses. On that day, the Red flag was taken down on Pikk Hermann was replaced with the flag of Estonia. After the Soviets were driven out from Estonia, German troops disarmed the Forest Brother groups.[1] The Estonian flag was replaced shortly with the flag of Germany.
Operation Beowulf
On September 8, German and Estonian units launched Operation Beowulf to clear Soviet forces from the West Estonian archipelago. They launched a series of diversionary attacks to confuse and distract the Soviet defenders. By October 21, the Islands were captured
Costs of the war
Civilian casualties
Alongside the battle against the partisan group and the Soviet forces and the reintroduction of the
Physical damage
During the fires of July 12-3, the headquarters of the Estonian Defence League, the campus of the Faculty of Veterinary and Agriculture of the University of Tartu and more university buildings were burnt down. Several libraries of the university and 135 major private libraries were destroyed, totalling 465,000 books, many archive materials and 2,500 pieces of art. Among them were the libraries of Aino and Gustav Suits and Aurora and Johannes Semper.[7]
3,237 farms were destroyed, while 13,500 buildings were destroyed. 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%.[1] Many supplies were looted for use in the Soviet Union.[1]
Result
After the Summer War, the Wehrmacht troops entered the Soviet Union via the Baltics and conscripted Estonians to be part of the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, the 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, and the 19th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS.
References
- ^ JSTOR 20060245.
- ^ "Kultuur ja Elu - kultuuriajakiri". kultuur.elu.ee. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
- ^ "Postimees: Mart Laar: tavaline stalinism". 2009-08-27. Archived from the original on 27 August 2009. Retrieved 2022-04-19.
- OCLC 66009843.
- . Retrieved 2022-04-19.
- ISSN 2585-450X.
- ISSN 1736-2563.