Operation Nordlicht
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Operation Nordlicht ("Operation Northern Lights") refers to two German military operations during the World War II.
The first Operation Nordlicht was a German attempt to capture Leningrad [1] involving forces of Army Group North under Leeb during the second year of the siege of Leningrad in the Second World War.
After a year-long battle for Leningrad, Hitler ordered the final attack on besieged Leningrad, called Operation Nordlicht.[2] At the same time the Germans prepared for the Battle of Stalingrad. Both attacks on Leningrad in the North and on Stalingrad in the South were synchronized by the Nazis to confuse the Russians.
Operation Nordlicht began on August 23, 1942 with a massive artillery bombardment of Leningrad, following with aerial bombardments of the besieged city by the Luftwaffe.
The second Operation Nordlicht was a German plan during the end of the second world war for retreating from Finland and Finnmark in Norway and burning all houses, thus denying the advancing Soviet Red Army any facilities. The Soviet Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation managed to pre-empt this operation.
