and pushed westward. The 109th Rifle Corps had captured Kingisepp by 1 February. Obergruppenführer Felix Steiner's III (Germanic) SS Panzer Corps fought a rearguard action until it reached the eastern bank of the Narva. Army Group Sponheimer blew up the ice on the southern 50 kilometre section of the Narva river from Lake Peipus to Krivasoo swamp. North of the town, the 4th Soviet Rifle Regiment reached the Narva river, establishing a small bridgehead across it on 2 February 1944. The fighting to the east of Narva had left a large number of German troops stranded on the wrong side of the front. Simultaneously, the 122nd Rifle Corps crossed the river south of the town in Vääska settlement, establishing a bridgehead in the Krivasoo swamp 10 kilometres south of Narva town. Ivangorod bridgehead The main brunt of the Soviet attack was where the Germans had least expected it – the III SS Panzer Corps, positioned east of the strategically important town of Narva and holding the German bridgehead on the opposite bank. The Corps were mostly made up of SS volunteer formations. The Dutchmen of the 4th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Brigade Nederland and the various nationalities of the 11th SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Division Nordland began frantically digging in along what had become known as the Narva line. The defensive line ran for eleven kilometres, from the estate of Lilienbach two kilometres north-east from the highway bridge over Narva river, to the settlement of Dolgaya Niva three kilometres in the south, bulging eastwards from the river. The 4th SS Panzergrenadier Brigade Nederland defended the northern half of the bridgehead while the 11th SS Division Nordland held the southern flank. Attacking them along the highway and railway were the four Soviet divisions of the 43rd and the 109th Rifle Corps. The Nederland Brigade, the 1st battalion of the SS Volunteer Panzergrenadier Regiment 24 Danmark, and the German artillery inflicted heavy casualties on the Red Army, who failed to reach their operational goal of destroying the bridgehead. Krivasoo bridgehead in first half of February In the Krivasoo swamp ten kilometres south of Narva, the Soviet 1078th Regiment and the ski battalion of the 314th Rifle Division crossed the river under a heavy German air and artillery attack in four hours. Despite the resistance of the 29th Estonian Police Battalion, the 314th Rifle Division approached the Auvere Railway Station 10 kilometres west of Narva,