100 stories from the hiking route

1943 – the start of the construction of the Tannenberg Line

Information

Topic

Wars and occupations

Coordinates

Long-Lat WGS 84

Latitude: 59.3957122

Longitude: 27.8780938

L-EST 97

x: 6590564.0
y: 720212.0

Location

Kauksi-Aegviidu Hiking route

In 1943, the Germans started building fortified defence lines in case of a retreat. While Panther, the main Narva defence line, was situated on the shoreline of Narva River, then Tannenberg Line, built from Mummassaare across the Sinimägi Hills to Vaivara, was meant as a backup line. The defence line was built by the German army construction company Organisation Todt. The name Tannenberg was taken from a battleground in Poland, where the Germans definitively beat the Tsar’s army during World War I.
The Tannenberg defence line started in Mummassaare almost right by the shore and ran across the highway to Lastekodumäe Hill. From there on it ran across Sirgala, Puhatu and Gorodenka marsh up to Narva River and Lake Peipus. The ditches were furnished with logs and poles. In the lower places, where full profile ditches were not an option, dirt embankments and stakewalls or palisades were built. Mines, tanks, and wire barriers were set in front of the line. The line was also supported by a railway network in the Vasknarva-Kurtna-Vaivara region. The key elements of the line were the surrounding Sinimägi Hills.
The war action reached the Tannenberg Line in the evening of 26 July 1944 and lasted until mid-September.Today, the defence line is visible up until the Sinimäe junction.