Tehumardi Night Battle Monument

Western Estonia & the Islands


On the night of 8 October 1944 a gruesome battle took place in the coastal village of Tehumardi between retreating German troops and a Soviet Estonian Rifle Division. The horror defies belief: both armies fought blindly, firing on intuition or finding the enemy by touch. This large Soviet-era monument takes the form of a sword with the stylised reliefs of faces set into it. The Estonian dead lie buried in double graves nearby.