Soviet troops occupied trenches in German positions near Oranienbaum, west of Leningrad. The bodies of abandoned German soldiers lay at the bottom of the trenches and on the embankments at the feet of the Soviet soldiers.

   On the Eastern Front of World War II, around February-March 1944, Soviet soldiers occupied trenches in German positions near Oranienbaum, west of Leningrad. At the bottom of the trenches and on the embankment at the feet of the Soviet soldiers lay the bodies of abandoned German soldiers. Soviet soldiers inspected German trenches on the Panther defense line. The Panther-Wartung Front was a defensive line constructed by the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front in 1943. Soviet soldiers attempted to break through the defense line from February to July 1944, and on July 17, 1944, the Panther Defense Line was breached south of the city of Ostrov.

　When the Soviet Red Army launched offensives in various parts of the country in 1944, the Germans constructed the Panther Special Line of Defense around Pskov. It was part of the defense line from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea and was called the Panther-Wartan Front. In the southern part of the region were the cities of Ostrov and Pskov. German defenses included defensive measures ranging from concrete blocks and anti-tank bunkers to minefields and excavation equipment to machine guns, artillery, and tanks). The fortifications were located on hills along the shores of Lake Pskov and the Velikaya River.

　In January 1944, Soviet troops liberated Leningrad and began their invasion of Pskov. Troops on the Second Baltic Front also launched an attack. However, German resistance on the Panther Front prevented further invasion, and on March 1, 1944, Soviet artillery fire roared over the entire length of the Panther Front. The first attempt by Soviet forces to break through the Panther Front suffered the greatest losses north and south of Pskov. The Germans met the Soviets with strong concentrated fire, all attacks were repulsed, and both armies suffered very heavy losses. The Second Baltic Front was unable to invade toward Idrissa. Red Army soldiers inspected German trenches occupied by the Panther Front.

　The April 1944 offensive by the 1st and 2nd Baltic Fronts was again ineffective; as in March, the Soviets narrowly broke through German defenses. By holding off the Soviets on the Panther Line, the German Union Army Group temporarily stabilized the front and halted the Soviet invasion until July 1944; in July 1944, it broke through the Panther Line and invaded the Baltic States; in July 1944, the German defensive line in the Pskov region disappeared and a major Soviet offensive broke out. On July 17, the Pskov-Ostrovsk offensive by the Third Baltic Front Army began with the breakthrough of the Panther front in the south of the island, and by August 11, 1944, as a result of the massive military operation, the Pskov region was completely free of the Nazi invasion. Approximately 1,700 Soviet soldiers were killed in the bloody fighting on the outskirts of Pskov.