Leningrad 1941 – 44 The Epic Siege – Robert Forczyk

Keller also provided many close support sorties against the 2nd Shock Army and interdiction sorties against its railhead at Malaya Vishera, but low-level missions resulted in significant bomber losses to flak. Between February and April 1942, Luftflotte I lost 41 bombers, 21 Stukas and 19 fighters, while claiming 581 Soviet aircraft destroyed. Once the 2nd Shock Army was encircled, Luftflotte I played a major role in its destruction. When the Soviets tried to conduct aerial resupply missions at night to Vlasov’s trapped forces, Keller pressed JG 54 into service as night fighters and they succeeded in shooting down over 30 transports over the pocket, which crippled Soviet resupply efforts.

Meanwhile, bombers from KG 3 and KG 53 mercilessly plastered Vlasov’s troops from the air, inflicting great losses. When the spring thaw came, Keller was ordered to make another attempt to smash the KBF. Luftflotte I was reinforced with two Stuka groups armed with 1,000kg armour-piercing bombs. However, a dense ring of anti-aircraft guns now protected the KBF. The first attack, Operation Eisstoß (ice assault), was conducted on 4 April 1942 by 62 Stukas, 70 bombers and 59 Bf-109s, but heavy AA fire severely disrupted German bombing accuracy.

The raid achieved seven hits on the heavy cruiser Maxim Gorky, four hits on the battleship October Revolution and minor damage to eleven other warships, but no ships were sunk. On 20 April, Luftflotte I resumed its attack on the KBF with Operation Götz von Berlichingen, but again the dense AA defences limited damage to several destroyers and support ships. Recognizing its inability to sink the KBF, Luftflotte I stepped up its mining operations in the Gulf of Finland but made no further efforts against the KBF for the rest of the siege.

For the first and only time during the siege, Luftflotte I made a major effort to disrupt Soviet logistics over Lake Ladoga in late May 1942. On 28 May, 80 aircraft bombed the ports of Kobona and Lednyovo on the eastern side of the lake, inflicting minor damage. The next day, another major raid struck Osinevets on the western side.

Soviet fighter interception, cued A convoy of Soviet trucks crossing the ice road over Lake Ladoga in February or March 1942. The air cover overhead was unusual in the winter of 1941/42 and the Soviets built numerous anti-aircraft batteries on the ice to protect the road from attack.

Leningrad civilians digging an anti-tank ditch in the autumn of 1941. The mass mobilization of civilian labour was vital to Leningrad’s defence. (RIA Novosti) The city of St Petersburg has loomed large in the Russian national consciousness since founded by Peter I in 1703. Under the tsars, St Petersburg became the capital of the Russian Empire for the next two centuries and it was expanded into a great cultural centre as well as a commercial hub for trade in the Baltic, which helped spur Russia’s economy.

Furthermore, the nearby naval base at Kronstadt was made the headquarters of the Russian Baltic Fleet. In March 1917, the Russian Revolution began in the capital and the city was considered the heart of the Bolshevik movement. After the Russian Civil War was over, the city was renamed Leningrad in 1924 and it became a vital component of the new Soviet Union.

By 1940, Leningrad had a population of 2.54 million, making it the fourth largest city in Europe and the second largest in the Soviet Union, after Moscow. Leningrad’s factories produced about ten per cent of the Soviet Union’s entire industrial output, including much of its high-quality steel and the new KV-1 heavy tank. As war in Europe approached, Stalin resolved to safeguard Leningrad by pushing the Soviet Union’s vulnerable border areas back as far as possible from the city.

After Finland refused to sell part of the Karelian Isthmus adjoining the Leningrad Military District (LMD), Stalin ordered the Red ORIGINS OF THE CAMPAIGN City of Peter, stand in all your splendor, Stand invincible like Russia … Aleksandr Pushkin, The Bronze Horseman, 1833 OPPOSITE Soldiers from the 115th Rifle Division hold a dugout in the Nevskaya Dubrovka bridgehead in November 1941.

Holding this tiny bridgehead across the Neva cost the Leningrad Front an estimated 30,000 casualties over six months in 1941/42. (RIA Novosti) Army to seize the land by force in November 1939. The Soviet invasion began disastrously for the poorly prepared Red Army units but by March 1940 the war-weary Finns conceded most of the Karelian Isthmus. Under the terms of the armistice, the Finnish border was pushed back over 100km from Leningrad. Next, Stalin moved against the pro-German Baltic republics. In June 1940, Soviet troops marched into Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia and all three republics were annexed into the Soviet Union as the Baltic Special Military District.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: 48e9a1a143e3e933
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 11,557,072 bytes (11.022 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• Pages: 99
• Language: English (en)

Reading & Word Statistics

• Estimated Reading Time: 190.47 minutes
• Total Words: 38,093
• Total Characters: 236,160
• Average Words per Page: 384.78
• Average Characters per Page: 2385.45

Most Frequent Words

soviet (355), german (329), leningrad (328), army (231), rifle (189), division (162), front (147), artillery (127), january (114), siege (101), offensive (101), two (93), attack (93), september (92), divisions (90), infanterie-division (88), troops (86), volkhov (84), city (83), siniavino (82), shock (82), forces (81), guns (81), aok (80), meretskov (77), attacks (72), units (69), line (68), heeresgruppe (66), infantry (64), germans (64), three (63), defence (62), around (62), tank (61), near (61), began (60), tanks (60), august (59), against (58), bridgehead (56), advance (56), however (55), neva (54), corps (54), heavy (53), air (53), four (53), one (52), nord (50), river (50), defences (50), heights (50), also (49), south (49), lines (48), succeeded (48), rifle (47), brigade (46), days (45), oranienbaum (45), ladoga (45), guards (45), xxx (45), lake (44), war (43), iii (43), although (42), hrs (42), across (41), küchler (41), regiment (41), soviets (40), new (39), casualties (39), govorov (39), held (39), naval (38), armies (38), command (38), stavka (38), ordered (37), made (36), mot (36), operation (35), luftwaffe (35), zhukov (35), main (34), lindemann (33), sector (33), leningrad’s (32), major (32), first (32), positions (32), another (32), battalions (32), left (32), since (31), november (31), six (31).

PDF Download