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<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="9" > World War II</h1>
On September 1, 1939, the world broke out the largest and most widespread world war in human history, that is, the Second World War, which is also known as the World Anti-Fascist War, and the three fascist Axis Powers of Germany, the Kingdom of Italy and the Empire of Japan, together with their servant countries and the anti-fascist forces of the whole world, fought a worldwide war. From the outbreak of the war on September 1, 1939, to the end of September 2, 1945, this unprecedented war affected not only Europe and Asia, but also the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, in addition to a total of sixty countries and regions involved, as well as the world's population of more than two billion people, and the reason for all this was that in 1929, the worldwide economic crisis greatly planned the contradictions within these Axis powers.
second world war
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="46" > axis powers launched a war of aggression</h1>
So they began to wage a series of aggressive wars around the world, and on September 1, 1939, when the German army launched an attack on Poland, Britain and Fa Nian subsequently declared war on Germany, and the Second World War also broke out in full swing. In this six-year-long global war, the most intense scene of the war is probably the Asian battlefield and the battle between the Soviet Union and Germany, and what we are talking about in this issue is that in the history of modern warfare, the main cities have been besieged for the longest time, the most destructive and the most deadly defense war, which is the defense of Leningrad that took place during the Second World War.
Axis Powers
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="47" > the defense of Leningrad</h1>
In this war, in order to capture leningrad, an important city in the Soviet Union, the German army besieged the Soviet army for about nine hundred days, and in this fierce battle, Leningrad was also burned into ruins by the war, during which about a million Soviet soldiers died on the battlefield, as many as more than 600,000 people were starved to death in the streets because they could not eat food, but even Leningrad suffered such a major blow. In the end, the German army still did not capture the city, so why did the German army at that time so stubbornly want to take Leningrad, and how tragic the war was that year, and at that time, how the Soviet soldiers resisted the attack of the German army and finally held the city, our content will tell you about this, in the history of war in the history of mankind, one of the most tragic city defense battles, What happened during the Defense of Leningrad.
Defense of Leningrad
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="48" > the importance of Leningrad</h1>
Leningrad was not originally called by this name, but as Petrograd, it was once the capital of Russia, the original birthplace of the October Revolution, and had a second "capital" name in the Soviet Union, in terms of economy, Leningrad not only played a very important role in the Baltic Sea, but also the largest industrial center in the Soviet Union, and the second largest transportation hub in the Soviet Union , and is also known as the "Window of Europe".
Leningrad
Because of leningrad's important role, it is also very important in a strategic sense, so the German fuehrer Hitler at that time also said with great certainty in his orders that Leningrad in the Soviet Union should be eliminated from this earth, and all its inhabitants should be destroyed, thus destroying the birthplace of the Soviet revolution, and the Soviet army also had a countermeasure against this, that is, it was resolutely not allowed to occupy Leningrad by the German army, if Leningrad was to be captured by the German army. The consequences will be very serious, and the resolute attitude of both sides will become the basis for this fierce battle. On June 22, 1941, the German Fuehrer was able to achieve his plan to capture Leningrad in the Soviet Union on July 21.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="49" > German troops attack leningrad</h1>
So then, on the orders of the German Fuehrer, the Germans used the north-south marching method, they sent thirty-one divisions in the south, a total of more than 700,000 people, formed the Army Group North, and then launched an attack on Leningrad in the Soviet union, and in the north direction there were fifteen divisions from Finland and the German army cooperated with each other, in terms of weapons and equipment, the Northern Army Group had more than seven hundred armored fighting vehicles, more than two hundred armored infantry vehicles, and nearly four thousand cannons. About 3,500 mortars, as well as more than 120,000 motor vehicles, with such advanced equipment, which also made the German Army Group North one of the most powerful army group groups in the early days of World War II, and the commander of this army was one of the most famous tactical command generals in the history of German warfare at that time, and Loeb, who was known as the "Wilhelm Knight" in the German army, was also full of talents. Among them were Reinhardt, a tactical expert who was deeply involved in tank warfare at that time, and Manstein, who had excellent strategic ability of the German army, and the Soviet side responded to the menacing battle of the German army, and then began to establish the General Combat Command in the northwest.
William Knight Loeb
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="51" > Voroshilov</h1>
At that time, Voroshilov, one of the few five marshals of the Soviet Union, served as commander-in-chief, and under the jurisdiction of the Soviet Union's Northern Front, the Northwest Front, the Northern Fleet, and the Baltic Fleet, the number of troops also reached thirty-one divisions, but because the Soviet army suffered more serious losses in the early stages of the war, as many as twenty-two divisions of them had more than fifty percent of the damage in strength and equipment, so the combat effectiveness also decreased more than 50 percent. Therefore, at this time, the German army compared to the Soviet army, can be said to occupy a very obvious advantage, in addition to the overall advantage, the number of infantry of the German army is more than double that of the Soviet army, the artillery support is three times more, and the number of aircraft is more than eight times more.
Voroshilov
In addition, the Soviet side is also different from the German army that has long been prepared for war, the Soviet army was suddenly attacked by the German army, so their preparations before the war were not very far from what was expected, and the defense work was not fully prepared, so the Soviet army at this time was also in a very passive situation, on June 22, 1941, the Northern Army Group of the German army took Hopner's Fourth Panzer Corps as the middle road, and The Eighteenth Army of Kuchler set out from the left road. Boucher's Sixteenth Army proceeded from the right, and their target was only one, that is, Leningrad in the Soviet Union.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="53" > the defense of Leningrad officially began</h1>
At this time, the first stage of the defense of Leningrad was officially launched, and at the beginning of the war, the German army was on a rapid offensive, and Manstein, who was one of the three famous generals of Germany, marched very fast in the Fifty-sixth Panzer Army under his command, and even threw away the left and right troops of his army, and in four days, the previous march was about three hundred and twenty kilometers, and on June 26 of the same year, Manstein successfully deceived the Soviet soldiers stationed on the bridge by using the cars stolen from the Soviet army and then disguised themselves as Soviet soldiers evacuated from the front line, and the German army thus successfully captured the two bridge positions on the West Dvina River, so that the main force of the German army Group North successfully crossed the West Dvina River, which had been garrisoned by soviet soldiers, and marched all the way thereafter, and then occupied the Soviet city of Taugevpils. When the city of Taugavpils, which was the guarantee of Leningrad, was captured by the German army, Leningrad was also without security at this time, exposing the entire city to the German army, and Stalin, who learned of this situation, was also very angry, and he immediately decided to rebuild the command department, but it was too late.
Stalin
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="54" > Manstein</h1>
The German army marched very fast, at this time the German army rushed towards Leningrad like a turbulent tide, and the Soviet army, which had been in an unfavorable situation, also lost the ability to counterattack on the spot, in order to hold on to Leningrad, the Soviet Voroshilov immediately began to mobilize the masses in the city of Leningrad, they used the Luga River outside Leningrad as a natural protective barrier for Leningrad, and built a position defense line with an overall length of about three hundred kilometers here. Intending to use this line of defense to resist the German army to the death, after the desperate counterattack of the Soviet army and civilians, it was also difficult to repel the Manstein army that attacked here, and this battle also made the German Fuehrer plan to take Leningrad before July 21 Completely failed, after seeing the Soviet army so insistent, Germany's Loeb also planned to redeploy and adjust his army, and then Loeb ordered Manstein, Let him pretend to attack on the front of the Luga Line, where the Soviet army was dead, thus attracting the main force of the Soviet army, while the rest of the German army attacked from different places in two ways, thus completely cutting off Leningrad from the outside world, and when the German army began to move according to This adjustment of Loeb, it achieved a surprising effect.
Manstein
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="55" zhukov > took office</h1>
By September 8, the German army had captured Schrushelburg, and after that, the last land passage between Leningrad and the outside world could be completely cut off by the German army, and at this time only the side of Lake Ladoga remained, and it was possible to maintain contact with the outside world on the water and the sky, and Leningrad was gradually transformed into an "isolated" city, which for the Marshal of the Soviet Army, Voroshilov, Leningrad has completely lost hope. So much so that after that he even personally ran to the front line of the war between the two sides, hoping to be killed by the German army in the battle, at this time the German Marshal Loeb and Voroshilov had the same feeling, that is, he also believed that Leningrad at this time had lost foreign aid and was already in his own pocket, facing such a difficult situation, the Soviet army at this time was ready to form a Leningrad Front, and zhukov, a Soviet military scientist known as the "Soviet military god", served as the commander-in-chief of the Leningrad Front. When Zhukov arrived in Leningrad, he immediately began the second deployment of the Soviet army, in order to effectively destroy the enemy's tanks, he transferred all the troops in charge of artillery to the high ground, and secretly planted many traps such as mines and power grids in the direction of some of the main offensive positions of the German army.
Zhukov
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="56" > Leningrad into a sea of fire</h1>
In addition, all the naval guns in the Baltic Fleet were also concentrated together for unified use, and Zhukov improved the overall fortifications after coming to Leningrad, increased the firepower coordination between the group army, the front army and the fleet, and also strengthened the mutual cooperation between the army and the air force, and built a series of complete and rigorous defensive fortifications in the Leningrad area, and the Soviet army, under Zhukov's command, also successfully resisted the fierce offensive from the German army. Thus the german army was greatly reduced in advance, from five kilometers a day to no two kilometers a month today, and on September 19, in response to the German Fuehrer's plan to attack moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union, their marshal Loeb decided to attack Leningrad at all costs, and he ordered the artillery to carry out a continuous shelling of Leningrad for seventeen hours, and also dispatched nearly three hundred fighters to attack Leningrad several times. For a time the whole of Leningrad was also turned into a sea of fire, and even at this time, the whole city could not see a single building that had not been affected, although the German army was determined to take Leningrad, but at this time the Soviet soldiers and civilians in Leningrad also carried out stubborn resistance, under the stubborn resistance of the Soviet military and civilians, the German army's crazy way of playing did not achieve much results.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="57" > the Germans besieged Leningrad</h1>
After this, in order to assist the German Fuehrer's plan to attack the Soviet capital Moscow, many of the elite units of the Northern Army Group in the German army also began to be gradually transferred, and at this time the German army was no longer able to organize a large-scale offensive, and the war situation between the Soviet union and Germany gradually tended to a relatively stable situation, and the German side was right to attack the morale of the Soviet army, so it was announced that the German army would not consider the negotiations that occurred under any circumstances. The question of the survival of the Inhabitants of the Soviet Union was not something that the Germans needed to solve, and in the view of the German Fuehrer, even the entire city should not be left behind, and when the German army received this instruction, it began to impose a very tight blockade on the Soviet army, and during this period it continued to attack it with artillery and aircraft, determined to turn Leningrad into a ruin, and with the German army imposing a large-scale tight seal on Leningrad, the defense of Leningrad was also carried out to the second stage of the whole. Because of the total blockade of the German army, as many as three million inhabitants of Leningrad at this time also began to suffer from cold and hunger, from September to November, because there was no way to send supplies to leningrad, so all the soldiers and civilians in the city could only survive on the previously stored food reserves, but because of the large population in Leningrad.
Residents of Leningrad
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="58" > the inhabitants of the city starved to death</h1>
And the outside world did not have supplies to arrive in time, so the number of black bread obtained by the residents was also reduced five times before and after, and by the time of the fifth reduction, the residents of Leningrad could get only one hundred and fifty grams of black bread every day, and in this bread, there was also a large amount of charred flour, edible fiber, usable chemical powder, and later even mixed with wood sawdust, and in late November, as the temperature dropped, The surface of Lake Ladoga also began to show signs of ice, and at this time the water traffic section of Leningrad was also interrupted, which was even worse for Leningrad, which was already in crisis, when the residents of Leningrad City ate all the food reserves that could be eaten in the city, they began to eat all kinds of animals in the city, and even the rats in the city were eaten without a trace, in such a difficult period of hunger and cold. Thousands of residents of Leningrad are starved to death every day because of food shortages, some workers are still around the machine tool and fall here forever because of hunger, the policemen in charge of traffic are also sacrificed in their posts, and some doctors who are operating on patients also fall in front of the operating table because of hunger.
Lake Ladoga
In addition, there were some weaker or older inhabitants who fell on the way to buy food, and the shortage of food and the cold weather threatened the soldiers and residents of Leningrad all the time, according to later statistics, in the city at that time, more than 4,000 people died of hunger every day, and in the entire defense of Leningrad, as many as 650,000 people starved to death because they could not eat food. Although the environment was a great test for soviet soldiers and civilians, the soldiers and residents defending Leningrad still did not surrender to the German army.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="60" > opens up the "road to life"</h1>
In the case of extreme food shortages, they relied on their faith and the tenacious will of the revolution to drive themselves not to fall, and they swore from the bottom of their hearts that they would continue to fight until there was only one last man left, and in the most difficult period of the winter of 1941, the soldiers and civilians of Leningrad, in order not to sit still, they ventured on the frozen Lake Ladoga, miraculously opening up a "highway" on the ice, and this special road, As the only "life road" in Leningrad at that time that could be connected to the outside world, it also played its role, and the grain and reserve troops from the outside world at that time also continued to enter Leningrad from here, and this "life road" also helped the soldiers and civilians of Leningrad to defeat the challenges from hunger and cold, and let the German army's plan to trap the Leningrad military and civilians by siege also failed.
Opening up the "Road to Life"
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="62" > Soviet troops began to counterattack</h1>
According to later information, through this "road of life" all kinds of materials transported to Leningrad, a total of 360,000 tons, from here into Leningrad the number of troops reached six divisions, and from then on the withdrawal of Leningrad wounded and other more than 540,000 people, this road can be called the real "road of life", by the early morning of January 12, 1943, a large number of neatly arranged Soviet artillery began to aim, located on the opposite side of the Neva River, the German army positions, located on the opposite side of the Neva River. With the command of the commander, more than two thousand artillery pieces from the Soviet side fired together with a loud noise, breaking the silent winter, firing shells with endless anger at the positions of the German army, and then counterattacking the German army.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="64" > 650,000 people starved to death in Leningrad</h1>
After seven days of fierce fighting, under the hard work of all the soldiers and civilians of Leningrad, Leningrad also made initial contact with the outside world again, and on January 27, 1944, the German army was forced to lift the siege of Leningrad under pressure, and at this point, the leningrad soldiers and civilians who were besieged by the German army for eight hundred and seventy-two days finally ushered in the dawn of victory that belonged to them, and as the situation on the front line gradually stabilized, the Leningrad Campaign was officially over. In this extremely fierce battle, because of the German blockade for nearly nine hundred days, more than 650,000 people died of cold and hunger in Leningrad, more than 20,000 died of German shelling and air raids, and the number of casualties reached as many as one million.
Soviet troops began to fight back
The total destructive power produced in it exceeded the sum of the defense of Moscow, the Battle of Stalingrad, and the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, but this war made the Morale of the Soviet army and civilians against German fascism more determined, and the effective strength of the German army was also consumed a lot, thus allowing the Soviet army to create favorable conditions for the subsequent victory, and also created important merits for the worldwide anti-fascist war. Although leningrad has now been renamed St. Petersburg, Leningrad will still be remembered by generations of Russians and will continue to be passed down. That's all there is to it, if you have anything you want to say, feel free to leave a comment in the comment area below!
How bad was the battle for Leningrad? Surrounded by the Germans for 900 days, hundreds of thousands of people starved to death