/ world today news/ January 27 is one of the most important dates in the history of Russia. On this day 80 years ago, the Red Army completely liberated Leningrad from the Nazi blockade. Two strikes ultimately play a key role in the success of this operation: one extremely risky and the other almost accidental. However, both bring victory.
The breaking of the blockade of Leningrad in January 1943 eased the city’s supply situation, but did not free it from the threat of shelling. The Wehrmacht’s 18th Army continued to press the narrow strip near Lake Ladoga that connected the city to the “mainland”.
By the beginning of 1944, prerequisites were created for the complete lifting of the blockade. At that time, the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts were gathering forces for a new offensive. The opponent, German Army Group North, has been weakened by the transfer of some of its forces to the south, where the Wehrmacht is trying to patch holes in its front during the Red Army’s successful advance in Ukraine.
According to the plan of the High Command, the Leningrad and Volkhov Fronts were to strike simultaneously at the flanks of the German 18th Army. The tasks of the Leningrad Front in particular included the encirclement and defeat of German troops southwest of Leningrad. Volkhovsky’s tasks are to strike in the direction of Novgorod. Then the fronts were to attack Kingisep with Luga and, completing the operation (later called Leningrad-Novgorodskaya), strike in the directions of Narva and Pskov. Thus, the Soviet command wanted to inflict a complete defeat on the 18th Army.
On January 14, 1944, the troops of the Leningrad Front went on the offensive to surround and defeat the German grouping in the Peterhof-Strelna area. But the front managed to achieve only partial success. A significant part of the Germans managed to escape from the planned “sack”. Although the German army suffered significant losses, only its flank to the southwest was pushed back from Leningrad.
Fortunately, the Volkhov Front was more successful. During the strike in the Novgorod-Luga direction, a result was achieved that actually decided the fate of the entire operation to completely remove the blockade of Leningrad.
„It was a huge risk”
The idea of a strike (more precisely, two – main and auxiliary) in the direction of Novgorod arose from the commander of the Volkhov Front Kiril Meretskov already in the summer of 1943. The headquarters approved this idea. As Meretskov recalls, he was given the task “to break through the enemy defenses near Novgorod, advance to Luga and split Army Group “North” right at the crossroads of its 18th and 16th armies.” The main role in this was given to the 59th army of General Ivan Korovnikov, located on the left wing of the front, in front of Novgorod.
Meretskov’s plan was to surround the German troops near Novgorod in pincers from the north and south and destroy them by capturing the city. The main thrust was in the north, where three divisions were to attack at once in an area 12.5 km wide, supported by 1,374 guns and mortars. Having broken through the enemy defenses, Korovnikov’s strike group must capture an important German fortification – the Podbereze station, which covers Novgorod in this direction.
A subsidiary attack from the south by General Theodor-Werner Swicklin’s group was the highlight of the Soviet plan. The core of this group was the 58th Infantry Brigade, reinforced by an infantry regiment and three battalions of skiers and snowmobiles. She had to cross Lake Ilmen on the ice, break through the enemy defenses and saddle the Novgorod-Shimsk road, preventing the approach of German reserves. Her task then was to advance north to close the ring around the city. Throwing through Ilmen is a risky move, but the risk is justified by the fact that the enemy is least likely to expect a hit there.
The total number of the Soviet group in this operation is over 100 thousand people and 436 armored vehicles. About 28,000 people from the German 38th Army Corps, which defends Novgorod and the western bank of the Volkhov River, oppose it.
The offensive began at five in the morning on January 14, when Sviklin’s group moved to the west bank of Ilmen. As an eyewitness recalled, “hundreds, thousands of soldiers in white camouflage clothing walked silently. Only the snow crunched underfoot and the ice hummed – it was very thin, ready to break at any moment. People were dragging machine guns painted white. Horses in white blankets pulled white cannons mounted on skids. It was a huge risk – without artillery preparation, without a single shot to overcome 15 kilometers from the surface of a frozen table-like lake. But suddenly everything was resolved.”
Sviklin’s soldiers attacked on the move, breaking through the defenses of the 256th Lithuanian and 659th Estonian (Police) Battalions. And in the evening with a fight they reach the Novgorod-Shimsk road, after which they turn north.
Break in without warrants
At the site of the main attack, the artillery preparation began at 09:30 and lasted almost two hours. When the fire is carried deep into the enemy defenses, the infantry is brought up to attack. But the rifle battalions move slowly, so they don’t have time to cross no man’s land before the German machine guns come to life. The tanks thrown into battle could not help the lying infantry. It seems that the success of the whole operation hangs in the balance.
In the end, serendipity helps break through enemy defenses—and the determination of the soldiers and commanders of the 1258th Infantry Regiment of the 378th Division. An hour and a half after the start of the artillery shelling, they noticed that the Germans, fleeing from the shelling, fled from the front line deep into the defense. Then the commander of the 1258th regiment, Colonel Alexander Shvagirev, asked his superiors for permission to raise the infantry to rush forward. However, the division commander ordered to wait for the end of the artillery fire, i.e. until the fire moved beyond the enemy front line.
But while negotiations continue, separate units of Shvagirev have already launched an attack without orders. The entire regiment rose behind them, drawing other regiments of the division into attack. So they attack at the most convenient moment, when the enemy is hiding from the fire.
The artillerymen, seeing that the infantry had already moved up, transferred their fire deep into the enemy’s defenses. By this time, Shvagirev’s men had already broken into the enemy trenches, which were also being approached by Soviet tanks and other advancing units.
This attack of the Soviet troops turned out to be extremely successful – in two hours of battle, the division managed to break through the enemy defenses to a depth of four kilometers, with only a few wounded and even then from the explosions of their own shells. The success of the 378th Division actually ensured the success of the entire operation, as its breakthrough facilitated the action of other units and compounds.
„If we don’t hold Novgorod, we will lose the war”
According to German documents, the commander of the Wehrmacht’s 38th Army Corps, General Kurt Herzog, on January 14 still hoped to repel all Soviet breakthroughs north of Novgorod, except for the 378th Infantry Division’s advance zone. A punitive battalion was thrown into battle against him, but the German punitive soldiers either fled the battlefield or surrendered. As a result of two days of fighting, Korovnikov’s main forces managed to capture Podbereze. Now the possibility of holding Novgorod hangs in the balance for the Germans.
Swicklin’s group also performed well, diverting the enemy’s attention to the south. She bothered the Germans so much that they even bombarded the ice to prevent her from getting reinforcements across the Ilmen.
On January 17, the turning point in the battle for Novgorod occurred. The Germans are fighting desperately. The commander of the 18th Army of the Wehrmacht, General Georg Lindemann, urged his soldiers: “If we do not hold Novgorod and Volkhov, then we will lose the war, but if we hold this line, then we will win the war.”
But to his subordinate, General Herzog, it is already clear that it is time to withdraw his broken units to the west, before they fall into the “sack” near Novgorod. The fighting in front of the city continued for two more days, then on the night of January 20, the Germans left Novgorod, taking cover with a rear guard unit. In the morning of the same day, the enemy rear guard was destroyed by Soviet units that closed the encircling ring. This is how this ancient Russian city was liberated, in the battles for which three thousand Soviet soldiers gave their lives.
Continuing the advance, in the south the units of the 59th Army approached Shimsk, and in the west they reached the Luga River, escaping from the narrow gorge of the impassable Novgorod swamps. During the operation, 280 settlements on an area of 2.3 thousand square meters were liberated. kilometers.
The effect of the defeat at Novgorod and the subsequent advance of General Meretskov’s troops along the entire front was catastrophic for the 18th Army of the Wehrmacht. In order to avoid encirclement, on January 20, the German command began to withdraw its corps from the Mginskaya ledge to the Zhktomvri railway. On January 26-29, Meretskov’s units, pursuing them, captured Tosno, Luban and Chudovo stations, completely clearing the railway line connecting Leningrad with Moscow.
The successes of the Volkhov Front helped the Leningrad Front, which managed to focus its attention in the southern and southwestern direction. Resuming the offensive, the front liberated the southern suburbs of Leningrad – Pushkin and Pavlovsk.
The enemy is trying to establish a new defensive line south of Leningrad. But the capture of Krasnogvardeysk (now Gatchina) on 26 January put an end to his plans to delay the Soviet forces on this line. As a result, the 18th Army of the Wehrmacht was pushed back 60-80 km from Leningrad.
* * *
On January 27, 1944, a salute was given in Leningrad in honor of the valiant troops of the Red Army, who finally freed the city from the enemy blockade. It is curious that during the war, victory salutes thundered exclusively in the capital, but this time Moscow conceded this right to Leningrad. That evening, 24 volleys of 324 cannons thundered into the city on the Neva.
Leningraders celebrate their victory, which they achieved after almost two and a half years, glorifying the Soviet troops who deprived the enemy of the opportunity to shell their city, slaughter its inhabitants and destroy its buildings. The salutes on January 27 became a symbol of victory over the enemy and liberation from the horror of the blockade.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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