900 Days-Siege of Leningrad

[Frozzy]

Originally posted by Grandpa Troll


Ok, now, I am again trying to understand, but do you think his (Adolph Hitler) directive was to attempt to manipulate the morale of the Russian people and also do you think maybe it did what his intent was, be it to be merciless upon the people of Russia or to show he could control Russia in a multitude of ways?

I am enjoying this Q & A back and forth, and want to understand more!

Gramps

Neither. The general order in 1941 that retreat was not acceptable was basically based on internal politics rather than any strategic planning. Hitler did not trust his generals, and retreat was therefore seen as disobeying his own orders. Such was the case of Guderian who was dismissed in December 1941 after his brief withdrawal from Moscow. In many German officer's minds, it was wiser to stay put onto often untenable position than face certain courts-martial or dismissal.

[Frozzy]

Originally posted by Zoid
The Soviets Baltic Fleet was also trapped in Leningrad and Kronstadt, the only baltic ports the russians had left. Stalin was of course very worried that Leningrad should fall into the hands of the nazis, thus depriving USSR of its only remaining acess to the Baltic as well as a sizeable part of the Soviet fleet. Also losing Leningrad would allow further onslaught on the already stretched Moscow defenses.

The nazis however hadn´t expected the kind of resolute resistance and heroism showed by the people of Leningrad. They tried to break the back of the resistance by starvation. But they didn´t succeed. This must´ve been a major blow to the Nazi ideas of the slavic people being weak untermenschen...

True, but remember that Leningrad was already very very very well fortified after the Winter War and in the early days of Barbarossa. They were unable, and unwilling, to press home this advantage and thus laid siege to the city, which is easier than an out and out offensive against a heavily fortified city in the middle of winter. And again, had the Soviets been particularly interested in the liberation of Leningrad, why did it take until 1944 to free it from siege, by which time the Germans had been on the retreat on other fronts for months?

[TheStinger]

Typical Stalinist propoganda, a proper commander eould have withdrawn from Lenningrad. Just as a proper commander would have withdrawn from Kiev rather than have hubdreds of thousands of soldiers encircled.

[Blaupanzer]

Leningrad was key to defending the "Murmansk Pipeline," the single point of supply delivery in the early part of the war from the Allies to Russia. Certain types of equipment and materials could only come in this way until a southern route from Iran was opened in 1943. This was Russia's only source for rubber, certain specialty steels, and selected ball bearings -- all related to aircraft production primarily. All these were delivered, along with a whole pile of trucks to Murmansk by the Allies most of the time because Archangel is only open as a port for a limited time each year. Thus, the siege was not a meaningless, political gesture, but part of the Soviet industrial strategy. Futile to try building airplanes without those three materials. Russians built lots and lots of airplanes. Most were inferior one-to-one with German planes, but numbers count in ground support operations. Delivery of these specialized materials contributed to the Russian victory.

Incidentally, the futile, political slugfest siege of the war was Stalingrad -- whose very name led to the slugfest for that ruined carcass of a city. Leningrad's sacrifices related to its siege at least served a greater purpose.

The Nazis did not anticipate that the Russians would resupply Leningrad by driving across a frozen Lake Lagoda in the winter. They were not aware of this until the early spring the first year. Without that resupply the Russian artillery would have run out of ammo and the people and soldiers would have starved. Thus the Germans, with limited knowledge, were right in not wanting to sacrifice their northern force grabbing the "entrapped" Leningrad. That force was supposed to drive on to Archangel the second year and completely cut off Russia. As it happened, the force was drawn upon for reinforcements after the failure to take Moscow. Therefore it wasn't strong enough to assault Leningrad after that.