HOME | DD

Description

In November of 1942 Commanders G.K. Zhukov and K.Ye. Voroshilov began to plan a large scale undertaking to repulse the German invader from the Leningrad area, dubbed Operation Iskra or Spark, it was decided that the brunt of the Red Army's might would once more be directed at the thinnest point in the German encirclement, the Shlisselburg- Siniavino corridor. Earlier in the war the bottle neck had been the sight of tremendous bloodshed and brutal attritional warfare, again and again Red Army units threw themselves into the breach in an attempt to lift the siege but it was only during Operation Iskra that true progress could be recorded.

The artillery barrage began at dawn, on the twelve of January 1943 and as the last shell whistled overhead the assault began, troops from the Volkhov front attacked from without as units of the Leningrad front attacked from within. However as the lead units marched forward they where met with heavy fire and everywhere they ran into stiff resistance from well-entrenched German troops.

In the forests and swamps most Soviet tanks could only crawl forward as their tracks became fowled in what was effectively a heavily cratered peat bog making them easy pickings for German AT gunners.

But the simultaneous thrust from both sides began to bear fruit, after two days of furious fighting only two kilometres separated the two fronts, but these last few final meters proved the hardest. More and more tanks became bogged down and thus it would be up to the infantry and artillery to win this fight. General I.I. Fedyuninsky now deputy front command visited the front often to urge his men on, he order attacks around the clock, he demanded that there be no moment of peace for the enemy defenders.

Under unrelenting assault from both sides the German defences began to buckle under the immense weight of the Soviet attack, eventually collapsing altogether. As the trap closed, units inside the pocket desperately tried to make a dash back to safe lines but few made it.

The Red Army sustaining massive causalities all the way finally closed the pocket and on the midnight of the eighteenth of January 1943 the voice of Soviet war time radio Yuri Levitan was able to announce that after seven days of fighting the troops of the Volkhov and Leningrad front had met and raised the siege of Leningrad.

Although the encirclement was now breached it would only be in 1944 that the front lines were finally chased away from the city and roar of guns faded into the distance, at long last silence now fell over the besieged city of Leningrad,

According to official reports 642 000 civilians died during the siege, but many death never made into an official report , the real total was likely close to a one million mark, ninety-seven percent of those whom died had succumbed from starvation, only three percent from shells and bombs.

The siege of Leningrad would become the longest siege of a major city in World War Two and tragically set a new grim record as the costliest siege in human history.

Description

In November of 1942 Commanders G.K. Zhukov and K.Ye. Voroshilov began to plan a large scale undertaking to repulse the German invader from the Leningrad area, dubbed Operation Iskra or Spark, it was decided that the brunt of the Red Army's might would once more be directed at the thinnest point in the German encirclement, the Shlisselburg- Siniavino corridor. Earlier in the war the bottle neck had been the sight of tremendous bloodshed and brutal attritional warfare, again and again Red Army units threw themselves into the breach in an attempt to lift the siege but it was only during Operation Iskra that true progress could be recorded.

The artillery barrage began at dawn, on the twelve of January 1943 and as the last shell whistled overhead the assault began, troops from the Volkhov front attacked from without as units of the Leningrad front attacked from within. However as the lead units marched forward they where met with heavy fire and everywhere they ran into stiff resistance from well-entrenched German troops.

In the forests and swamps most Soviet tanks could only crawl forward as their tracks became fowled in what was effectively a heavily cratered peat bog making them easy pickings for German AT gunners.

But the simultaneous thrust from both sides began to bear fruit, after two days of furious fighting only two kilometres separated the two fronts, but these last few final meters proved the hardest. More and more tanks became bogged down and thus it would be up to the infantry and artillery to win this fight. General I.I. Fedyuninsky now deputy front command visited the front often to urge his men on, he order attacks around the clock, he demanded that there be no moment of peace for the enemy defenders.

Under unrelenting assault from both sides the German defences began to buckle under the immense weight of the Soviet attack, eventually collapsing altogether. As the trap closed, units inside the pocket desperately tried to make a dash back to safe lines but few made it.

The Red Army sustaining massive causalities all the way finally closed the pocket and on the midnight of the eighteenth of January 1943 the voice of Soviet war time radio Yuri Levitan was able to announce that after seven days of fighting the troops of the Volkhov and Leningrad front had met and raised the siege of Leningrad.

Although the encirclement was now breached it would only be in 1944 that the front lines were finally chased away from the city and roar of guns faded into the distance, at long last silence now fell over the besieged city of Leningrad,

According to official reports 642 000 civilians died during the siege, but many death never made into an official report , the real total was likely close to a one million mark, ninety-seven percent of those whom died had succumbed from starvation, only three percent from shells and bombs.

The siege of Leningrad would become the longest siege of a major city in World War Two and tragically set a new grim record as the costliest siege in human history.