September 8, Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Leningrad Siege.
According to the Barbarossa plan, the German troops were divided into three groups. “South”, “North” and “Center”. Army Group “North” was supposed to capture the cradle of two revolutions, Leningrad! The city of Lenin. Hitler planned to capture the city on the Neva, thereby destroying the entire Baltic Fleet. According to his plans, after the victory of Nazism, nothing was supposed to remain of the city. On the night of June 22, 1941, German ships completely mined the Baltic Sea near Leningrad, and already at 4:00 German bombs began to fall on the city while people were still sleeping in their houses. Still, anti-aircraft gunners were able to repel the attack of enemy bombers. After the fall of Tallinn, several tens of thousands of soldiers and hundreds of tanks and guns were transferred from it to Leningrad. They had to sail along the mined Gulf of Finland for three whole days. The ships were constantly bombed by the enemy. Of the 42,000 people, 26,000 civilians, military personnel and ship crews were delivered alive. Later, they would be very useful in the defense of Leningrad.
On July 12, the enemy was stopped at the Luga line, which was built in the first month of the war. Also, heavy KV tanks, which were produced here, in Leningrad at the Kirov plant, went into battle.
On August 12, a counterattack was launched by the Red Army near Staraya Russa. This powerful blow, although it ended in failure, was still able to delay the fascists who were rushing to the northern capital. On August 19, 1941, four KV-1 tanks under the command of Zinovy Kolobanov destroyed 43 enemy tanks, losing only one KV. Kolobanov’s crew destroyed 22 tanks near Gatchina. On August 30, the Germans quickly cut off the only railway and highway that connected Leningrad with the country. By this time, Finnish troops were already approaching from the north and the ring was increasingly narrowing over the city. Problems with electricity began.
On September 8, the fascist troops reached Lake Ladoga, captured Shlisselburg and the ring was closed.
Thus began the Siege of Leningrad!
At this time, there were about 2,500,000 people in Leningrad, including 400,000 children, and there were only 30 days of food and fuel supplies left. The residents were doomed to starvation. Already in September, the Soviet command made attempts to break the blockade, but these attempts were unsuccessful.
The commander of Army Group North, Von Leib, ferried most of the tanks to the northern capital. Stalin, in turn, could not allow the city to be surrendered and sent Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov there. His arrival inspired the fighters and there was hope that the city would be saved! The city command counted on the artillery of the ships and the guns that were removed from them. There were 400 heavy-caliber guns in total. Also, during the defense of Leningrad, all the guns along with the crew were removed from the legendary cruiser Aurora and they took direct part in the battles for the city.
The naval artillery stopped the enemy seven kilometers from the city. The artillery of the battleship “Marat” fired more than 1,000 shells of 305 mm caliber. In the Oranienbaum area, the artillerymen of the Krasnaya Gorka fort did not spare shells and during the entire blockade never let the enemy reach their fort. The blast wave of these guns simply turned over German tanks. The advancing units of General Küchler were unable to take Leningrad right away.On September 11, 1941, German bombers carried out a massive raid on the battleship Marat and caused serious damage, but the ship managed to escape to Kronstadt under its own power.
On September 23, during an air raid on ships of the Baltic Fleet, a bomb dropped on the battleship Marat pierced the deck at the bow of the ship and exploded in the ammunition magazine. The ship’s gun turret was torn off and, flying into the air, fell into the resulting breach. The bow superstructure fell in there after, along with all the combat posts and the people located there. The ship’s commander, Captain 2nd Rank Pavel Konstantinovich Ivanov, was killed. A total of 324 sailors and officers died. In addition to him, the defenders lost two more warships.
As soon as the radio transmissions fell silent, a metronome was started on the radio. A fast rhythm meant an air raid alarm, a slow one, an all-clear. For Leningraders during the years of the blockade, this became the norm and the rhythmic sound of the metronome became one of the symbols of besieged Leningrad.
The effectiveness of air raids was low. The density of anti-aircraft fire exceeded the Berlin and London air defense several times. Long-range heavy guns were more dangerous. Posters appeared on the walls of houses:
“Citizens, during shelling, this side of the street is the most dangerous!”
On September 8, during the shelling, the Badayev warehouses, which contained sugar and flour, burned down. This was a strong blow for the residents, but there was enough food there for a week. Due to the violent nature of Lake Ladoga, it was difficult for ships to deliver food, and aviation delivered only 20 percent of what was needed. By mid-autumn, the bread ration had fallen by half. Workers, soldiers and sailors now received 400 grams of bread, and children, the elderly and invalids 200 grams. By the end of November, the norm had fallen to a minimum. Workers and soldiers received 200 grams, and dependents 125. As soon as Lake Ladoga was covered with ice 180 millimeters thick, the first horse convoys with sacks of bread set off. Two days later, trucks set off. For safety, they contained two or three bags, but several one-and-a-half ton trucks went under water anyway; food stations, gas stations, and medical stations were deployed. This route was nicknamed the “Road of Life”!
The German air force and artillery reached their target and bombed the Road of Life. In one week of deliveries, 52 vehicles were lost on the ice. But there was not enough food and people were dying on the streets of the city. Dead people on stairwells, embankments, and at entrances became a common occurrence, and half-living people did not have the strength to remove the corpses. There was not enough food. It was becoming increasingly difficult to find fuel for the stoves. People were freezing to death in their apartments. In December 1941, the NKVD discovered the first cases of cannibalism. People were going crazy from hunger. The Chekists shot cannibals on the spot. Drivers on the Road of Life made two trips a day. They brought food and ammunition to the city. From there, the wounded and children were taken to the mainland. The girl Tanya Savicheva, whose diary recorded the death of all her relatives, was also taken along the Road of Life. Tanya died during the evacuation. Her medical record stated: “Scurvy, dystrophy, nervous exhaustion, blindness.” Despite the fact that many cars went under water, the minimum amount of food necessary for the entire population of Leningrad was exceeded. On September 20, a group of Soviet soldiers crossed to the other bank of the Neva and, having driven the Germans out of the trenches, created a salient here called the “Nevsky Pyatachok.” It became one of the most famous in the Battle of Leningrad. To eliminate this salient, the German command sent an Airborne unit transferred from the island of Crete to the eastern front. The Red Army soldiers could not be thrown off, but the size of the patch decreased. While the fascists stood near Moscow, the bloodiest battles took place on the Nevsky patch. In November, Soviet tanks were transferred from Leningrad and the Germans were thrown out of their positions.
The first January of the blockade was the most terrible for the city. The entire non-working population did not receive food at all. Even the soldiers did not have enough to eat. In the city, from 4,000 to 7,000 corpses were removed from the streets per day. The heating and water supply did not work. People went to the Neva for water, which was always under fire, but people did not even have the strength to collect water.
Despite all the difficulties, factories continued to operate, the research institute housed a selection fund with several tons of cereals and potatoes, but 28 workers died of hunger and the unique collection remained intact. The Leningrad Zoo continued to operate. People could go hungry, but they could not allow animals to die. Even a hippopotamus survived the blockade, for which one employee carried several dozen buckets of water from the Neva in winter. People wanted to live, and they believed that victory would come!
In February, there was a turning point in supplies. Soldiers began to receive 500 grams of bread, and dependents 300. Now the bread was natural and without additives.
On February 16, for the first time during the entire blockade, residents were given meat!
In mid-February 1942, another attempt was made to break through the blockade. Now much further south, Soviet troops were to strike at the flank of Army Group North, starting from the Volkhov River. But the advance was slow. A few days later, the 2nd Shock Army struck at German troops in the Lyuban area, but in the first hours, the command’s miscalculations were revealed. A few days later, they advanced 30 kilometers. The same amount of time remained until the connection with Leningrad. But the advancing soldiers were already running out of food and had to defend themselves in the swamps.
The situation of the advancing troops was dire. The Germans put up fierce resistance. In March, the Germans almost completely surrounded the 2nd Shock Army. There was a narrow passage left. Some units began to retreat through it.
In April, when the ice began to drift on the Neva, the Soviet command could not help those who defended the Nevsky patch and soon all its defenders died and the bridgehead was liquidated. In June 1942, the encircled 2nd Shock Army was liquidated and its commander Andrei Vlasov was captured. Later, he would betray the Soviet Union and fight the Red Army.
In the meantime, it was not possible to break the blockade of Leningrad.
On April 20, the lifeline stopped working due to thin ice. The first steamships were able to pass along the lake only on May 22. To destroy the Soviet flotilla, Italian torpedo boats were transferred to Lake Ladoga, but Soviet bombers destroyed their bases.
In November 1942, the Supreme Command Headquarters of the USSR developed Operation Iskra to break through the blockade.
On January 20, after artillery preparation, the offensive of the Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts began. During the first two days, Soviet troops were able to advance towards each other with heavy fighting and there were two of the most difficult kilometers between them. The tanks got stuck in the snow, and all hope was only for the infantry.
Soon the German troops were surrounded, the two fronts united, and the defense of Leningrad was broken through!
Now food and fuel were continuously flowing into the city. But it was too early to talk about a complete lift. The fresh fascist units that had arrived did not allow the front to be pushed back further from the northern capital. The Germans fortified themselves at Sinyavino and organized a large defense.
Now it was necessary to completely push the German troops away from Leningrad. Oranienbaum, which they had not been able to capture since 1941, was chosen to begin the operation. On January 14, 1944, a powerful cannonade of Soviet guns began, after which a blow to the rear of the Germans followed from both sides, and their defense crumbled. The enemy’s retreat turned into a flight, and on January 27, the Siege of Leningrad was completely lifted!
The siege lasted 852 days! For two years, the city’s residents resisted the enemy under the threat of starvation, and they held out! During the war, about 850,000 residents died in the city. By the end of the war, 560,000 residents remained in Leningrad, when at the beginning of the war there were 2,500,000 people. The atrocities of the Nazis and fascists will never be forgotten!
Translated by Google. Text - @rkka1918
Road of Life
Nevsky Pyatachok
