- Generalleutnant Hellmuth Reymann 300th Special Purpose Division – Generalmajor Rudolf Höfer Separate detachments: Four Estonian Auxiliary Police battalions Eastern sector, coastal defense – Generalleutnant Alfons Luczny Two Estonian border defense regiments 513th Naval Artillery Battalion 502nd Heavy Panzer Battalion 752nd Anti-Tank Battalion Total: 22,250 troops deployed in 25 Estonian and 24 German, Dutch, Danish, Flemish, Italian, Norwegian and Walloon battalions Combat Orphanage Hill 26 July On 26 July, pursuing the withdrawing Germans, the Soviet attack fell onto the Tannenberg Line before the vastly outnumbered Army Detachment Narwa had dug in. The Soviet Air Force and artillery covered the German positions with bombs and shells, destroying most of the forest on the hills. The Soviet 201st and 256th Rifle Divisions supported by the 98th Tank Regiment assaulted the positions of the SS Division Nordland, seizing the eastern side of the Orphanage Hill. 27 July In the morning of 27 July the Soviet forces opened up another powerful artillery barrage on the Sinimäed. Anticipating an infantry attack, Steiner concentrated his few working armored vehicles, consisting of seven tanks. Units of the Nordland Division were placed between the two hills and the defense was completed by the Anti-Tank Company, 1st Estonian behind Nordland. Under Soviet pressure the German defense threatened to collapse. On 27 July Schörner arrived at the Sinimäed. He ordered an immediate recapture of the Orphanage Hill, demanding fanatical resistance from the soldiers. A meeting convened by von Scholz laid the tactics for the implementation of the orders. Immediately after the meeting, however, von Scholz was killed by a shrapnel splinter in front of the headquarters. 28 July For the next day the 2nd Shock Army was reinforced with the 31st and the 82nd Tank Regiments, three howitzer brigades and nine heavy artillery regiments. In the evening of 28 July German forces attempted to regain the Orphanage Hill again. Using the tactics of "rolling" small units into the Soviet positions, the troops seized the trenches on the slope of the feature. When a Soviet tank squadron arrived, the German attack collapsed. At a point occupied by the German 11th Infantry Division near the borough of Sirgala in the south, the Soviet tanks aimed to break through. Steiner ordered a withdrawal to a new defensive line at the Grenadier Hill. The order did not reach a significant part of the German forces, which remained in their positions at the Orphanage Hill.