Soviet evacuation of Tallinn

The Soviet evacuation of Tallinn, also called Tallinn

disaster or Russian Dunkirk was a Soviet operation to
evacuate the 190 ships of the Baltic Fleet, units of the Red
Army, and pro-Soviet civilians from the eets encircled
main base of Tallinn in Soviet-occupied Estonia during
August 1941.[1]
After the German invasion of the Soviet Union began on
22 June 1941, German forces advanced rapidly through
the Soviet-occupied Baltic states, and by the end of August the Estonian capital of Tallinn was surrounded by
German forces, while a large part of the Red Banner
Baltic Fleet was bottled up in Tallinn harbour.
In expectation of a Soviet breakout, the Kriegsmarine
and the Finnish Navy had started on 8 August 1941 to
lay mineelds o Cape Juminda on the Lahemaa coast.
While Soviet minesweepers tried to clear a path for convoys through the mineelds, German coastal artillery installed a battery of 150 mm (5.9 in) guns near Cape Juminda and the Finnish navy gathered their 2nd Motor
Torpedo Boat Flotilla with patrol boats VMV9, VMV10,
VMV11 and VMV17. At the same time the German
3. Schnellbootottille with E-boats S-26, S-27, S-39, S40 and S-101 was concentrated at Suomenlinna outside
Helsinki. German Junkers Ju 88 bombers from Kampfgruppe 806 based on airelds in Estonia were put on alert.
On 19 August the nal German assault on Tallinn began.

The Port of Tallinn on 1 September 1941 after having been seized

by Germans

boats.[2]

The armada started to move out at 22:00 on the evening

of 27 August. Five ships were sunk on 28 August by German Ju 88 bombers.[2] At 16:00, 28 August, the rst ship
approached the heavily mined waters o Cape Juminda.
The rst ship to hit a mine and sink was the steamer
Ella, and a few moments after her, several other ships
hit mines, while German bombers and Finnish coastal artillery opened re. In the attempt to force the passage the
During the night of 27/28 August 1941 the Soviet 10th Soviet Navy lost ve destroyers, two torpedo boats, a paRie Corps disengaged from the enemy and boarded trol vessel, three minehunters, three submarines, two gun
transports in Tallinn.
boats, two smaller warships and fteen transports. Two
leader, a minehunter, and a transport
The embarkation was protected by smoke screens, how- destroyers, a otilla [2]
were
also
damaged.
ever, the mine-sweeping in the days before the evacuation began was ineective due to bad weather, and there Later that evening the armada was attacked by Finnish
were no Soviet aircraft available for protecting the em- and German torpedo boats, and the chaotic situation
barkation. This, together with heavy German shelling and made organized mine sweeping impossible. Darkness fell
aerial bombardment killed at least 1,000 of the evacuees at 22:00 and the Soviet armada stopped and anchored at
in the harbor.
midnight in the heavily mined water.

Early on 29 August Ju 88 bombers attacked the remains of the convoys o Suursaari, sinking two transports. Meanwhile the undamaged ships made best speed
to reach the safety of the Kronstadt batteries. The heavily
damaged merchant ship Kazakhstan disembarked 2300
men of the 5000 on board before steaming on to Kronstadt. In the following days ships operating from Suursaari rescued 12,160 survivors.[2]

Gauntlet in the Gulf of Finland

Twenty large transports, eight auxiliary ships, nine small

transports, a tanker, a tug, and a tender were organized
into four convoys, protected by the Soviet cruiser Kirov,
with Admiral Vladimir Tributs on board, two otilla leaders, nine destroyers, three torpedo boats, twelve submarines, ten modern and fteen obsolete minehunters,
22 minesweepers, 21 submarine chasers, three gun boats,
a minelayer, thirteen patrol vessels and eleven torpedo

The Soviet evacuation of Tallinn succeeded in evacuating 165 ships, 28,000 passengers and 66,000 tons
of equipment.[3][4] At least 12,400 are thought to have
drowned[5] in circumstances little known outside the for1

mer Soviet Union. The event was long downplayed by the

Communist regime after the war. The evacuation may
have been the bloodiest naval disaster since the battle of
Lepanto.
On the sixtieth anniversary a memorial was unveiled at
Juminda.[6]

Some of the ships sunk

REFERENCES

Soviet Destroyer Volodarski - 28 August 1941, o

Cape Juminda[7]
Soviet Destroyer Skoryi - 28 August 1941, o Cape
Juminda[7]
Patrol vessel Sneg - 28 August 1941, o Cape
Juminda[7]
Patrol vessel Tsiklon- 28 August 1941, o Cape
Juminda[7]
Gunboat I-8 - 28 August 1941, o Cape Juminda[7]
Minesweeper No. 71 (Crab) - 28 August 1941, o
Cape Juminda[7]
Minesweeper No. 42 (Lenvodput-13) - 28 August
1941, o Cape Juminda[7]
Guard ship Saturn
Patrol boat MO 202
Motor torpedo boat TK 103
25 large and 9 smaller merchantmen, most of them
lost to mines:

Juminda monument

Estonian transport SS Eestirand (VT 532) - 24

August 1941, o Prangli Island

3 See also
List of shipwrecks in August 1941

4 References
[1] Harrison E. Salisbury (2003). Tallinn disaster; Russian
Dunkirk. The 900 Days: The siege of Leningrad. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press. p. 221-242.

Graves of men lost on Eestirand on Prangli Island where it was

beached

Latvian Icebreaker Krijnis Valdemrs

Soviet Submarine S 5 - 28 August 1941, Gulf of
Finland[7]
Soviet Submarine Shch 301 - 28 August 1941, o
Cape Juminda[7]
Soviet Destroyer Yakov Sverdlov - 28 August 1941,
o Mohni island[7]
Soviet Destroyer Kalinin - 28 August 1941, o Cape
Juminda[7]

[2] Potter, Elmar P.; Nimitz, Chester W. (1986). Der Krieg

in der Ostsee [The War at Sea in the Baltics]. In Rohwer,
J. Seemacht. Eine Seekriegsgeschichte von der Antike bis
zur Gegenwart [Sea Power. A Naval History]. Herrsching:
Manfred Pawlak Verlagsgesellschaft mbH. pp. 602622.
ISBN 3-88199-082-8.
[3] Finnish navy in Continuation War, year 1941
[4] Naval War in the Baltic Sea 1941-1945
[5] Juminda, 28.8.1941: To the memory of the drowned - all
12,000 of them Helsingen Sanomat 5 September 2010
[6] Press Service of the Oce of the President; Kadriorg, August 24, 2001
[7] Krivosheev, G.F. (1997). Soviet Casualties and Combat Losses in the Twentieth Century. London: Greenhill
Books. pp. 265271. ISBN 1-85367-280-7.

Soviet Destroyer Artem - 28 August 1941, o Cape Coordinates: 592647N 244605E / 59.446344N
24.768033E
Juminda[7]

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