Battlefield of Narva, old and new finds.

[Matt L]

Very interesting stuff Guerilla, thanks for sharing On that corroded Erkennungsmarke, there appears to be a '3' there but the number to its left is damaged. It looks to have a looping bottom- there's a trace of it left, so perhaps a 5, 6, 3, 8 or 9... too many to guess sadly.

[ehawk]

Great thread and thanks for sharing! I really like the badges and medal. SS helmet is an awesome find as well. Please keep us posted on your finds.
Cheers, Edwin

[Guerilla]

Thanks, Paul, but there are more GS tags to show and yes, helmet cleaned just nice

Matt L, thanks, but when I was cleaning it I thought about this place and this is not a number, it just looks like. Second one was exactly where it broke, corroded and disappeared I really hate to find soldiers who can not be identified, but it happens too often...

ehawk, you are welcome, hope upcoming pictures will be nice for you as well, cheers.

[Frundsberg]

If it is not a secret, are these Nederland items found some 1-3 km east from the Blue Mountains (Sinimäe) or Tannenberg deffence line? It is the area where regiment General Seyffardt was destoyed. Info from Wikipedia:

"Attempting to avoid Soviet forces, the regiment was ordered to take a different route to that planned. The withdrawing Dutchmen were discovered by Jabos of the Red Air Force, and were soon pinned down. Soviet ground forces were brought in to trap the withdrawing Dutchmen, and soon the regiment was under attack from the air and the ground. Trapped in the open, the General Seyffardt never stood a chance. After a short time, it ceased to exist, with only a few survivors under the command of SS-Untersturmführer Nieuwendijk-Hoek reaching the Tannenbergstellung a week later.

With the exception of the General Seyffardt, the withdrawal had been a success, and Steiner's men began to dig in on the Tannenbergstellung, in preparation of the next Soviet attacks. The Nederland had lost one of its two regiments, and many valuable veterans were lost forever."

[Dimas]

That place is approx a 1 km eastern from the railway crossroad near the Auvere station. That was an mistake and they get lost the way to the hills, just the parts of the unit has reach the hill, where they've take a part in the De Ruiter and St Brigade Langemarck units.

[Guerilla]

Yes, this is a right place. Regiment was splitted into small groups, so that's why it is hard to find all of the soldiers.

[Paul D]

Only a few dozen or less made it to the Sinimaed , maybe about 400 were captured and the rest wiped out in the forests trying to fight there way out.

The most senior survivor was a Dutch SS Untersturmfuhrer .

[Dimas]

Try to hide in the open area from Ilushin's 37 mm guns, also arty barrage. Most of the groups are given to hide near the railroad too. Now it's opened area, and practically impossible to detect something, due the railway was recovered after the war and most part is hardly covered with stones and sand, also there is a lot of foreign" railway" metal

[Frundsberg]

I plan to visit this area in April or May. As I remember positions of the 20-th SS division were also some 200-300 meters east from the Auvere railway station. So seems to be an interesting area.

[Dimas]

Estonian positions was mostly in the second line from the Waiwara cemetry-School- Church,That holds most of 10kp W G d SS 20. Some of the units as a flak unit of 33 regiment was stay in the place between Kinderheim and Grenadier hill, they mostly change the position to the highest point of the Grenadier hill, where most of them was KIA, due the Soviets take the central part of the hill. The position which is 300m North West of Auvere station, was holded by Estonians too, but they was added as replacement to the 9kp of 23 rgt Danmark, which got hard mix of many nationalities. These positions was created as a local hardpoints equiped especially with MGs and anti-tank weapon, these positions was destroyed in the battles - 29 July, after the heavy artillery barrage there upcomming a couple of tanks from this side and most of the infantry with a huge ammount of heavy mashineguns and light 50 mm mortars. The Soviets take this positions in the close combat and the rest of the defgenders ( approx 20 %) abandoned postions and take cover in the area of the Grenadier hill. The 23 Rgt Danmark has became hard casualities: 11 kp and Stabs Kp at north-east part of the field, 300m from the Kinderheim Hoeche, and 9 kp at the eastern side of the fields near the Kinderheim Hoeche ( currently there is a big farm), these places recieved the first Soviet attacks at the of morning 27 July, where the 11 kp has been mixed with Stabs Kompanie during a heavy enemy fire and lost approximately all of these units.