There have been many fierce sieges in history, such as the Suiyang Siege of the Tang Dynasty in China, and the defenders were only a few thousand. At its peak, the rebels reached more than 200,000 troops, and there were no reinforcements outside and no grain and grass inside, but even under such circumstances, they held out for ten months. In the end, the horses and rats were eaten, and there was a tragic scene of cannibalism in the whole city, and more than 30,000 people were eaten. However, if we want to talk about the most tragic siege, it is the Battle of Leningrad during World War II, which besieged the city for 900 days.
The rats in the city were eaten, and 50 people were starved to death, which was simply unbearable. Leningrad, formerly known as Petrograd, is now known as St. Petersburg, and it was the capital of the Russian Empire for more than two hundred years. It was also the birthplace of the October Revolution, renamed Leningrad on the eve of World War II in 1924, and was known as the second capital of the Soviet Union. It was the largest industrial center and second largest transportation hub in the SOVIET Union, and an important base for the Soviet Union's Red Banner Baltic Fleet.
By occupying Leningrad, control of the entire Baltic Sea could be gained, and the Baltic Sea became Germany's inland sea. At the same time, The iron ore sands of Sweden could pass through Germany unimpeded, and as the cradle of the Bolsheviks, occupying it could also break the will and morale of the Soviet army to resist. Both strategically and in terms of significance, it was a place of contention, so Hitler's strategy toward the Soviet Union made Leningrad the main goal from the very beginning.
On December 18, 1940, Hitler issued Directive No. 21, the Barbarossa Plan. The plan organized the German forces attacking the Soviet Union into three armies, the North, the South, and the Center, and the Mission of the Northern Army Group was to eliminate the Soviet forces of the three Baltic states from East Prussia. He then, in coordination with the Finnish army, captured Leningrad before 21 July 1941, and arrogantly claimed that he would go to Leningrad Hermitage Square to review the army.
In late June 1941, Hitler mobilized 32 infantry divisions, 4 tank divisions, 4 motorized divisions, and 1 cavalry brigade. Equipped with 6,000 cannons, 4,500 mortars, and more than 1,000 aircraft, it launched a fierce offensive against Leningrad, threatening to occupy Leningrad on September 1. The commander of the German side was Marshal Loeb, and the Soviets were tasked with defending the northwest and north fronts, with a total of 5 army groups, 37 infantry divisions, 9 cavalry divisions, and 10 armored brigades.
The commander was Marshal Voroshilov, in addition to which three armies were under the command of General Kutsnetsov and deployed in Leningrad, a barrier in Lithuania and Latvia. On the German side, two other armies, under the command of Mirzkov, were deployed on the east and west sides of Lake Ladoga on the back of Leningrad. After the war broke out, the situation was not favorable to the Soviet army, Andugufpils lost it in just a few days, and the Passive Soviet Army had no power to fight back.
After the fall of Riga and Pskov, Leningrad was caught in the north-south attack of Defen, and Stalin was so angry that he called Marshal Voroshilov. Question: Where are you going to retreat? Retreat to the Arctic Ocean? Voroshilov's answer was: I know my duty, and I will spare no effort to fulfill the instructions. Immediately afterwards, he mobilized millions of residents to build three lines of defense around Leningrad overnight, the outermost line of the Lujia River, considering that the German army was stronger than the Finnish army.
Deliberately transferring back six divisions and one brigade from the north, the desperate resistance of the Soviet army in the Luga Line played a role, and the Germans did not capture it for a while. On 21 July Hitler went to Pskov, summoned Loeb in the car, scolded him, and demanded that he must take Leningrad within a few days. The old Loeb adjusted his forces and continued to shell Leningrad, in fact, at that time even Voroshilov felt hopeless.
He even ran to the front, hoping to be killed by the Germans, for a hundred better. However, things did not go as the two marshals had hoped, and on September 8 the Germans began a massive siege of the city, cutting off Leningrad's external supply lines. Stalin saw this and urgently sent Zhukov to take Voroshilov's place, and Zhukov made it clear at the meeting that he must fight to the last man. The Front was then reorganized, and Loeb made a final attempt, with the result that Leningrad held out.
The soldiers and civilians of Leningrad not only had to face german artillery bombardment and occasional attacks, but also had to endure hunger and cold. On the hardest days of the winter of 1941, they miraculously opened an ice road on the surface of the ice lake in Ladoga, which was their only way of life in contact with the outside world. It is called the Road of Life because the mortality rate here is very high, and being blocked by snow and cracking the ice due to German shelling can lead to death.
But neither the Germans nor the Soviets could have imagined that Leningrad would survive the cold and hunger. A dozen months after the siege, the Soviet High Command issued a combat order to break through the Leningrad blockade, which was dated January 12, 1943. The Soviets concentrated two thousand artillery and mortars on a two-hour heavy artillery attack on the German camp, followed by an immediate attack, after seven days of fierce fighting.
The Soviets eventually broke through the German positions 14 kilometers deep, and the Leningrad Front and Walkhov met victoriously at workers' villages 1 and 5, thus breaking through the 17-month German siege of Leningrad. The nine-hundred-day siege battle, although it was finally won, was a huge price.
From January to February 1942, about 7,000 to 10,000 inhabitants died every day, more than 1.3 million casualties, and more than 1 million citizens died. When all the birds, rats, and pets have been eaten, cannibalism occurs, and a division is formed to prevent cannibalism. Therefore, it is included in the bloodiest battle of World War II and even the world, and it is also the siege war with the largest number of deaths in World War II and even in the world.