In 1944, for many small eastern European countries, they faced a fateful choice. Hungary, Romania, Estonia, they originally defected to Germany after the outbreak of World War II, but at this time Germany was about to be defeated, they had to find a backer again, and on the Eastern Front, there were many scenes of cannibalism by soldiers of the same country.
The spring offensive of 1944 was a life-or-death test for Estonia. With 450,000 Soviet troops coming to the Tannenberg Line, the German defense was left with only one division, the 20th Grenadier Division, all of Estonians. For the people of this unit, it was a battle to defend the country, because behind them was tallinn, the capital of Estonia, and the Estonians had never invaded the territory of the Soviet Union, so why did the Soviets attack them, or in the name of maintaining world peace?
The 20th Grenadier Division, which had never invaded since the day it was founded, had been guarding the vicinity of Fort Tennenberg and guarding estonia's homeland. In the eyes of Estonian soldiers, both Germany and the Soviet Union were invaders. Sadly, the Soviets on the Tannenberg Line had the Estonian 89th Infantry Division cooperate with the Soviet tank attack, and the Estonians would not hesitate to sacrifice their lives in order to liberate their capital.
With the cooperation of Soviet tanks, the Estonian 89th Infantry Division launched an attack on the Tannenberg line, but the attack was all repulsed by the 20th Infantry Division. It was only at the end that the 20th Infantry Division discovered that the enemy it had been fighting was also Estonian.
In this brotherly slaughter, 40,000 Estonian men fought to the death, which is the sadness of the small country.