Siege of Leningrad broken

© katardat Soldiers of the Red Army starting the offensive at the Leningrad Front, 1943

Sixteen months ago the German Army Group North surrounded Leningrad (today St. Petersburg). Hitler had ordered both a halt to the costly attempt to capture the city of millions and an alternate concentration on a “war of attrition.” Sooner or later Leningrad would fall „like a limp leaf“. However, Hitler underestimated its residents’ ability to resist and the nearly inhuman fanaticism to hold out exhibited by the local commandant. The city was totally cut off from the outside world for four months, and the supply situation was catastrophic. In spite of all the bombs, grenades, hunger and cold, the citizens of Leningrad held out. On 18 January 1943 the Red Army finally succeeds in breaking through the siege lines and establishing an overland access route to the city. However, the German stranglehold on Leningrad cannot be loosened until over a year later – after a 900-day siege. By that time, the number of civilian casualties will have climbed to over 600,000.