Siege of Leningrad, also known as the Leningrad Blockade

Focke-Wulf Fw 190A-5 fighters of Luftwaffe fighter wing JG54 Grünherz

Finnish-German Naval Detachment K during the Siege of Leningrad 1942

s.Pz.Abt.502 during the Siege of Leningrad 1943

Amid hunger and cold – Leningrad Blockade 1941 – 1944

The siege of Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) started on Sept. 8 1941, when German Heeresgruppe Nord severed the last road to the city. Finnish military forces were located north of city, at the 1939 Finnish-Soviet border, while the Wehrmacht including several European Waffen-SS formations occupied territories to the south. The blockade became one of the longest and most destructive sieges in history. Soviet deportations of Finns and Germans from the Leningrad area to inhospitable areas of the Soviet Union began in March 1942 using the city's only supply line, the Road of Life. The fighting continued around Leningrad for two-and-a-half years. In the north, the Finns stood guard along their southern border. To operate against Soviet forces around the Lake Ladoga and to close the supply line to the besieged city, the Finns formed their Ladoga Flotilla with the aim of isolating Leningrad from all directions. They were joined in summer 1942 by a German unit, the Einsatzstab Fähre Ost. Because the Soviet records during the war were incomplete, the ultimate number of casualties during the siege is disputed. The Soviet government reported about 670,000 registered deaths from 1941 to Jan. 1944. Some independent studies suggest a much higher death toll of between 700,000 and 1.3 million. Reports of cannibalism appeared in the winter of 1941-1942, after all birds, rats, and pets had been eaten by survivors. Hungry gangs attacked and ate defenceless people. Leningrad police even formed a special unit to combat cannibalism. Almost all historians regard the siege as a German operation and do not consider that the Finns effectively participated in the siege. Russian historian Nikolai Baryshnikov argues that active Finnish participation did occur, but historians have been mostly silent about it. Soon after the siege was lifted those who had led the city in its time of need were arrested by the NKVD presumably on the orders of Joseph Stalin. Their crime was that they had failed to contact Moscow frequently enough during the siege to ask for guidance. Those arrested, after 900 days of being besieged, now had to face the Soviet Gulags. Credit: Dahn A. Batchelor and Wikipedia i.a. Top image: a squadron of Focke-Wolf 190 fighter aircraft patrol of Luftwaffe fighter wing Jagdgeschwader 54 over the Eastern Front in 1943. JG54's operations in the area had a twofold objective: to keep the pressure on the Leningrad sector, and to reduce Soviet pressure on the Lake Ilmen area. It was known as the Green Hearts Wing, and it was the second highest scoring wing of all time, racking up over 9,600 kills. Photo by KB C. Berger. c. Bundesarchiv. Second image: Finnish Commander of Ladoga Coastal Brigade Colonel Eino Iisakki Järvinen and German Commander of Einsatzstab Fähre Ost Oberstleutnant d. R. Friedrich Wilhelm Siebel accompanied by two Luftwaffe officers on Lake Ladoga on Aug. 13 1942. Finnish Wartime Photo Archive. Third image: two crew members of a Panzer VI Tiger of the schwere Panzerabteilung 502 and a Kfz.31 Horch 108 'Sankra' near Lake Ladoga in the summer of 1943. Credit: Richard James Molloy. c. Bundesarchiv. Bottom screenshot: Leningraders collect water among the bombed-out ruins of buildings during the 872 days blockade of the city. Credit: Ryan Stennes. Leningrad Lenfilm Newsreel Studios.