The German
Luftwaffe and Soviet
Long Range Aviation bombed the
Estonian capital
Tallinn several times during
World War II. The first instance was during the Summer War of 1941 (part of
Operation Barbarossa). A number of bombing missions followed in 1942–43. The largest of the bombings occurred in March 1944 in connection with the
Battle of Narva and is known as
March bombing . Thousands of Soviet bombs set the town on fire, killed 757 people, of whom 586 were civilians and 75 prisoners of war, wounded 659, and left 25,000 people without shelter in the spring thaw.