thrown against Siivertsi bridgehead. First attack of Soviet main forces Until the second week of February, the two armies of the Leningrad Front had deployed only vanguard elements. Army General Leonid A. Govorov of Leningrad Front ordered the 2nd Shock Army to break through the German defence line north and south of Narva town, move the front fifty kilometres westwards and continue towards the town of Rakvere. The artillery of the 2nd Shock army opened fire on all German positions on 11 February. The 30th Guards Rifle Corps, an elite unit usually used in breaching defence lines, joined the Soviet units attempting to seize the Auvere station. The guards riflemen widened the bridgehead to ten kilometres along the front. The remains of the German 227th and 170th Divisions retreated. General Major Romancov ordered an assault at Auvere settlement by the Air Force and artillery on 13 February, with the 64th Guard Rifle Division seizing the village in a surprise attack. Half a kilometre westward from Auvere station, the 191st Guard Rifle Regiment cut through the railway two kilometres from the Tallinn highway, which was the last way out for Army Group Narwa, but was repelled by the 170th Infantry Division and the 502nd Tank Battalion. Soviet landing operations on 14 February The situation on the Narva front was turning into a catastrophe for the Wehrmacht in mid-February. The Leningrad Front had formed two bridgeheads north and south of Tallinn highway, the closest of them a few hundred metres away from the highway. Army Group Narwa was in direct danger of getting besieged. The defense of the highway was held only by small infantry units formed of the field divisions of the Luftwaffe, supported by Panther tanks after every few hundred metres along the highway. They obscured direct observation of the highway by placing branches of spruce trees along it, however, this did not distract the Soviet artillery from keeping the highway under constant bombardment. The faith of the Army Group Narwa, that the defense could go on like this, started to diminish. Meerapalu landing operation Seeing the condition of the front, Hitler ordered the 20th Estonian SS-Volunteer Division to be replaced on the Nevel front and transported to the Narva front.Official diary of the Sponheimer Detachment. KTB Archives, Berlin The arrival of the Estonian Division coincided with the prepared landing operation by the left flank of the Leningrad Front to