Operation Valga-Linie

Valga Line

The 'Valga-Linie' was a German defensive line in northern Latvia and southern Estonia for the protection of the approaches to Estonia and its capital, Tallinn (August/September 1944).

It was on this line that the north-western end of the great 'Bagration' Soviet offensive of the summer of 1944 ended. The line extended from the north-eastern sector of the 'Sigulda-Linie' defences being built to shield Riga in a north-easterly direction along the Gauja river and Lake Vörtsjarv to the western side of Lake Peipus near Tartu. The line was designed to prevent the advance of the forces of General Ivan I. Maslennikov’s 3rd Baltic Front on a north-westerly axis through the forward defences of General Herbert Loch’s (from 2 September General Ehrenfried-Oskar Boege’s) 18th Army of Generaloberst Johannes Friessner’s (from 25 July Generalfeldmarschall Ferdinand Schörner’s) Heeresgruppe 'Nord'.

The 'Valga-Linie' defences were punctured soon after 14 September within the overall context of the Soviet 'Baltic Offensive Operation', which also broke through the 'Sigulda-Linie' defences of Riga.