Siege of Leningrad

September 8, 1941 – January 27, 1944 · Eastern Front Theater

Phases

1. 1Sep 1941 — The Ring ClosesSeptember 8, 1941
2. 2Winter 1941–42 — The Hunger WinterNovember 1941 – April 1942
3. 3Jan 1943 — Operation IskraJanuary 12–18, 1943
4. 4Jan 1944 — 872 DaysJanuary 14–27, 1944

September 8, 1941

Army Group North reaches Lake Ladoga at Shlisselburg on September 8, severing the last land route: three million people are sealed inside the city. Hitler decides Leningrad will not be stormed but erased — “wiped from the face of the earth” by hunger and bombardment. Finnish forces close the ring from the north but halt at their old 1939 border. The shelling begins, and will not stop for two and a half years.

• ➤Army Group North — Reaches Ladoga — the land ring closes
• ➤Finnish Army — Closes from the north — and halts at the old border
• ●Shlisselburg — the last road cut, Sep 8
• ●Leningrad — three million inside