Siege of Leningrad

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Siege of Leningrad Part of the Eastern Front of World War II Diorama of the Siege of Leningrad, in the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, in Moscow Date September 8, 1941 – January 27, 1944 Location Leningrad, USSR Result Soviet victory Belligerents Germany Finland[1][2][3] Soviet Union Commanders Wilhelm von Leeb Georg von Küchler Carl Gustaf Mannerheim[4][5][6] Kliment Voroshilov Georgiy Zhukov Leonid Govorov Strength 725,000 930,000 Casualties and losses Wehrmacht (est.) Unknown Red Army[7]: 332,059 KIA 24,324 non-combat dead 111,142 missing 16,470 civilian combat casualties 1.2 million civilians from starvation

v • d • e Eastern Front Barbarossa – Baltic Sea – Black Sea – Finland – Leningrad and Baltics – Crimea and Caucasus – Moscow – 1st Rzhev-Vyazma – 2nd Kharkov – Blue – Stalingrad – Velikiye Luki – 2nd Rzhev-Sychevka – Kursk – 2nd Smolensk – Dnieper – 2nd Kiev – Battle of Narva – Korsun – Hube's Pocket – Baltic – Bagration – Lvov-Sandomierz – Lublin-Brest – Balkans (Iassy-Kishinev) – Budapest – Vistula-Oder – East Prussia – East Pomerania – Silesia – Vienna – Berlin – Prague

Leningrad and Baltics 1941 - 1944 Toropets-Kholm – Demyansk Pocket – Spark – Polar Star – Krasny Bor – Lenino– Leningrad Approaches – Narva – Vilnius – Baltic

v • d • e Operation Barbarossa Brest – Bialystok-Minsk – Raseiniai – Brody – Smolensk – Uman – 1st Kiev – Yelnya – Odessa – Leningrad – 1st Kharkov – 1st Crimea – 1st Rostov

The Siege of Leningrad, also known as The Leningrad Blockade (Russian: блокада Ленинграда (transliteration: blokada Leningrada)) was a military operation by the Axis powers^[8] to capture Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) during World War II. The siege lasted from September 9, 1941, to January 18, 1943, when a narrow land corridor to the city was established. The total lifting of the siege occurred at January 27, 1944. The Siege of Leningrad was one of the longest, most destructive, and the most lethal siege of major cities in modern history.

[edit] Overview

The capture of Leningrad was one of three strategic goals in Hitler's initial plans for Operation Barbarossa. Hitler's strategic goal for capturing Leningrad was motivated by its political status as the former capital of Russia and the symbolic capital of the Russian Revolution, the military importance as a main base of the Soviet Baltic Fleet and its industrial strength with numerous arms factories.^[9]

Hitler announced his goal as the taking of Leningrad by force with the intent to "Celebrate New Year's Eve 1942 in the Tsar's Palaces", ensuring the official invitations were sent out by the Reich Chancellor's office. Although Hitler's plan failed, the 2½ year siege caused the largest destruction and loss of life in a modern city.^[10]

The siege was conducted by Wehrmacht troops with assistance from the Finnish Army as part of an operation codenamed Barbarossa in 1941.^[11] The operation was given to the Army Group North. The siege followed after the Finnish offensive in Karelia, and German offensive on southern suburbs of Leningrad. Once the offensive stopped, and the 4th Panzer Group left towards Moscow, the Germans started to dig-in to execute the siege. Georgy Zhukov overlooked this change and prepared the city to withstand expected German assault. ^[12]

On August 6, 1941, Hitler repeated his order: "Leningrad first, the Donetsk Basin second, Moscow third."^[13] From August 1941 when the Wehrmacht troops of Army Group North reached the outskirts of Leningrad through to January 1944, operations to take the city dominated OKH decisionmaking in the northern Area of Eastern Front operations.^[14] In August 1941 all railway lines to the city were severed, and the city was encircled by Finnish armies on the north and Wehrmacht troops to the south of Leningrad.^[15]

Fire of anti-aircraft guns deployed in the neighborhood of St. Isaac's cathedral during the defense of Leningrad (now called Saint Petersburg, its pre-Soviet name) in 1941.

In August 1942, another operation for capturing Leningrad codenamed Operation Nordlicht (Operation Northern Light) was planned. Soviet Sinyavin offensive operation managed to pre-empt German offensive, and it was cancelled^[16]. At the same time Finnish Naval Detachment K carried attack on Soviet supply route at Lake Ladoga by sinking one barge^[17]. Massive air-bombings and artillery bombardment of the city continued from August 1941 through 1942, and through 1943. Mannerheim's order on May 17 authorised deployment of the international Naval Detachment K with boats from Finland, Germany and Italy which during its patrols interdicted the Leningrad supply route in the southern part of Lake Ladoga.^[18][19] American and British Lend-Lease food and materiel supplies to Leningrad begun in the last quarter of 1941, while British and American convoys to Mourmansk increased this support for the city in 1942 and 1943, helping civilian survivors in the besieged Leningrad, as well as the Soviet fighting forces. In three winters between 1941 and 1944, the ice cover on Lake Ladoga was used by the besieged city for temporary communications via the Road of Life.

On Hitler's explicit orders most of the Palaces of the Tsars, such as the Catherine Palace, the Peterhof, the Gatchina, the Ropsha, the Strelna, and other historic landmarks located outside of the city's defensive perimeter were looted and then destroyed, with many art collections transported to Nazi Germany.^{[citation needed]} Many Leningrad industries, factories, schools, hospitals, transport facilities and infrastructures, the airport and other locations were destroyed by the air raids and long range artillery bombardment during the 2½ years of the siege.

The Wehrmacht besieging perimeter was penetrated by Soviet forces at January 17, 1943, during Operation Iskra, when a narrow corridor was established along the shores of Lake Ladoga. The siege was finally lifted by Marshal Zhukov's offensive on January 27, 1944, as part of the Leningrad-Novgorod strategic offensive operation.

The 900 days of the siege caused unparalleled famine through disruption of utilities, water, and energy supply. This resulted in the deaths of about 1.5 million civilians, and the evacuation of 1.4 million more, mainly women and children, many of whom died during evacuation due to starvation and bombardment.^[20][21][22] Of the 1.5 million total Soviet casualties, one cemetery in Leningrad has half a million civilian victims of the siege interred. Economic destruction and human losses in Leningrad on both sides exceeded those of the Battle of Stalingrad, or the Battle of Moscow, or the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The battle for Leningrad is listed among the most lethal sieges in world history.

Historians speak about the Nazi siege operations as a genocide of the Leningrad residents in terms of a "racially motivated starvation policy" which became the integral part of the unprecedented German war of extermination against the civilian population of the city and the Soviet Union in general.^[23][24]

The diary of Tanya Savicheva, a girl of 11, her notes about starvation and deaths of her grandmother, then uncle, then mother, then brother, the last record saying "Only Tanya is left." She died of starvation during the siege. Her diary was shown at the Nuremberg trial.

[edit] Preparations

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (January 2008)

[edit] German plans

Axis attack in Operation Barbarossa: Finnish army attacking Soviet Union from the North, and Nazi Germany from the West.

Army Group North under Leeb advanced to Leningrad, its primary objective. Leeb's plan called for capturing the city on the move, but due to strong resistance of the Soviet forces defending the city and Hitler's recall of 4th Panzergruppe he was forced to only siege the city after reaching the shores of Lake Ladoga, and tried to complete the encirclement by reaching the Finnish Army under Mannerheim waiting at the Svir River, east of Leningrad.^[25]

Finnish military forces were located north of Leningrad, while the territories south of Leningrad were occupied by Nazi Germany.^[26] Finnish and German forces had their goal set to encircle Leningrad, and to keep the perimeter of blockade, cutting off any communication with the city^{[dubious – discuss]}.^{[27][28][29][30][31][32]}

[edit] Leningrad fortified region

On June 27, 1941 the Council of Deputies of the Leningrad administration organized "First response groups" of civilians. In the next days the entire civilian population of Leningrad was informed of danger and mobilized over a million citizens of Leningrad for the construction of fortifications. Several lines of defenses were built along the perimeter of the city limits, to meet the enemy approaching from north and south with civilian resistance.^[33][34]

One of the fortifications ran from the mouth of the Luga River to Chudovo, Gatchina, Uritsk, Pulkovo and then through the Neva River. The other defense passed through Peterhof to Gatchina, Pulkovo, Kolpino and Koltushy. Another defense line against the Finns, the Karelian Fortified Region, had been maintained in the northern suburbs of Leningrad since the 1930s, and it was now returned to service. In all, 190 km of timber barricades, 635 km of wire entanglements, 700 km of anti-tank ditches, 5,000 earth-and-timber emplacements and reinforced concrete weapon emplacements and 25,000 km of open trenches were built by civilians. Even the gun of the cruiser Aurora was mounted on the Pulkovskiye Heights to the south of Leningrad

[edit] Establishing the siege

Following a swift advance accomplished by the 4th Panzer Group from East Prussia to take Pskov, and reached the neighborhood of Luga and Novgorod within operational reach of Leningrad, but was stopped by fierce resistance south of Leningrad. However the 18th Army with some 350 thousand men, lagged behind, forcing their way to Ostrov and Pskov, after the Soviet troops of the Northwestern Front retreated towards Leningrad. On July 10, both Ostrov and Pskov were captured, and the 18th Army reached Narva and Kingisepp from where advance continued to Leningrad from the Luga River line, assuming siege positions from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga with the eventual aim of isolating Leningrad from all directions when the Finnish Army was expected to advance along the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga.^[35].

[edit] Order of battles

[edit] German order of battle

Army Group North (von Leeb)^[36]

• 18. Army (von Küchler)
  • XXXXII Corps (2 infantry divisions)
  • XXVI Corps (3 inf divisions)
• 16. Army (Busch)
  • XXVIII Corps (2 inf, 1 armored disisions)
  • I Corps (2 inf divisions)
  • X Corps (3 inf divisions)
  • II Corps (3 inf divisions)
  • (L Corps - Under 9. Army) (2 inf divisions)
• 4. Panzergruppe (Hoepner)
  • XXXVIII Corps (1 inf division)
  • XXXXI Motorized Corps (Reinhard) (1 inf, 1 motorized, 1 armored divisions)
  • LVI Motorized Corps (von Manstain) (1 inf, 1 mot, 1 arm, 1 panzergrenadier divisions)

[edit] Finnish order of battle

Finnish army HQ (Mannerheim)^[37]

• • I Corps (2 infantry divisions)
  • II Corps (2 inf divisions)
  • IV Corps (3 inf divisions)

[edit] Soviet order of battle

Northern Front (Popov)^[38]

• 7. Army (2 rifle, 1 militia divisions, 1 marine brigade, 3 motorized rifle and 1 armored regiments)
• 8. Army
  • X Rifle Corps (2 rifle divisions)
  • XI Rifle Corps (3 rifle divisions)
  • Separate Units (3 rifle divisions)
• 14. Army
  • XXXXII Rifle Corps (2 rifle divisions)
  • Separate Units (2 rifle divisions, 1 Fortified area, 1 motorized rifle regiment)
• 23. Army
  • XIX Rifle Corps (3 rifle divisions)
  • Separate Units (2 rifle, 1 mot divisions, 2 Fortified areas, 1 rifle regiment)
• Luga Operation group
  • XXXXI Rifle Corps (3 rifle divisions)
  • Separate Units (1 armored brigade, 1 rifle regiment)
• Kingisepp Operation Group
  • Separate Units (2 rifle, 2 militia, 1 armored divisions, 1 Fortified area)
• Separate Units (3 rifle divisions, 4 guard militia divisions, 3 Fortified areas, 1 rifle brigade)

From these, 14. Army defended Murmansk and 7. Army Ladoga Karelia, thus they didn't participate to the initial stages of the siege. 8. Army was initially part of the Northwestern Front and retreated through Baltics and was transferred to Northern Front at July 14.

[edit] Severing lines of communication

On August 6 Hitler repeated his order: "Leningrad first, the Donetsk Basin second, Moscow third."^[39] From August 1941 through January 1944, anything that happened between the Arctic Ocean and Lake Ilmen concerned Wehrmacht's Leningrad siege operations.^[40] Arctic convoys delivered American, Canadian, and British food and war materiel supplies to the Murmansk–Leningrad railroad^{[citation needed]}, which was cut by the Finnish armies just north of Leningrad, and in several other locations in Lapland^{[citation needed]}. After Britain and Canada declared war on Finland, Winston Churchill demanded that Mannerheim and Finnish armies should restore the Murmansk–Leningrad railroad for food supplies as a humanitarian act towards Leningrad's civilians.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Encirclement of Leningrad

Finnish intelligence was particularly helpful for Hitler, as he constantly requested intelligence information about Leningrad^[41], as the Finns had broken some of the Soviet military codes and were able to read their low level correspondence.^{[citation needed]}

Finland's role in Operation Barbarossa was laid out in Hitler's Directive 21, "The mass of the Finnish army will have the task, in accordance with the advance made by the northern wing of the German armies, of tying up maximum Russian strength by attacking to the west, or on both sides, of Lake Ladoga".^[42]

The last rail connection to Leningrad was severed on August 30, when Germans reached the Neva River. The shelling of Leningrad began on September 4. On September 8, the last land connection to the besieged city was severed when the Germans reached Lake Ladoga at Orekhovets. Bombing on September 8 caused 178 fires.^{[citation needed]} Hitler's directive on October 7, signed by Alfred Jodl was a reminder not to accept capitulation.^{[citation needed]} German shellings and bombings killed 5 723 and wounded 20 507 civilians in Leningrad during the siege^[43].

[edit] Finland and Germany

Barrage balloons in front of the Saint Isaac's Cathedral protecting Leningrad from the German air-bombings

By August 1941, the Finns had reached within 20km of the northern suburbs of Leningrad, threatening Leningrad from the North, and were advancing through Karelia east of Lake Ladoga, threatening Leningrad from the East. However, the Finnish forces halted their advance only kilometers from the suburbs of Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) at Finland's old border in Karelian Isthmus. The Finnish headquarters rejected German pleas for aerial attacks against Leningrad and did not advance further south from the River Svir in the occupied East Karelia which they reached at September 7, 160 kilometers north-east of Leningrad. In the south-east, Germans captured Tikhvin on November 8, but failed to advance further north to fully complete encirclement of Leningrad with the Finns at the Svir River. A month later on December 9, the counterattack of the Volkhov Front forced the Wehrmacht to retreat from the Tikhvin positions, to the River Volkhov line.^[44][45]

On the 6th of September, 1941, Mannerheim receives the Order Of The Iron Cross for his command in the campaign^{[citation needed]}. Germany's Chief of Staff Jodl brought the award to him with a personal letter from Hitler for the award ceremony held at Helsinki. Mannerheim was later photographed wearing the decoration while meeting with Hitler.^[46][47][48] Jodl's main reason for coming to Helsinki was to persuade Mannerheim to continue the Finnish offensive. Although during 1941 Ryti declared it as his goal to fight for more territories in the East for a "Greater Finland" in numerous speeches in the Finnish Parliament,^[49][50][51]after the war, the former Finnish President Ryti changed his story^{[citation needed]} and said that, "On August 24, 1941 I visited the headquarters of Marshal Mannerheim. The Germans aimed us at crossing the old border and at continuation of the offensive to Leningrad. I said that the capture of Leningrad wasn't our goal and that we shouldn't take part in it. Mannerheim and the military minister Walden agreed with me and refused the offers of the Germans. The result was a paradoxical situation: the Germans were not able to approach Leningrad from the north…" Later it was asserted that there was no systematic shelling or bombing from of the Finnish positions.^[52]

Hitler, Mannerheim, and Ryti meeting in Imatra, Finland, 200 km north of Leningrad, in 1942

Nevertheless the close proximity of the Finnish army's positions just 33-35 kilometers from the center of Leningrad, and the threat of a Finnish attack complicated the defense of Leningrad. At one point the Front Commander Popov could not release reserves facing the Finnish Army against the Wehrmacht because they were needed to bolster the 23rd Army's defence on the Karelian Isthmus.^[53] On August 31 1941 Mannerheim ordered a stop to the offensive when the Finnish advance reached the 1939 border at the shores of the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga, after which Finnish offensive only continued by reducing the salients of Beloostrov and Kirjasalo, which threatened Finnish positions at the coast of Gulf of Finland and south of river Vuoksi respectively.^[54] As the Finns reached the line during the first days of September, Popov noticed a reduction in pressure on Red Army forces allowing him to transfer two divisions to the German sector on September 5.^[55] However, in November 1941, the Finnish forces made another advance towards Leningrad, and crossed the Sestra River, but were stopped again at the Sestroretsk and Beloostrov settlements 20-25 km north of the Leningrad outer suburbs.^[56][57] Finnish sources do not know such an offensive and neither do Finnish casualty reports indicate any excess casualties at the time.^[58] On the other hand, Soviet forces captured so called "Munakukkula" hill 1km west from Lake Lempaala at the evening of November 8, but Finns recaptured it next morning.^[59] Later, in the summer of 1942, a special Naval Detachment K was formed from Finnish, German and Italian naval units under the Finnish operative command. Its purpose was to patrol the waters of Lake Ladoga, and it became involved in clashes against Leningrad supply route on southern Ladoga^[60][19][61]

[edit] Defensive operations

Initial defence of Leningrad was undertaken by the troops of the Leningrad Front commanded by Kliment Voroshilov which included the 23rd Army in the northern sector between the Gulf of Finland and Lake Ladoga, and 48th Army occupying the western sector between Gulf of Finland and the Slutsk-Mga position. Included in the Front were the Leningrad Fortified Region, the Leningrad garrison, the Baltic Fleet forces, and the Koporsk, Southern and Slutsk-Kolpin operational groups.

[edit] The Siege

By September 1941 when the link with the Volkhov Front (commanded by Kirill Meretskov) was severed, the defensive sectors were occupied by four Armies: 23rd Army in the northern sector, 42nd Army on the western sector, 55th Army on the southern sector, and the 67th Army on the eastern sector. The 8th Army of the Volkhov Front had the responsibility for attempting to maintain the logistic route to the city in coordination with the Ladoga flotilla. Air cover for the city was provided by the Leningrad military district PVO Corps and Baltic Fleet naval aviation units.

The defence operation to protect the 1.4 millions civilian evacuees was part of the Leningrad counter-siege operations, and was carried under the command of Andrei Zhdanov, Klim Voroshilov, and Aleksei Kuznetsov. Additional military operations was carried in coordination with the Baltic Fleet naval forces under the general command of Admiral Vladimir Tribuz. Major military involvement in defense operations in helping evacuation of civilians was carried by the Ladoga Flotilla under the command of V. Baranovsky, S.V. Zemlyanichenko, P.A. Traynin, and B.V. Khoroshikhin.

[edit] Supplying the defenders

Main article: Road of Life

By September 8 the Germans had largely surrounded the city, cutting off all supply routes to Leningrad and its suburbs. Unable to press home their offensive, and facing defenses of the city organized by Marshal Zhukov, the German armies laid siege to the city for 872 days. To maintain the defense of the city it was vitally important for the Red Army to establish a constantly operating supply route to the city. This route was established over the southern part of Lake Ladoga, maintain with water transports in the warmer seasons, and over hard ice in the winter. The security of the supply route was ensured by the Ladoga flotilla, the Leningrad PVO Corps, and route security troops. The route would also be used to evacuate civilians from the besieged city because due to the chaos of the first winter of the war, no evacuation plan was available or executed and the city quite literally starved in complete isolation until November 20, 1941, when an ice road over Lake Ladoga was established.

This ice road, named the Road of Life (Russian: Дорога жизни), could only be used during the winter, and during the rest of the year watercraft were used. The Road of Life was dangerous due to carriages and transports becoming stuck in the snow or sinking if the ice broke under constant German bombardment. Because of the high death toll in the winter, the pathway was also known as the "Road of Death". However, the lifeline did bring war supplies and food in, and civilians out, allowing the city to continue to resist.

[edit] Soviet relief of the siege

Soviet ski troops near the Hermitage Museum heading to the front

[edit] Operation Iskra

The encirclement was broken as a result of Operation Iskra — (English: spark) a full-scale offensive of troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts. This offensive started in the morning of January 12, 1943. After fierce battles, the Red Army units overcame the powerful German fortifications to the south of Lake Ladoga, and on January 18, 1943 the Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts met, opening a narrow, 10-12km wide land corridor to the still-besieged city.

[edit] Lifting the siege

The siege continued until January 27, 1944, when as a result of the Soviet Oranienbaum Offensive the besieging Germans were expelled from the southern outskirts of the city. This was a combined effort by the Leningrad Front, along with the Volkhov Front, the 1st Baltic Front and the 2nd Baltic Front. Later, in the summer of 1944, the Finns were pushed back to the other side of the Bay of Vyborg and the Vuoksi River.

[edit] Effect of the siege on the city

Main article: Effect of the Siege of Leningrad on the city

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[edit] Timeline of the Siege of Leningrad

[edit] 1941

• April:^{[citation needed]} Hitler issues orders to occupy and then destroy Leningrad, according to plan Barbarossa and Generalplan Ost^[62]
• June 22: Operation Barbarossa begins.
• June 23: Leningrad commander M. Popov, sends his second in command to recon defensive positions south of Leningrad.^[63]
• June 29: Building of Luga-line starts.^[64]
• July 10 - September 30: Leningrad strategic defensive operation (10.07–30.09.41) Army Group North breaks through Luga-line and encircles Leningrad

Tallin defensive operation (10.07–10.08.41),

Kingesepp-Luga defensive operation (10.07–23.09.41),

Sol'tsy-Dno Offensive Operation (15–20.07.41),

Staraia-Russa Offensive Operation (08–23.08.41),

Demyansk Defensive Operation (06-26.09.41)

• July 19–23: First attack on Leningrad by the Army Group North is stopped 100 km south of the city.^{[citation needed]}
• July 27: Hitler visits Army Group North, expresses anger at the slowdown, and orders Wilhelm von Leeb to take Saint Petersburg by December 1941.^[65]
• July 31 – August 31: Finnish Army under Mannerheim attacks the 23rd Army at Karelian Isthmus, and reaches the northern pre-Winter War Finnish-Soviet border. At August 31 Mannerheim orders forces on defensive and to streighten the frontline.^[66]
• August 20 – September 8: Artillery bombardments of Leningrad are massive, targeting industries, schools, hospitals, and civilian houses^{[citation needed]}.
• August 21: Hitler's Directive No.34 ordered "Encirclement of Leningrad and junction with the Finns."^[67]
• September 6: OKW's Chief of Operations Alfred Jodl visits Finland and tries to persuade Finns to continue offensive against Leningrad.^{[citation needed]}
• September 2 - 9: Finns capture of the salients of Beloostrov and Kirjasalo and starts to prepare defences.^[68][57]
• September 8: Encirclement of Leningrad is completed when the German forces reach the shores of Lake Ladoga.^[69][70]
• September 13: Joseph Stalin sends Zhukov to replace Voroshilov at the Leningrad Front commander position.^{[citation needed]}
• September 17: Zhukov orders to shoot to death soldiers that withdraw from their positions without written order.^{[citation needed]}
• September 19: German troops are stopped 10 km from Leningrad. Masses of citizens, women and schoolchildren come to fight in defense lines.^{[citation needed]}
• September 22: Hitler issues "Directive No. 1601" ordering "Saint Petersburg must be erased from the face of the Earth" and "we have no interest in saving lives of civilian population."^[71]
• November 10 - December 30: Tikhvin strategic offensive operation, Soviet counterattack forces Germans to retreat from Tikhvin to Volkhov river, thus failing to close the second encirclement of Leningrad, by trying to reach Finns waiting at Svir River east of Leningrad.^[72]

Malo-Vishersk Offensive Operation (November 10–December 30)

Tikhvin-Kirishsk Offensive Operation (November 12–December 30)

• November 8: Hitler's speech in Munich: "Leningrad must die of starvation."^[73]
• November: In massive German air-bombings destroy all major food stores in Leningrad.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 1942

c1,496,000 Soviet personnel were awarded the medal for the defence of Leningrad from 22nd December 1942.

• January 7 - April 30: Lyuban Offensive Operation, failed Soviet relief attempt resulting encirclement and destruction of the 2nd Shock Army.
• January–December: Nevsky Pyatachok battle attempting to break the siege. 300 thousand men are killed within an area of 1 km at Nevsky Pyatachok.^{[citation needed]}
• April 4 - April 30: Operation Eis Stoß (Ice impact) Luftwaffe unsuccessfully tries to sink Baltic fleet stuck in the ice at Leningrad.^[74]
• August 14 – October 27 : International Naval Detachment K consisting boats from Finland, Germany and Italy, under the Finnish operative command has clashes against Leningrad supply route on southern Ladoga.^[75][19][76]
• June–September: Newer heavy artillery is stationed 10–28 km from the city and bombards Leningrad with 800 kg shells. The Nazis make special maps of Leningrad for artillery bombardments targeting the city infrastructure, businesses, transportation, schools, and hospitals.
• August 19 - October 15: Sinyavin offensive operation Soviet failed relief attempt, but it managed to thwart German preparations for Operation Nordlicht, which was cancelled.^[77]

[edit] 1943

Artillery bombardments of the Nevsky prospekt

• January–December: Increased artillery bombardments of Leningrad. In 1943 the Nazis fired 6 times more shells and bombs than in 1942 on Leningrad. Total number of heavy artillery shells recorded at 147 thousand explosions. Highly explosive Navy torpedos were frequently used for night bombings by the Luftwaffe.^{[citation needed]}
• January–December: Baltic Fleet Navy aviation makes over 100,000 air missions to support the military operations during the siege of Leningrad.^[78].
• January 12 – January 30: Operation Iskra opens a narrow land corridor along the coast of Lake Ladoga to the city
• February: The railroad is temporarily restored, but soon destroyed again by enemy aircraft.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 1944

Women of Leningrad collecting water from a broken street main, struggling to survive

• January 14 - March 1: Leningrad-Novgorod strategic offensive operation, 1st of the Ten Stalin’s punches:

Krasnoye Selo-Ropshin offensive operation (January 14-January 30)

Novgorod-Luga offensive operation (January 14-February 15)

Kingisepp-Gdov offensive operation (February 1–March 1)

Staraya Russa-Novorzhev offensive operation (February 18–March 1)

• January 27: Siege of Leningrad ends, after a joint effort by the Army and the Baltic Fleet, which provided 30% of aviation power for the final blow to the Germans^[79]. The Germans are forced to retreat 60–100 km away from the city.
• June 9 - July 15: Vyborg-Petrozavodsk Strategic Offensive Operation pushes Finns northwestwards about 30–100 km to the other side of Bay of Vyborg and River Vuoksi.

[edit] See also

• Tanya Savicheva
• World War II casualties
• Regia Marina — Lake Ladoga
• List of famines
• Siege of Sarajevo

[edit] References

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• Miller, Donald L. (2006), The story of World War II, Simon $ Schuster, ISBN-10 0-74322718-2
• National Defence College (1994), Jatkosodan historia 1-6, Porvoo, ISBN 951-0-15332-X
• Seppinen, Ilkka (1983), Suomen ulkomaankaupan ehdot 1939-1940 (Conditions of Finnish foreign trade 1939-1940), ISBN 951-9254-48-X
• Симонов, Константин (1979), Записи бесед с Г. К. Жуковым 1965–1966, Hrono, <http://www.hrono.ru/dokum/197_dok/1979zhukov2.html>
• Suvorov, Victor (2005), I take my words back, Poznań, ISBN 83-7301-900-X
• Vehviläinen, Olli & Gerard McAlister (2002), Finland in the Second World War: Between Germany and Russia, Palgrave

[edit] Bibliography

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Siege of Leningrad

• Barber, John & Andrei Dzeniskevich (2005), Life and Death in Besieged Leningrad, 1941–44, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, ISBN 1-4039-0142-2
• Baryshnikov, N.I. (2003), Блокада Ленинграда и Финляндия 1941–44 (Finland and the Siege of Leningrad), Институт Йохана Бекмана
• Glantz, David (2001), The Siege of Leningrad 1941–44: 900 Days of Terror, Zenith Press, Osceola, WI, ISBN 0-7603-0941-8
• Goure, Leon (1981), The Siege of Leningrad, Stanford University Press, Palo Alto, CA, ISBN 0-8047-0115-6
• Kirschenbaum, Lisa (2006), The Legacy of the Siege of Leningrad, 1941–1995: Myth, Memories, and Monuments, Cambridge University Press, New York, ISBN ISBN 0-521-86326-0
• Lubbeck, William & David B. Hurt (2006), At Leningrad's Gates: The Story of a Soldier with Army Group North, Casemate, Philadelphia, PA, ISBN 1-932033-55-6
• Platonov, S.P. ed. (1964), Bitva za Leningrad, Voenizdat Ministerstva oborony SSSR, Moscow
• Salisbury, Harrison Evans (1969), The 900 Days: The Siege of Leningrad, Da Capo Press, ISBN 0-306-81298-3
• Simmons, Cynthia & Nina Perlina (2005), Writing the Siege of Leningrad. Women's diaries, Memories, and Documentary Prose, University of Pittsburgh Press, ISBN-13: 9780822958697
• Willmott, H.P.; Robin Cross & Charles Messenger (2004), The Siege of Leningrad in World War II, Dorling Kindersley, ISBN 978-0-7566-2968-7
• Wykes, Alan (1972), The Siege of Leningrad, Ballantines Illustrated History of WWII

[edit] External links

External images
	the Siege of Leningrad
	Russian map of the operations around Leningrad in 1943 Blue are the German and allied Finnish troops. The Soviets are red.[1]
	map of the advance on Leningrad and relief Blue are the German and allied Finnish troops. The Soviets are red.[2]

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