artillery placed near Auvere failed to begin their attack at the agreed time, in seven and a half hours of fierce fighting, the Soviet beachhead was annihilated. Narva offensive, 15–28 February General Ivan Fedyuninsky took the 13th Rifle Division from the reserve to support the 30th Guards Rifle Corps' offensive aimed at Auvere station on 15 February. Supported by heavy gunfire, the 45th Rifle Guard Division broke through to the railway again 500 metres to the west of Auvere station, but a powerful attack by German dive bombers pinned them down. The Tallinn railway, supplying the surroundings of Narva, was cut from two places, threatening to encircle the III SS Panzer Corps in the northeast. In the course of the action, the Soviet 30th Guards Rifle Corps lost 7773 troops and ceased to exist as a combat-ready unit. Units of Army Group Narwa, supported by tanks, went on to counterattack, stopping the Soviet rifle corps' advance. As another reserve, Fedyuninsky brought in the 124th Rifle Corps on 20 February, reinforcing it by the artillery of the destroyed divisions. Despite heavy resistance from the German 61st Infantry Division, the rifle corps mounted a powerful strike behind the railway. Frießner hurried his forces southwards against the 124th Rifle Corps advance. The German 61st Infantry Division and the German Panzer Division Feldherrnhalle 1, supported by the 502nd Heavy Tank Battalion, drove the rifle corps back to the river in a pitched battle. After the offensive, the weakened Soviet 30th Guard Rifle Corps was replaced by the 10th Rifle Corps. The 214th Division and an Estonian battalion cut a rifle division off from the rest of their forces on 28 February. The 43rd Soviet Rifle Corps restored the situation. Destruction of Soviet bridgeheads north of Narva The Estonian Division arrived at the week following 13 February, at the height of the fighting around Narva. To strengthen the German defense in the north, the division, reinforced by newly conscripted Estonians, were attached to the III SS Panzer Corps. They were to defend the line against the 378th Rifle Division, the 340th Machine-Gun Battalion, and the 803th Zenith Artillery Regiment at the Riigiküla bridgehead seven kilometres to the north of Narva town. Steiner threw the division into battle on 20 February. The Soviet units with ample experience from the Siege of Leningrad had a significant number of women within their ranks. Retreat was forbidden under the