Siege of Leningrad


The siege of Leningrad was a military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad in the Soviet Union on the Eastern Front of World War II from 1941 to 1944. Leningrad, the country's second largest city, was besieged by Germany and Finland for 872 days, but never captured. The siege was the most destructive in history and possibly the most deadly, causing an estimated 1.5 million deaths, from a prewar population of 3.2 million. It was not classified as a war crime at the time, but since then, some historians have classified it as a genocide due to the intentional destruction of the city and the systematic starvation of its civilian population.
In August 1941, Germany's Army Group North reached the suburbs of Leningrad as Finnish forces moved to encircle the city from the north. Land routes from Leningrad to the rest of the Soviet Union were cut on 8 September 1941, beginning the siege. The Germans decided to bomb the city and starve its inhabitants rather than attempt to capture it; many residents starved during the winter of 1941–1942. Supplies were delivered to city by air, by ship over Lake Ladoga, or over the Road of Life, a highway built on the lake when it was frozen. A Red Army offensive opened a narrow land corridor to Leningrad on 18 January 1943, but the siege was not fully broken until 27 January 1944.

Background

The capture of Leningrad was one of three strategic goals of the German Operation Barbarossa and as a result, Leningrad was the main target of Army Group North. The strategy was motivated by Leningrad's political status as the former capital of Russia, its symbolic status as the birthplace of the Russian Revolution and the ideological center of Bolshevism, its military importance as a main base of the Soviet Baltic Fleet, and its industrial strength, including its numerous arms factories. In 1939, the city was responsible for 11% of all Soviet industrial output.
It has been said that Adolf Hitler was so confident that he would capture Leningrad that he stated that the victory celebrations would be held in the city's Hotel Astoria and he also had invitations printed.
Although various theories about Germany's plans for Leningrad have been put forward, including the theory that Germany planned to make it the capital of the new Ingermanland province of the Reich in Generalplan Ost, it is clear that Hitler intended to utterly destroy the city along with its population. According to a directive which was sent to Army Group North on 29 September 1941:
Hitler's ultimate plan was to raze Leningrad and give areas north of the Neva to the Finns.

Preparations

German plans

Army Group North under Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb advanced to Leningrad, its primary objective. By early August, Army Group North was seriously over-extended, having advanced on a widening front and dispersed its forces on several axes of advance. Leeb estimated he needed 35 divisions for all of his tasks, while he only had 26. The attack resumed on 10 August but immediately encountered strong opposition around Luga. Elsewhere, Leeb's forces were able to take Kingisepp and Narva on 17 August. The army group reached Chudovo on 20 August, severing the rail link between Leningrad and Moscow. Tallinn was captured on 28 August.
Finnish military forces were north of Leningrad, while German forces occupied territories to the south. Both German and Finnish forces had the goal of encircling Leningrad and maintaining the siege perimeter, thus cutting off all communication with the city and preventing the defenders from receiving any suppliesalthough Finnish participation in the siege mainly consisted of a recapture of lands lost in the Winter War. The Germans planned on lack of food being their chief weapon against the citizens; German scientists had calculated the city would reach starvation after only a few weeks.

Leningrad fortified region

On Friday, 27 June 1941, the Council of Deputies of the Leningrad Soviet organised "First response groups" of civilians. In the next days, Leningrad's civilian population was informed of the danger and over a million citizens were mobilised for the construction of fortifications. Several lines of defences were built along the city's perimeter to repel hostile forces approaching from north and south by means of civilian resistance.
In the south, the fortified line ran from the mouth of the Luga River to Chudovo, Gatchina, Uritsk, Pulkovo and then through the Neva River. Another line of defence passed through Peterhof to Gatchina, Pulkovo, Kolpino and Koltushy. In the north the defensive line against the Finns, the Karelian Fortified Region, had been maintained in Leningrad's northern suburbs since the 1930s, and was now returned to service. A total of of timber barricades, of wire entanglements, of anti-tank ditches, 5,000 earth-and-timber emplacements and reinforced concrete weapon emplacements and of open trenches were constructed or excavated by civilians. Even the guns from the cruiser were removed from the ship to be used to defend Leningrad.

Establishment

The 4th Panzer Group from East Prussia took Pskov after a swift advance and reached Novgorod by 16 August. After the capture of Novgorod, General Hoepner's 4th Panzer Group continued its progress toward Leningrad. But the 18th Armydespite some 350,000 men lagging behindforced its way to Ostrov and Pskov after the Soviet troops of the Northwestern Front retreated toward Leningrad. On 10 July, both Ostrov and Pskov were captured and the 18th Army reached Narva and Kingisepp, from where advance toward Leningrad continued from the Luga River line. This created siege positions from the Gulf of Finland to Lake Ladoga, with the eventual aim of isolating Leningrad from all directions. The Finnish Army was then expected to advance along Lake Ladoga's eastern shore.
The last rail connection to Leningrad was cut on 30 August, when the German forces reached the River Neva. In early September, Leeb was confident Leningrad was about to fall. Having received reports on the evacuation of civilians and industrial goods, Leeb and the OKH believed the Red Army was preparing to abandon the city. Consequently, on 5 September, he received new orders, including the destruction of the Red Army forces around the city. By 15 September, Panzer Group 4 was to be transferred to Army Group Centre so it could participate in a renewed offensive toward Moscow. The expected surrender did not materialise, although the renewed German offensive cut off the city by 8 September. Lacking sufficient strength for major operations, Leeb had to accept that the army group might not be able to take the city, although hard fighting continued along his front throughout October and November.

Orders of battle

Germany

  • Army Group North
  • *18th Army
  • **XXXXII Corps
  • **XXVI Corps
  • *16th Army
  • **XXVIII Corps
  • **I Corps
  • **X Corps
  • **II Corps
  • **
  • *4th Panzer Group
  • **XXXVIII Corps
  • **XXXXI Motorized Corps
  • **LVI Motorized Corps

    Finland

  • Finnish Defence Forces HQ
  • *I Corps
  • *II Corps
  • *IV Corps

    Italy

  • XII Squadriglia MAS Regia Marina

    Spain

  • Blue Division, officially designated as 250. Infanterie-Division by the German Army and as the División Española de Voluntarios by the Spanish Army; General Esteban Infantes took command of this unit of Spanish volunteers at the Eastern Front during World War II.

    Soviet Union

  • Northern Front
  • *7th Army
  • *8th Army
  • **10th Rifle Corps
  • **11th Rifle Corps
  • **Separate units
  • *14th Army
  • **42nd Rifle Corps
  • **Separate units
  • *23rd Army
  • **19th Rifle Corps
  • **Separate units
  • *Luga Operation Group
  • **41st Rifle Corps
  • **Separate units
  • *Kingisepp Operation Group
  • **Separate units
  • *Separate units
The 14th Army of the Soviet Red Army defended Murmansk and the 7th Army defended Ladoga Karelia; thus they did not participate in the initial stages of the siege. The 8th Army was initially part of the Northwestern Front and retreated through the Baltics. It was transferred to the Northern Front on 14 July when the Soviets evacuated Tallinn.
On 23 August, the Northern Front was divided into the Leningrad Front and the Karelian Front, as it became impossible for front headquarters to control everything between Murmansk and Leningrad.
Marshal Georgy Zhukov said, "Ten volunteer opolcheniye divisions were formed in Leningrad in the first three months of the war, as well as 16 separate artillery and machine-gun opolcheniye battalions."

Severing the lines of communication

On 6 August, Hitler repeated his order: "Leningrad first, Donetsk Basin second, Moscow third." Arctic convoys using the Northern Sea Route delivered American Lend-Lease and British food and war materiel supplies to the Murmansk railhead, as well as several other locations in Lapland.

Encirclement of Leningrad

Finnish intelligence broke some Soviet military codes and read their low-level communications. This was particularly helpful for Hitler, who constantly requested intelligence information about Leningrad. 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 strength by attacking to the west, or on both sides, of Lake Ladoga." The last rail connection to Leningrad was severed on 30 August 1941, when the Germans reached the Neva River. On 8 September, the road to the besieged city was severed when the Germans reached Lake Ladoga at Shlisselburg, leaving just a corridor of land between Lake Ladoga and Leningrad which remained unoccupied by Axis forces. Bombing on 8 September caused 178 fires.
On 21 September 1941, German High Command considered how to destroy Leningrad. Occupying the city was ruled out "because it would make us responsible for food supply". The resolution was to lay the city under siege and bombardment, starving its population. "Early next year, we enter the city, lead those still alive into inner Russia or into captivity, wipe Leningrad from the face of the earth through demolitions, and hand the area north of the Neva to the Finns." On 7 October, Hitler sent a further directive signed by Alfred Jodl reminding Army Group North not to accept capitulation.