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The siege of Leningrad was a prolonged military siege undertaken by the Axis powers against the city of Leningrad (present-day Saint Petersburg) on the Eastern Front of World War II. Germany 's Army Group North advanced from the south, while the German-allied Finnish army invaded from the north and completed the ring around the city.
English: Map of Leningrad area, Fortress Kronstadt on the Island Kotlin and Oranienbaum bridgehead during WW II in Winter 1941. To the east around Volkhov the Sowjet „Volkhov Front“, in the center the Sowjet „Leningrad Front“, to the north areas held by Finnish troops and to the south areas held by German „Heeresgruppe Nord“.
The Leningrad Front was immediately given the task of containing the German drive towards Leningrad and defending the city from the approaching Army Group North.By September 1941, German forces to the south were effectively stopped on the outskirts of Leningrad, initiating the two-and-a-half-year-long siege of Leningrad.
The Leningrad Front (Russian: Ленинградский фронт) was first formed on 23 August 1941, by dividing the Northern Front into the Leningrad Front and Karelian Front, during the German approach on Leningrad. The Front participated through the ed of the operation.
The area is located near the town of Lomonosov (formerly Oranienbaum) and centred on the Krasnaya Gorka Fort complex.The Germans approached Leningrad in early September 1941 and reached the Gulf of Finland on 7 September, isolating an area 65 km (40 mi) long and up to 25 km (16 mi) deep along the Baltic coast.
However, while the Baltic states were overrun, the Siege of Leningrad continued until 1944, when it was lifted as a result of the Red Army Leningrad-Novgorod strategic offensive operation. In September 1941, the Spanish Blue Division was assigned to Army Group North.
Leningrad strategic defensive operation is the term in Soviet historiography for the defensive operations in the area south of Leningrad by the Red Army and the Soviet Navy during World War II from 10 July to 30 September 1941. The following operations are considered as part of the strategic operation:
On 8 September 1941, Army Group North captured Shlisselburg on the shores of Lake Ladoga, east of Leningrad, and took control of all land routes to Leningrad. [4] This followed the capture of Mga, south of Shlisselburg, on 29 August which cut the city off from the Soviet railway network.